[prospectivepapa]

Hey Everyone:
My wife and I are among the the thousands and thousands of prospective parents waiting for children in China. The ripple effect of that into other countries is interesting. In the meantime, we're very seriously considering Ethiopia, and we likely will.

I'm just curious ... are any of you working with an agency that has come out with anything specific on their policy toward concurrent adoptions? PM if you can. Our agency has not come out with a policy on concurrent adoptions.

Thanks,
prospectivepapa (IL)

[toddmm]

Well, I don't have any information to add, but my wife and I are in exactly the same situation. We're waiting for some feedback from our agency, and our social worker.

Since the China wait seems to be skyrocketing, we are looking at Ethiopia also for the relative quickness of the process (That's not the main reason, of course, as we have always been considering African adoption too). It seems certain that if we start the Ethiopia process now, we are almost sure to receive a child two years before we receive our China referral.

On a (somewhat) side note, my wife and I feel a little misled (or allowed ourselves to be misled) about the wait times for China, and are fearful about it happening for Ethiopia as well. Any thoughts on the projected wait times for Ethiopia if the process is started now? Again, please don't get the impression that the wait times are all we are concerned about, but it is a consideration that we must take into account.

[ocracoke]

It is possible to do concurrent adoptions with Ethiopia and China. I know of several people who are doing it. One of the things to keep in mind when it comes to Ethiopia adoptions is that nothing is universal with the process. When I started my adoption just over 2 years ago there were 6 agencies licensed to do Ethiopian adoptions. There are now over 20 agencies. It has been an explosion. Keep in mind when talking to agencies that some of them will say it is an "Ethiopian requirement." It may be true that it is a requirement from Ethiopia that that agency have a certain policy but other agencies do not necessarily have all of those same requirements from Ethiopia.

Some of the longer established agencies are going to have long wait times. Some will report a 12-18 month wait for an infant. Some will not allow for gender selection but if they do please keep in mind that if you request a female your wait time is likely to be at the high end. Some of the newer agencies will have much shorter referral wait times (1-3 months). This is because their client lists have not yet grown to many many clients.

The length that a program has been in Ethiopia should not necessarily be a factor in whether to use them or not. I know I threw out my agency initially because they were so new to Ethiopia. I was not interested in being their trial run. However, newer agencies can mean shorter wait times (and for me after waiting for 8 years to become a parent I was not at all interested in waiting another 2-3 years to realize the dream) and since most of these agencies have been working in other countries it is not like they are new to international adoption.

Make sure your China program allows you to start on a concurrent adoption as well or you may be making the decision to switch countries without realizing it.

Samantha

[seanbeck]

We're looking at concurrent adoptions, too- although with Ecuador. Does anyone know if we have to get a new 171h if doing a concurrent adoption or do we have to change our existing one? Does getting a second one negate our one for China? What's the possibility that China will deny us at the last minute- even though we are well past review now- because our family status has changed?
Thanks for any insight!