Adopting from Ethiopia: a good idea?

Question

http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=8999b6d3c59ee1ad69baaea141567cf2

Answer 1

I do not see why not.

Answer 2

On top of all the complexities that a typical adoption raises, international adoption brings many other things up for consideration.  You should ask other questions as well:

-Can I be absolutely certain the child is an orphan?

-Can I be absolutely certain the child was not sold into trafficking and that a mother somewhere is not lamenting its loss?

-Can I be absolutely certain the child's health condition is accurately reported to me?

-Does the child have other family that have been notified and given the opportunity to adopt?

-Does the child have siblings (s)he will be separated from?

-Would the money I spend on adoption do more good in the child's home country?  Would sponsorship accomplish more?  

-Is the child old enough to grieve the loss of his culture?

-Can I put myself in the child's place and sympathize with having to live with not only strangers, but strangers of another language, culture and also another race?

-Am I prepared to deal with the reactive attachment disorder that might result?

-Am I prepared to provide access to people of his/her own race and culture?

-Am I prepared to deal with their sadness when they experience racism here?

-Have you taken ethnic studies to examine the internal racism we all have had to deal with being part of society? So you can provide a home that is racially sensitive?

These are just a few of the question you should ask yourself when entertaining the notion of international/transracial adoption.   It is the type of adoption most susceptible to corruption of ethics and legality, as well as creating a life long condition of feeling isolation for the child.

Answer 3

The orphaned children need homes, so they should be adopted to get one.  

Answer 4

International adoption should always be the last resort for children.

I did adopt from Ethiopia, four older siblings whose mother died of tb related to AIDs.  While a lot of children can be cared for by extended family, AIDs has hit that whole generation. There were no aunts left in the family to care for the children. One uncle, unmarried, had already taken charge of his sister's children.  He couldn't take these four as well.  

When I was in Ethiopia, I saw that the mood was changing. People are hopeful now. They said that PEPFAR has made it so that people can live with AIDs whereas before they would die within two years of finding out. Children are getting the medicine too. I got the sense that people are thinking the crisis is waning.  I would hope to see that adoptions would be waning too.  But it seems to me that whenever a program is predictable and the wait time is short, people flock there.

Have you read "There is No Me Without You"?  It details an Ethiopian woman's story. She kept taking in street children and ended up running an orphanage. People were dropping off children of all ages to the point where she couldn't take care of them. An agency rep from some European country came knocking on her door and she found out that she could place babies for adoption and so have more room for older children.  But the older children were heartbroken at not finding homes. Then she found an American agency, I forget which, that would help place the older children.

A lot of people read this book and feel driven to adopt from there. They might not pay attention to some troubling things near the end of the book - that the woman got in trouble repeatedly for not following the law strictly, or that an older boy tried to get himself adopted out even though his mother was living nearby. The other thing is that this book was written a few years ago when things were at the crisis, and the situation has changed a bit.

Definitely there are still lots of children in orphanages there, or on the streets. Once children have been relinquished through the courts, they do need a home.  But I agree that the best thing is if we can put a brake on AIDs and prevent more children from being in the position my children were in.

What we saw when we visited the villages out in the country is that poverty is nothing, if you've got your family. We met the very poorest of children who were glowing with smiles, clustered around their mom. But there were the other children, whose eyes looked dead or scared. When I asked about one or another of them it was always that they had lost a parent, or their parents were sick.

eta: link about pepfar for those unfamiliar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepfar

Answer 5

I think the humanitarian thing to do is give extended family members the $20 to raise the child instead of added more unnecessary trauma to the children's lives by dragging them out of the country, culture and everything thats familiar.

I think people that want to traumatize a child because they want a kid so bad are anti-humanitarianism, ignorant and/or inhumane.

The word Orphan is being distorted by those that desperately want a child at any cost.

Children shouldn't be bought.  They are humans and should have their rights protected not violated.

I think Christians should read the bible more and see what it says about taking advantage of orphans. That too is even being distorted.

Answer 6

If there is an orphan in need of a family, yes.

Should there be help for combatting HIV/AIDS, yes.

Answer 7

Yes, http://www.adoptive-parenting.com