anyone with expereince/advice for Middle Eastern adoption?

[Momma Aimee]

My sister and he DH want to adopt.

They are thinking Middle Eastern as his family is from Lebon and thus a child would look more like them --- though I insist their 4 year old is a total blue eyed blond like my sister when she was young -------.

Any advice?

Suggestions?

Anyone done this?

Aimee

[BunnysMomma]

Most middle eastern countries don't allow adoption because they don't recognize it under Sharia (Muslim law), but I do know that Azerbaijan's international adoption program is growing and some of those kids are ethnically Iranian.

Wilma

[EFmom]

Ditto what Wilma said. A good source for information is the State Dept's website, which has country by country information http://travel.state.gov/adopt.html

Look at the total number of IR3 and IR4 visas in recent years and tells you how many children were adopted from a particular country into the US. If it is a handful, they are likely adoptions by close relatives who are US citizens.

If they are looking for children who are dark haired and dark eyed, Romany children are available from some Eastern European countries. But also be aware that many agencies will not accept any requests from parents about the skin tones/coloring of the children.

[Momma Aimee]

What about Syeria and places like that? (sorry I spelled it wrong)

A

[EFmom]

If you scroll down the State Department page, it spells it out country by country. It also gives statistics on the countries where people actually do adopt from. Adoptions aren't happening from Syria or Lebanon. While it might in theory be possible to adopt a non-muslim child from one of those countries, it doesn't seem to happen. International adoption is hard enough to do from countries that actually accept it--I can't imagine trying it from a country opposed to it.

[Momma Aimee]

this is the data we need.

thanks.

i haven't had time to look at the site. But I will and I will share it with my sister this week.

Aimee