Help! International adoption charities

[bucksfizz1]

Hi. Was hoping someone could recommend an international adoption charity/agency based in the uk. We are hoping to adopt from china/ Russia /Philippines etc . We are doing our research but feel it's best to start with recommendations. Any advice would be gratefully received. Thx

[JessKM]

Is it easier to adopt from those countries? I dont know much about it, but I know there are so many many hurdles in the way of families wanting to go down this route. Being totally nosy, [tell me to bog off at any stage] what makes you want to adopt from abroad? I would love to do it, but DH has always said if we ever did adopt, he wouldnt be able to look past the children here in the UK.

Totally non-judgemental noseyness and much love and good luck!!

Jess

x

[bucksfizz1]

Hi jess, We are also going through the domestic route too but wanted to pursue internationally at the same time as both our families have adopted internationally but many many years ago, so I guess it's a family tradition!!! We just want to do both to keep out options as wide as poss x

[JessKM]

Cool beans, I admire you both, its no easy thing to take on, both domestic and international, I just dont get why our own governement make it so DIFFICULT to achieve! In the US they support it and help out, here they throw so many obstacles in your path!

Best of luck! Il keep you in my prayers

xx

[Lilka]

There is OASIS here www.adoptionoverseas.org/
They could give you advice throughout the process, and can tell you about the different countries

and the IAC www.icacentre.org.uk/ They are a specialist agency, they can run preparation course, information days and country specific workshops for prospective parents etc. The IAC have a helpline you can ring

From your list, China isn't really an option at the moment, because it will take about 7 years to get a childs referral after you send your papers to China - not feasible for anyone. And we don't yet have a special needs program there. I don't know anything really about Russia or the Philippines

Good luck :)

[bucksfizz1]

Thank u both. I'll check them all out. Much appreciated x

[Kewcumber]

the two links Lilka has given are the main ones and depending who your LA is they can either be clueless about ICA or pretty good. They will have to do your home study (or refer it to a VA who is approved to do ICA) either way so thwy at a minimum should be able to give you basic advice. ICA cetnre in Barnet is probably your best bet. From memory Philipines like a church connection... but its a whilesince I looked. and as Lilka says CHina has an impossibly long wait at the moment. ICA centre have country experts they can put you in touch with (I'm the Kazakhstan rep!).

Jess it isn't really a case of looking "past" the children in the UK - you would be unlikely to get to the stage of matching in the UK, seeing potential details then deciding to go the ICA route. You have to decide which you want to go for prior to home study as you are approved for one specific country so you have to do your research prior to making a decision and way before you get involved in seeing children.

In my experience most (though not all) people who go ICA has been told to forget domestic so ICA is hobsons choice.

Either route is tough and comes with generally a different set of challenges - as for domestic vs ICA I've never seen an adopter care where your childrne came from (only non-adopters), the rest of us tend to take the Hague convention attitude "every child has the right to a family life" and tend not to care where the child (through no choice/fault of their own) was born.

[JessKM]

when you say you're approved for one country, is that based on what they find in your home study? surely they cant say, ah youre not good enough for this country, but sure this one will do? Why cant they approve you for more than one?
The whole thing is a minefield, and a really tragic one at that! a 7 year wait?!?!? SHOCKING.
Have you guys adopted internationally then?

[Lilka]

No Jess, you decide what country to adopt from yourself, and then you do your homestudy for that country. You can't do more than one adoption at once, so only one country. You could change country altogether, but you'd have to redo a lot of the paperwork

'surely they cant say, ah youre not good enough for this country, but sure this one will do?'

IA is between two counries. So you have to be eligible in the UK, and then eligible in the country you want as well. So China for the non special needs want married couples only, under a certain weight, over 30 but under 50/55, with a certain income, with pretty much zero health problems. They, being the Chinese government, have the right to decide who's "good enough" to adopt from there. However, other countries might be less restrictive, or have different requirements (e.g. you must go to church, or be over 25, or stay in the contry for seven weeks, etc etc). Yes, its pefectly possible to be fine for one country, but not meet requirements for the other, its up to the individul governments, not the English authorities- although you'd have to meet your agencies standards as well, e.g. no smoking, smacking, your current kids must be over 5

And its taking seven years now partly because so many babies are being adopted in China (which is good), maybe less are being abandonned (very good)..but they are processing papers extremely slowly. And no, China refuse to say why

[Kewcumber]

YEs I'm an intercountry adopter. Its also because you (as part of your home study) undertake research about the country and have to convince the panel that you will be able to help your child access their birth culture as appropriate through their life. So you have to do specific research/ Just saying to a panel "yeah well which ever country we chose we'll look up on Google honest!" just doesn;t cut it!

The UK have the duty to assess prospective parents in the same way regardless of where their child is going to come from.

[seaview33]

Just to add to this that there is currently a campaign to allow special needs adoption from China into the UK, this involves an agency being established to facilitate this, the ICA are currently fundraising to try an establish such an agency. If this is successful then application times for China for special needs adoption could speed up. Another country other people have adopted from is Thailand, but currently they are closed to any new applicants. Recently a number of people have successfully adopted from Ethiopia, once again the ICA is able to give you current information on that process. The homestudy will be very detailed and you are expected to be able to show that you have a real affinity towards the country you are adopting from and demonstrate how you would maintain that culture for your child.

[michmumm]

Hi I m new to this but saw these posts. we have just come home with our wonderful who is from Russia. We went through a private agency here in the Uk and then were referred to as US agency who helped us with `russia. They have people on the ground there. It was very hard and seemed to take ages but once we went to court and got our approval we collected him 10 days later. The home he came from was very very nice and he was well cared for and we have had absolutely no problems so far - touch wood! please let me know if you would like specific details - i dont know if the site protocol allows me to mention the organisations.
Regards
Micmumm