In a State of Crisis but Not Despair

I am sure many of you are wondering what exactly is going on with Ethiopian adoptions. I know a lot of words and acronyms have been thrown around and if you aren't adopting or adopting specifically from Ethiopia it may be a bit confusing. I have been asked tonight several questions. What does all this mean? How does this affect our adoption process?

First off I will explain this to the best of my ability and based on the information we have been given.

In the past few months, Ethiopia has stepped up their reviews of intercountry adoptions (adoption where a child from a country is adopted by parents from another country), due to the increase in intercountry adoptions and the possibility of unethical adoptions. I won't comment on unethical adoptions except to say, they are the reason why whether adopting in the U.S or any other country, it is so very, very important to research agencies and seek out reliable references for the agencies before choosing one.

Anyway, MOWA (Ministry of Women's Affairs, a branch of the Ethiopian government) closely reviews the potential parent's paperwork and then writes/issues a letter of recommendation to the Federal court. That letter has to be there by the day of the court hearing or no ruling will be issued and the adoption is delayed/rescheduled. MOWA is now stating that as of March 10, they are no longer going to review 40-50 files a day, instead they will only be reviewing 4 or 5. This is a 90% cut. This cut would result in a huge increase in the timeline of intercountry adoptions.

This would affect our adoption. It would mean we would potentially wait a lot longer for a referral. But I am less concerned about that and more about the fact that this would result in longer orphanage stays for children waiting to be adopted.

A longer stay in an orphanage can mean a lot for a child. It is well known that the majority of children adopted are usually babies. The longer a child waits, the lower the odds are of them being adopted.

This greatly saddens me and breaks my heart.

I know that adoption without a doubt is not "the" answer to the orphan crisis. It is a necessity though for those without other alternatives. I know there is more that has to be done in country, if there is truly going to be a great change for generations to come.

With all of this being said....

I will lay this burden at the feet of the Lord, I will give my worries and cares to him, I will give praise and thanks to the one who provides an endless supply of hope and grace, and I will ask what action He would require of me in this situation.

Please join us in prayer and action in this matter.

**There is a petition that you may sign that states support of ethical adoptions but ask MOWA to review a better plan of action in order to accomplish that.**

Thank you for your concern!

~ANDREA