[sak9645]

Do be aware that the Ethiopian and U.S. governments are investigating adoptions from Ethiopia, because of allegations of corruption -- as an example, coercing or bribing birthmothers, or falsifying information to show that a child is an orphan when he/she is not. Expect it to be harder to adopt from Ethiopia in the future, and for the Ethiopian government to tighten its requirements for families.

Sharon

[mommy2fiveplus]

mammaDean,

We are from Norther Lower Michigan, just 30 miles south of Traverse City to be a little more exact. We have done both our adoptions through foster care, once while licensed as a foster family through the local DHS and once while licensed as a foster family through a private agency. Niether of our cases were intended to be foster-adopt but both ended in adoption. The second was really close to being called a legal risk (which means they were really pretty sure he was not going to RU). PM me if you have questiosn or just want to chat.

[mommy2fiveplus]

The ethiopian adoptions rules have recently changed and now the families must travel twice, once for court and again a short while later for thier embassy appointment, one reason this change was made was to address some of the concerns of the ethiopian community reguarding adoption ethics. It has not delayed most of the people currently adopting from there, but like all international adoptions it could happen. Any country can just choose to close its doors to americans adopting at any time, though according to our agency (we are foster parents with them but close to several of the families pursuing ethiopian adoption) they do not see that on the horizen, they currently project an average wait time for refferal of a child 0-2yo at 8-18 mos after your paperchase is done. The one other agency I know of in Michigan that does ethiopian adoptions quoted me 12-18 mos for a referral after dossier is in country, but she also said that some families are getting thier referrals just months after thier dossier reaches ethiopia, guess it really depends.