Once you have made the decision to adopt internationally and understand the process, the important choice of what country to select is next. When choosing a country, there are many factors that you should weigh in order to make the decision that works best for your family. By conducting a little research, talking to families, and understanding differences between countries’ adoption programs, you should be able to make a choice that is best for your family and your circumstances.

When looking at a country’s adoption program, first gain a full understanding of any adoption regulations that might prohibit you from adopting from that particular country. For example, are there any age limitations that might make you ineligible to adopt from that country (minimum or maximum ages)? Some countries require parents to be at least a certain age in order to adopt while other countries have upper age limits where you are no longer eligible to adopt or that might dictate that you adopt a child older than you wish.

It is very important to understand the costs involved in adopting from a particular country. While all international adoptions are costly due to the significant work efforts and costs involved, some countries are less expensive to adopt from than others. For example, adopting from an Eastern European country is generally more expensive than adopting from a Central or South American country. Adopting from Eastern Europe or Central and South America is generally more expensive than adopting from Asia.

It is also important to understand the travel requirements of the country because these requirements may differ dramatically. For example, some countries require one trip to complete an adoption, while other countries require multiple trips of varying duration. A country could require that you travel first to see the child and then make a second trip, months later, to complete the adoption. Other countries might require an extended stay of weeks or possibly months while the adoption paperwork is processed.

The number of trips necessary also impacts the cost of the trip. Generally, the costs of travel and costs of living for an adoption are directly related to the number of trips required and the length of stay necessary to complete the adoption process.

By understanding the history and experience of a country’s adoption program, you might have insight into what may happen in the future. Specifically, has a country’s adoption program been steady and consistent over the years or has it endured periods where the adoption program was "closed" (not processing adoptions)? This information is important because it may take a year or more to complete your adoption and during this time, you do not want to be delayed due to a country’s decision that would be outside of your control.

Even if a country has not had a consistent program or if a country has just opened after being closed for a period of time, it may still be a good choice for your family if the country has had prior history of a consistent adoption program. Every country occasionally adopts new regulations or seeks to improve its adoption program. There are times when change is good.

Additionally, the U.S. government may request that a country change its regulations or it may temporarily cease adoptions in order to influence the directions of a country’s adoption regulations. Just because a country changes its regulations and ceases processing adoptions for a period of time should not eliminate a program from consideration. However, you may want to eliminate considering a country that has a consistent history of opening and closing with regularity. The U.S. State Department compiles statistics on all countries from which children are adopted by families in the United States. These statistics can be found by visiting the La Vida Web site and following the link to the U.S. State Department (this link is found in the section entitled "Links and Resources").

It is also important to understand how many adoption cases are processed from a particular country each year and how many children were placed over the past five or more years. Many times, the success or the desirability of adoptions from a particular country can be inferred by looking at the number of families adopting from a country over the past several years. Is the country’s adoption program growing (and if so how fast of a growth) or has the country’s adoption program been declining over the years? Adoption programs that are growing or that have been consistently showing a significant number of children adopted, usually indicate a good adoption program.

Understand the ages of children being placed from a particular country and make sure that this age range corresponds to the age range that you desire.

Children come into the care of an orphanage or foster care system for many different reasons. These include poverty; lack of social supports; a parent’s physical or mental health problem; death of a parent; social stigma associated with the birth of a child out of wedlock or with a disability; abuse or neglect; abandonment; legal limitations placed on the number of children permitted in the family; or some combination of these factors. Understanding the reason that a child came into care is very important for understanding health risks. For example, if a child came into care due to neglect of the parent due to alcoholism, the self-care taken during pregnancy might be questioned. On the other hand, if a child came into care due to legal limitations on the number of children in the family, then there is likely to be a much greater chance that the birth mother’s health during pregnancy was not compromised. When considering a specific country please explore the reasons that children typically come into care.