About this Blog

We’ve all seen them, whether at the park, school or playground: 826 foreign children were adopted in Catalunya in 2008, nearly a quarter of the overall Spanish total. Making the initial decision to adopt is difficult, but what comes next is a financial, emotional and bureaucratic minefield. As a foreign resident, the journey is doubly difficult, as linguistic and cultural skills are put to the test and an extra level of government (your own) is added to the procedure. But it is possible. In this special series, Meredith Gales, a Barcelona-based single woman who is in the process of adopting a child from West Africa, writes each Monday about the experience, where to go to get started, the difference between going through an agency and going it alone and the importance of being pesada.