Finding Your Child

After your homestudy is approved, you begin your big wait: waiting for the phone to ring and your social worker to say,” We have a child for you!” With every phone call, your heart momentarily stops as you ask yourself, “Is this it? Is this the call where I learn about my child?”

At the beginning of your international adoption journey, your adoption agency should tell you approximately how long you will have to wait for a referral. Adoption agencies usually talk about referral wait times in terms of averages – the average amount of time their clients wait for referrals from country X. Remember to be flexible! These time estimates are only averages – your wait may be somewhat longer or a good bit shorter. You never know how long your wait will be – our agency told us to expect to wait six to nine months for a referral, but we got “the call” only six weeks after submitting our approved homestudy!

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Photolistings

Occasionally, foreign governments will allow photolistings of children to be posted on the Internet. For more information, see Finding & Using Adoption Photolistings.

Credits: Excerpted from "International Adoption Guidebook," Mary M. Strickert, (c) 2004