Ethiopia Adoption

What a fantastic morning to be blogging- it is one of those lazy mornings. I am snuggled up in my bed still. I have to say, "This is great!" I have done some research on the state of the adoption program in Ethiopia and have found that once again there has been no change. This is such a heartbreak to many of the people who desire to find their child from this country. Things are simply not moving along quickly. I wish I wasn't the bearer of bad news at every turn but unfortunately until Ethiopia can regain legal organization, this is how it will be. I noticed that I had a comment on my last post about people moving from the program. I have heard… [more]

Sometimes, I feel as though I am a broken record when it comes to Ethiopian adoption and that I replay bad news every month. This month is no exception. The state of the adoption program from this country in Africa has not changed. For those of you who have not been following, the Ethiopian government discovered fraud and paper mishandling from various adoption agencies in 2011 and the program has slowed the number of cases it processes daily to offer further scrutiny to every case before it is approved. This has reduced the number of cases processed to 5- a 90% drop. What a difficult place to be. The Ethiopian government is not party to the Hague Convention thus do not have… [more]

Ethiopia remains the most active country in Africa in regard to their intercountry adoption program. This is quite surprising since the last year has shown a major loss in numbers of adoption cases processed. Nonetheless, Ethiopia is the first pick for many prospective parents when looking to adopt from this area. I talked last month about the major slowdown that occurred in the processing of adoptions from this country, this is still the case. At this time last year, Ethiopia was working through almost 95% more cases on a daily basis than they are able to now. The reason, for those of you who are not a regular, is fraudulent behavior and paper mishandling was discovered. Children were said to be up for… [more]

It is difficult to believe that Ethiopian adoption has taken such a hit when the number of completed adoption cases from last year are reviewed. In 2011, 1732 adoptions from this country were finalized. Wow! That is an incredible number and serves to show just how dramatic the shift is going to be when the numbers from 2012 are counted. Ethiopia continues to struggle under the weight of misfiled paperwork and fraudulent activities. This has caused an almost complete shut-down on the part of the officials from this area in order to ensure that all of the children under their jurisdiction are being cared for properly. Earlier in 2011, it came to the attention of officials that children who where not properly documented… [more]

Lately I have come across several opinion articles about the state of adoptions in Ethiopia. In these articles, the authors raise concerns about the boom of adoptions coming from Ethiopia. Statistics from the last several years would suggest that this boom has largely been the result of a shift in availability, as adoption programs in other countries, namely Guatemala and China, have closed or dramatically changed. But the central claim in these articles alleges that some children were wrongfully placed with adoptive parents when they were not actually orphans, as evidenced by the fact that these children's parents were still living. For domestic adoptions and adoptions through the foster care system in the US, what makes a child eligible for adoption? American children are… [more]

Ethiopian adoption is still reeling from all of the fraud and issues that it had this year. In the beginning of 2011, I posted that Ethiopia was the country to watch. Their adoption program was on fire. They were processing cases quickly. In retrospect, I should have more sensitive to the adoption process and realized that when a country is gaining ground so quickly but lacks the regulation to sustain it- a fall will occur. That is what happened in Ethiopia this year. That might seem like a negative take on all that occurred. It actually is not. Ethiopia is now painfully aware of what must be done to protect its children. That is a good thing. The children are the reason that… [more]

As Angie and I have previously reported on the Ethiopia blog, an increasing number of parents adopting from Ethiopia have received notices that their children's cases are "not clearly approvable". In these cases, the US Embassy did not have enough evidence to determine these children met the US definition of orphan, as part of the investigation for the I-600, with 100 percent certainty. These cases were then forwarded to the USCIS office in Nairobi for futher investigation. This increase in case transfers was a the result in the change of processing. Previously, Embassy staff would request additional documentation if needed. Now, cases requiring additional evidence must be transferred to USCIS first. With the sudden increase in these cases, USCIS recently sent a team… [more]

How about a feel-good story this week? Recently, I interviewed a family who is adopting a boy from Ethiopia. Meet the Page family. Mollie and her husband Scott have three adorable girls. The boy, Isaiah, they are waiting to bring home from Ethiopia is equally as cute. Two years ago, Mollie and Scott were gathered at a friend's house to hear a band play. The band was there to raise awareness about the orphan crisis. That night, the Pages could no longer silence the stirring in their hearts to adopt. As they prayed about their decision to adopt, "We always came back to Ethiopia. Truly, it was like Ethiopia chose us!" said Mollie. She explained, "Even though I had never been there, African has been on… [more]

The Ethiopian adoption program continues to work through its issues in regard to making adoption from this country safer. In the past year, Ethiopia has struggled. They have dealt with issues of fraud, paperwork misfiling and orphanage mishandling. The result is that adoption from this country has been dealt a crippling blow. Ethiopia is processing only 5 cases per day which is a 90% drop from this time last year. I have followed the adoption program for one year and watched it falter. It has been heart breaking to witness. Earlier this year I said, "Ethiopia is the country to watch. Its adoption program is booming." Now this adoption program is trying to pull itself out of the murky waters and regain its… [more]

On October 28th, USCIS and the Department of State held a conference call regarding an increased number of I-600 cases that have been forwarded to the USCIS office in Nairobi. The purpose of the conference call was to explain what "not clearly approvable" means. In the last several months, nearly 60 adoption cases that were submitted to the US Embassy in Addis Ababa were given this status. Prior to these 60 cases (that were forwarded in about one weeks' time), only 10 cases had ever been previously sent to USCIS. When the US Embassy deems a case "not clearly approvable", it does not mean that these cases are denied. Instead, it means the Embassy does not have enough evidence to approve these cases… [more]