I was given a comment about my last post, so I started to write back, but then realized some of this is information others might be interested in, so I thought I'd put my response into a new blog post. :)
There is SO much involved in the adoption process, of which I've tried to do quite a bit of research on, so I'm happy to share some of what I know. Although I keep learning new things everyday and welcome anyone's thoughts!
COMMENT: Those numbers might not all be a bad thing. I don't know anything about other countries, but for China, my understanding is that the numbers have dropped and the wait time has increased because there are many more domestic adoptions taking place. Now most of the adoptions out of China are kids who have special needs of some sort. (And the Hague treaty is a good thing, right?) I don't want to minimize the problem though--153 million orphans is a lot and I'm so glad you'll be welcoming a few of those into your family.
There are definitely good things happening in adoption, some countries are doing better than others. The Hague treaty has been a good thing, especially to help keep the children safe, but it did affect the number of adoptions being done (which is a good thing if it meant getting rid of the agencies that give adoption a bad name).
Most adoptions out of China are now "waiting children" as they call them, although people do adopt "normal" children, but the wait for a "normal" child in China is typically around 3 years. China also has more stringent rules about who can and who cannot adopt. We actually had wanted to adopt from there if at all possible, but we are not allowed as candidates for their adoption programs.
Unfortunately for Ethiopia, they made a drastic cut in adoptions within the last two years. The Ethiopian organization, MOWA, that goes through the adoption documents, decided to limit how many documents they look at each day, which has made it go a lot slower for Ethiopia adoptions. Although this helped cut some unethical things that were starting to happen in Ethiopia adoptions (which I'm thankful for), most would say that they were too extreme in their actions. This caused adoptive parents, which it shouldn't, but now sways parents away from adopting because they don't want such a long process until their children come home. Adoption used to take around a year, which meant it kind of felt like a "normal birth" of a child, with the waiting period being just over 9 months. However, now the process to adopt is usually between 1.5 - 3 years... we're only a couple months into it and it already feels like it is taking forever!!! :)
There is SO much involved in the adoption process, of which I've tried to do quite a bit of research on, so I'm happy to share some of what I know. Although I keep learning new things everyday and welcome anyone's thoughts!
COMMENT: Those numbers might not all be a bad thing. I don't know anything about other countries, but for China, my understanding is that the numbers have dropped and the wait time has increased because there are many more domestic adoptions taking place. Now most of the adoptions out of China are kids who have special needs of some sort. (And the Hague treaty is a good thing, right?) I don't want to minimize the problem though--153 million orphans is a lot and I'm so glad you'll be welcoming a few of those into your family.
There are definitely good things happening in adoption, some countries are doing better than others. The Hague treaty has been a good thing, especially to help keep the children safe, but it did affect the number of adoptions being done (which is a good thing if it meant getting rid of the agencies that give adoption a bad name).
Most adoptions out of China are now "waiting children" as they call them, although people do adopt "normal" children, but the wait for a "normal" child in China is typically around 3 years. China also has more stringent rules about who can and who cannot adopt. We actually had wanted to adopt from there if at all possible, but we are not allowed as candidates for their adoption programs.
Unfortunately for Ethiopia, they made a drastic cut in adoptions within the last two years. The Ethiopian organization, MOWA, that goes through the adoption documents, decided to limit how many documents they look at each day, which has made it go a lot slower for Ethiopia adoptions. Although this helped cut some unethical things that were starting to happen in Ethiopia adoptions (which I'm thankful for), most would say that they were too extreme in their actions. This caused adoptive parents, which it shouldn't, but now sways parents away from adopting because they don't want such a long process until their children come home. Adoption used to take around a year, which meant it kind of felt like a "normal birth" of a child, with the waiting period being just over 9 months. However, now the process to adopt is usually between 1.5 - 3 years... we're only a couple months into it and it already feels like it is taking forever!!! :)
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