Adoption Experience and Resources.

Wow, V.! Kudos to you and your family for considering adoption. I work as a clinical therapist with foster care children in Miami, Florida. My experience in working with Amrican children in the foster care system, and I see all to frequently the need for adoptive parents for this population. I would like to encourage you to consider adopting at a local level. You would be amazed at the number of children in Miami who are available for adoption. No matter where you decide to adopt from, you will be doing a wonderful thing. Nevertheless, you will need lots--and lots--of patience and perseverance. My warmest wishes for you and your family as you embark in this journey. Doris.

Hi V.,

Blessings on your family's decision to adopt. We made the decision to adopt internationally from Russia in 2004. Our son is now 6 and is as healthy as one can be. We found the experience to be a pleasant one, mainly due to our agency. We had full support, in-country coordinator and translator and everything was explained to us in detail. Children's Hope International has its certification in Russia and continues to help build families from that country, as well as many others. If you are interested in international adoption, I would highly recommend this agency.

Please feel free to contact me if you have further questions about the process.

K.
____@____.com
www.LovinLifeHome.com

We adopted our 2 sons at birth through Life for Kids in Winter Park (http://lifeforkids.com/). They are now 7 and 5. Both adoptions are open - I send pictures and a letter twice a year to their birth mothers. There is no other contact.

I highly recommend Life for Kids. Their mission is to prevent abortion so they do an excellent job of counseling women to either parent or place for adoption. I believe it's important to work with an agency that places equal emphasis on a decision to parent as well as place. I believe women who place through them have fully considered their options.

Whichever path you choose, know that there are hoops to jump through - paperwork, home studies, classes. Just remember how important it is to place children in a loving home. We couldn't be happier with our decision - our sons have brought us so much joy and love. Best wishes on your journey. If you have specific questions, feel free to send them.

V.,

We adopted a little boy a year ago from Guatemala. I can say it was one of the best experiences we've ever been a part of. We learned so much. We already had 3 biological children and then God said - No, your not done yet, only this one will be chosen for you. We have been so blessed and already felt blessed with our other 3. However, when God tells you to do something, you have to trust that He
knows better than you do and obey Him. What a blessing it has been. Adoption is like a paper pregnancy, only someone else is in charge of how fast or slow it goes. We met so many couples in Guatemala who were just visiting their baby, but they had been waiting for two years. We were blessed having started at the beginning of January 2007 and went to pick him up at the end of January 2008. 13 months total time. We trusted God to lead us the entire way, since we were not very educated on adoption. Basically, He let us know in Nov 2006 and we began less than 2 months later, after much prayer. We sent for information packets from different agencies and narrowed it down to the top 3 according to our needs and their requirements. Since we are already up in age a bit (39 and 45), and we already had 3 children at home, we were limited to which country would accept us.
Some do criticize others for going outside of our country, but if God tells you this is what you must do, you don't argue with Him about it. He knew exactly what child we were supposed to adopt and why. Afterall, He is God - our creator and sustainer of life. He knows far more than we could begin to know about His plan and purposes. So, we followed Him each step, being careful to pray and continue in the direction that He led us.
We had a virtually flawless adoption. God provided the perfect agency, the perfect lawyer, and the perfect baby boy (not that he or they were all perfect, but that they were perfect for our situation). He was 8 1/2 months old when we brought him home. He had no transition, since we had visited him at 5 1/2 months old and given his foster mom a tape recorder with our voices speaking, reading, singing to him. She played it for him everyday and showed him photos of us. She took awesome care of him and had him trained on sleeping in a crib and eating well. He never had trouble adjusting and it was as though he already knew us.
We send photo emails to his fostermom regularly and we are so thankful to her and her 3 teenagers for giving him so much love. He is so well adjusted and our other kids just love him so much.
God is great all the time! He will provide for your needs even when you don't know that you have a need. It is so evident to us that our little man was selected to be with our family since the beginning of time. Opinions of others don't really matter when it comes to God's Ultimate Plan. You can't improve on God!
Take Care,
T.
Happily married mom of 4 and grateful Child of God!

P.S. The books we have used are: The Complete Adoption Book and an International Adoption book (can't remember the title) and a book on Issues with Adopted Children (can't remember the title on this one either, sorry, I will try to find it).

Hello! Congraulations n your discision. We adopted a son over 5 years ago. We got him at age 9 & he's now 14. He wants 2 b a dietian when he grows up so people will eat right. We do a lot of recipe cooking. U r more that welcome 2 contact me by email if u would like. Our email address is ____@____.com. I look forward 2 discussing more with u. Please put attn: E. in the subject line so I know the email is specifically 4 me. Take care!