This Friday, 8 May, was a hard day for many families with court dates. Just a quick background: the court date is what an adoptive family has to pass in Ethiopia in order to bring home the child that was referred to them. So at this point these families had knowledge of who their child was, accepted the child and was just waiting for the ruling on the judge to make the children legally theirs, a long process since between referral and court date could be anywhere between 2 - 4 months.
So, for most of those families who had a court date on Friday their cases were not heard. The reason: it has come to the Ethiopian court's attention that a large number of children pending to be adopted were abandoned in Addis Ababa, the capital, illegally. There was a case a little while ago where the judge got suspicious about a large number of children who in fact were not abandoned but God only knows how they were obtained: through bribes or other means. This was not with our agency, but other agencies who were practicing unethical adoption methods, but it affects everyone, every agency and every family who wants to adopt a truly abandoned and orphaned child from Ethiopia. So until further notice, the judge won't hear cases of children who were abandoned in the capital.
So this was the bad news, especially for those families who are waiting to bring home the children who were truly abandoned. Furthermore, it could, I hope not, but this incident could have other implications too which I try not to think about or worry myself about, but if other agencies continue to practice unethically, the whole program could be shut down which means, nobody, no country can adopt from Ethiopia anymore. Let's hope that this will not be the case and that this situation gets resolved soonest.
The good news of course is for those children who were not truly abandoned but obtained by 'baby brokers' in illegal ways and referred or planned to be referred out to innocent, unknowing families all over the world, including the United States. I hope and pray that those children are now back with their parents and their families and are safe, and loved and cared for.
Also, more good news, amidst all this there were still families in our agency who passes court on Friday and the agency even received two referrals of toddlers.
This blog iniatially started out as an adoption blog but serves now as a way to stay connected to family and friends all across the globe. Please feel free to leave comments. For questions, please send email to alida_z_johnson@yahoo.com.
2 comments:
This is a great explanation about what's going on. That was my fear, too-that the whole program could be in jeopardy. That's just not good for all of those children waiting and needing homes. I really don't think that's going to be the case, though. I think Ethiopia is so vigilant about this type of thing that they caught it right away and will keep it from happening.
After being in country and seeing/hearing how much the people of the country love the children of the country, I know that the judge's only intent was to keep the children from being harmed. They want what's best for the children. They really do.
Happy Mother's Day!
Thank you, Amanda. Happy Mother's Day to you too and thanks for giving me hope when it comes to the recent things that have happened. I truly pray that this program does not close .... it just would not be fair to all the other parents, kids and agencies who are truly ethical about the adoption process.
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