Adopting from Rwanda or Burkina Faso?

[sbrinton]

So after lots and lots of research into Ethiopian adoption, my husband and I still have some concerns. We still feel called to adopt from Africa, but we're beginning to look into some other countries where intercountry adoption is less common - specifically Rwanda and Burkina Faso.

Anyone have any experience with either of these countries? From what I can tell, there were only a couple dozen adoptions from Rwanda last year and maybe 2 from Burkina Faso, although Burkina is a Hague country.

Thoughts? Thank you...

[lauren]

bumping

[excitedtobeamom]

I know our agency has a pilot program in Burkina Faso. Our agency is Adoption Advocates International. They may be able to help answer your questions.

[tiffani]

Rwanda is a really great program right now, if our kids weren't in a different African country I'd go with Rwanda. you can pm ariahsmum (ariahsmom?) she adopted from Rwanda recently. There are also lots of blogs of families who have/are Rwandan adopters. There's a yahoo group as well.

I don't know much about Burkina Faso. You could also look into DRCongo.

good luck!

[sbrinton]

We've talked with Adoption Advocates International as well as Kentucky Adoption Services about Burkina Faso. There is some uncertainty right now about the requirements to adopt from that country. We live near AAI but have a personal connection with the staff at KAS.

Rwanda seems daunting, maybe because you have to work directly with the government. It seems like it could be much less expensive than working with an agency, but wow - huge learning curve. How could I find Rwanda adoption blogs?

Several people have mentioned the DRC too, so we may look into that program as well.

[tiffani]

It's not daunting!! it's the same as working with an agency, you still have to compile all the same paperwork. the only extra step is that you have to get your documents authenticated by the Rwandan embassy in DC (am I explaining this right Jaya? ) but honestly, it seems like a lot at first, but it's not hard, it's just a step-by-step process, and really no different than doing it through an agency. you can find Rwandan adoption blogs by googling it! I don't have time right now, but will come back later with a few links for you. also join the rwandan adoption yahoo group.

for DRC, it seems that there is a group of parents who are helping newcomers to the process, because you do it indy as well.

hope you find your clear path!!

oh, and Uganda is on it's way to being cleared up as well, and there is HUGE need there. I hesitate to even suggest it, but it really does look like it will be moving along again soon, and there are so many kids needing homes there. Remind me of your age/gender/special needs parameters again???

[ariahsmum]

Hi there-

I have gone missing for a while... crazy crazies here in my life. Sigh.

Needless to say, I did adopt from Rwanda... I guess if you look up my posts, you will get a longer history, but essentially it goes like this: began homestudy in Nov 07, traveled at urging of "agency" (Rwanda asks you NOT use an agency currently) was in Rwanda for 4 weeks trying to get approval, then after coming home got a DENIAL in June 08. But that was back when things were strange there to a degree, and not many people had been successful. The Minister in charge was new and there was definitely some politics/changeover at play. We were invited to re-apply in Feb of 09 and things went like gangbusters for us until we came home with ds in July 09. He is 17 months and it is hard to believe that he has nearly been with us a year!

I truly believe that things are very smooth RIGHT NOW with Rwanda adoptions. I think it is a great time to pursue, but you need to keep in mind like any country, Rwanda could change on a dime for any number of reasons.

ITA with Tiffani that it is not overwhelming any more than any adoption- in fact, for some it feels more straight forward without all the contracts and classes and money going to an agency. Rwanda specifically asks that you go independent, and because I respect their wishes, I would only suggest that anyone else do the same. For one, it is WAY less expensive, and if you feel like you have the money to spend, then give it to the street children in Rwanda, or an orphanage after all is said and done (you can't bribe anyone or you will be sunk, so you need to be careful along the way). Or sponsor some children, or give to some non-profit project over there. Money better spent, IMO, than to a US agency when the Rwandan government explicitly requests to go indy.

So your best bet is to join the yahoo group, get access to the files, find some vets that know what they are doing, and follow step by step.

Basically you:
1) complete a homestudy
2) apply to USCIS for I600A)
3) Complete Dossier for Rwanda
4) Authenticate all documents at the county, state and federal US levels
5) Authenticate with the Rwandan Embassy in DC
6) Obtain legal representation in Rwanda
7) Send dossier to lawyer for submission to the MIGEPROF (Ministry of Family and Gender in Rwanda)
8) Wait.
9) If approved, lawyer does court processes then you travel and complete immigration, etc.

VOILA! How hard was that? :-)

I do have a blog, but can't list it here. (It has a donate button and will get takes down and I will get scolded) Will pm you with a link and a few others as well sometime this week! We use a common blog address and chose the word miryango meaning "family" in Kinyarwanda. Hope the hot tip is okay to post here Also, if you go to youtube and search "finding peace" you will see some of us!

Sometimes, if you can find one blog they will have links to others in the sidebars.

Let me know if I can be of any specific help. I think it is a truly great option. Maybe you can get a read on where you are drawn to by beginning to read some Rwanda books, history, etc?

Be well and best of luck!

[sbrinton]

Thank you for replying! I've been trying to learn everything I can. I'm frustrated by the agencies and families who seem to be ignoring that the Rwandan government does not want to work with agencies.

We've discovered we have some friends of friends who are currently living in Rwanda doing some development work. They just adopted a baby and most likely have good contacts that would be helpful.

I think I found your blog. :-) But please do send on whatever other resources you have. Thank you!

[tropicaldutchtulip]

What are the general ages for children available in Rwanda and how long does the process usually take before you bring a child/children home? Are their young sibling groups that we can adopt? And how do we go about finding someone to do our homestudy here in the US? And how do we go about finding a child to adopt?

Any links or contacts would be very helpful to us! We are ready to get the ball rolling now! We finally moved and just about have our house ready to start the home study process. We really like the idea of doing an independent international adoption.

[tiffani]

Originally Posted by tropicaldutchtulip

What are the general ages for children available in Rwanda and how long does the process usually take before you bring a child/children home?

At this point I believe there is still only one orphanage placing children for adoption in Rwanda, and the kids there are anywhere from newborn to... how old Jaya? Most of the kids I have seen from there are between 6 mos and 4 years old. The process varies widely, I'd hate to even venture a guess, since you're right at the beginning of *your* process (no homestudy yet), but it's fairly quick by international adoption standards. Try not to have too much of a timeline in mind, it always takes longer than you think it will. Generally speaking, the wider your age range, the faster you will be matched.

Originally Posted by tropicaldutchtulip

Are their young sibling groups that we can adopt?

Jaya can answer this better than me, but I don't think sibling groups are common, aside from the occasional twin pair. You CAN, however, adopt two unrelated children if you are approved by your homestudy agency to do so.

Originally Posted by tropicaldutchtulip

And how do we go about finding someone to do our homestudy here in the US?

You can contact local adoption agencies, word of mouth, yellow pages, google, but PLEASE carefully research any agency you are considering working with -- there is a yahoo group called adoption agency research that is essential to ensuring you don't hire an unethical agency.

Originally Posted by tropicaldutchtulip

And how do we go about finding a child to adopt?

The gov. of Rwanda matches you with a child/children with help from the orphanage, I believe.

Originally Posted by tropicaldutchtulip

Any links or contacts would be very helpful to us! We are ready to get the ball rolling now! We finally moved and just about have our house ready to start the home study process. We really like the idea of doing an independent international adoption.

congratulations! again, the rwandan adoption yahoo group is a good place to start.

best wishes to you both!

[ariahsmum]

Exciting to see people interested in Rwandan adoption. I will let you know upfront that I am a complete independent advocate with Rwanda, simply due to the fact that it is the Minister's explicit request that people do not use an agency.

I second everything Tiffani said in her pp, but to add to the age range and the sibling groups quickly (I hear DS up now): There are not sibling groups available generally speaking. In Rwanda, it is illegal to abandon a child, and often there is family to take the role of careprovider for a family in the case where they have lost both parents. So the most likely scenario with kids that end up at the orphanage and are legally adoptable (no known family, true orphan) is that the child (or occasionally twin set) will have been left by the mother. This typically happens at a very young age, when the child cannot identify any family members or history. Many are found in latrines, our son abandoned in the bush. Some are left on church doorsteps.

As for age range, Home of Hope has children from birth to age 4 or 5 I believe right now. They do not adopt out babies under 6 months as they like to wait a period of time for the mother or family to come forward, or at least that was what was expressed to me by the head Sister. What I have seen is consistent with this. Honestly, the rate of adoption is so low, and the rate of babies coming in is so high, I don't think it will matter too much to process time what age you do adopt. There are many many many kiddos at the orphanage, particularly older ones (2+) who would give everything for a family. The littles are more likely to be requested by adoptive families for various reasons, but I couldn't imagine that it would change your overall wait time too much unless Rwanda has been hit severely with approved adoption requests. The orphan figure in such a small country is astronomical. Still, if you feel like you want to give a child with less of a chance at finding a forever family a gift- I would say it would be an older age group.

I will try to check back more religiously. Let me know if you would like any more help. The yahoo group has now many files of information to get you started.

[tiffani]

Hey Jaya, I heard that because of the recent climb in numbers of people wanting to adopt from Rwanda that they might be undergoing efforts to add more people to the gov agency to better cope with the increase -- have you heard that at all? I know of a few people who are concerned about the increase in families for the Rwandan "program" and the govt agency not being able to keep up very quickly, resulting in longer and longer wait times coming up.... do you know anything about that at all? It still won't be as long as, say, Ethiopia, but when we first clued in to Rwanda it was pretty lightening fast as far as int'l adoptions go...

and we're still waiting, as you can see...

[sbrinton]

We've learned a lot since I first asked questions on here.

I think we'll be moving forward with adopting from Rwanda, probably officially starting our process in June. My husband is out of town on business for the rest of May, but we'll get going after that.

There are a handful of agencies advertising Rwanda "programs" but none are authorized to work in Rwanda. So essentially, an agency could hold your hand on the US side and arrange some details Rwanda - and charge you like $10,000 for this service. It is in my opinion more ethical and not really that hard to adopt independently from Rwanda. The adoption community seems supportive and people share information freely. We've found good resources for lawyers in Kigali. To find a social worker, we just looked for someone locally who was familiar with independent international adoption, if not Rwanda.

We're still not clear on adopting 1-2 kids. At first my husband was opposed to 2, but he is warming up to the idea. We would like at least one baby, would be open to twins, and might also consider an older sibling under the age of 3 (so she would be younger than our bio kids).

As far as time, it's currently about 4-6 months of paperwork to begin, a 6-9+ month wait while your paperwork is in Rwanda waiting for approval from the MIGEPROF (maybe this will improve if they add staff?) and then maybe 2 more months.

We're estimating our total adoption expenses not including travel will be around $7,000 or $8,000 (homestudy, dossier, lawyer and POA in Kigali, etc).

[tiffani]

sbrinton, that's really exciting! congratulations on scooching a little bit forward with a decision!