Waiting Children

There are hundreds of thousands of children in the American foster care system waiting for adoption. Additionally, there are thousands of waiting children overseas who were born into poverty, war-torn or naturally devastated countries where their families cannot care for them properly.

The list of waiting children can break and warm the hearts of the many adopters out there who want to start or expand their family. But where are these children, exactly? To find waiting children and their corresponding agencies, adopters can check photolistings. Photolistings are postings of waiting children with brief bios that tell a little about that child. These can be found on websites as well as in e-magazines and some organizations' newsletters.

The key to using a photolisting is to not fall in love with a few pictures but to instead get a feel for the kind of child you want to adopt. Being honest about whether or not you could handle a sibling set or a child with severe special needs may not be discernible from a photolisting, but it may be some food for thought while you're still going through the process of being approved for a home study or looking for an agency.

For international photolistings, it's unlikely that adopters will see a photo of the child their adopting until they've already been matched with the child and are in the country of origin. Sometimes, international adopters will also be presented with photos of additional waiting children by their agency in hopes of getting them to adopt multiple children.