New and have a Question?

Originally Posted By LinWhen we adopted in 1997, the wait for a referal averaged 18 months. ( We are still in close contact with the Philppine coordinator for the agency we used and she said referals are now averaging 3 months for(travel is still about 3 months after referral)

Originally Posted By LisaLin, What agency did you use?

Originally Posted By LouiseThank you! What a difference in time, I sure hope it will be 3 months for us! Thanks for the response. Louise

Originally Posted By LinWe used Hand in Hand International. Website is hihiadopt.org

Originally Posted By LisaDo you know how many families have recently traveled to the Philippines from your agency? What is the name of the Philippine coordinator? When you traveled did you stay in a hotel? What airline did you use. Thanks Lisa

Originally Posted By LinThe coordinato is Vickie Truelove (219-636-3566) She has adopted 4 filipino children herself. Her office is here in Indiana in the town we live in so we have gotten to know her quite well. I don't know the actual count of families that recently traveled, but I have two friend who traveld this Fall to pick up their little ones. One family goes to our church and traveled in Sept to pick up their second child from there. Another family traveled in Oct and picked up their second son. It is an active program and they have wonderful repoire with the Intercountry adoption board. Hand in Hand started with Philippine adoptions 25+years ago. Vickie would be glad to answer other questions you might have,You will need to be in the Philippines 4 days. We stayed at a very nice Westin Hotel and there is a nice Holiday Inn that our friends stayed at. We flew out of Detroit to Tokyo and over to Manila , but I dont' recall off hand who we flew with! What I liked about traveling there was that English is a second language there so it wasn;t a barrier. The people are very gracious and we would love to go back sometime. Just for your info, there are many more boys availabe than girls. If you have no other children , Philippines will not allow you to specify. I would adopt from there all over again.

Originally Posted By LouiseJust read your post, Ms. Truelove seems like a wonderful person. She directed me to the person I should speak to while I'm living here in Guam. She was very helpful to us via emails. Sounds like she puts a lot of love onto her work. :)

Originally Posted By Lisa MarieHi everyone. I am new to adoption. My husband is Filipino and we possibly would like to adopt a Filipino child. can someone tell me about how it cost you like the travel too..and how long altogether it took to bring your child home? Thanks! please email me at Kneel2pray@Aol.com...i might not get to this board too often..

Originally Posted By LuluHi,I am a Filipina/Swiss (after marriage, I got dual citizenship) and my husband and I are really wanting to adopt children from the Philippines. A boy and a girl, when possible 6-12 months. I have no idea of the cost and surely no idea where to turn to for this part of Europe. I would appreciate a lot your kind help. THANK YOU!!!

For list of accredited adoption agency, please check ICAB website at [url]www.skyinet.net/~icaba/[/url] email add: icaba@skyinet.net And make a call to one or two agency to know exact procedure/fees. (Our Adoption Agency is Center for Family Services(Catholic Charities of Baltimore) Tel number (410) 659-4050. Contact Person Ellen Warnock)

Our paperwork was received in the Philippines on May 1, 2002, we received our referral in December 2002 (7 months) and we are told that travel will be 3-4 months after the referral paperwork....we are hoping to travel by mid March.