Expatriate adoptions?

[momof1squirt]

Hi, my dh and I were planning an adoption from Korea (hadn't started/registered with an agency - we were two weeks away from it!)then we found out dh got a promotion. This requires us to move to Germany for a few years. We still want to adopt while living there and I know it is possible but I am having a very hard time finding information. I found a American social worker in Berlin and have asked for his help. I wanted to know if anyone here has any advice/help/experience in this area. I know you can adopt from China while expatriates but I am only 28 and both parents have to be 30 to adopt from China. Please, anyone out there that can help?
Thanks,
Andrea W :)
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[Lucia]

Hi Andrea!

Welcome to the wonderful world of adoption! We are a military family currently living in Okinawa, Japan and in the process of adopting a baby from Taiwan....actually we got our referral today!!!! Adoption is very possible while living overseas and it is great that you have already been in contact with a social worker. Do you already have an adoption agency? If not, be sure to ask if the agencies you are considering will work with families while they are living overseas. Also, be sure to ask which countries will work with you...my understanding is that Korea may not be a possiblity..but please don't take my word for that...ask/research this.

I would encourage you to consider Taiwan. Taiwan does not have the same age requirement as China and you can get matched with healthy infants, waiting children, and older children. The travel time to Taiwan is also shorter than other countries (I think only a few days are required) and there is generally detailed medical/social information about the birth family. Another interesting aspect of the Taiwanese adoption program is that the birthfamilies can select adoptive families. We created a photobook and were chosen by our daughter's birthmother.

Our daughter is two months old tomorrow and we should be able to bring her home in the next two -four months. All of our paperwork arrived in Taiwan in April 2005...so the referral process took about nine months for us. I think it is shorter if gender is not specified or if a boy is requested.

Sorry to ramble on,but I was excited to see your post and wanted to let you know that you can adopt while living overseas. You might want to see if there is a yahoo group specifically for Americans adopting while living in Europe. I know there are several for military families who adopting while living overseas.

Hope this is helpful and good luck on your journey to your child!

Take care,

[momof1squirt]

Hi!

Thank you so much for posting. I was starting to wonder if there were any other families like us out there. I have found that Korea will be near to impossible while we are living abroad. We also may have a time restraint with adopting because right now we don't have definite date of our return. We have been told 18 months is how long we will be gone. We have a lot of thinking to do! My dh is leaning now towards waiting until we get back to the US and adopting two children (one infant and one two year old) at the same time. I would love to adopt while abroad because I have major babyitis. But my dh's new job is going to require a lot of travel and everything is just uncertain right now.

I really appreciate your post and I hope you get to go pick up your daughter soon! I can't imagine what it must be like to have to be waiting.

Thanks and Good luck,
Andrea W :)