Children all over the world

There are children with and without special needs all over the world who meet the criteria of "orphan". The care these children receives varies from country to country. There are MANY countries who will allow adoption of children into the U.S, some are Hague Convention countries and some are not.

You can look up the information about adoption from ANY country by going here. There you will find information about how to adopt from each country along with statistics on how many children have been adopted into the U.S. from each country on the country specific pages. (however, I don't know how accurate those are. The Immigrant Visa representative from the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade says the Serbia statistics listed are inaccurate. The page lists 12 adoptions for 2010, and he says there have been closer to 50.)

There is also the ISS. International Social Services which may be helpful when dealing with a country in which no U.S. adoption agency has a program.

Be brave. Step out in faith.  Contact other countries. But also BE SMART! Work closely with the U.S. Embassies in each country to make sure you're not being taken advantage of financially. Find U.S. based child-centered non-profit organizations working in these countries to help you. You really don't have to dig very far to find this kind of information.

I've recently made some contacts in another Eastern European country that has only adopted a couple of children into the U.S. Hopefully I can post that information soon!