Parents who have adopted from Vietnam ?

Please be aware that Vietnam is closed to American families at this time. It will not reopen until it ratifies the Hague Convention on international adoption AND until the U.S. certifies that the country appears to conform to American requirements. The U.S. has closed the country to adoption twice in the recent past, and it does not want to see the same problems with baby-buying, baby-stealing, visa fraud, etc. arise again. In general, it doesn't matter how many boys or girls a country has. Americans seem to prefer girls, and what happens, unless agencies stop allowing gender selection, is that long wait lists arise for girls, since the available girls are adopted quickly, while boys languish in orphanages and foster care for a long time. The only countries where it is a bit easier to adopt a girl are China and India, because of a cultural preference for boys. However, China's healthy infant/toddler program now has a five-year wait list from the time a dossier is submitted, and the expectations are either that the wait time will increase further or that China will close that program and allow international adoption only for kids with special needs. India is open, but some agencies give preference to families of Indian origin. Don't be surprised if the agencies you consider for any country do not allow gender selection, especially for families who have no other children, even if the foreign country has no rules on the topic. Agencies want to see both boys and girls find homes. If you find an agency that DOES allow gender selection, expect longer waits for girls than for boys. If at all possible, I would urge you to consider adopting a boy who needs a family. Sharon

This is sort of an older post---but I forgot to ask, did they have sibling groups available?

Vietnam has not yet articulated rules on what children will be considered eligible for adoption. In most countries, however, sibling groups will be available. One question is how you define sibling groups. If you are looking for infant or toddler twins, remember that twin births are rare in any population, and that the likelihood that a set of twins will be relinquished to the particular orphanage with which your agency works, at the very time you apply, is very low. Moreover, there could be a waiting list of families requesting twins from that orphanage. If you insist on waiting for twins, your wait could be long. In addition, in order to reduce the number of requests for twins, since so few sets of twins are available and so many families tend to request them, some agencies develop their own qualifications for parents, which exceed a country's requirements. As an example, some agencies say that families requesting infant or toddler twins must have a certain high level of income, or a certain high net worth; other agencies say that the families must be childless. Unless you meet those requirements, the agency will not submit your dossier to the country. If you are talking about sibling groups in which at least one child is of school age or has a special need, you would probably have no trouble adopting, if a qualifying group was at the orphanage with which your agency is affiliated. Sibling groups of this sort are considered "hard to place", because few families come forward to accept them, and some agencies will even discount their fees in certain situations. Sharon