I have adopted three times, older children twice. DD1 was 10 when she moved in, DD2 was 8. I chose older children because I didn't really want a baby at that time, and I felt that older children were overlooked. I felt happier with a child I could communicate with, and do things with
I have lots to say about older children, so I'll probably come back later when I think of something else!
Older children (above 5) often have a greater understanding of thir story or at least the current siutaion than a younger child. Usually they can communicate with you - so they can say when they want or need something and maybe begin to tell you how they feel, although they probably won't trust you enough for months or maybe years to start revealing their deeper feelings. I found it great to be able to say 'lets go for a bike ride' when I felt one of the DD's was stressed - both love excercising which helps them release stress. I enjoyed not having to wait to do things like cinema, making things together, them helping me cook and so on. Another good thing is that by school age a child usually has much less developmental concerns than a baby - things like autism, FAS or learning difficulties will usually have shown up by the time a child is 7+ although of course things like dyslexia can take longer to pick up on. Even so, whilst there's always uncertainty, there's less of it for an older child
However, older children have much more formed personalities, interests, and more experiences before you. Your child if old enough may have developed a moral code vastly different from your own, and you can't impress your own values on them as much. I might invite a horrified 'but you shouldn't try and mould all your rigid values on the poor child', but I've never tried to do that and I don't mean it in that way. To illustrate my point, a couple I knew were really upset when their newly adopted 7 year old used the n word in public when they saw some black people. Their child thought it was a normal word and thought nothing of using it. If child has been very young when adopted that issue would probably never have arisen, certainly not like that. As it was, they suddenly found themselves trying to deal with a child who had been taught really racist views by their original family, and didn't see anything wrong with it. They were stunned and struggled to change their childs views. I think things are much better now, but I don't like to ask because it's quite embarassing for them :( Just an example of that. My own DD2 popped out 'you stupid cunt' at me in her first week home, although I don't think that's actually common. As loving as she can be, she's very volatile.
Older children don't necessarily have worse problems than babies. The thing is though, that the issues will obviously take longer to show up in a baby. With an older child, you may find yourself dealing with very difficult behaviour early on without having years of good memories to look back on. It's harder to deal with aggression in a ten year old than a three year old generally. I've had awful awful times with my older kids, BUT I would do the same thing if I had my time over. That said, older children aren't right for everyone, so research it carefully. Things like attachment issues are a must to read about
HTH :)