Korean Adoptions-the long road to our little boy

Give me just a moment to brag on my little Asher before I start with this :-) We received his 9 month check up documents yesterday. He is now 25.6 inches long and 18.5 pounds! Still such a peanut and we cannot wait to get our arms around you!

Ok, now that the mama bragging is out of the way, I promised this post would be on Korean adoptions. When we started our research Korea was in a large list of countries we looked at. There were several reasons that led us there:

*Older babies mostly for adoption
-In Korea, they are really pushing for domestic adoption to be more accepted. In the last few years, they have changed their program to have the children put into an adoption plan available for domestic adoption for the first 5 months. If they are not adopted after that time, then they are eligible for international adoption. So, most folks adopting healthy babies receive referrals that are around 5-6 months old. We knew we did not want an infant, but still wanted a smaller child, so this was a perfect age range for us.

*Foster families in place for adoptive children
-After these babies have been in an orphanage for those 5 months, they are then put into a foster family where they will stay until they are adopted. While it's difficult to imagine these babies going from 3, 4 or 5 different caregivers in their first year or two of life, it's comforting to know they are under the care of a family.

*Good medical care/records
-Korea's medical system takes very good care of these babies. They go to monthly check ups with a physician and any follow ups/hospital stays are all documented and held to be supplied to the adoptive family. We received a ton of information on Asher's medical background along with all of his monthly checkups, specialist visits and hospital reports. While we couldn't understand some of it, our adoption specialist (physician) could easily explain these reports to us.

*Good potential of knowing family history
-While poverty and other reasons may lead a birth mom to put together an adoption plan for her baby, still today unwed mothers are quite a stigma in Korea. Although progress is being made, there were not a lot of options for these mothers. Many of them were disowned from their families, couldn't find jobs to support them and sometimes even the child was punished along with his mother with prejudice actions from society. Family blood lines are very important in Korea, which is why the domestic adoption program is very slow to pick up pace. There are different homes set up in Korea where these birth moms can go and receive prenatal care their last few months of pregnancy along with counseling and job training. They work hand and hand with social workers and care givers to put together an adoption plan for their baby. Many times information about the birth mom and father can be released, which is invaluable. We do not know Asher's birth mother and father's names, but we do know their backgrounds and the situation that led to his adoption plan.

*Long standing international adoption program
-Korean adoptions starting occurring in 1955 as a result of the Korean war. Many of these children were orphaned due to the war or were multi-racial (Korean mothers, US fathers) and were not accepted in Korean society. The reasons for the international adoption program to continue on have changed over the years, but the stigma of illegitimacy, unstable economic conditions, limited interest in adoption in Korean couples and internal government challenges in dealing with a large number of abandoned or orphaned children have led to a continued need for these adoptions. S. Korea is the oldest organized international adoption program in the US. There are 4 agencies in Korea that work with international adoptions: Holt, Eastern Social Welfare Society, Korea Social Services and Social Welfare Society. Depending upon the local agency you choose here in the US will depend on the agency you work with in Korea. We chose Holt because they had over 50 years of experience and felt they had probably seen and heard it all!

* You can travel over or choose to escort
-When we were initially looking at this adoption, we felt sure we would choose the escort route and loved that the Korean program offered this, however, we have since changed our minds and are thrilled to go to Korea to meet our son and his foster family in person. I think this is a great choice though to have depending upon your family dynamic and needs.

We just felt drawn to S. Korea in our hearts to adopt. These are just some of the reasons we chose to adopt there, but I could have gone on all day. Below are some factors to consider to see if Korea works for your family. All countries have guidelines for adoptive families to meet. As well as a list of the process, agencies that work with Korean adoptions and some blogs/websites to check out!

~Who are the children? Korean boys and girls ages 5-12 months are available for adoption. Because there are many more boys than girls available, many agencies will quote longer time lines or put restrictions (no girls already in family for example) if you want to adopt a girl. There are also many waiting children from all ages available.

~Who can adopt from Korea?
-Couples married at least 3 years with no more than 2 divorces between them
-Ages 25-42 when initiating the adoption process
-Must meet Korean health requirements (they have certain BMI requirements)
-No more than 4 children already in the family
-Meet financial guidelines (for example, make minimum of $30K per year)

~Adoption Process- After you do your research on which agency you want to go with, you will need to contact them and complete their initial application. Once this is done, you will either be referred to a social worker or chose one yourself to complete your homestudy along with receiving a list of adoption education classes you must complete as well. A homestudy is a 1-2 month process where a social worker assess pretty much everything from your background, home, family, job, finances, etc. to ensure you are fit to adopt. Once your homestudy is complete, they will send to your agency and you can officially start your wait! Once you have been matched and receive your referral, the time to travel over (or escort) depends greatly on the agency. I've seen some travel in 9 weeks..I've seen some travel 9 months later. It all depends on how fast the paperwork gets processed on both the US and Korea side of things. I would say a range of 4-6 months though. Korea also requires 3 follow ups with your social worker after the child is placed in your home at 2 month intervals. Once these have been completed, you can officially finalize your adoption!

If you would like more information on Korean adoptions, please feel free to check out the following links!

http://adoptkorea.com/
http://http://korea.adoption.com/
http://www.adoptivefamilies.com/search/agency-list.php - A list of all agencies in the states that do Korean adoptions
http://www.youtube.com/user/loswhit#p/c/D25616FB0EB7F706 - this is from Carlos Whitaker. Awesome blogger (Ragamuffin Soul). He records pretty much every moment of going to get their son Losiah in S. Korea in the videos in the right. Get out your tissues for this ride...especially #14!
http://huntforrachel.blogspot.com/
http://http://adoptfromkorea.blogspot.com/
http://inhishands-ouradoptionjourney.blogspot.com/
http://littlebitoseoul.blogspot.com/

There are just too many blogs to list that are so good for this! Here are a few that I found early in our journey and followed through on the ones they followed and found so many more great ones!

Next post....domestic adoptions in US!