Country Update [CAFAC Provides Answers?]

First off, thank you everyone who posted comments and sent private emails since the last post. Hearing support from everyone is always a blessing, especially during the sometimes long wait.

Secondly, to answer the most common question we receive ... no we have not heard anything about our referral. Trust me ... we will tell you. :)

Thirdly, CAFAC has now provided what is called a Country Update [mass email to those adopting from a specific country] in hopes of answering questions comparing their process with that of the new adoption agency [KidsLink]. Suffice it to say, our assumptions that the quick referrals are coming because the agency is new and they have a full orphanage is correct. The wait times will eventually catch up to them.

We will of course be able to consider both agencies if / when doing our second adoption. Not only will we take into consideration wait times and fees, we will still consider the wonderful work that CAFAC has done for us to date, the fact that they have been having successful adoptions for 15 years [in Ethiopia for 10 years], the people / staff that are provided to care for our children [and us when we're there], and the process of how they match children with parents. That process alone is so important. It's not just the next child in an age group matched with the next parents on a list. It's actually matching.

What I have done below, is basically cut and pasted portions of what was written in the country update. It is quite lengthy, but we feel that it will answer many of the repeated questions family and friends [and strangers happening upon the blog] are asking us. If you skim read it, you may find answers to some of your own questions:

Adoption Process, Referrals & Child Matching:
Ethiopia has had programs from many countries placing children for adoption for over 15 years. Each country has some unique features to how they do adoption work because of their own laws and policies, or Immigration rules that are specific to the adoptive parents' country of residence.

While the office of the CYAO has never had huge numbers of staff to process the paperwork, they have been astute to the needs of children, and issues of international adoption. The result of this is that there are modifications to the process from time to time- but it remains substantially the same; in intent now, as it was 15 years ago.

There is a misconception that adoption looks different with every agency- depending on who they know in Ethiopia, what kinds of contacts they may have, and so on. I think that there has been confusion as a result, with many thinking that every agency can forge their own pathway in working in adoption in Ethiopia. This is not so.

All agencies must follow the same rules, policies and laws in Ethiopia to achieve successful, legal adoption placements. [Confirmed last week when CAFAC met with rep in Ethiopia]. The unique differences that may be causing the confusion could come from each country's specific issues from their own resident laws that are not connected to Ethiopia's process.

Please also be aware that Ethiopia has the right to initiate their own policies, rules and regulations around foreigners’ applications to adopt their children. As an agency, we must comply implicitly with these in order to continue to work there. Since it is in the best interest of everyone- families and children - to be honest and true to following Ethiopia's laws and regulations, we choose to work with individuals within our agency, and on the ground in Ethiopia who will do the same.

All agencies can only place for adoption children who are legally available. For a child to be legally available for adoption they must:
a) have been registered with their local civil bureau of social welfare
b) have had documentation received by CYAO, and approved for processing for adoption
c) been assigned to an orphanage

Legally available children are those who:
a) are found abandoned,
b) who are known to be orphaned,
c) who have dying or aged relatives who relinquish the child to their local civil social affairs bureau to be adopted

It is illegal for a capable, healthy parent to place their child for adoption- such as we do in North America with birth mothers relinquishing at birth, or locating an adoptive family, and giving up their child for adoption at the time of birth. To quote a previous CYAO director "Poverty is not sufficient reason to separate families".

CYAO delegates to licensed orphanages to arrange a match to an adoptive family and signing a contract of adoption with an adoption agency representative. To complete an adoption, a director of CYAO, the orphanage director, the agency representative (who represents the adoptive family), are all in court approving every child match/adoption that is made- during the adoption court hearing.

There are now 60 agencies in Ethiopia. Those who have only begun this year are finding that they can give referrals quickly to the first number of families (maybe as many as 30 depending on the size of their foster homes or orphanages) as they have been anticipating dossiers coming to them while waiting for the license to be granted. Many have been taking children into their facility in the hopes they will have families to adopt them. Some are even well enough organized to communicate with their agency on the ground abroad, so that they know what the first families specifically wish to adopt. However, all agencies are finding that after a time they reach a critical point where the number of applicants exceeds their ability to plan in advance/house children for those coming on as new families, and they begin to have a "waiting list". [new agencies are able to give proposals quickly at the moment, but know they will not be able to sustain this].

Overall, applications coming into Ethiopia, regardless of the country, have high percentages of applicants wishing to adopt an infant under 12 months of age, and particularly female infants. So while there are lots of children ready and waiting for adoptive families, the largest activity of placements is occurring with infants. This means that waiting for infants has become longer as the country has increased the number of agencies, and the agencies have larger numbers of applicants wanting infants.

CAFAC, like all agencies working in Ethiopia right now, has a waiting list of families looking for infants under 12 months, and many female infant requests. The result over the past year is that the wait for our potential families has increased for this specific type of proposal. The reasons for this is a combination of all agencies looking for the same types of referrals as our families. There is no formula, pattern, foreknowledge or predictions that can be applied to understand how long a proposal may be for any given family, or agency in the future. We continue to believe that disclosure of the time frames for those who are now receiving proposals is the only measurement we know is true. We also continue to believe that by doing this, we are being honest with our families in representing the program as it is.

Referral Process:
The referral process is a combined effort between the CYAO, an orphanage, and CAFAC. H. [our Power of Attorney] goes to many orphanages weekly. They know what ages of children Canadian families are looking for and she is continually taking children, sibling groups, and infants whom she knows will have a family to take them. Since we have been working in this country for some time- many of the orphanages contact H. directly when they have new children coming into care, as they know we have a good record of post placement reporting, and children staying in their original adoptive families.

As an agency, we take this process of matching very seriously. H. does as well. Sometimes she will not accept a child even if there is a family, because it is not a good match. It does not happen often, but it does happen. The underlying value/belief in this is always, "what is best for this child?" When acting this way- she feels confident in presenting the match to CYAO as good for the child.

As we have not had an adoption disrupt in the 10 years we have been working in Ethiopia, we believe as an agency this process of referrals is working well for the children. This does not mean that all placements have been without adjustments or that the families and children have not had challenges. But the families and children have been able to work through these things because the family for a particular child was found to meet that child's issues and challenges in the best way possible.

Documentation Flow & Travel:
Many families have asked whether we group documents when sending to Ethiopia, and how travel arrangements/travel groups are made.

As an agency we have always prepared paperwork as it arrives to our office, and forwarded it onto Ethiopia as it is ready. Sometimes this means H. will receive one dossier, sometimes it means she will receive 20 dossiers.

Travel timing for Ethiopia depends on two main features being completed - CDN Immigration work Ethiopian Court Work. The two must interplay with one another and work in a sequence that eventually issues a completed adoption and completed visa / immigrant paperwork for the child.

It is very rare for one family to be ready to travel in isolation- however, if and when it does occur, R. or I have traveled with the family to bring the child home, or sent the family to be cared for by our staff in the country. We have to be cautious about sending families without R. or I as it means more responsibility for H. and other staff that they may or may not be able to take on - depending on what other obligations are placed on them at the same time.

As an agency we believe that sending families in groups of 3-7 families is ideal for the children. (We do send larger groups as well and have found some of them to be great!) This allows several children to leave the foster home at once, and be at the same guest house to transition to their families. As the children already know each other, this gives them some comfort in this first huge change in their lives. By the time the date arrives to leave Ethiopia for Canada, there is enough trust with the new parents that the babies or children do not find it so frightening as it would be otherwise.

If several families are only within 1-3 weeks of one another to travel, then we will often consult with them about making a group - because of this positive aspect of group travel. However, any lag times that are longer than a couple of weeks are not grounds to hold families into a group- and we send them when their paperwork is completed.

Age and birth date issues for children:
When children are found, or come into care in their local regions, an attempt is made by the civil affairs office to gather information to determine what the age of the child is. Some or all of these factors are used to determine this:
a) extended family or neighbors personal knowledge
b) physical assessment of teeth, body proportions, development milestones
c) signs for infants of umbilical chord being present, or fallen off

As many of you know, the Ethiopian calendar is quite different to our calendar, so transfers of dates from one to the other can cause there to be some inaccuracies- not usually in year but often in month and date. This issue alone can sometimes mean a child is out in birth month from 1 - 12 months.

Determinations of all or some of the available information results in the birth date being established before a child is sent to an orphanage in Addis Ababa. By the time a proposal is coming to CAFAC Agency, the birth date has already been documented by the child's local civil affairs social welfare authority, the orphanage and CYAO. This is what is used for the referral proposal, and further documentation on the child in the future.

When looking at child study forms when you receive a proposal, you will probably be able to see what information was used to base a child's age on. Sometimes it is the best educated guess of all authorities involved. The exception to this is when there is birth family listed as involved in the process of placing for adoption. Then the only factor that may be cause for a difference in age is the transference from Ethiopian calendars to Western calendars.

Important for all families to know is that the documentation is not created by the referring physician, or CAFAC Agency. There is no process in place to date for changes to be made within Ethiopia if a family decides a birth date is not correct, and they wish to change the documentation.

The following advice is given by adoption experts regarding any age changes that are considered:
1) Age or birth date issues should not be addressed for at least a year after placement.
2) Parents should be informed and aware of the effects of precocious puberty, maturation differences from culture to culture, and only make any changes after consultation with medical, educational and developmental professionals.

Update on Ethiopia
Ethiopia continues to be considered one of the safest African countries- but having said that there are still issues to be concerned about when in the country.

Tension still exits over the elections and results from last year. Inflation has hit Ethiopia quite hard, and the government has frozen wages- but not prices of commodities. A large bag of Teff Flour which used to cost $20 Birr now costs $100 Birr. Rents have gone up in some places from $5 Birr per month to $40 Birr per month - in less than 12 months. Gas is costing 8.5 Birr per Liter- and the people are being told to expect it to go up even more.

The city of Addis has grown now to 7 million people and the roads and bus /taxi services are not able to keep up. It is not uncommon to see crowds of people waiting for a bus/taxi to come so they can get home from work.

Hope that answers some questions for everyone.