Going once, going twice, sold?

Update continued!

Here is what we know so far about Estonia and the adoption program there...

The things that are different about the Estonian program from the Ukrainian program.
1) Ukraine doesn't allow pre-selection. This can be a good thing compared to many other adoption programs that are 100% pre-selection. For example, Russia's program is pre-selection... well sort of. With Russia, (the following is all hearsay, so this may not always be the case) the family decides what they want to adopt - i.e. 3 year old girl. They submit their dossier to Russia, they wait for a referral. Their referral consists of a name and an age. They go to Russia to meet their referral, spending a couple weeks there. From what I understand there is a lot of red tape, so every trip there takes a long time. If the referral doesn't work out, the family goes home to wait for another referral. If it does work out, they go home, wait for the process to be completed (a few months) and go back for anywhere from 2-5 weeks, to finalize and go home. This is not the kind of pre-selection I like. This is partially, I imagine, why the Russian program costs so much money.

Estonia is a pre-selection program, but not like Russia's. You choose a child based on a photo listing, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. You learn about the child while you're still at home. Videos, medical records, etc. Whatever is available. If there is a child you're interested in, the agency puts a hold on that child until you can meet them. You are supposed to go for a preview trip to visit them before you decide for sure. You only have to be there for 5 hours, so the trip is quick. If needed, more than one child can be visited during that trip if there is another you're interested in that is available, if the first doesn't work out. If you want to adopt that child, you go home and you finish paperwork. One of the big advantages is that your dossier doesn't have to be complete yet. You can preview before the dossier is done. So we don't have to get all our paperwork completed and have everything say "Estonia" on it before we actually choose a child.

After the paperwork is done, you go back to Estonia to finalize, which takes a week or two.

So 2) is that the trips are much shorter, even though two is generally required instead of one trip. Still cheaper for us. Both of us being gone for 6 weeks is a big deal.

3) Only one of us has to go on both trips. One of us could stay home. We will probably both go if/when it comes time to go meet a child. But to finalize, I could stay here to keep working and income coming in, and Jason could go finalize.

4) The program is much smaller and simpler. There are only 6 main orphanages in the country, only 10 international adoptions per year (their quota is 30). That can mean that when children appear on the photo listing that there may be competition, but it doesn't really seem like so much. In fact the program doesn't seem to be that well known. But I can see why I guess... There are no babies ever available, or at least it's very rare. That's fine for us, but not for many people. Ukraine does about 1500 international adoptions yearly. So people would imagine that with Ukraine they would have more of a selection. They'd be wrong right now though! LOL Plus the one-trip process seems to be advantage with Ukraine vs. having to go twice.

5) Their paperwork requirements are much easier to accomplish. It's pretty simple.

6) The country's culture is more like Western Europe even though it's in E. E. I'm not really totally familiar with all the differences that involves, but I'm told that's a good thing when it comes to visiting and finalizing adoption and dealing with the gov't.

7) The cost is the same, and more potential to be less than Ukraine, including travel. Ukraine has the potential of being more $ than planned.

8) You know how much you'll have to pay for "international fees" (finalizing documents, court fees, translator, etc.) before you even choose the child. The fees are set based on the region a child is in and whether the child is older, is a sibling set, or has special needs. It's cheaper for that child the less likely they are to be adopted.

9) There is only one agency in the US that is licensed to work with Estonia. So there is only one website to check for updated photo listings. There is one group of people in the US who run the adoption program in the US, which means you know exactly who to contact and they hopefully know what they're doing. They are in SC, and seem to be nice people. Straightforward, detailed, and easy to contact. Having only one agency allowed to do this to me is an advantage. It's less chaotic.

So overall the advantages are that we can choose a child and know the costs involved before we set foot out of the country. We won't go over there for 6 weeks, spend all our money and come home childless. The only possibility of waste is a quick trip over there to visit a child who doesn't work out. We'll know who our child is going to be for months before we come home with her/them. We can plan a little better.

It may take awhile before our child shows up on the website and we get going. But I'd rather have to wait for a program that I'm comfortable with, seems easier and simpler, less expensive and more certain (even though nothing is certain in the adoption process), than wait and wait for who knows how long for a system that is in total chaos and doesn't seem to care about the adopting families.

Currently there are a couple of sibling sets we would consider, but they are not yet legally free for adoption. They are still waiting to receive their files with their medical info and everything, and be given permission from Estonia to officially adopt them out. The original person who told me about this program said that there are usually a few new kids on there every month or two, and that kids don't stay on there with "administrative holds" or "not legally free for adoption yet" for very long. So we'll see how long it takes.

If this doesn't work out, there may be other options. We're still researching Estonia and not completely sold on it yet, just for the sake of not jumping into things too quickly. But that's one of the things I like about it. We don't have to be sold on the country's program until we see a child that we love.

Promise to keep you all posted. :)

Love,
Molly