Adoption Information Sessions....

Hey Everyone,

DH and I are attending an information session for adoption in qld next week. I am nervous, excited, anxious but most of all focused on getting as much info as possible. We haven't done an IVF cycle for two years now, and while we hadn't decided to stop, life just kept happening and the right time never came. We also haven't finished trying..

What we want to do though is explore the possibility of adoption and then revisit the IVF wagon later (hopefully after we adopt).

I'd love to hear any feedback, personal experiences or advice you can offer.

I'm not naive as to the length of wait times and the fact that there are more people wanting to adopt than there are children, but I am feeling good about exploring another option.

I look forward to chatting with others about this....

I don't know much about adoption but have you thought of surrogacy? I was told by a friend of mine who has a surrogate baby that "adoption is Australia is a joke" Apparently near impossible and really expensive.. Surrogacy is difficult too, but possible.

One of my SIL's closest friends adopted two children from Korea due to the incredibly long waiting lists in Aus - they were basically told their chances of adopting a newborn or very young child were pretty close to nothing. That was 10 years and 8 ago now though so I have no recent information about wait times etc.

Not sure if adopting a child from overseas is something you would be interested in, but they certainly found the process a lot easier than an Australian baby, and they now have a beautiful family.

Don't have much advice to offer, but just wanted to say I think it's amazing that you're looking into adoption. My Mum and Uncle were both adopted and I think it is such an amazing thing to do. I'm currently pregnant with #1, but DF and I hope to adopt in the future aswell.

Best of luck :)

How exciting Kimmi. I wish you lots of success. I believe you must not be actively TTC whilst going through the adoption process.

I agree with what lulu said. We've thought about adoption and if we do we'll be going international.

Surrogacy in Australia is really really complicated and there's a lot of hoops to jump through, we considered it also but it was a nightmare just reading through the "rules".

There are lots of hoops to jump through for adoption - including international adoption. But my beautiful chinese daughter is now 9 and the absolute light of my life. So put your hard hat on, don't be discouraged and stick the course.

Infant Adoption within Australia isn't a joke, my almost 2 year old daughter is proof of that. It happens! It took us a year to get approved and we waited 7 months after that before getting placed. DD was 7 months when we brought her home.

As for Adoption overseas, it's getting harder and harder. Forget about the Korean program it is not far off closing. Countries are wanting to find homes for children within the country rather than sending them overseas. Attending an information season is the best way to get all the facts. It's better to get the process started sooner rather than later as sometimes you will wait a couple of years just to be assessed.

So we went to the information session, and it seems this isn't the right option for us at the moment. I have mixed emotions about it, but I need to re-focus on our journey...

DH and I feel the same about it.

Lil chookie, that's fabulous. that's not a very long wait at all.. I wonder why it seems so difficult for others?

Kimmi - At least you got some info. big :hug: i hope the rest of your journey is short and you are a mummy very soon x

:hug: At least you know for now. What was it that helped you decide?

Kimmie if it is too much to ask what changed your mind? I have always wanted to adopt once our children are school ages, but after looking into it as much as reading information I haven't taken it any further. Plus our youngest is only one so still a while before we would actually seriously consider it. But I would like to get as many peoples experiences in the mean time.

The main factor that changed our minds (and we already knew of this) is that you have to give up fertility treatment. We just aren't ready to give up IVF just yet.

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Lil chookie, that's fabulous. that's not a very long wait at all.. I wonder why it seems so difficult for others?

Kimmi - At least you got some info. big :hug: i hope the rest of your journey is short and you are a mummy very soon x

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I think if you got answers direct from those who had successfully been placed through infant adoption you would find the average wait time on an approval list to be 1 to 2 years. But it's a long hard road to get on that list and not everyone makes it. If you are not placed in 2 years you have to be re-assessed, I think some people pull out at this point. In Victoria there are only about 50 couples on the wait list at any time.