Colombian Culture, Colombia Adoption and Raising Colombian Kids

In Colombia, October has been declared National Adoption Month. So, I thought I would share with you some information and statistics about Colombian adoption. In Colombia , as of September 30, 2007, there were 34, 795 abandoned children . Of these, there were 7,386 available for adoption . The rest were in the process of being officially declared in abandonment. The department with the greatest number of adoptable children was Santander with 724, followed by Antioquia with 710, Caldas with 630, and Valle with 628. As of October 2007 , ICBF had placed 2,242 children for adoption . Of these, only 840 were placed with Colombian families. The rest were sent to Europe and the US. Surprisingly, Italy tops the destination chart for Colombian children with 301, followed by France with 286, and the US with 224. Colombians appear to prefer adopting young children as 40 percent of the children adopted were under 2 years of age and only 12 percent were over 10 years of age. In an interview the dir

I am a long time member of Colombian Adoption list serves and forums. I am also the adoptive mother of 2 little Colombians and the wife of yet another Colombian. I felt concerned that while the blogs are full of information about individuals who are adopting from Colombia, there are no blogs -- here or on adoption.com that talk about Colombia and Colombian adoption in general. I am hoping to provide this service. I would like to make it a place where people can find answers to adoption questions as well as learn about the culture, the country, the language, the cuisine, etc. I am hoping to post informative pieces as well as fun and humorous ones. Feel free to comment and add your 2 cents and suggestions for articles. I will also be reposting somethings I have written on the forums -- so don't freak out if they seem familiar. Thank you for your support ! Your Friend, The Colombian Mommy