[Eve W]

My husband and I are researching Ethiopian adoption. We are currently signed up for China, but because of a long wait we wanted to research other options.

I have a few questions.

How reliable is the Ethiopia program? Are the kids healthy and do they have any attachment problems? Is FAS an issue? What is the age restriction on parents? How long is the current wait for children 1 to 3 years old? Is the wait lengthening?

Thank you,

Eve

[kerriv]

The Ethiopia program is pretty reliable right now for married people. The wait is lengthening but is still much less than China. It does vary signigicantly by agency as referrals are through agencies as opposed to a central government organization, like in China.

There are lots of special needs available as well as healthy kids. Just like with anywhere else, medical care is not quite what it is in the US and I do know of some kids coming home with previously undiagnosed conditions but it's not frequent.

I would think attachement with a toddler would always be hard, no matter what. Orphanage care is generally good but attachement varies so much depending on age. I've heard of kids that attached very well (my daughter, although she was 7 at arrival) and kids who've had lots of problems and everywhere in between.

FAS does not seem to be as much of issue as in many countries.

Age restrictions and wait times vary by agency. You might want to join the EthiopiaAAR yahoo group to research agencies. You'll get a lot of good info there.

[ocracoke]

Eve,

I think the Ethiopian program is the most stable African program available. However, since Ethiopian adoptions are agency based (and not centralized like China) your answers to your questions will be different based on the agency you are working with. Yes, length of waiting times are increasing. I think some of the larger agencies with a ton of clients tend to have a wait list of 18-24 months for an infant under 12 months. Some of the newer or smaller agencies will have a much shorter wait time. The 1-3 year old range may be easy for some agencies to accommodate but toddlers seem to be harder for other agencies. Over 5 years old seems to be easy for most agencies. FAS does not seem to be an issue in Ethiopia. Health varies. My daughter was tiny at homecoming (21 months and 21 pounds) but otherwise very healthy. You will deal with parasites most likely. You could deal with malnutrition. If given the chance I would definitely return to Ethiopia to adopt again.

Best of luck on your decision.
Samantha

[Rapids]

My husband and I took a recent trip to Ethiopia to visit our new referral, a baby girl. We visited 2 orphanages. I would imagine the most common health problems you may see in an adopted child are malnutrition, intestinal parasites, upper respiratory infections, asthma, and allergies. I feel that all of these are very managable conditions, the first 3 completely curable.

The babies and young children tend to be small for their ages compared to American kids. They also may have slight developmental delays i.e. a 9 month old not yet sitting, or an 18 month old not yet walking. These delays really depend on the care at the orphanage.

The Ethiopian culture nurtures respect, manners and dignity, and is a very social culture; they value their children. The children we met are beautiful, friendly, eager for affection and very social kids. They play in groups and I didn't see any rocking or sucking on fingers, or that kind of soothing behavior due to lack of attention that you see in other countries' orphanages.

These are my impressions during our short stay there. I would contact several agencies and ask about their Ethiopia programs to get an idea of referral times and ages available.

Good luck!

[kalz0202]

Here is a link with a list of considerations for choosing an Ethiopia agency that answers some of your questions within:

How to Choose an Ethiopia Adoption Agency | eHow.com