OT, Other Adoptive Dis Families?

[swimgalsmom]

We are a family that has also been blessed by adoption. We have a biological dd (11) and dd (3 soon to be 4) who was adopted in China. She was 13 months old when she joined our family in March 2005.

 

[adoptionmomma4]

We are also a very blessed adoptive family. We have 4 children who where all adopted from DHS. My older children are bio siblings and came to us at 2, 3 and 5. They are now almost 7, 8 and 10. They were our first foster placement. We fostered them for 3 years before they were able to adopted. We also added a baby girl in February 2005. She was two days old at placement and 18 months at her adoption. She is now almost 3 and the princess of the house.

We took our first Disney vacation as a family after the having the kids home or 7 months. I will never forget my DD seeing the castle for the first time. She was 5 years old at the time and when she turned the corner and saw Cinderella’s castle she burst into tears and said, "this is the most beautiful place I have even been". I was in tears and so was DH although he doesn’t remember that Anyway- they have been with us 5 years in February and have been to Disney 7 times with an upcoming trip in March. This trip will be magical for the baby and I can not wait. We have actually made a point to take all of our foster children to Disney World.

We are also in the process of our final adoption. We are waiting on a referral for a baby girl from Vietnam. We are in for a long wait.

 

[deedeetoo]

Another adoptive family chiming in...

We adopted our 6 yo son from Guatemala. He came home at just 4 months and we were lucky enough to meet his birthmother. We also have a 9 yo bio daughter.

 

[peyjax]

We adopted our first son at birth 3 and a half years ago. He is amazing and we decided he needed a sibling. We adopted our second son at birth right after our return from Disney last year. I will never forget taking our first son at 18 months to Disney, the first visit was a sweet one, walking him down the aisle of POTC hand in hand was amazing!! They both are an amazing blessing. We talk about a girl and we had thought about going international, but it seems there are huge waits (2-3 years??) lately. Well we are a few years off from that anyways.

 

[TheRatPack]

We have 2 birth children (13 and 12) and we just finalized our adoption 2 weeks ago for our youngest 3 (5, 4, and 3). We took them on their first Disney trip after having them for 3 or 4 months....it's was so FUN! They ask all the time when we're going back.

 

[rcymrcym]

My daughter came home last year and we are celebrating our Forever Family Day at Disney in 2 weeks!. She 9 and from Texas.

 

[Mrs.Toad]

Sometimes I wish I could just let his birth mother know how incredible he is and how smart he is and how well he is doing. I wonder if she thinks about him and wonders?

I'm sure she does.

We are also a happy adoptive family. We have one bio dd, 10 yrs old, and one 4yo dd whom we adopted domestically at birth. Although the agency we used advocates open adoption, our dd's birthmom didn't want to meet us or have any on-going contact with us. We gave her our phone number and keep hoping that one day she'll change her mind and give us a call, because we would love to meet her.

 

[aesalsa]

I have loved reading everyone's stories .

DH and I have recently talked about the possibility of adopting a baby. We already have a beautiful bio DD (21 mo. old), and we are very happy with just her. Because of health issues, I should not be pregnant again, but we would love to have another child.

Would anyone mind emailing me some info about domestic adoptions? As others here have said, all the sites are confusing to me.

Thanks in advance.

 

[mommyofthreeboys]

What does DHS stand for?

We can't afford a private agency so if we are blessed with adoption- it would have to be an adoption through the --not sure of the right word-- state/foster/national database. (?) Can anyone give me information on that?

 

[TheRatPack]

We adopted all 3 of ours through the Department of Family Protective Services (Foster Care). It was about a year long process from Homestudy approval to picking them up and finalizing the adoption. There are still cost involved (as we went through a private agency for our homestudy and post placement visits...etc) but it's much less than adopting an infant or Internationally. We already had 2 bio children so we didn't want an infant through adoption, so this was the best route for us. Through the foster care system there are lots of children labeled as "special needs" because they are older than an infant, part of a sibling group, have minor needs or some have more major needs. All of ours are labeled 'special needs', but the issues are very very minor, nothing that we see as a handicap. We are blessed to have them

Our local DFACS (Department of Family and Children's Services) was not supportive of adoptive only parents and tried to get everyone to foster first. We knew that was not for us, so we went with a private agency that would search many different states for children. Our children were not from our state, so we of course had travel expenses to go see them, pick them up...etc but if they'd been in our state that would have been minimal too. We are 'certified' foster parents, but we were strictly adoption only (meaning we only wanted children that were free for adoption, legally all ties had been broken from the birth family). Most children are adopted by their foster parents though, especially the infants/toddlers. Check with your Department of Families or Child protective services for more information on adoption and fostering through your county , it's where I'd start.

 

[Gabe's Mom]

Hi All, OP here. We finalized our DS's adoption on Tuesday. It was wonderful. The judge was so nice, he let our older DS bang the gavel . It feels so good for it all to be finished. I want to do it again!
We have had so many people ask about our adoption experience. We had such an amazing experience that I am happy to share. Truly, my cup runneth over. So instead of typing out the same info over and over, I came up with a little "paper" about our adoption experience. It is very basic info about the process and how it went for us. I have noticed there have been folks wondering about adoption on this thread. If anyone wants to PM me with their email adress, I would be happy to share.
Michelle

 

[LibertyLover]

One more adoptive parent checking in. Our DD5 is from China. She was found abandoned on a doorstep in a small city in Hubei province at the age of 1 day. We adopted her when she was 16 months old and have had her for 4 years, 1 month and 4 days, but who's counting? My DH has 2 biological children from his first marriage who are adults, but we had infertility issues and adoption was our only chance at having a family together. We were told that we were too old to adopt domestically, or if an agency would consider us it would only place older children with problems with us, probably boys. To be honest, I have enough problems dealing with my stepchildren, so that was not going to work. But a Chinese adoption offered us a girl which we wanted desperately and a younger child. I figured we would get a little girl about 3 years old and was mentally planning on that - so we got a 16 month old and boy did I have to change gears fast. She became ours on November 4, 2003 and went to WDW for her first visit in February, 2004. We laugh that when CMs call her "princess" she is not happy with the demotion from empress.

 

[luvsmickeymouse]

Here is my youngest son, born in The Phillipines. Came home March 15, 1991. Here he is now! This is what its all about.

 

[stitichsmom]

My DD will be 8 in Jan, came home at 23 days. DS is 4 he was born a week after our last visit to the world. He was 11 days when he joined our family.

Both our domestic transracial adoptions and wonderful additions to our family. Since we are west coast they have been to Disneyland much more but almost once a year of their lives.

Looking forward to our visit to the world in Feb

Pam

 

[HappyLawyer]

My dtr is 11, had her since she was 2 1/2 and i cannot remember life without her. Boy, parenthood is a trip. I may foster parent again, and if it leads to an adoption that will be fine and i am planning to have a child in maybe 2009 or get pregnant in 2009. I could not love my dtr more then if i had her myself.

 

[design_mom]

Anyway, I know that not all the stories work out so well, but ours has. I feel blessed for having another person in my life who loves me and especially more people who love my children.

Cissy, Congratulations on your happy reunion and your wonderful family!

Now we are home awaiting the phone call to book a plane to return for our court date (we were told average is now 3-4 months ), then the 10 day wait period, and then he can come Home.

I remember those days well, too. The waiting, and waiting, and waiting -- then BOOM! We got a call on Wednesday saying we needed to be in Moscow by Saturday. Yikes! I hope you get the call sooner than expected (but a few more days notice, too!)

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

Adoption is something my DH and I have thought about, but everything we read turns us off completely, and support from my job isn't helping (I should say lack of). How do you afford it. I know there is the tax credit, but that won't begin to even cover it, not in Alabama. Also, the least expensive agency is $25,000 and they say they are non-profit, how is that non-profit. Maybe I am not getting something here, but that is outrageous. What are you paying for that could possibly cost that much? Why is that not illegal to charge that much, why is that not considered baby-buying, seems like it would be. I have looked at adoption through DHR, but they won't accept applications for children under the age of 6 and I want a baby.

If someone can enlighten me, please do, I really want to be a mommy and my hope for that is growing darker with each passing day.

Suzanne

P.S. Gabe's mom, thank you for the information you sent me.

 

[HappyLawyer]

Adoption is something my DH and I have thought about, but everything we read turns us off completely, and support from my job isn't helping (I should say lack of). How do you afford it. I know there is the tax credit, but that won't begin to even cover it, not in Alabama. Also, the least expensive agency is $25,000 and they say they are non-profit, how is that non-profit. Maybe I am not getting something here, but that is outrageous. What are you paying for that could possibly cost that much? Why is that not illegal to charge that much, why is that not considered baby-buying, seems like it would be. I have looked at adoption through DHR, but they won't accept applications for children under the age of 6 and I want a baby.

If someone can enlighten me, please do, I really want to be a mommy and my hope for that is growing darker with each passing day.

Suzanne

P.S. Gabe's mom, thank you for the information you sent me.

I am with you, if you are able to love and provide for a child, it is very costly to adopt, i know there are some fees associated with adoption, but i often wonder if they boost up the prices.

 

[tchrrx]

I am with you, if you are able to love and provide for a child, it is very costly to adopt, i know there are some fees associated with adoption, but i often wonder if they boost up the prices.

I honestly don't remember paying anything for our adoption, other than DH & I both having to have health check-ups. I'll check with him later tonight & see if we had to pay for anything else.

We adopted through DHS. Our DD was 5 at the time and her paperwork showed that she had many problems (mild MR, speech, etc). While she's not a straight A student, she is certainly not MR. She does have a speech problem, but it is correctable.

We did not have to foster before adopting. We took classes, met DD on a Tuesday, had her stay the night on Sat, and then moved her home the next weekend! She became 'official' 3-4 months later.

 

[livndisney]

Adoption is something my DH and I have thought about, but everything we read turns us off completely, and support from my job isn't helping (I should say lack of). How do you afford it. I know there is the tax credit, but that won't begin to even cover it, not in Alabama. Also, the least expensive agency is $25,000 and they say they are non-profit, how is that non-profit. Maybe I am not getting something here, but that is outrageous. What are you paying for that could possibly cost that much? Why is that not illegal to charge that much, why is that not considered baby-buying, seems like it would be. I have looked at adoption through DHR, but they won't accept applications for children under the age of 6 and I want a baby.

If someone can enlighten me, please do, I really want to be a mommy and my hope for that is growing darker with each passing day.

Suzanne

P.S. Gabe's mom, thank you for the information you sent me.

Honestly! Paying adoption fees is NOT "baby buying". Some of the fees paid are paid to the US government. That coupled with travel fees and an orphanage donation make up a large portion of adoption fees.

As far as domestic adoption, some agencies charge high fees. I do not know how they account for the money. Perhaps it would be wise to ask them. Speak to families who have adopted from them.