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My husband and I have finished home study and are trying to decide what country to adopt from, we'd love to adopt from Panama for many reasons; it is closer than Europe and cheaper to visit again and I speak Spanish so I could continue to teach the child both English and Spanish. But how long is is it taking from turning in your dossier to taking a child home? Thanks for sharing your time line with me, Sandy
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Sandy,
Our dossier was submitted to the DNA in June, 2003. So we've been waiting 10 months or so for a referral from them.
At the same time, our attorney was trying to see if she could get the termination of parental rights (TPR) for two siblings that a friend of ours (who lives in Panama) found at an orphanage. These two children are 5 and 3 years old. It took the DNA social worker a full 6 months to do his investigation and write his report recommending the TPR. And we were lucky to have the DNA director's support (by writing to her directly and politely in Spanish). :)
But these two children have still not been declared abandoned because the judge hasn't ruled on this, yet (nearly one month after the social worker submitted his report). As we're all learning, this is a complex process that takes a great deal of time!
Take a look at Lauri's (lsworan) last post about how there are lots of kids in the orphanages, but very few of them are actually legally available (have had their TPR investigation done) due to few staff and too little funding for the DNA. This being said, I don't think it will matter what age you request, the wait will still be a "long" one. (If you work with an agency, the key will be for them to find a child who is already legally available.)
I'm so glad for Lauri and TanyaB (and anyone else who received a referral and isn't posting here)! I have no idea how they got their referrals so quickly, but they're both using the same agency (aren't you, ladies?), so that might be the difference. Folks with World Partners have said there have been referrals, too, but no word of any families traveling, yet. The Faith families could respond to this post, since they've actually gotten referrals and had families travel and return already.
Rebecca
P.S.
Remember "Samuel" who posted here a while back? I'd be interested to know how many adoptions his firm has completed in Mexico??? We originally investigated that country (I lived there for a while before college for a Spanish language immersion program in Cuernavaca), but all we found were news articles about how difficult it was because the president, Vicente Fox, doesn't like American policies and/or the citizens?! ("Samuel" hinted at this, but seemed to be able to overcome it with his American clients. If we hadn't already begun with Panama, I'd definitely want to learn more adopting from Mexico!)