Ethiopia is the most rapidly growing international program in the world. The hard cold reality is that there are over 100 million orphans on our planet. Staggering isn’t it? Most of these children live in Africa. The devastation on the African continent is no secret. Everyone has encountered heart wrenching stories in the media. It makes sense that international adoption would play a significant role in helping the children of Africa. When China first opened its doors to the idea of foreigners adopting their children, they were flooded with eager parents wanting to not only help these beautiful children but also enrich their own families through adoption.
China has recently imposed long timeframes reaching up to 4 years and has also excluded many from adopting with new restrictions. In a recent article in USA Today it stated:
"By far the biggest drop was for adoptions from China, which fell to 3,909 from 5,453 in 2007 and a peak of 7,906 in 2005. Among the factors: a rise in domestic adoptions as China prospers and tighter restrictions on foreign adoptions that exclude single people, older couples, the obese and those with financial or health problems.
The biggest increase was in adoptions from Ethiopia — they rose from 1,255 to 1,725, moving the Horn of Africa nation into fourth place on the State Department's list, just behind Russia. No other African country provided more than 250 adoptees last year, although the continent is viewed as one of the few potential growth regions for international adoption."
As common as it has been to include a Chinese child into US families, this is how common it may be in a few years to find Ethiopian children in US families. There are over 4.6 million orphans in this relatively small country. Your adoption can be complete in about 7-9 months from start to finish. The fees are some of the lowest and there is only one trip of about one week to complete this adoption. We have recently visited Ethiopia and were blown away by how great the need is and how beautiful these children are. Adoption Ark also sponsors a private orphanage named Ark of Hope in Ethiopia. If you would like more information about adopting from Ethiopia please click here.