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Ethiopa Adoption

Adopting from Ethiopia

Wasatch Adoptions is pleased to offer an international adoption program for the country of Ethiopia. Ethiopia is one of the few countries in Africa that is favorable to intercountry adoption. U.S. agencies are licensed by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MOLSA) which functions directly under the supervision of the Ministry of Justice. The MOJ oversees all of the inter-country adoption activity and the adoption process has many built-in safeguards. And, the U.S. Embassy coordinates closely with the Ethiopian government to ensure the eligibility of each child available for adoption.

Married couples and singles are allowed to adopt from Ethiopia. Married couples should be married for five years. Ethiopia has made exceptions for couples that have known each other combined with marriage for a total of five years. These situations must be pre-approved by our Ethiopian facilitator. There is no upper age limit for prospective adoptive parents, but they prefer that there is no more than 43 years difference between the age of the child and the age of the adoptive parents. There is no limit to the number of children adoptive parents can have residing in their home at the time of the adoption.

Children are available from infancy to early teens. Some sibling groups may be available as well as the adoption of two un-related children although adopting two unrelated children or sibling groups will have to be pre-approved with our Ethiopian facilitator. We also have a special program to place HIV infected children. All children are tested for HIV, Hepatitis B, and venereal disease. The children are also tested for TB, if suspected. They do receive medical care at the orphanage. Malnutrition and upper respiratory illnesses are common among these children.

Ethiopia Adoption Timeline

An adoption from Ethiopia in the past has taken approximately one year from submission of dossier. However at this time, referral times are lengthening for those families wanting the very young children, especially girls.

Travel to Ethiopia is usually for one week. Ethiopia has passed a new law requiring all families to travel twice to Ethiopia. The first trip the families will be required to be in attendance at the court date for the child. The law will go into effect as of May 24, 2010. (Please note, although the Ethiopian government will require parents to attend the court hearing, the Embassy appointment may still be made by an escort).

Our networking agency for this program, Illien Adoptions, has provided us with an established Ethiopia program and has placed many children from this country. When a dossier is submitted to Ethiopia, both agencies will be involved in the process but WIA will work directly with you as the adoptive family through all phases of your adoption.

Please see our Ethiopia FAQ Page page for more information.
* Pictures provided courtesy of http://www.traveladventures.org.

Fees for Ethiopia Adoptions

For more information about adopting a child from Ethiopia, contact Kathy Junk at kathy@wiaa.org.

Please note that the timeline for international adoption is not completely predictable and there could be many factors that might change our estimated timeline for completion. Some of these factors may include political upheaval, changes in policies and laws regarding adoption with foreign government officials or our own government, war, terrorism, natural disasters, the approval of the adoptive parents by either the U.S. government or the foreign government or possible reemergence of birth families. Wasatch does our best to help you as families to understand the realities of the international adoption process, but things can change quickly and timelines for adoption completion can lengthen through no fault of Wasatch International Adoptions.