I normally post at Ukraine Adoption Blog and I will continue to do so. But I was given an opportunity to post on my recent research.

I would like to adopt a second child and I have been exploring my options; foster, domestic, international. Getting Started with my second adoption has been so much harder than my first adoption.

Maybe I am just more aware of what can go wrong. And this is why my research and decision making are taking so much longer. I have been researching for more than 1 year now.

I started exploring adopting from Haiti because they allow single mothers to adopt. But then I moved onto the statistics. I am an analytical person and really appreciate numbers.

The United States Office of Immigration Statistics produces a document called the Yearbook of Immigration Statistics. It breaks down all international adoptions completed by American families from 1996 to 2006 by country, gender and age.

From 1996 to 2006, Americans adopted 2,060 children from Haiti.

• 42% were male



• 58% were female

• 11% were under 1 year of age


• 48% were 1 to 4 years of age


• 41% were 5 years or older

I would like to adopt a girl over 5 years of age. This is very possible based on the above statistics.

I have also been reading the US Embassy in Haiti's 18 page document on adoption. I found out via this document that the Institut du Bien Etre Social et de Recherches (IBESR) certifies orphanages. And many of these orphanages are privately run by charities.

So I started reading about the orphanages. Many have their own web sites. The reading just never ends. :)

It is at this point that I discovered a problem. Many of these privately run orphanages have specific religious requirements. One for example will only allow "bible Christians" to adopt children.

So I started emailing orphanages, agencies and facilitators to see if there is any chance that I could adopt. And it turned out that I wasn't the right flavor of Christian for many of these orphanages.

This was fine. I understand that everyone makes their own rules. But the rejection frustrated me. I started to give up when I found Crèche Enfant de l’Jèsus and Foyer de Sion. Neither one seems to have a specific religious requirement.

With that barrier out of the way I started looking at other factors. I would only be in Haiti for 3 to 5 days after the adoption was completed. And the estimated cost of $15,000 and $18,000 is very reasonable.

I understand there are challenges. But Haiti is looking like a good adoption option for me.

Videos

God's Littlest Angels - video 1, video 2
For His Glory Adoption Outreach - video 1, video 2
New Life Orphanage
Petits Anges de Chantel orphanage
The children of Haiti are waiting