Anyone who hasn't been living under a
rock for the past few years has probably heard the many stories of X
Celebrity adopting a child from Y country. All these stories make it
seem easy-and almost glamorous-to adopt a child from another country.
Even if you aren't someone who follows 'star trends', you might
wonder what it might be like to adopt a child from another country.
If you're thinking about adding to your family and want to adopt from
another country, go for it. However, there are a few things that us
'average', 'non-celebrity' people need to consider. Whether you adopt
from this country or from another country is up to you, but it helps
to know what you're getting into. Each country has its own rules and
regulations, but here are a few of the basic things to consider.
The first thing that any potential
adoptive parent needs to consider is the length of the process
involved. Even though the tabloids make it look like Angelina or
Madonna took the kid home with them right away, this is not how it
normally happens. The regulations are different for each country, but
there are often residency/travel requirements that can take a person
(perhaps both parents) away from their jobs and families for
an extended period of time. There is also the paperwork involved in
getting the child here from their home country legally. As you can
imagine, this can be rough on a family. The regulations surrounding
adoptions within the United States vary from state to state, but the
amount of travel involved is significantly lower than with
international adoptions. Like I said, each country has its own
requirements, so make sure you know all the specifics.
Another thing to consider is the age of
the child. Contrary to what the tabloids would have you believe, you
will never get a newborn through an international adoption.
This might not be a problem if you were looking for an older child to
begin with, but there is often a lot of paperwork involved
that naturally takes time to process. Also, some countries restrict
international adoptions on babies in the hopes of finding a home for
the child in her country of origin. Domestic adoptions, on the other
hand, give you a much higher chance of getting an infant.
Since most of us don't have Angelina's
or Madonna's money, there is an issue of cost. In any adoption, there
are going to be agency and legal costs. It varies from agency to
agency, but international adoptions can be particularly expensive.
This isn't really surprising when you consider all of the legal hoops
you have to jump through, but there's also the matter of travel and
residency requirements. It takes money to travel back and forth from
country to country, to set up accommodations, food, etc that not
everyone has. Also, there are agency-specific costs such as
applications, supervision/home visits, medical records for both child
and parent, etc. Again, it depends on the agency, but be prepared to
spend a pretty penny if you choose to adopt from another country. The
costs are usually significantly lower for a domestic adoption,
although those also vary between agencies. The fact that you won't
have to pay anywhere near as much (if anything) for travel makes a
*big* difference. Public agency adoptions are usually less expensive
than private agencies.
These are just a few things to think
about when considering where your newly adopted child will come from.
It's a very personal decision that no one can make for you, so you
should probably look for a social worker, lawyer or adoption agency
that can give you more specific advice. Whichever option you choose,
the love of your new child will be worth the effort! If you want more
information about the process in general or in a particular country,
visit the State Department's website at
http://adoption.state.gov/index.php.
Good luck!
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