Australia's inter-country adoption laws are some of most rigorous in the world, which also means it is one of the slowest countries from which to adopt.
To make an application to the Ethiopia program, prospective parents applied to their State family departments before undertaking background and medical checks, social worker visits and assessments to determine their suitability as parents. If approved, their files would then be sent to Ethiopia for a second approval and hopefully matched with a child.
Mark Pearce, President of the Australian African Children's Aid and Support Association, says that for most of the 27 families, including his own, who had adoption files “in-country” when the closure was announced – this is the “end of the line.” Other hopeful parents who had files ready to go to Ethiopia are in much the same situation. Many are now ineligible or too old to apply for another program.
“For many of our families, the journey would have started over 10 years ago,” says Pearce. For him and his wife it has been a six-year wait for their second Ethiopian child. He says; “We've got nowhere to go now.”
It's a feeling shared by Kellie and Antonio Teixeira, who were making plans to receive two new children into their home when the department notified them their adoption would not go ahead. When their file was sent to Ethiopia in November, they began re-decorating bedrooms, buying beds and even a new family wagon.
“Our dreams were shattered with a five-minute phone call when I was in the supermarket,” says Kellie. “Our almost four-year wait was over but not due to an allocation; our file was being returned and no matching would take place. “
This would have been the Teixeiras' third adoption; In 2006 and 2008 they adopted two babies from the Philippines and Ethiopia. Kelly Teixeiras says her children had helped sort their toys, books and clothes into piles for their new siblings. “We'd increased discussions about what it would feel like to have more children in our home and how it would feel to share - and now we have to explain why this won't happen.”
But Kellie cannot understand the Attorney-General's position herself. “What child deserves to be placed into the foster system with no education and no support and love from a direct carer?”
“We know so many families in Ethiopia struggle with extreme poverty and without opportunities of inter-country adoption the number of abandoned babies and street children will most likely increase.”
She says the adoption process in itself is harrowing and support for families since the closure was announced has been “disheartening.” No concrete explanations for the decision have been provided and the authorities are still unable to say whether money already paid through the application process will be returned.
Jacqui Gilmour says she understands the heartbreak of would-be parents well. Director of Hope for Children Australia, part of an Ethiopian NGO that operates group homes for children in Addis Ababa who have lost parents to HIV/AIDS, Jacqui is also a mother of eight – with three children adopted from Ethiopia. She says there is a lack of compassion for would-be parents from the Australian government.
“Of course the checks and procedures that need to happen all take time, and these are made in the best interests of the children,” she says. “As adoptive parents, we understand this - but it's an exhausting process and a very uncertain time; the waiting and unknown allocation details make it near impossible to make any other real plans for your life.”
Emails released by the Attorney General's department under Freedom of Information laws instructed State and Territory department representatives in January not to communicate timeframes around Ethiopia program files to prospective parents to avoid disappointment.
“If contacted by families,” they read, “Please do not indicate a specific number of weeks as some jurisdictions have done so previously and it has created an expectation.”
This was due to uncertainty around arrangements with one of the orphanages in Ethiopia, it said.
