Adoption and foster care have an established history in Colombia.  Adoption plans are usually made due to unplanned pregnancies, from a child conceived by a single, abandoned mother, or a single mother or family with too few economic resources to sustain a child. At other times a child may have been removed by Child Protection if  neglect or abuse were reported and attempts to rehabilitate or reunify families failed. Children may have been relinquished at birth in the hospital or abandoned, in which case attempts to find and counsel birth parents were unsuccessful.   

Licensed private adoption houses offer support to birth mothers considering adoption. A pregnant mother may stay in these maternity homes during and after her pregnancy where she receives counseling and pre/post-natal care, as well as job training. She gives birth in a hospital and her child is cared for in the agency nursery or foster care. Children adopted through the Government (ICBF) system, CRAN, and Casa de Maria live in foster families until they become legally free for adoption. 

• Most children from the adoption houses are between 8 to 12 weeks old when received by their adoptive parents.
• Gender preferences are allowed in some cases for a second child.
• Older children and sibling groups are available through the ICBF Program or our Waiting International Children Program.