Wide Horizons for Children

Wow, 8 months eh? I have been consistently told 12-18 months for a referal from Colombia. Lucky you!! The 12-18 month timeframe is what has deterred us from this program. I guess diff agencies have diff timeframes. Again,...lucky you!!!

We are also working with Wide Horizons and planning on a Colombian adoption. I hear that both of the orphanages that they work with are good orphanages. I have family that lives in Medellin, Colombia and they have helped me with some research. All the info. that I have seen says that the stay is anywhere between 2 1/2 to 6 weeks. I wish you the best of luck! Sara

Thank you both for your reponses. I will double-check time frames with Wide Horizons. Sara, did Wide Horizons confirm the 2 1/2 wk to 6 wk stay? They indicated to me 3 weeks. While I understand that's a guideline - 6 weeks would be a very different story. Would you mind sharing with me how far along in the process you are and if you've talked with anyone else who has gone through Wide Horizons? Is there any other information you could provide? Thanks, Suzanne

Suzanne- I am currently using Wide Horizons to adopt from Guatemala. While I can't speak for their Colombia program, I can't say enough good things about my experience with them in general. Through all of the current complications with adoptions in Guatemala, they have been wonderful about keeping the families posted--so much that friends of mine using other agencies usually get their information from me!! If you have questions about my experience in general, please feel free to PM me. Lauren, in Mass, waiting for Michael, 6 months old

I checked out DeColores and they said the wait was 4-6 months and I believe the travel was 2-4 weeks. Have you guys heard of this agency and what do you think?

Suzanne, I double checked the information on the stay in Colombia. The information I have from Wide Horizons says "Both parents must travel for 1st week and one parent must remain for 2 1/2 to 3 weeks extra." I'm not sure where I read that it could be up to six weeks. We are in early stages of the process. We have almost completed our homestudy and are about to send the Colombian application to Wide Horizons. We are planning to adopt an older child. We are so excited but it has been a very confusing process. It is hard to know if you are making all of the right choices when it comes to the agency, etc. So far all is going well, Wide Horizons has been very helpful. Sara

Hello, My wife and I have been with Wide Horizons, waiting for a referral from Colombia. It just came on Tuesday!!!! We can't believe it!! We started the process with them in August or September and finished our dossier in the middle of November, 2002. We started out as number 8 on the list of waiting families and things went slowly until April of this year when we jumped from number 6 to number 4. Then in July we jumped to number 2 and suddenly this week we got the big news (July 29). We didn't specify a gender and the couple in front of us requested a girl - thus the jump this month. They do indeed work with Chiqitines in Cali, Colombia. You can visit our page here to see some information: [url]http://www.caringbridge.org/il/shilandy[/url] We have been told that we can expect to be in Colombia about 3 weeks. We have talked to several families that have used Chiqitines and this is the consensus of opinion from the various couples. I've attached a picture of Santiago, born May 16, 2003. I'm sorry that I haven't posted to this forum before. We had been using the Yahoo ColombianConnections forum and forgot about this one. Please feel free to contact us if you want more details. We are just looking for appropriate airline travel right now.

I have been on the referral list since april with Wide Horizons for Guatemala. With the turmol in Guat, they have suggested we apply to a 2nd program. I am gathering info on Columbia. The paper I received states a stay of 2 1/2 - 4 weeks, however 1 spouse may return after the first week. Sue Mass.

Hi! My husband and I are just completing our home study and in the middle of our dossier for Columbia. We are also using Wide Horizons, the West Hartford, CT office. So far we are pleased with them. I am happy to read about other people's experiences and the positive feedback!! This is our second adoption, our first was an open domestic adoption. Our daughter is almost 2, and we are excited to add to our family. Laura

My husband and I adopted our daughter Alexandra last year from Bogota, Colombia. We are waiting for a referral for our second child now. In response to the length of stay in Colombia question we stayed in Colombia for 5 and a half weeks before all of our papers were ready to go. In Bogota there is a lottery system determining what court your papers are processed through. Some courts like #1 are fast courts and others are slower. We knew form the reactions of others when we told them our court number that it would be a while for us. You don't know the court until your papers are filed just after you get there. I hear that some of the other cities have faster processing. And a family from Hawaii that got there the same day that we did were out in 2 and a half weeks. It is pretty random. But if you know you have a slow court trips to the coast are fun with the babies. Our daughter was three months and a week when we got her and she loved the water! We are waiting for our referral and are getting a little frustrated with the wait on this end. I'm not worried about waiting there. At least you spend the time getting to know your new baby and their culture. Good luck!