Five million kids in Ethiopia were struck a blow today. In an effort to cut down on trafficking, Ethiopia will be cutting adoptions by up to 90%. At its peak, Ethiopia was processing 50 adoptions a day. They are estimating now that they will only be processing 5.
I am completely in favor of examining this system. I could not live with myself if I were to find out that the child we adopted was stolen or sold. Furthermore, I don't want to support an institution that allows this. However, I worry that they are throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
This really troubles us as perspective parents, however our feelings matter little when in perspective on what this means to the millions of legitimate orphans. It is devastating. How many kids will not be adopted because a few agencies were criminally irresponsible.
I have hope and faith that this will be resolved and that agencies will have due diligence, and those that don't will be swiftly closed.
Yes this sucks for many many parents in the process of adoption, but the big picture is how this affects the individual orphan. I was just sending an email before I received this news, to an old friend who is a program director at Orphan Network, an agency that focuses on orphan care (not adoption). I was telling him how I love what his organization did, because only a few kids will get adopted, but what about the rest in the orphanage.
Orphan network and agencies like it, offer support to these kids.
So in the midst of times like these, I think it is important to look at agencies like Orphan Network and Children's Hopechest, support them and encourage your faith community to support them. When there is a growing number of orphans and fewer and fewer kids free to be adopted, agencies like these are so important.
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