WHO ARE “WAITING CHILDREN”?
WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF A WAITING CHILD?
The term “Waiting Child” holds many meanings within the adoption community. In Dillon International’s Adoption Programs, we define a Waiting Child as a child who is in need of adoption. We regularly receive information from our international partners in Vietnam, Hong Kong, and Korea about children who are in need of adoption and who may require some specific advocacy to find that family based on their age and/or their special needs.
We are not able to share profiles of children on our Waiting Child page. We take the privacy rights of all of our waiting children very seriously. We choose to protect their information as much as possible by only sharing a child’s detailed information with a family who has worked their way through our application process, and has been approved to adopt through our agency.
WHO ARE THE WAITING CHILDREN?
There are thousands of children with special needs waiting for a family to love them. We work with our partners in Vietnam, Hong Kong and Korea to identify children who are particularly in need of loving, permanent families.
In our Hong Kong Program, these children are typically children with moderate to severe special needs that may require some lifelong care.
In our Vietnam Program, these children are under the age of five with an identified medical and/or developmental special need, or many children are over the age of five with no diagnoses. Many of the children under the age of five have moderate to severe special needs.
In our Korea Program, these children will be under the age of three with significant risk factors in their birth history, such as significant prenatal exposure to alcohol, birth family history of mental illness or birth family history of cognitive impairments. Some of these children may have a diagnosed medical or developmental special need as well.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE IN ADOPTING A WAITING CHILD VERSUS ADOPTING TRADITIONALLY?
Many families will ask what the difference is adopting a waiting child versus adopting a child through the traditional matching process. The application process and eligibility guidelines are the same, but the main difference is the timeline in which families are matched with a child. In a traditional international adoption process, families receive information on their child after their paperwork is submitted to the country. For a Waiting Child, a family may begin their adoption process after identifying the child who will be joining their family. The traditional matching process could take anywhere from one month to possibly a year or more, dependent on the special needs your family is open to, the program your family is pursuing, and the age of child you are seeking to adopt.
We can help you explore which adoption program is right for your family. If you’d like to learn more about international adoption through Dillon International, or view profiles of Waiting Children, contact us at 918-749-4600 or at info@dillonadopt.com.