Appropriate response to slowdown...?

As you may or may not have heard as of right now, Ethiopian adoptions will be slowing way down.  How much of a slowdown...how long of a slowdown...for what purpose a slowdown...these all remain to be seen.

Below is the US State Department Notice

 Government of Ethiopia Plans Major Slow-Down in Adoption Processing

Citing the need to work on quality and focus on more important strategic issues, the Government of Ethiopia’s Ministry of Women, Children, and Youth Affairs (MOWCYA)  will reduce to a maximum of five the number of adoption cases it processes per day, effective March 10, 2011.  Under Ethiopian adoption procedures, MOWCYA approves every match between prospective adoptive parents and an Ethiopian child before that case can be forwarded for a court hearing.  The U.S. Embassy is working with Ethiopian government officials and adoption agencies to learn more about this change in procedures.  We will continue to share information as it becomes available.

Given MOWCYA's current caseload, the U.S. Embassy anticipates that this change could result in an overall decline in case processing of some 90 percent.  If this change is implemented as proposed, we expect, that parents who have begun the process of adopting from Ethiopia but have not yet been matched with a child could experience significant delays.  It is not clear if this change in procedures would have any significant impact on cases in which MOWCYA has already approved matches. 

Prospective adoptive parents should remain in close contact with their adoption service provider to obtain updates on individual cases.

The Embassy's Adoptions Unit can be reached at consadoptionaddis@state.gov.

Please continue to monitor http://adoption.state.gov/ for updated information as it becomes available.

Of course we will be extremely upset if B's adoption is caught up in this and heartbroken if it is not able to be completed at all; however, some of the response by American adoptive and potential adoptive families, adoption agencies, and advocacy groups has been, in our opinion, very unhelpful and inappropriate!

Instead of stomping our feet, sticking our heads in the sand, pretending it is ok for PAPs to request healthy infant girls as young as possible and acting suprised when that creates stresses and corruption in the system, let's stop acting like citizens of the developed world who think we have a right for some reason to the children of a less developed country and let's actually consider the entire issue!

We know that the Ethiopian system is not perfect.  We know that many of the inconsistencies begin at the local kebele level and during the relinquishment process.  These are exacerbated by Ethiopians' perceptions of the adoption process, their government, and their cultural and political system. they are further exacerbated by the American (and really the whole developed world) adoption process and demand for healthy infants as young as possible, preferably girls, and the amount of money the system generates in the US and in Ethiopia. 

Adoption can be a wonderful solution for a child and a family, but make no mistake about it, adoption is a business for many people in Ethiopia, in the US, and around the world.

I don't know what the solutions are.  I think a great place to start would be more, and more thoroughly trained, social workers at the local level in Ethiopia, more transparency in the entire process in Ethiopia and in the US, real and effective action on the part of the US government to close US-based agencies/facilitators that are known "bad operators" in Ethiopia and in the US, and a requirement for US agencies to not cater to PAP's demands for healthy infant girls as young as possible!

Of these four steps, I think the only one that would require any significant resources and collaboration by the Ethiopian government would be local social workers.  The rest may not be popular, but they would be effective, would have little to no cost to implement, and are entirely appropriate for the US to implement.

I don't think it is appropriate for the US to tell Ethiopia how to run it's court system, government, or adoption process. Perhaps, we as Americans should take a hard look at our own system of adoption and fostercare before we do that!  One of the major reasons prospective adoptive families turn to international adoption is because of how difficult it is to adopt through US fostercare, particularly to adopt children who are younger (by younger I mean under 6, and especially under 4).

Children are funneled through our fostercare system, growing up without a stable family environment or any sort of permanence.  Parental rights are finally terminated in cases of unfit parents, but that usually doesn't happen until the child is in late elementary school or is a pre-teen or teen and has many issues brought about by their complex background.  The child is then in a much more difficult place to be adopted and to bond to a new, permanent family. Domestic infant adoptions in the US can certainly be positive, but are often what most people would consider "baby selling" in Ethiopian adoptions (birth mother receives benefit/financial gain like medical care, living expenses, etc. and the facilitator/attorney/placing agency receives exhorbitant fees...). 

We have exponentially more resources than Ethiopia, yet America's system of caring for our children is very, very broken!

I hope with all my heart that the situation is Ethiopia is resolved and we will still pass court to adopt B before the court closure this summer.  More than that, I hope that the system is somehow changed for the better.

Someone posted on an Ethiopian adoption board today that "the system must be changed b/c it is unacceptable that even one child is trafficked".  Another person posted that "it is unacceptable that even one child dies because of this radical slowdown of adoptions".  I agree with both statements, but I also recognize that inorder to benefit the most number of children and Ethiopian families, the answer may not be so black and white.  I also recognize that adoption is not the solution to the economic, social, or other needs of the vast majority of Ethiopian children and families in desperate situations. The most beneficial solution may be for Ethiopia to work for the greater good by devoting all of its resources and energy into benefitting the much, much, much larger group of desperate children and families who are not benefitted by adoption.

My prayer is that God will somehow work in this tangled and imperfect system, moving governments, influencing people, and transforming the entire process.  I have no idea what the answer is, but I know that God does, and I know that he loves each and every child, mother, father, and family who is impacted.  He knows every hair that falls from their head, every hurt, every need, every situation, and He reigns over it all.  I don't understand it, but I do have faith in Him! 

We are not signing any radical petitions demanding that Ethiopia/MOWA return to processing a higher volume of cases, and quite disagree with that approach. But we did fill out the survey below in the hope that knowing the number of children who are matched with families and will be stuck in the system will be useful data for policy makers in the US and in Ethiopia.

Ethica response and survey

March 9, 2011