Some parents were tricked into giving up their children. Others were paid to do so. Those children were adopted by Americans and Europeans. Still other children were trafficked.
Evil.
Hateful.
Ethiopia’s government wants it to end. Its Ministry of Women’s, Children’s and Youth Affairs has decided to reduce the number of adoptions taking place each year by as much as 90%. With a lower workload per case worker, the government believes it can work each case more effectively, thoroughly. And fewer children will be exploited.
I learned all this from Becky today – her faced streaked by tears and lit by her computer screen. On it an e-mail from our adoption agency.
What does this mean for the 15 million orphans in Ethiopia without family? What does this mean for people like us in the process of becoming mom and dad and brother and sister to an orphan from Ethiopia?
Evil wins.
Hate wins.
Is it wise to let hate win? Everything in us cringes at the thought but what is truly best? That we proudly stand our ground while evil slithers on unstoppable, stealing and destroying as it goes? Or that we give up ground in order to focus on preserve what is most precious?
What a paradox: Sometimes to protect what matters most we must let hate win a little. For now. Down here.
I’ve learned this lesson more than once this week. And it’s only Tuesday.
We will continue to pray that Ethiopia’s government finds a way to both protect its children from evil and provide them all with loving permanent homes.
Until then…
For more information about the Ethiopian government’s new position on adoption and for ways to help go here.
Thank you for your post. We are also in the process to adopt from Ethiopia and it is really hard to stay focused on the greater good when your heart is broken. Praying with you guys!
Yeah, this news is shaking our little orphan care and adoption ministry to the core. There are tears, to be sure, but there are many many more prayers. Know this, our God is sovereign over what is good AND what is evil. That is what I cling to.
During our adoption process, the Haitian government, out of the blue, announced that they planned to enforce an old (and previously ignored) law that says only childless families may adopt from Haiti. We were devastated. These decisions can change quickly – especially when adoptive families band together, write letters and explain that, like the government, you only want what’s best for the children of Ethiopia.
Sigh. We’re with you in this, too. I am curious what your agency told you. Ours has said nothing was definite yet and not to panic. I have to believe that God called us to this and is sovereign…yesterday, today, and tomorrow. I’m choosing to pray instead of panic.
Some good friends of ours…a strong Christian homeschooling pediatrician and his family (I mean, really…how much better quality could you ask for in an adoptive family?) have their Ethiopian daughter all picked out. They’ve been sending her care packages, have all their paperwork done, etc., and they’re just waiting for someone in the Ethiopian gov’t to sign a document to get them a court date so they can go pick her up. But the government has been dragging their feet, and it seems now that she may not even be adoptable. My friends are so heartbroken, and they are steadfastly praying and asking God to change hearts within the Ethiopian government. They believe the Lord has told them that this little girl is to be their daughter. It’s been a hard thing to watch over the past month. Praying for all involved.
Hmmm … the sad thing about this is that it could end up like Romania. I was there in November and they have stopped all international adoptions for now for similar reasons to Ethiopia. There are so many orphans who now never get placed and end up on the street … and some of those end up in human sex trafficing … just terrible. We pray …
Thank you for getting that out and getting the info to go with it. Until all broken homes in Ethiopia are made new and whole and ready to raise their beautiful children, I will pray for this to pass and for all the wonderful parents-to-be who ache as you guys do…
Praying with you- and for the children.
Genuinely and desperately sorry to hear thus, Shaun. I am praying for you and the many other waiting families as well as all of the children in Ethiopia who legitimately need a loving family and home.
I don’t know the situation in Ethopia, but I’ve encountered the same arguments in trying to get good sense to prevail in Haiti. There, at least, it is complete and utter baloney, as their so-called government has no real interest in these children other than as a source of revenue. I’m confident that the incidence of exploitation is very very rare, and I know with certaintly that children are starving and dying while millions of American families stand willing to adopt them. How many will suffer and die for the supposed benefit of very very few who will be exploited.
I’m sorry man, but I say hate should NEVER win. Not even temporarily. No way.
LOVE WINS
peace
Great post, Shaun, There’s a lot of wisdom and truth in your words. Though, I have to admit as an adopting father I don’t like them. Thank you for this.
Praying.
Our cousins just got back from Ethiopia on Saturday. They had their adoption approved by the courts there and are waiting the 4-6 weeks to get everything in order to go back and bring the 2 kids home with them. One thing I KNOW. God is always in control and has a plan and we don’t have to understand it. He is a good God and He knows the end of the story for each and every one of those kids, we don’t. We have to choose to trust Him. So we pray.
I’m not sure it can be said that hate is winning in this situation when the government is, honorably, trying to crack down on corruption that has seen untold numbers of families in the country be ripped apart for profit (from what I’ve read, many adoption reps in Ethiopia are paid by commission based on how many children they find homes for… thus, some simply don’t care where the kids are from; so long as they find them a home so that they get paid).
While there are millions of children who ABSOLUTELY need a home in Ethiopia, the corruption of the system (which, really, was birthed out of North Americans copy-cating Angelina Jolie a few years ago) was hindering the finding of homes for those children. Cracking down now, while unfortunately slowing down the process of adoption a great deal, allows for the government to make sure that the children aren’t just being shipped away so the agents can make a buck; it allows them to make sure that the child is indeed in need of a loving home and isn’t actually being ripped out of one. How is this not a good thing?
My heart breaks for those children desperately in need of a loving home now (both in ethiopia, as well as here in North America where we tend to suffer from a different kind of homelessness)… But I believe that this circumstance can be used to glorify God if Christians (and christian adoption organizations) use it to build healthy relationships with the government. If an agency gives credible and informed information about a child on an incredibly consistent basis the government may be more inclined to pass it’s adoption requests through (and maybe even at a quicker pace) because it would have faith in that organizations motives and practices. While it would take time to build up that type of trust-relationship, it could have a beautiful and lasting effect. It all depends on how we view this circumstance, this moment in time, right now… as a moment of defeat, or as an opportunity to work along side the government in finding loving homes for the homeless children in the country while proclaiming to them the gospel in both word and deed.
I pray that God would raise up and empower people, by his spirit, that would use this moment as an opportunity to share the gospel, and that the Kingdom would invade the countries of the world, such as Ethiopia, through Christians who declare that hate does not win… who know that Love Wins.
I don’t understand when you say that sometimes hate should win. Am I missing something?
I think the idea of cutting back adoptions sounds drastic. Mind you, the idea of children being adopted when they have living parents is horrible, a nightmare! I hope that, with the best interests of the children at heart, the Ethopian government and international bodies can work out a better system.
Of course there will be orphans and I hope they find an adoptive family, but if the reason for many adoptions is poverty, then that has to be the focus, not adoption, surely?
I am ready for love to win ALL the time…..
So sorry for everyone, but thankful for a sovereign God! Ps 62:1-2
http://www.gopetition.com/petition/43714.html
Friends who just brought their daughter home from Ethiopia days ago posted this on facebook.
A tragic decision that doesn’t make sense at all, definitely praying!
This announcement comes on the heels of an orphan care conference called IC//Orphan that I attended in NW Arkansas. We talked about countries that have “closed” to international adoption in the past and what that means going forward. And yes the link between international adoption and trafficking, which is hard to conceptualize but neccessary to confront.
If you’re interested, you can check out theideacamp.com or even the twitter hashtag #ICOrphan to connect with practitioners and attendees of the conference. Many are talking about Ethiopia and what this change might mean.
I am praying for your family and others like you who are left waiting. I pray that God draws near and walks this road with you.
I will be praying for your family and everyone in
Very insightful, Shaun. I am sorry for the pain that this situation must be causing your family and countless others right now as well.
For what it’s worth, Tom Davis (Children’s Hope Chest) had some pretty insightful things to say about this situation on his blog as well. http://networkedblogs.com/faGtk
Sometimes it’s hard not to lose hope knowing there are 147 million orphans and so many families willing, trying, working hard to adopt when they’re met with roadblocks at every turn…
The only hope is that we serve a God who delights in the seemingly impossible!
I’m not against adoption. I believe it is a very Biblical thing, and those who are able and do it have a great deal of respect from me.
However, I have been feeling drawn to orphan work for those who are not adopted. I’m a single mom, and quite possibly will never marry again. My income is very limited. I do have a lot of experience, training, and some college education in child development. I believe that more people could do this type of thing than could adopt. If people world wide would look to the orphans who can’t be adopted, and cared for them the way they need to be, if provision was made, if their were small group homes with appropriate child/staff ratios…I think that more orphans would be better off if emphasis was put on quality of care vs. adoption.
I did feel bad for a while about not adopting because it was something that I had been very interested in. Then one day I had this thought, “If I adopted one child, then that one would be helped. If I worked an orphanage, I’d be helping a whole group.”
I’m not trying to say that one option is better than the other. I just think there is great value in both when it is handled appropriately. I pray that the country of Ethiopia gets this sorted out and that God’s will is done in this.
Those who are fit and able to adopt, and want to do it morally, will seek out children for that and do it the right way. Those children who are left behind need the best they can get, too.
I think what is going on in Ethiopia is really complex. I cringe a little at the hyperbole in this post – “hate” and “winning” – such extreme words for such a complex situation. There is corruption that needs to be stopped, but there are children who have no families. But I am very cynical when 3rd world governments react to cases of corruption by stalling or shutting down instead of getting to the root causes. Like an above poster, we were in this very situation with Haiti. The government (under pressure from UNICEF and others) slowed down the processing of adoption, and as a result our son (whose parents were dead) sat in an orphanage for three years waiting for his papers to be processed. We are dealing with the effects of those three years every day. Honestly, he will probably be dealing with some of the stuff from orphanage life for the rest of his life.
So, I don’t know if it’s a “win”, or if it’s based on hate, either. I think it’s a multi-layered situation that needs a resolution, but I think that stalling out on adoptions might be a lose-lose.