In December, ICBF posted a chart with the updated time frames for recieving a referral. The chart shows that the wait time has increased for any child under 4 years of age to 30-36 months. For older children and sibling groups the time varies.
For families filing the I-800A, we have had our first approval for Latin America and it happened in less than 9o days!
We had 1 older child find their forever home is January and currently have several families in country and several more with their referrals.
Monday, February 02, 2009
Friday, December 19, 2008
December Update
Gladney's Colombia program had another exciting month! Raul spent the first half of December in Colombia meeting with ICBF and orphanages across Colombia. A new update to the program this month related to the psychological evaluation. The MMPI is now required for all psychological evaluations. Anyone who has already completed their evaluation does not need to have it redone, but any family who has scheduled a test or who is looking for a psychologist should let them know they need the MMPI.In November, 1 infant found her forever home. We currently have 4 families with their referrals and getting ready to travel. The courts will be closed in Colombia until mid-January.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Colombia Program Update
The Colombia program has had a great month!! Monday I returned home from my first trip to Colombia. It was AMAZING! It only rained about 5 minutes on the last day of my trip and was sunny about half of the time. Everyone I met was extremely friendly and helpful. Marshall Williams, VP of International Adoption, and I spent a day at ICBF meeting with several staff about Gladney and possible humanitarian aid projects as well as the new Hague requirements. I was very encouraged by the meetings and future Colombia adoptions! Raul just returned home from Puerto Rico where he did an informational meeting and celebrated National Adoption Day with 7 families in Puerto Rico who adopted from Colombia (pictures coming soon!)
In October, 5 children were placed in their forever homes. We currently have 2 families with their referrals, both of which are for infants under 8 months!!! Our monthly conference call will be this Thursday at 3:30 CT. Happy National Adoption Month!
In October, 5 children were placed in their forever homes. We currently have 2 families with their referrals, both of which are for infants under 8 months!!! Our monthly conference call will be this Thursday at 3:30 CT. Happy National Adoption Month!
November is National Adoption Month
Can you believe it? National Adoption Month is fast approaching and that means-- it's time to outreach!! The Outreach department has some very fun and exciting ways to get you involved in spreading the loving message of adoption. Below are some fun facts to get you started.Personal contact is the # 1 referral source for outreach. That means every time you share your adoption story, send an outreach e-mail or wear a Gladney t-shirt, you're outreaching. Remember- Each Voice CountsOutreaching and spreading the news to others means you are insuring a child will know the love of security a forever family can provide.By outreaching to others, you are insuring that other families will know the love and joy of growing their family through adoption.We understand outreaching can seem overwhelming and it can be hard to get started. This year we have created a National Adoption Month Calendar. This calendar can assist you with providing ideas or serve as a motivational tool. Just pick 2 or 3 ideas and get started. It's that easy.
Can you believe it? National Adoption Month is fast approaching and that means-- it's time to outreach!! The Outreach department has some very fun and exciting ways to get you involved in spreading the loving message of adoption. Below are some fun facts to get you started.Personal contact is the # 1 referral source for outreach. That means every time you share your adoption story, send an outreach e-mail or wear a Gladney t-shirt, you're outreaching. Remember- Each Voice CountsOutreaching and spreading the news to others means you are insuring a child will know the love of security a forever family can provide.By outreaching to others, you are insuring that other families will know the love and joy of growing their family through adoption.We understand outreaching can seem overwhelming and it can be hard to get started. This year we have created a National Adoption Month Calendar. This calendar can assist you with providing ideas or serve as a motivational tool. Just pick 2 or 3 ideas and get started. It's that easy.
Thursday, April 03, 2008
The Hague Convention
The Hague Convention entered into force on April 1, 2008. For Hague countries, China, Mexico, and Colombia, the I-800 and I-800A take the place of the I-600 and the I-600A.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Monday, May 21, 2007
Friday, May 11, 2007
Stuffed With Hugs: Hugs Sweet Hugs!
Gladney Center for Adoption, through the Joint Council on International Children's Services is proud to join with Build-A-Bear Workshop to make bears for children in need of a loving family and to celebrate adoption around the world. We hope to see you on May 19th!
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Still Waiting
It has been 5 months now since our dossier was officially approved by the Colombian government. We are patiently waiting to hear some good news about a referral, but believe us - it is very, very hard to be patient when you are soooo ready to become parents. We have been in the program now for 17 months (from beginning to end). We never expected to wait this long.
Easter has come and gone and once again we can't celebrate with a child of our own. I try not to dwell on it. Time seems to pass faster if I don't think about it so much. But thinking about it seems to be the only thing I do. Everytime I see one of our friends with their child or hear about someone getting pregnant I can't help but get a little sad, even though I am very happy for them.
I know now that we have a long wait ahead of us. Grasping that took me a long time. I wanted our baby right now. But this is something that every adoptive parent goes through - a long wait! So we will just have to accept that and go on with our everyday lives.
We will just hang on and wait on that phone call or email that tells us we have a referral.
Easter has come and gone and once again we can't celebrate with a child of our own. I try not to dwell on it. Time seems to pass faster if I don't think about it so much. But thinking about it seems to be the only thing I do. Everytime I see one of our friends with their child or hear about someone getting pregnant I can't help but get a little sad, even though I am very happy for them.
I know now that we have a long wait ahead of us. Grasping that took me a long time. I wanted our baby right now. But this is something that every adoptive parent goes through - a long wait! So we will just have to accept that and go on with our everyday lives.
We will just hang on and wait on that phone call or email that tells us we have a referral.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
New Year Brings New Hope
Happy New Year to everyone!! With this new year we find ourselves with new hopes that this year will be the one in which we will become parents. We have our nursery ready for the baby and look forward to the day we can lay our baby to sleep in the crib.
Unfortunately, we are at the point in the adoption process where we don't hear much news. Waiting is so hard - especially during the holidays. Seeing everyone with their children just makes us more anxious to hear news concerning our adoption. I have to make myself be patient and try not to dwell on it. It has become much easier now that we know that we have been placed on the waiting list. It is just a matter of time!!!
Good luck to everyone adopting and we will check back in soon.
Unfortunately, we are at the point in the adoption process where we don't hear much news. Waiting is so hard - especially during the holidays. Seeing everyone with their children just makes us more anxious to hear news concerning our adoption. I have to make myself be patient and try not to dwell on it. It has become much easier now that we know that we have been placed on the waiting list. It is just a matter of time!!!
Good luck to everyone adopting and we will check back in soon.
Monday, December 11, 2006
Our Journey
Let me start by saying we are so happy to be able to share our experience with other adopting families. Adoption is such a blessing to families who are not able to have children of their own and families who just want to share their love and life with a child less fortunate.
My husband and I found out that we could not physically have children of our own in the Spring of 2005 after several surgeries and lots of trips to different doctors. We then decided to try invitro-fertilization. Nothing seemed to be working for us and quit frankly the physical and emotional frustrations were getting us both down.
What would be our next step - we both wanted children so badly. We had so much love to give a child. Adoption was always in the backs of our minds. There are so many children in this world that need good, loving homes. In a way we always knew adoption was the right choice for us. We just needed a little help realizing that.
I have a co-worker that had adopted two children from Gladney Center for Adoption and we sat down and talked to him. His story was much like ours and gave us all the answers we needed. We realized that God had lead us to adopt. It was like our life was just beginning from that moment on. We were so excited and positive we were making the right decision. In November 2005 we called Gladney and started our journey.
There were so many countries to adopt from - all with beautiful children. We made our decision rather quickly to go with Colombia. It is hard to say exactly why we picked Colombia - only that we feel that we were meant to adopt from Colombia. That may sound corny, but I really feel that way.
Gladney sent us all our paperwork and instructions on how to get started in late November 2005. We immediately started gathering up everything we needed to start the long process of completing our dossier. We finished up our dossier in April 2006. We were so excited!! Gladney sent our dossier to Colombia in late April 2006. We ran into a couple of document problems along the way. In May 2006 we had to send Colombia a "name declaration" form. In June 2006 we sent a "Power of Attorney". By this time we had hopefully fulfilled all documentation requirements for Colombia. Now we were to wait patiently to hear any news from Gladney.
I would check our email every day just wanting to hear some kind of news from Gladney. In late August 2006 we heard from our case worker that Colombia needed us to elaborate on our psychological evaluation. So we made another appointment with our psychologist in September 2006. We received the finished evaluation toward the end of September and mailed it immediately to Gladney. They received it the first part of October and mailed it to Colombia. On November 28, 2006 we received word that our dossier was approved by Colombia and that we had been placed on the chronological waiting list for a baby. WE WERE SO EXCITED THAT WORDS JUST CANNOT DECRIBE IT!!!! All we had to wait for now is our referral!! Which we understand can be a very long process.
So once again we were patiently waiting. Going through a process like this you have to have a lot of faith in God and a lot of patience. Along with support from family and friends. We do a lot of praying. We know without God we would not have this opportunity. Although once and a while we still do get a little down-in-the-dumps, but that is totally normal. We go about our daily lives and try not to dwell on the waiting but look forward to that wonderful day when we receive word that we have a baby!!
Until next time - God Bless.
My husband and I found out that we could not physically have children of our own in the Spring of 2005 after several surgeries and lots of trips to different doctors. We then decided to try invitro-fertilization. Nothing seemed to be working for us and quit frankly the physical and emotional frustrations were getting us both down.
What would be our next step - we both wanted children so badly. We had so much love to give a child. Adoption was always in the backs of our minds. There are so many children in this world that need good, loving homes. In a way we always knew adoption was the right choice for us. We just needed a little help realizing that.
I have a co-worker that had adopted two children from Gladney Center for Adoption and we sat down and talked to him. His story was much like ours and gave us all the answers we needed. We realized that God had lead us to adopt. It was like our life was just beginning from that moment on. We were so excited and positive we were making the right decision. In November 2005 we called Gladney and started our journey.
There were so many countries to adopt from - all with beautiful children. We made our decision rather quickly to go with Colombia. It is hard to say exactly why we picked Colombia - only that we feel that we were meant to adopt from Colombia. That may sound corny, but I really feel that way.
Gladney sent us all our paperwork and instructions on how to get started in late November 2005. We immediately started gathering up everything we needed to start the long process of completing our dossier. We finished up our dossier in April 2006. We were so excited!! Gladney sent our dossier to Colombia in late April 2006. We ran into a couple of document problems along the way. In May 2006 we had to send Colombia a "name declaration" form. In June 2006 we sent a "Power of Attorney". By this time we had hopefully fulfilled all documentation requirements for Colombia. Now we were to wait patiently to hear any news from Gladney.
I would check our email every day just wanting to hear some kind of news from Gladney. In late August 2006 we heard from our case worker that Colombia needed us to elaborate on our psychological evaluation. So we made another appointment with our psychologist in September 2006. We received the finished evaluation toward the end of September and mailed it immediately to Gladney. They received it the first part of October and mailed it to Colombia. On November 28, 2006 we received word that our dossier was approved by Colombia and that we had been placed on the chronological waiting list for a baby. WE WERE SO EXCITED THAT WORDS JUST CANNOT DECRIBE IT!!!! All we had to wait for now is our referral!! Which we understand can be a very long process.
So once again we were patiently waiting. Going through a process like this you have to have a lot of faith in God and a lot of patience. Along with support from family and friends. We do a lot of praying. We know without God we would not have this opportunity. Although once and a while we still do get a little down-in-the-dumps, but that is totally normal. We go about our daily lives and try not to dwell on the waiting but look forward to that wonderful day when we receive word that we have a baby!!
Until next time - God Bless.
Friday, December 01, 2006
Holiday Gifts for Children
During this holiday season, you can make a difference in a child's life by donating funds that will provide a special holiday gift to a child. Through generous gifts given by families from Christ Chapel Bible Church in Fort Worth, Texas, Christmas gift boxes were distributed to several Ethiopian orphanages. Your gift will bring smiles to children residing in the other Gladney supported orphanages in China, Colombia, Guatemala, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Russia, and Vietnam.
When making your donation through The Gladney Fund's "Gift of Family Campaign," please designate Humanitarian Aid and your country of interest. Help Gladney bring joy to a child's life this holiday season.
Make your Holiday Gift Donation online or by calling 817-922-6033.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Colombian Nationals:
The Gladney Center is happy to announce an adoption program for Colombian citizens living in the United States. If you are a Colombian citizen and your spouse is an American citizen, you qualify for a "fast track" adoption. The Gladney Center, as an accredited agency in Colombia, will:
- approve you as an adoptive family (you must qualify according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and Colombian laws)
- perform a home study
- give you advice on constructing your dossier
- provide you a letter stating that Gladney will perform your post placement reports
You will be responsible for submitting your dossier to the Adoption Board of Review. The cost for this program is $3,200. This fee does not include a translator/guide but that can be provided at an additional cost.
If you are interested in this program please call Carrie Greil at 817-922-6082 or email her at carrie.greil@gladney.org.
Friday, November 03, 2006
November is National Adoption Month
Can you believe it? National Adoption Month is fast approaching and that means-- it's time to outreach!! The Outreach department has some very fun and exciting ways to get you involved in spreading the loving message of adoption. Below are some fun facts to get you started.
- Personal contact is the # 1 referral source for outreach. That means every time you share your adoption story, send an outreach e-mail or wear a Gladney t-shirt, you're outreaching. Remember- Each Voice Counts
- Outreaching and spreading the news to others means you are insuring a child will know the love of security a forever family can provide.
- By outreaching to others, you are insuring that other families will know the love and joy of growing their family through adoption.
We understand outreaching can seem overwhelming and it can be hard to get started. This year we have created a National Adoption Month Calendar. This calendar can assist you with providing ideas or serve as a motivational tool. Just pick 2 or 3 ideas and get started. It's that easy.
View the calendar: http://pub22.bravenet.com/calendar/show.php?usernum=1810791782
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