Most countries/agencies will maintain two adoption waiting lists. One is a waiting list of parents who are waiting for kids to pop out of the labyrinth that is that country's adoption system, and the other is a waiting child list.
Out of the tens of millions of orphans in India, only a few children a month are made available for adoption internationally. I know, that doesn't make a ton of sense to me, either. I understand wanting to make sure kids don't end up in slavery or the sex trade, but to me it seems that national pride (we can take care of our own orphans, thank you) is overriding getting these children out of institutions and into loving homes. Ugh...*
Anyway, its a supply and demand thing. There are more adoptive parents than the respective countries are willing to make available, so there has to be a waiting list for adoptive parents.
So, when a child becomes available to adopt internationally, they get offered to the first family in the waiting list. If they pass on the child, then they are offered to the next family. And so on. Sometimes either no family will take them, and then they end up on the other list I mentioned earlier, the waiting child list. This is a list of kids that are immediately available for adoption. Some kids end up on this list immediately due to medical issues or age (most families want babies, not older kids) or something else.
Our two kids are on the waiting child list already because they are siblings, and they need a family willing to adopt them both so they won't be split up. Hopefully this means that some other legal and court processes in India can be shortcut, but I'm not sure. I do know the waiting gets harder once you have names and faces to think about rather than a theoretical child that you'll find out about later on. Now its personal, you know?
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*India is not the only place where this happens, of course. There seems to be a pattern where a country decides to do something about its orphan problem and throws open its doors to international adoption. A ton of kids get adopted, which alarms certain parts of the country's population, for whatever reason. National pride, or whatever. So, they start closing the doors and slowing down the process, until the flow of kids is reduced to a trickle. And in some cases shut down completely.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Marathon for Adoption
There's a Marathon (and Half Marathon) for Adoption being held very close to here in 2 weeks. Unfortunately, I'm not close in my training to being able to run the Half Marathon, yet. I'm aiming for my first half marathon in January, and my long run is only up to 9 miles so far.
But, if there are any runners out there in the central Texas area, check out the race in New Braunfels:
http://www.marathonforadoption.com/
But, if there are any runners out there in the central Texas area, check out the race in New Braunfels:
http://www.marathonforadoption.com/
India Adoption Stages - Pre-Waiting List
Our family is in the process of adopting from India, and its a loooong process. All international adoptions are long processes. I'm going to detail our process for India, but every country's process is a little different, so if you are pursuing this, check with your agency on the details for your particular country.
The India process is around 18-24 months to bring the child home. Since I count as a non-resident Indian, we get to go to the front of the waiting list once we get to that stage, and there are some legal/court requirements in India that we get to shortcut. The 5 stages just to get on the waiting list are:
Then we did an online adoption class which took 15-ish hours to complete, which we spread out over a week or two of evenings.
And then we filled out the App Part 2. This one required original copies of birth certificates, social security cards, and all kind of other stuff. This is the killer one. My wife is the one handling all the paperwork (thank God), and there's been stacks of paperwork literally several inches high sitting on her desk. Katie ran herself ragged getting or ordering all of the information together for this. It took us around 2 or 3 months to finish this stage.
For the home study, we had a social worker come out several times over the course of a few weeks to make sure we know what we're getting into, and to make sure we're not obviously ax murderers or anything. She met with us as a family, and then did individual interviews with Katie and with me. Once she was finished with that, she wrote up her report and sent it to the adoption agency.
So, now we are currently done with our home study, and are waiting for our I-800 to come back. As far as I can tell, that's an immigration form of some kind that takes a few months for the government to complete. Anyway, once the I-800 is done, then we can go on the waiting list at Dillion.
While we are waiting for the I-800 to get done, we are working on our dossier. That is the official stack of paperwork that the Indian courts get when they rule on our adoption. This doesn't have to get done before we go on the waiting list, though.
The India process is around 18-24 months to bring the child home. Since I count as a non-resident Indian, we get to go to the front of the waiting list once we get to that stage, and there are some legal/court requirements in India that we get to shortcut. The 5 stages just to get on the waiting list are:
- Application, Part 1
- Online Class
- Application Part 2
- Home study
- I-800/Dossier
Then we did an online adoption class which took 15-ish hours to complete, which we spread out over a week or two of evenings.
And then we filled out the App Part 2. This one required original copies of birth certificates, social security cards, and all kind of other stuff. This is the killer one. My wife is the one handling all the paperwork (thank God), and there's been stacks of paperwork literally several inches high sitting on her desk. Katie ran herself ragged getting or ordering all of the information together for this. It took us around 2 or 3 months to finish this stage.
For the home study, we had a social worker come out several times over the course of a few weeks to make sure we know what we're getting into, and to make sure we're not obviously ax murderers or anything. She met with us as a family, and then did individual interviews with Katie and with me. Once she was finished with that, she wrote up her report and sent it to the adoption agency.
So, now we are currently done with our home study, and are waiting for our I-800 to come back. As far as I can tell, that's an immigration form of some kind that takes a few months for the government to complete. Anyway, once the I-800 is done, then we can go on the waiting list at Dillion.
While we are waiting for the I-800 to get done, we are working on our dossier. That is the official stack of paperwork that the Indian courts get when they rule on our adoption. This doesn't have to get done before we go on the waiting list, though.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
So, first post: Current Status
Yeah, I couldn't think of a better title for this post. Oh well...its my blog. My first blog, in fact.
So, it seems appropriate to start with where we are in the adoption process. We are finished with our home study, and waiting on our I-800 form to be approved by some US gov't agency. I think the immigration department? If that's all Greek to you, read this post.
Anyway, once the I-800 is done, then we can go on the waiting list at Dillion. Except we already have two sisters picked out from their "waiting child" list. I guess I should explain that. Look here.
The two girls we are adopting are on the waiting child list already, because they are siblings must be adopted as a pair. Unfortunately, we can't officially be matched with them until our I-800 is finally done (danged slow beaurocrats...). Once that is done, we can be matched with them, and then there are two court hurdles to pass, each taking between 2 and 4 months. So, it could be as early as March, or sometime next summer that we bring them home.
It gets a lot harder to wait when you know their names and faces.
So, it seems appropriate to start with where we are in the adoption process. We are finished with our home study, and waiting on our I-800 form to be approved by some US gov't agency. I think the immigration department? If that's all Greek to you, read this post.
Anyway, once the I-800 is done, then we can go on the waiting list at Dillion. Except we already have two sisters picked out from their "waiting child" list. I guess I should explain that. Look here.
The two girls we are adopting are on the waiting child list already, because they are siblings must be adopted as a pair. Unfortunately, we can't officially be matched with them until our I-800 is finally done (danged slow beaurocrats...). Once that is done, we can be matched with them, and then there are two court hurdles to pass, each taking between 2 and 4 months. So, it could be as early as March, or sometime next summer that we bring them home.
It gets a lot harder to wait when you know their names and faces.
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