Finding Your Child

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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!

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