Our 4th Adoption Journey

A few of you have asked how this adoption will be different from our other adoptions. The biggest difference is that with our other adoptions, we were a waiting family. This means that we waited for a child to become available for adoption. In the case of our first adoption, we waited a few months, our second adoption, we waited almost half a year, and our third adoption, we waited just weeks. The wait for an adoptive family often depends on the age and gender of the child as well as the country’s processing time for adoptions already in the system. A lot of the paperwork submitted for an adoption is date stamped so agencies sometimes wait to have a family begin their paperwork so there is less chance something will expire while the family is in process. To give you an idea of how long families are waiting for the referral of a child in Colombia, here is the most recent list. Families requesting a healthy infant between 0-12 months old have been waiting almost 3 ½ years! By now, I imagine those families have re-defined what they think patience is.

Age of Child ------- Date of Application Approval by ICBF

Child 0-12 months ------ May - 2007
Child 13 - 23 months ---- May - 2007
Child 2 years ----------- Mar - 2006
Child 2 - 3 years -------- Feb - 2007
Child 3 years ----------- May - 2006
Child 3 - 4 years -------- Nov - 2006
Child 4 years ----------- Oct - 2006
Child 4 -5 years -------- May - 2007
Child 5 years ----------- Aug - 2009
Child 5 - 6 years ------- May - 2008
Child 7 years ----------- Jul – 2010

Unlike our other adoptions, this time we are requesting a waiting child. That means that the child has been waiting for a family instead of the family waiting for a child like our other three adoptions. Many times, a waiting child has special needs (minor or major) or is older than the age of 8. As we knew we would be requesting a child younger than 8, T and I discussed and researched special needs we knew we could say yes to. When our homestudy was updated, our social worker included these special needs along with the age range of children we were open to. If there is a waiting child matching our homestudy, we can request the child’s file. Then we pray pray and pray some more, asking Our Lord and Savior if we are the right family for this child. No problem…right???