Getting Started

Horizon Kids are a very diverse group — they may be big or little kids (from infancy to 15 years), or they can be from a variety of countries or racial backgrounds. They may also have medical issues that range from very minor to more significant. What they do have in common, though, is the need for a family — people who can love them as they are and give them the help and encouragement that will let them develop to their fullest potential.

Children may need adoptive placement because their medical needs are more significant than a birthparent can cope with. They may be the innocent victims of family chaos, neglect, or abuse. They may have experienced the death of one or both parents. Their family may have known severe poverty, natural disasters, or other tragedies.

Learn About Waiting Children

The first step towards adopting a waiting child involves learning who the children are that are available. This can be accomplished by:

• Registering online to view child profiles in our Horizon Kids Resource Center
• Contacting one of our Horizon Kids Coordinators
• Contacting your social worker
• Viewing profiles in our regional office reception areas
• Viewing our online presentation, and participate in our teleconference series
• Reading stories from families who have adopted waiting children
• Talking to other families who have adopted a waiting child

Prepare For a Match

Once you have identified a child in whom you are interested, there are specific steps that need to taken, These include:

• Informing your social worker of your interest in waiting children
• Contacting the Horizon Kids Coordinator for information on the process and particular children
• Having a completed homestudy report and CIS approval to be considered for a match with a waiting child
• Consulting with a doctor experienced in international adoption for the evaluation of medical reports that you receive from the Horizon Kids Coordinator

The Matching Process

Once your social worker or caseworker has made the request for you to be matched with a particular child, the WHFC Matching Committee will meet. There may be more than one family interested in adopting the child and the Matching Committee provides an impartial review of the information about the families and makes a choice based on several criteria. In all cases, the best interests of the child are foremost in deciding on a family.

Each potential family must have a completed home study and CIS approval so that the child’s placement will not be delayed. Although there may be flexibility in parent requirements, there may also be some country requirements to consider. A family’s date of application to WHFC is also taken into account. Families currently applied to a program in the country where the child resides will typically take precedence over others not applied to that country program.

Sometimes a family will have qualities which will make them particularly able to meet the needs of the child. These might include medical knowledge of a particular condition, ability to parent an older child by virtue of having done so previously, being of the same ethnicity as the child, or other abilities that would make them especially able to parent that particular child.

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