Anyone here who has adopted from India , Ethiopia or Brazil?

Freckle Face

We have adopted from Ethiopia.

The process was fine. Much more involved work than with our domestic adoption. The timeline was wrong. Expect to wait 1 to 2 years. There are really no infants and few toddlers. School age children are the ones who need homes the most.

Assimilating, i don't really like this word but i think i get the jist of what you are asking. Our daughter had some major health issues. Once she got past them she did fine.

We were treated fine, no complaints. The agency sends us ethiopian recipes to try, prayers, holidays, and phrases to help us learn about our children's heritage.

Back to the assimilation, i think as adoptive parents we should assimilate to our children's needs. I do not believe it is fair to rip a child away from everything he/she has ever known. Take an extended trip to the place you intend to adopt from, learn the language and culture. Truly adopting a child thru international adoption is a huge responsibility. It is hard work.

There is a myth that you won't have to "deal" with first families. We are obligated by law to write and send at least 6-8 picts of DD every six months until she turns 18yrs. We also had to meet First Family before you were even allowed to meet your child. You are also encouraged to support families in need in your child's village but you are not allowed to support your child's First Family directly. Once you see the devastion, you will be changed forever.

Informedadoptions.com is a good place to start. You also have to make sure your adoption is ethical. It is your responsiblity to make sure your child is not kidnapped or a stolen child.

If you need more help feel free to email me.

thatswhatshesaid

We also adopted from Ethiopia. Our son was 2 1/2 when we brought him home. He has been home for one year today. He is doing great. He is a fun silly kid, who loves to swim, watch Disney channel, and eat hamburgers yet also loves very spicy doro-wot (a kind of Ethiopian food), sings Ethiopian songs, etc. He is very snuggly and loving. He adores his big brother and sister. He had experienced severe malnutrition but is now on the large side of the American growth charts. He is developing normally academically.

Our adoption took 6 months start to finish. MUCH shorter then the timeline we were given. It's just the way it worked out, based on what we were open to. Our agency actually had many toddlers in need of homes and most of the families only wanted babies.

We were very pleased with our whole experience. It was very transparent and we always knew exactly what was going on. We have had a great experience interacting with the local Ethiopian community. We are welcomed with open arms, and people love to teach us and our son all about the Ethiopian culture.

We chose a program that allowed us to meet and maintain contact with our son's Ethiopian family (there are few that do this). It was extremely important to us that we know the family and could share as much information with our son about them (and vice versa, share info about our son to them). We cannot do anything to help them directly, which is REALLY hard as they live in an area experiencing an extreme famine right now. However I was able to make some connections with Ethiopian-Americans from his area who still have strong ties there. That has allowed us to hear from the community itself their needs and start up projects that will benefit the whole village. The goal being that the more self sustaining resources we put in, the less kids will be put in a situation where there is a need to be put up for adoption. Once our son is 5 (about 18 months) we plan on bringing him to see his family every other year (more if finances would allow).

Randy B

My wife and I adopted from India in 1993 and my daughter is now almost 16 and doing wonderfully. She does have some issues but they stem mostly from the fact that she was suffering from malnutrition when we adopted her. She came to us at 8 months old and weighed only 10 lbs. She couldn't sit up, couldn't roll over and couldn't even hold her own bottle at that time. Mind you, within two months she was up in weight and trying to walk. It's amazing what a little attention, love and care will do. Due to the malnutrition she has similar symptoms to very mild FASD and is in a special ed class and doing well. With assistance and supports she will be able to finish high school and will be able to, if she wants, go on to a Community College.

Keep in mind that with Indian children, unless the regs have changed, they need to be "cleared" for foreign adoption before they can leave the country. What this means is that, for boys, they must be offered to (and subsequently rejected by) at least 5 Indian families but for girls it's only 3 families. This means that, often times, you will be matched with a child with some difficulties or limitations that made it so that an Indian family would not want to adopt them.

Now, especially in a country like India, there is no rule that a few thousand rupees can't change but thats a whole other game that I wouldn't want to (and didn't) play.

Also, again unless the rules have changed, you can't really adopt in India unless you are an Indian citizen or are able to do one of the various religious adoptions (Muslim, Hindu...). All this means is that you will most likely only get legal guardianship through the Indian courts which will allow you to bring the child back to your home country and finalize the adoption there. No major problem, just one more step is all. At least that is the way it was for us as Canadians. I believe, and I could be wrong, that there may be some way that Americans can do the adoption there but again, it's been a while.

If things have changed since we did ours then I'm not aware but that was the technical aspects of what we ran into. Good luck.

ItÂ´S mE.

No baby,I am a Colombian purebred,the brazilian are really good people becuse the are from Latin america.
colombia lives

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