faulker087

Our child was listed, adopted and granted   a visa as an abandoned child. We were told by the adoption agency there was no way to find out anything about his history.     A couple of years after he was adopted, we tried searching.    Our searcher went to the large, Catholic orphanage in Addis from which our child was referred.    Within minutes he was given the address of the woman who brought the baby to the orphanage.    Soon after the searcher went to the address and talked to people, we had contact with our child’s Mother. She told us that she gave her baby to a friend, who, with a known baby broker who had spent time in prison, took the child to the orphanage to be adopted. We now have ongoing contact with the formerly non-existent Mother.

We researched for months before choosing a placement agency. I asked the "tough" questions. We decided to go with them based on others' reports that they were ethical. They provided Lifebooks for the children. They facilitated birth family meetings. They had all the right answers. We met with our social worker and decided "what we could handle." We convinced ourselves that we would only be suitable parents for a healthy infant.  Shortly after signing on with our placement agency, the wait time increased from 6-9 months to 12 months. Then months later it was extended to 12-18 months. Then, again to 18-24 months. Each time the estimated wait increased, my husband and I talked about whether or not we should stay with the agency or look elsewhere. Each time we convinced ourselves that it would be better to wait longer and be with a "good" agency. Why take chances switching to a smaller, faster (in our minds, therefore shadier) agency? We will have to answe...

My husband and I began our second Ethiopian Adoption back in 2008. We had brought home our beautiful son in 2006. We wanted children so badly and fell in love with the country, the people, and of course our son. We knew our daughter was also "waiting" for us there. Our story causes us heartbreak not only because of what happened to our child and her family, but how selfish and naive we were. In hindsight, we genuinely didn't know--we hadn't found the forums--we had heard the Guatemala stories, but that was there. Right? Sadly this reasoning was just not so as we had come to learn. We started with one of the bigger agencies in Ethiopia to wait for our little one. When they had increased the wait time from 6-9 months to 12-18 months our hearts broke. How could we possibly wait so “long”? A friend also starting her adoption at the same time told us about <agency> , how wonderful and personal the attention was. It was also run by an Ethiopian woman. What could be be...