Thanks for coming to the Children’s Shelter of Cebu website, and for taking an interest in adoption. Your desire to provide a loving home to a child is greatly appreciated and we hope you end up pursuing adoption from the Philippines.
It’s important to clarify that we at CSC are not the contact point for those interested in adoption. We exist to serve the children in Cebu and to provide them with a loving home and excellent e
ducation. When it comes to our children being placed in homes we work with the Inter-Country Adoption Board of the Philippines. They are the authority on adoption and limit our establishing direct relationships with adoptive families for good reasons. So, we work with the Philippine government, who works with adoption agencies in the U.S., Canada and all over the world, and those agencies then work with prospective families like yours. So, the best first step is to find an agency that you might like to work with. The Philippine government includes a list of some agencies on their website and an organization called Loving Shepherd Ministries has a great deal of adoption information, including information on agencies, for adoptive families in the US.
It might also help you to understand something called “special home findings” in the Philippines. This is a way of referring to kids who are waiting for a home. They are typically older (while the age is not specified, 6-7 years old and above might be a good rule of thumb) or have a special developmental need of some kind. A family willing to adopt a child in this category will often find they are not placed on a waiting list once their paperwork ("dossier") is approved. Those who are interested in adopting infants and toddlers will be placed on a waiting list, as there are many others interested in young children. The expected length of wait at present is a great question to ask an agency, though it fluctuates.
Some other pertinent information comes from one adoption agency and might answer some initial questions:
- The Philippine adoption program is largely limited to married couples. Single applicants will only be considered for children 6 years old and above “with minor correctable medical conditions or negative behavior.”
- Married couples must be married a minimum of 3 years. If there has been a divorce, the couple must be married a minimum of 5 years.
- One previous divorce per person is allowed.
- There must be a minimum of 16 years between the adopting parent and the child to be adopted.
- Families with 3 or more children are not usually referred children under the age of 6 years, unless it is a sibling group with older and younger children.
- Adoptive families must be less than 46 years old to adopt an infant.
Other links are included in the adoption-specific questions below pulled from our FAQ page. God bless your adoption journey!
No. In fact, the only role we play in adoption is in the Philippines on behalf of the children we serve. By design, we are not a resource to prospective adoptive families. The central authority for adoption is the Inter-Country Adoption Board of the Philippines. We work with them on behalf of the children in Cebu, and adoption agencies around the world work with them on behalf of families.
We have worked with many adoption agencies over the years in the U.S. and in other parts of the world. We would hesitate to recommend any one agency so as to avoid any conflict of interest--there are a variety that are licensed for Philippine adoption. However, you might consider starting with an organization called Loving Shepherd Ministries. They provide information about various types of adoption, the different countries from which adoption is open and where you might find funding. They have also compiled comparable information on many adoption agencies in the US.
Some other good adoption resources are the Inter-Country Adoption Board of the Philippines, the U.S. State Department, the Joint Council on International Children's Services and the Christian Alliance for Orphans.
It is rare that prospective parents know the specific children they will adopt prior to the standard matching process. This can be the case occasionally if they have become aware of a child with a disability or an “older” child (one rule of thumb might be 6-7 years old or above) that is harder to place. This is highly uncommon in the case of toddlers and infants, and any request to adopt a specific child through CSC will be referred to an agency, and then to the Inter-Country Adoption Board of the Philippines from there.
