Our Journey to Baby Boz

Wishing I could take credit for the following, but I cannot. It was written by Jen Hatmaker (another family adopting through AWAA). She did such an amazing job of explaining the process and what’s going on with the adoptions in Ethiopia. It is a must read.

…… Speaking in generalities, Ethiopia is under an immense amount of pressure because of their growing number of international adoptions. Imagine that America had over 5 million orphans wandering the streets and more being abandoned by the second. Now imagine that we had absolutely no system in place to care for our them. (Certainly, the foster system is overburdened and in need of reform, but we have a very complex and official system in place to care for our abandoned children.) But if we didn't and the whole world was watching, we would have a crisis on our hands.

This is Ethiopia. Their orphan crisis and poverty is an international embarrassment, and sending their children out the door to adopting Americans and Europeans is humiliating. Add to that, a tidal wave of pressure from adoption reform advocates and adoption critics to "lower their numbers," and they are between a rock and a hard place. (Remember China four years ago? Slowing down their adoption process to a crawl, making it infinitely harder to adopt to appease their critics? That is kind of where Ethiopia is headed...)

So the MOWCYA (Ministry of Women, Children, and Youth Affairs) is the bureaucratic department over adoption. In order for any case to pass court, they need a letter of recommendation from MOWCYA as well as a final ruling by the judge. Both of these are necessary to pass court. All the political pressure to "crack down on adoptions" and "lower your numbers" is on MOWCYA. They field daily phone calls from American senators and representatives, international adoption critics, and in-country bureaucrats. The basic message is: "Stop making it look like we are casually sending our children out the door."

Now know this: The adoption procedure in Ethiopia is UTTERLY THOROUGH. By the time we get to court, we have a year's worth of documents compiled. Our agency sends an investigator to any living birth parents or family members. Their testimony is taped and written. These parents or family members travel to court and officially relinquish their rights. Adoptive parents have been through the absolute ringer; there is no stone unturned. There is no detail hidden. The children's histories have been completely investigated and recorded. Police reports are included. Videos are included. All records are included. These children are ABANDONED or ORPHANED, and that is substantiated a thousand different ways.

However, even with such a formal, thorough process, the pressure remains to lower numbers. It looks bad. That is at the root of it all. It's an international PR crisis, and adoption critics are raging and roaring and beating down the doors to slow it all down. Forget the fact that with over 5 million Ethiopian orphans, less than 5000 were adopted last year. So we're talking about 0.001% of orphans adopted yearly. And still, this number is apparently too high………