[Sleeplvr]

This subject has been bothering me lately. I haven't heard much about adoptions from there except that Angelina Jolie adopted a little girl. I haven't heard of any US agencies that are doing adoptions there.
What are your thoughts & opinions on this?

[redhedded]

Ethiopia has an active and well organized adoption program, which is where Angelina adopted from. We thoroughly investigated Ethiopia after a failed match; I have a friend from Djibouti, who was knowledgable, supportive and of course, speaks fluent Amharic. She worked informally with several American families after bringing their children home.

Liberia and Sierra Leone also have programs, which have grown but are less established and of course, many of the children have lost their parents to civil war. I think there are two agencies approved to work in these regions.

We recently met a couple from our area who adopted a beautiful healthy baby girl from South Africa. She was 6 months old when she arrived home. The parents traveled there and informed us that the orphanage was well run and wonderfully staffed.

HIV positive children are not eligible for adoption, though their are many programs that permit sponsorship to pay for their/other children's needs.

[spaypets]

Adoptive Families ran a couple of stories a while back about adopting from Africa and a regular (though I haven't seen her lately) poster named Colorblindlove has adopted from Africa.

If we were to adopt again (and we won't, unless lightning strikes twice and DH changes his mind), but if we were, I would look seriously at Ethiopia, particularly if I were interested in an older child.

[hopefully4]

We just recently returned with our son from Ethiopia and the program ran very smoothly. There are four (possibly five) US agencies that can do adoptions in Ethiopia. AIDS affects that country not only in the sense that a child's parent might be infected and die from AIDS, but that a mother who is unable to care for her child for any reason no longer may have as many living relatives who could care for the child. I think that it was not uncommon for a relative to care for extended family members, but now that is becoming more difficult. I wish that the US had better adoption programs in more African countries because I think that the need is there. Sorry to ramble and I am not even sure if my post makes sense, so feel free to tell me if it doesn't.

[nicoleanders]

Hi,
We have two children from Africa. Our oldest was born in South Africa, and came home with us in 2003. We returned from Ethiopia on January 1, 2005 with our second child. It was wonderful to travel to these countries, and I have nothing but good things to say about both of them. We will definately go back to Africa for our third baby. I would love to answer any questions that you have. PM me if you like.
Nicole

[Linny]

More than once, we checked into an agency out of Indiana that handles African adoptions. Some of the countries will not allow adoption at all...some will. Our problem, was that we were not allowed to adopt a baby, due to our age. (We're both 48yrs old.)

There are also a couple of programs we're aware of that allow adoptions through Liberia. Babies are (or at least were) available through them. It's my knowledge, that the babies/children are tested for HIV before full acceptance is made by the adopting couple. (My only concern as well, has been that I'm told initial HIV testing is not always accurate????---someone tell me if it is otherwise....)

But, I fully agree. When you think of all of the babies that are available....and many countries will not allow anyone to adopt them.

Most Sincerely,

Linny

[kllee4]

We also considered adopting and had numerous conversations with a wonderful woman at an agency. However, we decided on a domestic infant adoption here in the US. Sometimes, I wish we had've decided on adopting from Ethiopia but more than likely not since I would like siblings to have many things in common (and it would tempt me to adopt twice from Ethiopia just so that they were not alone in their history).


Linny,

In regards to the initial testing being inconclusive or unreliable, it is my understanding that the babies are tested periodically and they are required to have more than one negative HIV test before they are eligible for adoption. So a 6 month old whose parents were travelling to pick him/her up may have had up to 3 negative tests (one shortly after birth or arriving in the orphanage or home, another at 3 months and the last at about 6 months). The agency we spoke to also said that it's not uncommon for your pediatrician here in the US to also recommend another test (as the older the child becomes, the less likely the mother's antibodies would be present in the child's system).

I hope this helps some!

[Curvyred]

I believe there are five agencies licensed to do adoptions in Ethiopia, including one in my homestate of WA. I believe they are listed on the State Department Website. They do have a very streamlined process, in part because of the sheer numbers of orphans. I read somewhere that the national budget for healthcare is only slightly more than the national budget for supporting orphans in the country. They also have a pretty strict follow-up requirements. Adoptive families have to provide the Ethiopian government with annual updates and pictures for the first 18 years of the child's life.

We're either going to adopt from there or from an AA Infants program in the US. We haven't decided yet. However, I do know that, based on the agencies I've looked into, we could afford to adopt twins and/or siblings from Ethiopia, but could probably only afford to adopt one in the US. Finances are by no means our primary concern, but, having narrowed our choices down to those two, I know that it may be a factor.

Of course, budgeting for an adoption from Ethiopia involves budgeting for future trips back there so that, when they are old enough, the children can see where they were born and spend the first part of their lives. We're going to attend a local get together of local Ethiopian families who have imigrated and families who have adopted from Ethiopia.

And I do believe that Klee is right that children are tested more than once for HIV. I believe that the current belief is that HIV can be detected after 3 months at the latest. However, there are children who are born testing HIV positive who actually revert to HIV negative. In those cases, the antibodies (what the test measures) were transferred to the fetus, but not the virus itself.

[davinok]

If you are specifically interested in adopting HIV+ kids, search for Chances by Choice. This group was started by a woman who has an agecy focused on US AA babies, but this group specifically works to place babies and kids with HIV or AIDS -- some of them will convert to negative. These are international adoptions from all over the world (including africa).
K

[Sleeplvr]

I was think more of kids that parents have passed from AIDS. We couldn't handle a child that was HIV+. I have a hard time taking tylenol so there is no way I could keep up with the meds that a HIV+ child would need to take. If I was a SAHM I might be able to handle it but with me working it's not a possibility.

[Curvyred]

I'm sending you a pm with a link to an article about an Ethiopia program. It is from the Rainbow Kids web-site, which has lots of articles about international adoption and the back issues have several articles about the Ethiopia programs.

[Sleeplvr]

Thanks!!!

[DebCsMom]

We too checked into an agency that does adoptions from Ethipoia & Liberia. They sent us a HUGE packet of info. Before our papers were completed we matched with our son who we adopted domestically. IF we ever adopted again, we would use them. PM me if you want the info I have.

Deb

[Curvyred]

Sleeplvr--I re-sent the pm so that you can actually read the ends of the lines. I didn't realize that it was so unreadable in it's original state!