Chiquitines Orphanage, Cali, Colombia

Hi there-- My husband and I are also adopting from Chiquitines in Cali. We are awaiting our I-171 as the final piece of our dossier, which our agency will then submit, and then we'll begin our wait for a referral! I know everyone has a rough time waiting out the referral period but I'm actually looking forward to at least knowing that all of the paperwork is (primarily) done, and all we have to do is sit and wait and sit and wait and sit and wait! I'm not sure if you have access to a channel called the Discovery Health Channel, but they have a wonderful show called Adoption Stories which follows a couple along as they go through adoption, and it recently featured a couple adopting THREE children from Chiquitines (no infants; twin seven-year-olds and their five-year-old sister). It was really amazing to see the orphanage-- very clean and bright and colorful and pretty-- as well as the maternity shelter and the infant ward, which looked clean and pretty and all the babies seemed very well cared for. It was also nice to see the staff at Chiquitines, including the director, Agatha. It might be worth seeing if Discovery Channel can send you a copy of the tape-- maybe they have a website?

It's exciting to know someone else is adopting from the same place. I contacted Discovery Health via email, but they don't sell copies of their Adoption Stories program. That would have been fun to watch. Oh well, hopefully we'll see it in person soon.In case you don't have it, Chiquitines does have a website address. It is [url="http://www.chiquitines.org/english/english.htm"]http://www.chiquitines.org/english/english.htm[/url] . They don't show pictures of kids, but it's interesting to learn more about the orphanage and the other programs they have there. Has your agency told you how long you will have to wait for a referral? Our dossier got to Colombia in Dec 2003 and we were approved by Chiquitines in Jul 2004. We are hoping to have a referral soon.

Our agency here in NYC says it will be about a twelve month wait for a referral once our dossier is accepted, though we don't even have our dossier complete yet (still waiting on that I-171!!!) so I would guess that we're looking at around a year from this summer before we finally bring a baby home! I'm sure you'll get a referral very soon; please let me know when you do-- it's so exciting to hear of other people moving through the process and having such wonderful results. Somehow, it makes the waiting easier! Come to think of it, the family that adopted on the episode of Adoption Stories used Commonwealth International-- Raul Velez Velez was even shown in the program. So maybe your agency actually has a copy of the show? Somewhere around here, I have a copy-- but it's been loaned to so many future aunts, uncles, grandmas and grandpas so that they can see where the new baby will be coming from that I don't know who has it right now! If I manage to locate it, I'd be happy to send you a copy!

KatieGirl, Our agency does have a copy of the adoption story on Chiquitines and they are going to send to us. Thanks for the tip. Hopefully your 171 will come back soon. It can be very frustrating waiting on the INS. I don't know if your agecny operates this way, but ours sent our dossier to colombia before we had our 171-H from the INS. Our 171 went to colombia about 2 months after the rest of our dossier. If your agency can do that, it might give you a little bit of a head start.

Actually, the 171 arrived on Saturday! Now we begin the joyous authentication process (I don't know how it works in your state, but here in New York we have to have everything stamped by the country clerk, and then everything that was stamped by the country clerk has to be re-stamped by the State clerk-- so lots of fun running around courthouses!) and hopefully, our dossier will be in Colombia by the end of the month! I'm trying not to get too excited because I don't want to get ahead of myself; I know that technically, the wait for a referral hasn't even begun yet! So until then, I'll just look forward to hearing that you're on your way to pick up your baby!

Where in NY are you? We are in the syacuse area.

We're in New York City, in Manhattan. Which opens up a whole other can of worms, apparently, because there are steps that the City of New York requires you to do that other families in our agency who live in, say, Westchester County or Upstate, don't have to go through. My husband went to college in Clinton, New York, near Utica, and Syracuse was where we went when we craved "city life." Now he's a teacher who assigns a social studies project each year to his fourth-graders on upstate NY cities, like Buffalo, Albany, and Syracuse. Hope you guys are surviving the winter alright (it hasn't been much better down here!) How long did your agency tell you to expect to wait for a referral?

KatieGirl You shouldn't have any extra problems in NYC unless you were born there and/or got married there. We had stuff notarized in NYC and it was the same as upstate, but, my birth certificate was a real pia to get the right one since I was born in the city. New York is a pain with all the extra steps. The only other state that requires county certs is ohio.

Yes, I was born and raised in NYC, so the whole birth certificate ("It must be an exemplified copy!!") thing has been a real blast. We weren't married here, however, so that was a little bit easier (but now I sure am grateful that we didn't go ahead and do that wedding in the Italian countryside that we'd always dreamed of; I shudder to think what getting a certified copy of THAT marriage certificate would have been like!) Yeah, it's mainly the county step that NYC requires that's been a drag; how nice it would be to only have to wait on ONE line and deal with ONE bureaucratic office! Oh well; it will all be worth it in the end!

This is a very interesting thread to me. For I was adopted from the Chiquitines Orphanage in Cali Colombia, and have been searching for information on them recently. Do you have any that would be useful to me. Thanks in advance.

Hi GuysMy husband and I recently came back after a successful adoption.Also, feel free to email me with any questions. Happy to help in any way.Best of Luck

I would love to look at your pictures of Chiquitines. I adopted my son almost 30 years ago from there, and looking at the pics would bring back memories. We stayed in the Residencia Stein, which was a cute place, and met many friends from there who we are still in contact with.arleen edwards

ALEJANDROPWell, I haven't any information for you, as I was just researching them myself, and ran across this site, then saw your post. I was also adopted out of Chiquitines Orphanage in Cali Colombia, as well, as my brother and sister too!! We came out of there Feb of 85', how about you?

Hola, I was adopted back in '82. I currently live in Minnesota. I found a site that is strictly Tulua orientated. I visit quite often. Still haven't gone back home yet, but, would love to reconnect with the friends that I lost many years ago.