Wide Horizons For Children is committed to bridging the miles and the financial barriers that stand between adoptive families and waiting children. Waiting children need additional help finding a family equipped and prepared to parent them. You could adopt a Waiting Child and have them in your home in under a year. Financial subsidies may be available for Wide Horizons For Children Waiting Child adoptions.
Who Are Waiting Children?
Waiting Children are those children who Wide Horizons For Children did not yet have a family identified to match them with when they became eligible for adoption. Not all waiting children are pictured in our Waiting Children listings.
Generally, Waiting Children tend to be:
- Older children, especially boys
- Sibling groups of three or more
- Children with mild, moderate or severe medical needs
We will be forever grateful to Wide Horizons for advocating for our son, Jacob, on their Waiting Child list. We researched as much as we could about Cerebral Palsy. We were able to find rehabilitative specialists in our area and decided to move forward with pursuing the option of an older child. Now, it is difficult to believe his CP is truly considered a special need. Jacob is an amazing boy, he has received awards for kindness at his school, is clever and funny with a truly compassionate soul. His baseline emotion is happiness and he embraces life with an infectious enthusiasm. It breaks my heart to think we might have missed out on knowing this wonderful little boy if we had let an arbitrary age or fear of CP dissuade us from becoming his parents.
Jane on Jacob (in photo)
Adopted through the Wide Horizons For Children China Program
Advantages to Adopting a Waiting Child
- Family involvement: Most families are directly involved in identifying the “right” Waiting Child for their family.
- Fast: Unlike in the conventional process where you may wait on a list of families, these children are waiting now. You could have a child in your home in under a year.
- Flexible: Many countries are willing to waive or relax parent eligibility criteria for the hardest to place children.
- Open: Families not yet working with Wide Horizons For Children can receive counseling with an adoption professional and in some cases may be pre-matched with a child prior to application with the agency.
- Affordable: Financial subsidies may be available for Wide Horizons For Children Waiting Child adoptions. Wide Horizons For Children offers a $5,000 subsidy for each child and some families may qualify for a second subsidy of up to $5,000 by completing a Statement of Need. Guidance on how to access additional grants also provided.
Resources for Applicants Considering a Waiting Child
- Adoption Learning Partners – Helpful site with online educational classes about adoption issues. Recommended classes include Adopting the Older Child and the Tough Love series.
- Child Trauma Academy – Provide online courses and information that offer creative and practical approaches to working with maltreated children.
- Center for Cognitive-Developmental Assessment and Remediation – A variety of offerings that help prepare parents and professionals for dealing with the behavioral, emotional, developmental and educational needs of internationally adopted older children.
- Love Without Boundaries – Excellent website allowing families to learn more about Special Needs Adoption
- RainbowKids – Information about specific special needs
Thinking About Adoption?
