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just wondering from start to finish how long did it all take
we are 34 now and have 3ds's who are 5, 3 and 1.5
which country appears to be the fastest
wld love to adopt a girl- can we choose or given baby and thats that
where to start is it registering with local hse and then wait and do course and then social worker visits and then wait for approval and wait and wait then is that it
how much also did it all cost
thanks to everyone who replies x

Hi there,
Just to give you an idea of time frames, it took us 3.5 years to adopt DD1, we are now in the process for DD2 just over 2 years and expect to be another 9 months or so before we bring her home. I know of others in the process alot longer.
In saying that, waiting times for prep courses have come down depending where you are in the country. Inter country adoption is in a difficult time at the moment ie not many countries available to Ireland. Hopefully that would change when you'd have to pick a country. ( we had different countries in mind, but did'nt adopt from the first, ICA changes all the time, countries open and close )
Since we ratified Hague, just over a year ago, you now have to adopt from a Hague ratified country. This tends to make the children older, ie over 12 months although I do know of someone referred a 3 month old girl from India recently. ( you young age will be an advantage to ye )
We will ( when home next year ) have adopted 2 daughters, Vietnam, we would have had a choice but with India, it was always going to be a girl.
Costs ?????? do vary depending on where you go, some have very little fees, others have larger fees, and of course you have to travel. If you PM me a specific country, I could give you and idea.
Do contact your local HSE straight away, to get yourselves onto the waiting list for an information meeting, and take it from there............ it's a roller-coaster ride, up's and down's, lots of paperwork, but there will always be someone who will have been there done that who can help and it's sooooooo worth it in the end
Best of luck.

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So far we are in the process 18 months, we have been told we could get our declaration in as little as 8 months (LOL) - currently there are very few countries open, we were told by the time our declaration comes though there will be a lot more countries open, the HSE currently dont want you to put down a country as they will go through that with the SW after the course etc,

Good luck, get on the list first,

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If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, ' thank you,' that would suffice.

I have been in the process now for just over 6.5 years. I'm not sure what the timelines are now but when I was starting out you signed on with your local HSE board, got called for a meeting and from your first letter of application it was 22 months before they even looked at your file (God knows why)....Be prepared for a long process. That is not to turn you off or anything but even if you are only thinking about it put your name down immediately. You have plenty of time afterwards have a good think. I am nearly at the end of things myself (fingers crossed and everything else )...

I hope I haven't frightened you with the long wait but be prepared for many changes in the various rules and countries and guidelines along the way. Now...after all that, hopefully the new rules for adopting which are in place since last year will speed things up and that you are not waiting as long as me...

Best Wishes.

Jeffers.

PS Rollercoaster have a very good adoption section that you might want to have a look at, as well as MM...

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jefferssss