This week the US Department of State posted an Adoption Alert for Ethiopia on their website. We knew this was coming based on information our agency and the adoption lists we subscribe to have provided. The Government of Ethiopia's Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs (MOWCYA) has announced they will begin reducing the amount of adoption cases they review each day. It has been reported that they are currently processing around 50 per day and that will reduce to 5 (or 20 or 30 depending on the rumor you currently subscribe to). Accordingly, this could reduce the number of adoptions in Ethiopia by 90%. MOWCYA has announced this change based on a need to focus on quality and all the children under the authority of their programs.
In a nutshell, many cases of corruption have recently surfaced in the international adoption system in Ethiopia. Many have said that whenever people and money are involved there are going to be bad seeds. I don't disagree. It also seems that the bad is reported more loudly and dramatically than the good. But that doesn't excuse anyone from trafficking a child, no matter their intentions - greed or ignorance.
When we first started our adoption process our concerns focused on our family. What would it be like to raise an adopted child? How do we explain this to Steven and Lyla? What are we going to do to bring the Ethiopian culture into our lives? How can we develop relationships so that our black child has black role models?
After we completed our Hague training and began to get more connected with the "adoption community" through blogs and listserves our thoughts turned more outward. What does adoption mean to the birth family - do they understand its permanancy? Is adoption truly one of the answers to the orphan crisis caused by famine, HIV/AIDS and government corruption?
Then we started to learn about adoption ethics and recent cases of corruption. Adoptive families were discovering that the stories they had believed about their adopted child were untrue. Many discovered that birth mothers were still alive even when they were told (in court documents) that she had died. We also read other stories of harvesting children to meet specific demands. In mid-February an agency's license was revoked by the Ethiopian government because of misuse of their license (read corrupt practices).
February was filled with turmoil for Tommy and me. We were silent about this because it was a difficult time for us. There were many nights I fell asleep crying if we were able to sleep at all. How could we be sure everything was ethical and above board? We read a lot and talked with our social worker and agency program director. We talked, and talked, and talked.
UNICEF reports that one third of the 70 million people in Ethiopia live on less than 1 USD per day. Ethiopia has the largest HIV/AIDS infected population in the world leaving children orphaned or becoming the head of the household at a very young age. One out of every 20 children born alive dies before they reach 1 month old. And it doesn't get better, one in 10 die before their first birthday.
We know that international adoption isn't the only solution to the problems faced in this developing country. That is why we made a small step by deciding to support efforts for family preservation in the northern region of Ethiopia. For $30 a month we are helping to support between 10-15 families that our agency works with to maintain their family unit by providing child care so that parents can work, supplemental food and basic housing needs. $30 a month - we spend that going out to dinner or on a pair of shoes or a haircut. I can't fathom that a mere $30 can help to support 10 families so that they can stay together as a family unit and live a full life.
In the end, we resolved that there is truly a need in Ethiopia and we will continue with our plans to adopt an orphaned child. However, since we were notified by our agency of the changes to Ethiopian policies we are now back at the same question: What does this mean for our family?
We'll be spending more time this month talking while our home study is being completed. All of the support our family and friends have given has been so wonderful since we started and we appreciate all of your words and thoughts.
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