Program Info

There are several different programs that are offered for Taiwan adoptions with the differences being:

1.) Your child being in an orphanage vs a foster home
2.) Price
3.) Referral time : Referral, in adoption language, means the child (or children) referred to you for adoption.
4.) Age of available children

I'm sure there are more but these are the most important ones in my opinion.

Orphanage vs foster home:
Program A (which is our program) involves children who are in an orphanage (Cathwel Service: http://www.cs.org.tw/en/03.htm).

Price:
Well, we won't go there. We'll just say that we are paying about as much as we paid for our car.
But I will say that we are going with one of the cheaper programs.

Referral time:
When we first started the process 8 months ago we were told that the referral time after we are put on the waiting list would be about 9 months. Now the wait time is 18-24 months. That's just the time it is taking to be referred a child. That is not counting the addtional 5 months after the referral to wait to travel to Taiwan to pick up the child. Our stay in Taiwan will only be 3-6 days. One great advantage with Taiwan is that the birth mother/family will choose who the adoptive parents will be. We put together a photo album of our family and the birth mother will consider that - along with our home study* information - when making her decision.
*Home study: A Home Study is conducted by a licensed Social Worker under the aegis of an agency in the state where the prospective parent(s) reside.

Age of available children:
Boys and girls 6 months to 12 years of age. We do not have a preference on the sex of the child - they are all so precious! The average age the baby will be when he/she comes home is 9 months (for an infant).

We are not yet on the waiting list but will be soon I hope. With that being said our child may not be home for another couple of years or more. Please pray for our patience!