Intercountry Adoption: Where Do I Start?: Adopting a Child

This information was taken directly from Child Welfare Information Gateway

Adopting a Child

Your adoption services provider should provide you with all of the information you need to successfully meet eligibility requirements for adoption. For example, all prospective adoptive parents need to complete a home study, submit immigration forms, and put together a dossier, which is a collection of the family’s personal records (e.g., proof of identity, finances, health, fingerprints for clearance checks) required by the country’s legal system to process the adoption. Parents also are required to complete at least 10 hours of training prior to the adoption, which is separate from any home study requirement. Countries of origin may have additional training requirements for parents. Parents may be exempted from training by the primary provider if the parents already have completed other sufficient training.

A few months to a year or more after completing the required paperwork, your family may be chosen for a specific child for possible placement, or your family may receive a specific child profile for consideration. This process varies greatly depending on the country and adoption provider involved. In a few countries, families might be allowed to be directly involved in this step by visiting orphanages and viewing photolistings of waiting children. Waiting to be matched with a child is often one of the hardest and most unpredictable parts of the adoption process.

When a specific child is identified, you will receive a referral (a packet of information about the child). Although the level of detail varies depending on the country of origin, this packet usually includes the child’s picture and information on the child’s health and history, if available. Medical information and history may be inaccurate or limited to the period of time since the child’s placement in an orphanage or institution. You will have a period of time to review the information and decide whether you can meet this child’s needs. In general, prospective parents have a minimum of 2 weeks in Convention cases to consider all the available information and make a decision. Ask your provider or a doctor who specializes in adopted children any questions you have before you accept the placement. Take as much time as you need to feel comfortable with your decision, paying particular attention to the information related to the child’s health, prenatal health (if known), placement history, and expected emotional or mental health needs. Do not be afraid to ask for additional information, particularly if a professional raises issues that concern you. Make sure your family can meet the needs of the child. If you are unsure about whether you can make the changes necessary to incorporate the child into your family, it is better to stop the process prior to meeting him or her than to risk a possible disruption or dissolution down the road.

Health and Behavioral/Mental Health Considerations

When reviewing the information of a child with whom you are matched, you should consider their expected health and behavioral/mental health needs. In a study of more than 1,000 parents who adopted from abroad (with 92 percent of parents from the United States), nearly half (47 percent) adopted a child with special needs (Pinderhughes, Matthews, Deoudes, & Pertman, 2013). Of those children with special needs, half received an initial diagnosis in their birth country, and half received a diagnosis after the adoption was finalized. Additionally, 42 percent of the children diagnosed in their home country as having a special need were diagnosed with an additional special need after having been adopted. Therefore, parents often learn of a child’s special need after placement, whether or not they had planned and prepared to adopt a child with special needs.

Health Needs. The type and quality of available medical information will vary depending on the country and the child’s situation. Reputable providers will give you as much information as possible about a child’s background and medical history, but they cannot guarantee the information is accurate or complete. Health records will be in the child’s language of origin and may need to be translated. Sometimes translated records are not complete or accurate, and parents should consider requesting copies of the original medical records so that local health professionals who are fluent in that language can translate them. Mary factors influence the health of children who need families in other countries. Children often have health conditions that are common in low-resource countries but that can be easily treated in the United States. Children’s health also can be affected by living in institutions. A doctor familiar with intercountry adoption can help you understand the information you receive about the child’s health and development.

Behavioral/mental health needs. Children in other countries enter their country’s child placement systems for many of the same reasons children enter foster care in the United States, including malnutrition, parental substance abuse, prenatal exposure to alcohol and other drugs, physical and sexual abuse, or neglect. In many countries, children waiting for adoption live in institutions, where they are sometimes exposed to physical or sexual abuse and/or neglect. Sometimes a child may not feel safe to share information with anyone, particularly about sexual abuse, until he or she feels comfortable in his or her adoptive family, so the adoptive family may be the first to learn about abuse. It is important to be aware of the possible effects of these experiences on children’s behavioral/mental health so you can have realistic expectations about the child’s future needs. Research on domestic adoptions of children with special needs shows that families that have realistic expectations about what it will take to meet a child’s needs are more likely to be successful (Reilly & Platz, 2003).

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Resource

Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2014). Intercountry adoption: Where do I start? Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.