Writing a “request to adopt” letter……uhmmm drawing a blank

My task this week was to write our family’s letter of request to adopt.  This letter is different from the one that’s written to a birth mother.  This letter asks the director of general adoptions  form a particular country to consider your family as potential adoptive parents of a child from their country.  Between mental blocks and hyperventilating about the possibility of them hating my letter I put together a concise, clear, and heartfelt letter.

Let me tell you what the letter should include:  First you should describe your family.  Tell them a little bit about each of you, professions, hobbies, backgrounds.  Of course in our case we made sure they knew that we always made time to follow and support our son with all of his extracurricular activities.

Second;  they should know why you decided to adopt.  Now this is a bit of information that we have learned throughout the process.  Peru looks at your reason to adopt and, hate to say this but, prefers that you have some infertility issue rather than just want to adopt, oh I don’t know, for the sake of giving a child a home.  If you are just adopting, 90% of the time they will sent the dossier back requesting more info on the why?  Of course this delays things quite a bit.  So if there are no infertility issues and you are just a super nice person, explain your choice fully.

Third;  here is the part where you tell Peru what would fit best in your family.  They want you to tell them what gender and age you are willing to accept.  When you answer these try to explain why this will be a good fit for you.  Gender could be that you have always wanted a girl or you have dreamed of a boy.  For age, the reason might be you want them to be close to the ages of other children in the home or not yet in school for more bonding time.  Whatever the reason, explain.

And the last thing you need to include is why you decided to adopt from Peru.  Again Peru has a reason for asking this.  They want to know that the child will not lose his/her roots.  Here is where you need to explain that you want to learn the customs and traditions, foods and spanish words that could, in a small way, maintain the identity of this peruvian child.

I guess I better get to it!  Wish me luck, hopefully Peru finds something in our letter that they like:)

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