Age Range for infants

From what I understand it is really based on the age of the primary caregiver, typically the mother. But it is also based on your age at the time of approval. The local ICBF office has some leeway to go outside the guidelines. In our case we were approved for 12-35 months and were assigned an 11 month old. Another family about the same age as us at the same regional office (at about the same time) was approved for 0-12 months and assigned a 2 yo. Region office preferred that they not have so much time between their oldest child and the new one.

Once approved by ICBF -- you remain in that category -- no matter how old you get. However, you may find that you will be assigned to the older of the age range. Ie. 18-24 months rather than 0-12.

With the ICBF, very few children will be available for adoption under one year of age at "pick-up". The very youngest, I've heard of is 8-11 months. (rare) Most being about one year on the gotcha day. I was approved for 0-12 months. My daughter was 18 month at "pick-up".

This is NOT exactly true. In our Colombia group we have had the following assignments for families assigned to the 0-12 month range. In the last 2 1/2 years. Note that these are the ages at Gotcha Day and Not Referral. 4 months -- Girl (3 1/2 months at referral)10 months -- Girl (9 months at referral)7 months -- Girl (5 months at referral)13 months - Girl (was 11 months at referral)10 months -- Boy (was 9 months at referral)8 months -- Girl (5 months at referral -- closed for x-mas)7 months -- Boy (5 months at referral)11 months -- Girl (10 at referral)9 months -- Boy (7 at refferal)7 months -- Girl (6 at referral)9 months -- Girl (8 at referral) We have another family that got a referral of a 3 1/2 month old, but rejected it based on health issues. Then there is Laura who was assigned an 11 month old and picked him up at 12. However, she was not originally assigned to the 0-12 month category -- everyone else was. I reality none of our families have had children 12 months at placement -- all have been younger. So, based on actual families, I can safely assume your statement to be wrong. That said, the very youngest possible referral under current COlombian law will be over 3 months as the court process for a child of "consentimiento" takes 90 days and then there needs to be a time to get you the referral -- usually the childen in this category are referred at 3 1/2 months and picked up at 4. ICBF has many children in this category -- not as many as the casas, but they have some. If a child was not relinquished at birth, there needs to be a family investigation. This takes an additional 60-90 days -- which is why 5-6 months of age at referral is also more common. Children over 6 months are older becasue there was some sort of effort to reunite them with their birth parents. I hope this explanation helps.

That's awesome then! I'm just stating that from my experience, it was the opposite. Most kids being around 12 months at the youngest at GOTCHA. This information was given to us by the agencies we researched and valided by what i've seen. Of course, I started the process in 2003. Times DO change. but still, based on the info you gave, its still rare to have a young infant at gotcha, you only list 4 children under 8 months and this would be over a 2.5 year time period...

My sister's son was born on Feb 15, referral on May 6, and Gotcha day May 31. He was in a casa.

yeah, Children from las casas are generally much younger, no? I think every child I met from a casa was 3-4 months during our process/pickup.