How long does adoption take?

Ethiopia continues to work on re-aligning their adoption program. This comes on the heels of a [almost] complete system shutdown in the middle of last year that resulted in many prospective adoption cases being delayed. Since then, Ethiopia has stepped up and worked through many of their issues. Ethiopia is one of the most popular countries in Africa to adopt from. There are many children available and the screening process is monitored. Ethiopia, as a country, is wrought with poverty and disease. The need for adoption is great. The children that are adopted from Ethiopia are said to adapt well when adopted and have pleasant personalities. There are many sources for information about daily life after adoption available online. If you are interested in… [more]

It has been awhile since I have blogged about Ethiopian adoption and am happy to be back on target. Ethiopian adoption has undergone some recent improvements to their adoption program. This is good news for those who are interested in adoption from this country. In the past, Ethiopian adoption has struggled under fraud and paper mishandling. This caused a major slowdown in the processing of dossiers. The backlog caused from this slowdown has been dealt with and Ethiopia is regaining its lost ground. One of the problems that the Ethiopian adoption program faces is that it has little governmental regulation in place and great need. Those two items coupled can cause trouble. Ethiopia is gaining better control of their program and working a… [more]

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]

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]

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]

Ethiopian adoption has been under serious scrutiny for the last six months. They have been working on their program with the intent to 'fix' what has been a past threat. On October 17, 2011, an adoption notice was released from Ethiopia pertaining to orphanage closures. There are twelve orphanages that have been affected recently. They are: SOS Infants- Ethiopia (Arbaminch, Dila and Awassa branches,) Gelgella Integrated Orphans (Tercha and Durame,) Bethzatha Children's Home (Sodo, Hosaena, Dila, Haidya, Durame and Hawassa,) Ethio Vision Development and Charities (Dila and Hawassa,) Special Mission for Community Based Development, Enay Alem Orphanage (Awassa,) Initiative Ethiopia Child and Family Support (Hawassa,) Resurrection Orphanage (Hosaina,) Musie Children's Home Association (Hadiya, Hosaina, Dila and Kenbata,) Organization for Gold Age (Kucha, Dila and… [more]