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Living Hope Adoption Agency (LHAA) has been licensed by the country of Honduras and began a “pilot adoption program” in October 2010. LHAA and Direccion de Niñez Adolescencia y Familia or Directorate for Children, Youth and Family (DINAF) created a partnership with one goal in mind — creating forever families for Honduran orphans. Our agency is proud to be working with the Honduran government, and we look forward to providing adoption services to loving families to achieve this goal.
Honduras is located in Central America. It borders Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. Originally, Honduras was inhabited by several indigenous tribes — most notably, the Mayans. It was colonized by the Spanish and ruled by Spain for nearly 300 years. Honduras won its independence from Spain in 1821. Currently the country is a Democratic Republic headed by President Juan Orlando Hernández. Today, Honduras is mostly an agricultural society with major exports of coffee and bananas. Most of the people work on small family farms called Campesinos. The primary language spoken in the country is Spanish; however there are also several Amerindian dialects. The major ethnic groups in the country are the Chorti, Lenca, and the Jicaque. Honduras is predominately a Catholic country with 97% of the people identifying as Catholic. The staple foods in a Honduran household are corn tortillas and beans. Other traditional Honduran foods include fried plantains, white cheese, and mantequilla, a fried spicy meat dish. The country celebrates several unique holidays including the La Ceiba Carnival, Feria de la Virgin de Suyapa, Day of the Americas, and their National Independence Day on September 15th.
Central Authority:
The Directorate for Children, Youth and Family (DINAF) oversees all adoptions.
Children Available: The majority of the children are placed for adoption due to impoverished conditions, and are then placed in children’s homes or foster homes until they are matched with a family for adoption. Children under 14 (or 18 if sibling) years old
whose parents are unknown and have legal status of abandonment
or who have been relinquished by their parents are available for adoption. Siblings are also in search of forever families, on occasion.
Timelines: Prospective adoptive parents can expect a full process time frame of approximately 5 years for the Standard Program, which places healthy children ages 2 years old and older. The Waiting Child Program has an approximate timeline of 24-30 months, and advocates for children with special needs or children 7 years old or above.
Please read through the lists of requirements below to see if you qualify for adopting from Honduras. If you have any questions, please call or email us at info@livinghopeadoption.org
Age Requirements
Income Requirements
Marriage Requirements
Health of the Adoptive Parents
Children in the Home
Criminal History
Post Adoption
Travel
Once you have collected all of the necessary paperwork, a home study specialist will visit your home. The timeline does vary based on the agency completing your home study process, however families can typically budget for this stage to take an average of 2-3 months.
It takes approximately 4-6 months.
DINAF stands for Direccion de Ninez Adolescencia y Familia or Directorate for Children, Youth and Family
It takes approximately 6 months for families to prepare a dossier. At this time, the current wait time for a referral is 6 years with the potential for longer wait times.
From the Honduras Standard Program, healthy male and female children, ages 2 years old and older are available. From the Honduras Waiting Child Program, male and female children ages 3-13 years old with a medical condition or healthy older children over the age of 7 years old are available. Sibling sets are also available.
Prospective adoptive parents residing in the U.S. must follow the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) guidelines, which requires that at least one parent must be a U.S. citizen in order to be eligible to adopt internationally.
Single females are permitted to adopt from Honduras. Unfortunately, single males are not eligible to adopt from Honduras at this time.
Prospective adoptive parents are required to travel to Tegucigalpa, Honduras, twice in order to finalize the adoption. For married couples, both parents are required to travel for the first trip and both parents are required to travel for at least the first week (approximately) of the second trip. Once both parents have completed the necessary court processing on the second trip, one parent is able to return to the U.S.
Living Hope staff will coordinate your travel arrangements to Honduras, to ensure the process moves as smoothly as possible. However, families do have the option of coordinating certain portions of their trip, if they prefer.
Yes, an in-country representative from LHAA will be with you and your family at all times while you are in the country.
Honduras requires: 4 post adoption reports to be completed during the first year following the adoption finalization; 2 post adoption reports to be completed in the second year following adoption finalization; and 1 report annually until the child or children reaches the age of 14 years old. If the adopted child is 14 years old or older, the same post adoption requirements apply except one report annually until the child or children reaches the age of 21 years old.
Post adoption reports must be completed at 1, 6, 9, 12, 18, and 24 months from the date of adoption finalization and completed in the home by a licensed agency.
LHAA has been informed that it takes 2 years to declare a child abandoned. It is at the discretion of the judge at family court, who is assigned a case, in sentencing the time he or she deems appropriate. The judge also allots a certain period of time should any opposition arise from the biological parent(s). The time is shortened for children who will be classified as a waiting child and if the biological parent(s) are able to be located to terminate their parental rights.
The prospective adoptive parents must submit a letter providing a reason as to why they are declining the child. Then the Adoption Committee will decide whether or not the family will be eligible to receive another referral.
Prospective adoptive families can pursue the adoption of relatives on a case-by-case basis. Unfortunately, Honduran law does not allow for the adoption of pre-identified children in any other situation.
If a prospective adoptive family has begun the adoption process with a private attorney but were informed that they need a DINAF-approved placing agency, these families must transfer to LHAA in order to proceed in the adoption process. The decision to use the family’s current attorney or one of our own needs to be discussed in addition to the max number of attorneys LHAA is willing to work with in the future.
At least one of the parents must be a US citizen for the adoption to be processed through our agency.
When a prospective adoptive family has finalized the adoption in-country but needs to comply with the US requirements for adoption in order to return to the states with their adopted child, they will have two options; one, contract with LHAA as their placing agency or two, LHAA is able to be a home study only provider including the post-adoption only provider IF the family is a Pennsylvania resident within our service area. If not, the family will need to file Form I-130 and wait 2 years before the child is granted permission to enter the US. The US is no longer providing non-immigrant visas to adopted children.
Honduras Waiting Child Program consists of children with mild to severe needs, ranging in age from 3-13 years old. The children in this program typically have some level of physical, emotional, and/or developmental delays. If you feel open to providing a home for one of these wonderful children and are interested in learning more , please contact Barb Santoro at bsantoro@livinghopeadoption.org.
Copyright © 2020 Living Hope Adoption Agency - All Rights Reserved.
449 Pennsylvania Avenue
Fort Washington, PA 19034-3414
T: 215-540-8999 | F: 215-540-2765 | info@livinghopeadoption.org
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