Waiting Child - Danica

With International adoption, and based on the Hague Convention, the adoption commission from the foreign country reviews the applications and selects one that they believe is in the child’s best interest.

Well, that is really at the discretion of the adoption commission.  All we can do is come up with educated guesses as to what they did and why.  This family had a special “know how” when it came to education and we think this may have been perceived favorably.  They were almost paperwork ready which we think is huge.  Our advice to future parents is to select your country, select your agency, and do the paperwork that is required anyways.  Therefore, if you see a waiting child before you are matched, you are ready to go – like this family was! 

Being paperwork ready is important.  Your application may look dashing on paper, but when you have experience in international adoption, you know that sometimes, people don’t complete the paperwork.  Why?  Multiple reasons.  As we’ve been around for 22+ years, sometimes personal things may come in the way.  Pregnancy.  A new job.  Move to a different country.  You name it, it can happen. So having finished your home study and having your CIS approval, along with your other dossier documents has a certain amount of value that cannot be compared to anything else that may look good in an application. 

From our perspective, and forgive us if we are being too honest, but we’ve seen first hand how often people who call us want to see their child “now” before they’ll start on the paperwork or spend any money.  However, once the child they like to adopt becomes available, and they still haven’t started, the commission usually picks someone who is “this close” to bring that orphan home.  It is a much safer bet when the family has the paperwork they need.

In our 22+ years of experience, we’ve seen this one go both ways.  In this case, we think the commission perceived the fact that the family had no other children favorably becuase they thought the family could dedicate their resources and attention fully to Danica and help her catch up.

We have seen other cases where the commission is looking for someone who has parental experience alrady and that gives them confidence that they can handle whatever situation the child is dealing with.

As we said, this one could go either way.

Well, yes and no. 

Why “no”?  Didn’t you just say we should be paperwork ready to give ourselves the best chance? 

Yes, we did just say that.  However, international adoption is pretty complex.  Not all home studies are created equal.  In order for your home study to work for you, it has to say what country you are adopting from. 

So why is that so hard?  Good question.  Though the home study can be written by any licesned adoption agency, it needs to be approved by a Hague Accredited adoption agency before USCIS will approve it for a SPECIFIC country.  This means that your best bet is to find an adoption agency that works in the country you want to adopt from and let them advise you on how to complete a home study for that country that not only meets US standards, but also the standars of the foreing country.  

So, just starting on the home study with any home study agency who doesn’t know the foreing country might not be best.  

See our article here that talks about when to start on the home study.