Hoping for twins maybe?

Remember that you will need a homestudy approving you for two children. You will also need I-600A approval for two children. The homestudy agency and the USCIS will want to be sure that you have the financial resources to support two children, now and in the future, and that you will be able to cope with the extra demands on your time. Some foreign countries will have requirements for families requesting twins. As an example, they may place twins only with childless couples, or may have minimum income or net worth requirements. There are countries, however, that do not have such requirements. Some placement agencies will have their own policies regarding the minimum income or net worth that a famiily will need to have in order to accept a referral for twins. These policies will be in addition to those set by the foreign country. As an example, there are agencies that won't refer twins unless a family earns over $100,000 a year. While such minimums often reflect the agency's concerns about the cost of raising two children, they also act as a "rationing" mechanism. The fact is that twins are fairly uncommon in any population, and that abandonments/relinquishments of twins are even more uncommon. Far, far more families request twins than can possibly be accommodated by the availability of twins for adoption. As a result, agencies try to limit the number of people applying for twins so that they won't be disappointed or have to wait years for a referral. Financial and other requirements (such as childlessness) help to reduce the number of applicants, although, even with the requirements, it is unlikely that there will be enough twins to go around. Some countries will allow the adoption of two unrelated children of the same age, but this is fairly uncommon. And even where a country is amenable to doing so, many agencies will not allow the adoption of two unrelated children at the same time. Agencies believe that twins should always be kept together. With non-twins, however, agencies tend to believe that each child should have his/her own unique bonding time with parents. For this reason, families are often not allowed to adopt a second child until the first child has been home at least a year. While I would encourage you to pursue your dream of adopting twins, do recognize that it may not be feasible, even if you are willing to wait a year or two longer than the average family adopting from a particular country. Sharon

Thanks! We are still praying about it... Not yet sure if this is what we are to do (or attempt to do). I do appreciate your thoughts though!

I personally know three people who adopted twins, two sets are from Russia, one set from China. In the Russia case it did make the wait for the referral longer but in the China case it was sheer good luck. The China girls are adorable and the Russia twins are boy/girl and beautiful also. The third set were both girls and I met them at the Radisson hotel back in Oct 2005 while on trip two with my dd. Good luck Claud

Hi Familynotcomplete! We are looking into adopting from Ethiopia too. We are actually going for a sibling group though, but twins would be great. There is supposedly and availability of them. According to my agency there are 5 million orphans in Ethiopia, so I am sure there are some twins. Are you willing to get slightly older children or just infants, because that might actually make your wait longer. We are just in the beginning stages so I don't know too much yet. Good luck to you!

Our next adoption will be international and I have talked to the agency we plan to use and they do have alot of luck finding and placing twins. I want twins simply because I only want to do this 1 more time and I want 3 kids total. The agency we will be going with has an 18 month wait for families that already have children, she said plan about 24 months to get twins and that some countries do have higher twins. We plan to start this journey next summer around Kiernan's 1st birthday. We think 2-3 years is a good space between them even though we know the twins would be 6 months to a year probably.

From what country are you adopting, BeautyQueen? You will have to select a country before a dossier can be sent and before you can be matched, in most cases, unless you are willing to accept an older child or a child with special needs through a "waiting child" program. You simply cannot say to an agency, "Find me a set of healthy infant twins; I'll take any country." You have to apply to a specific program. And, in many cases, it is not the agency that selects your child; it is the foreign country's authorities. In some countries, even if there are some sets of twins in need of homes, there are country rules about making children available to domestic families before they can be placed internationally. As a result, children from those countries are often well over a year old before they come home. Examples are Russia (six months in data bank) and, most recently, Korea (which used to be known for young babies, but which now won't refer a child until he/she has been in a data bank for five months). At this time, Ethiopia and Vietnam tend to have the youngest babies, and Ethiopia seems to be the country with the best chance of getting twins under a year old at referral. Guatemala used to be a great choice for young babies, but Americans shouldn't even consider starting an adoption there right now, because it is likely to close by the end of the year, according to the U.S. State Department. Kyrgyzstan may be a possibility, but it is a new program and a little risky for this reason. And at least one agency says that twins and other siblings are usually past infancy at referral. Sharon

I know someone who adopted baby twin girls from Ethiopia. Vietnam is a good place to go for twins actually because lots of twins are placed as multiple births are considered unlcky.

We just adopted a little girl domestic, so we are not even starting our process until next summer. We have spoken to the agency we will be using and told them we are really wanting twins, they have placed many sets of twins. We had not set on a country but I did tell her it was my desire to adopt from Russia, it always has been. I am very fascinated by Russian culture. We are willing to take older children. We have been with our daughter since 10 minutes after she was born so we have had the joy of a newborn, we are fine with not having that again. It's not about getting a newborn to us, we just want kids. Also we are also open to just adopting 2 children, don't have to be twins but we would want them to be at least 10 months apart. The agency will not place 2 non bio related children that are the same age. They say they do not do artificial twinning, I'm not sure what the reason is but it isn't a concern to me. Getting just bio siblings would be wonderful. I was seperated from my brother and sister, they stayed with my parents, and I know the pain of that. It's very hard to know you have other brothers and sisters but not be with them.

We got a referral for twin girls and their younger brother. That referral did not work out, but it is possible. We adopted in Poland.