Recently divorced expat - wanting to adopt. Where? How?

Where you live doesn't matter. You can actually adopt a child from anywhere in the country. You might live in London and be matched with a child in Cumbria or even Scotland, or vice versa. You apply through your county (or borough in London) or a VA, and then initially a county or borough council will look among their own children, but if there are no good matches there after a few months, you can look elsewhere. Often agencies work together as a consortium, pooling their families and waiting children, or you can look in magazines which profile children from nationwide, or go on the adoption register, which matches nationwide, go to exchange days etc etc. So yes, move anywhere in the country you like. It is not only possibly but entirely probable you can adopt from anywhere. Adoptive parents live everywhereYou don't get assigned a child, it's not like adopting from a country which gives referrals. You will be approached with initial information or read initial information in a magazine/online, and then decide whether you want more information/enquire on the child. You get more, you can say yes or no. It's a long process (called linking and matching), and most people see information on multiple children before they find the right childThere is quite a lot of ethnic matching. Depending on where you live and which council has the child in care, it is sometimes possible to adopt a child of a different background to you, but most people do not do that, and some agencies really don't like it. Being Irish/South African (are you white south african or not?) might be a problem for you in this respect. There are Irish and a few South African children in care, but hopefully they would permit you to adopt a British child as well. In London a large proportion of children are not white British (in most parts of the country most children are), but I'm not sure if there are many children with an irish background either. It's a tricky one, because you can adopt from anywhere, but councils like to match you with their own children, so sometimes they refuse to take on people they don't think they can match, including peole with unusual ethnic backgrounds. It's all a bit confusingAnyway. Closed adoptions are rare. Nearly all adoptions have contact by letters. Some have more, but visits aren't very common. There are very few babies under 1. There are very very very few relinquished babies. The average age at adoption is 3.