[sak9645]

Many countries do not allow independent adoption.

With Ethiopia, for example, you can't just go there and find a child on your own, and you can't have an unlicensed facilitator go there and find one for you. Your child must be living in an accredited orphanage, and you have to work with a licensed agency in your home country that the Ethiopian government accredits to place children with overseas families.

Because independent adoptions have traditionally had a higher rate of unethical situations than adoptions through agencies, countries that have ratified the Hague Convention on intercountry adoption do not allow them.

Sharon