How Do You Choose A Country?

by Shoshanna Grey | More from this Blogger

26 Jan 2006 07:15 PM

When you start thinking about international adoption, one of the first decisions you have to make is the decision of what country. In order to make a good decision about an agency, you really need to know what country you are interested in. Choosing the country seems like such a huge task and there seems to be so much at stake. I have to warn you, though, that it is also one of the easier decisions you will make on your adoption journey.

That said, it IS an important decision to make and you should definitely take it seriously. When we decided to adopt internationally, I searched the internet for information on how to choose a country. All I seemed to find were people who talked about how they "just knew" which country they wanted. I didn't know what country we wanted and I didn't think some lightening bolt was going to hit me with the answer. I did a lot of research and we spent hours talking about the countries and the kids and the pros and cons of each part of the world. We finally settled on Guatemala. Now that the choice has been made, I really think that we could have found more guidance in our choice - though I think we still would have settled on the same country. The purpose of this blog entry is to give you a more simple way of deciding on the country that is right for you.

When deciding on a country, you need to ask yourself the following questions: 1.What age do I want my child to be when we bring him/her home?

2.Is it important for us to be able to select the gender of the child?

3.How do you feel about adopting a child whose skin color is different from your own?

4.Are you able to leave the country to pick up your child?

5.How long can you be gone while traveling to pick up your child?

6.What are your financial resources and how much can you put towards an adoption?

You also need to ask the following about the countries:

1.What age does the country require for adoptive parents (there's usually a low/high range like 25-55, but these numbers vary greatly so be sure you get the information for each country)?

2.What income does the country require for adoptive parents?

3.Does the country have specific requirements for parent's health?

4.Does the country limit how many kids you can already have in the home?

Consider the answers to these questions carefully and record your answers. Then, research which countries meet your requirements. You will probably come up with several countries that fit your answers to these questions. This will greatly help you limit your search. You then can take a closer look at these few countries before you make your decision.

I don't claim that these questions will make the decision easier, but hopefully it will give you a better idea with where to begin. Then, once you've made your decision, you can tell people that you "just knew" too!

Learn more about Shoshanna Grey

Shoshanna Grey has worked as an occupational social worker, teacher, child care provider, customer service reqpresentative, college recruiter and several other positions over the years.

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faithmylord (10) 28 Jan 2006 12:19 PM

Try America... We have 500,000+ children with no Mommy and Daddy... We are in the process and it is a blessing... Peace and Joy in you future

bluetree (2947) 28 Jan 2006 09:54 PM

Where can I find stats on adoptions by americans, domestic vs international?

Anna Glendenning (4234) 01 Feb 2006 04:52 PM

Actually, there are more then 500,000 children in the United States Foster Care system...However, the estimated number of children waiting for adoptive families is about 120,000 or one third of those in Foster Care. Which is still too many!

The adoption choice families make is usually personal and while I agree with faithmylord that the children in America are my own personal priority every adoptive family should feel free to chose the path the works best for them.

Children are just Children and some of us may feel lead to adopt the ones in US Foster Care but, this may not always be the right choice for another family.

bluetree, I will look to see if I can find the stats you ask for. The real problem currently is the fact that each state seems to have their own methods of reporting and often the stats we do find are a few years ago.... there are great efforts being made to establish a national system for collecting this information but it has been difficult to standardize the reporting and statistics for adoption even in the Foster Care system. Some of the best statistics for International Adoption can be found in the immigration records but even those records are not always standard or easy to compare nationally.

Anna

Shoshanna Grey (2785) 07 Feb 2006 07:29 PM

The United States definitely has many children who need homes and state adoption is a wonderful way to grow your family.

It is important that each family decide on the right kind of adoption for them. I think that is one strength that we have here on the Families.com adoption blog. Readers have the opportunity to hear the pros and cons of domestic infant adoption, state adoptions and international adoption. It is a great resource for each kind of adoptive family.