Some people may know that we were considering several options for our adoption. Our list included a domestic adoption, Korea, China and Ethiopia. CHSFS allows people to dual list which means you can be on the waiting list for both an international adoption and a domestic adoption. You do all the work for both and wait and see which one happens first, then your name is pulled from the other list.
When we started our pre-adoption classes (PAC) we went in with the intent of dual listing for domestic and Ethiopia, but after 2 days we realized that the majority of the couples at PAC were there to adopt domestically and that putting our names is both books is an incredible amount of work. We decided to focus only on Ethiopia.
We chose to do an international adoption because we entered the adoption process with the thought of kids need a home, and we can offer that. We didn’t really feel that we need to adopt an newborn that people were lining up around the block to adopt. We’ve already had the newborn experience. I don’t feel like I am missing out on anything by adopting a toddler.
We chose Ethiopia because the country requirements lined up with what we needed. When you adopt internationally each country has different requirements. The age of the parents, whether or not you have biological children, the number of children you have, the age difference between you and your spouse, country fees, length of stay in the country, travel expences all play into choosing a country.
CHSFS helped start the care center where the children live in Addis Abba. This was a huge factor for me. They have a campus with a medical staff, a 2:1 ratio of nannies to kids under 1 and 3:1 for kids over 1. (In case you were wondering the requirements for Minnesota daycare is 4:1 for kids under 16 mo, 7:1 for kids 16 mo - 33 mo, and 10:1 for kids 33 mo - 5 yrs.) Ethiopia also only requires a 5 day stay in the country compared to some countries that require 2-6 weeks. We also have the opportunity to travel to the south of the country where many of the children were born. While traveling in that area there is a chance we could meet birth family (which is very rare in international adoption). The care center also makes a DVD for each child. What’s on the DVD varies but it documents their time at the center, it may have interviews from birth family/parents, scenes from where they used to live - whatever the care center can get.
And lastly, Ethiopia, in general, approves of adoption. Some countries don’t really talk about adoption, it’s sort of a taboo or an embarassment but people have been telling us “You don’t adopt an Ethiopian, Ethiopia adopts you.” And that’s very reassuring.
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