...as to what this facilitator does.
According to the website, it does NOT do homestudies. It does NOT place children. All it does is photolist children of various agencies and tell families about the programs in a variety of countries. And parents are expected to pay for this information.
Maybe this facilitator is excellent, but it seems to me that adoptive families already go to many photolistings on the Internet where they do not pay any fees to find out about specific children in need of homes. They can also read up on adoption from specific countries on such websites as those of the U.S. State Department and many highly ethical agencies, without paying fees. In addition, they can identify agencies working in the countries of interest to them, by reading the "Report on Intercountry Adoption", and by using their favorite search engine.
Also, here is what the U.S. State Department has to say about Estonia; you can read the rest of the statement by going to
http://travel.state.gov/adopt and then clicking on Estonia.
"AVAILABILITY OF CHILDREN FOR ADOPTION: Recent U.S. immigrant visa statistics reflect the following pattern for visa issuance to orphans:
FY-1997: IR-3 immigrant visas issued to Estonian orphans adopted abroad - 0
IR-4 immigrant visas issued to Estonian orphans adopted in the U.S. - 0
FY-1998: IR-3 Visas - 4, IR-4 Visas - 2
FY-1999: IR-3 Visas - 2, IR-4 Visas - 1
FY-2000: IR-3 Visas - 5, IR-4 Visas - 2
FY-2001: IR-3 Visas - 9, IR-4 Visas - 1
According to the Estonian Family Law only those children whose parents are deceased or whose parents have had their parental rights taken away may be adopted. There are few such children and long waiting lists of Estonian families who by law take precedence. According to the current law, healthy children should remain in Estonia. Only in cases where it is impossible to take sufficient care of a child in Estonia can that child be adopted internationally."
This would suggest that only older and special needs children will be available for international adoption, if any children are. As you can see, only ten children were adopted from Estonia last year, and some of these may have been relative adoptions.
According to the U.S. Embassy in Tallinn, Estonia, the Ministry of Social Welfare of that country says that the wait for assignment of a child can be several years or more, especially if the family wishing to adopt has no ties to the country. You can read the Embassy statement at
http://www.usemb.ee/adopt.php3