JCICS Ethiopia petition - comments

I support this petition.

We hope this will be reconsidered. We know of a family that are providing love and support of their Ethiopian adopted child and are awaiting the adoption of a second child from Ethiopia. Do not deny them the opportunity to help another child.

To drastically reduce the opportunity of better lives for these children is an unnecessary and damaging decision. This is not the right decision to further limit any abuse that occurs before, during, or after an intercountry adoption. My family happily welcomed home two sisters from Ethiopia and they are thriving, learning, and enjoying their new home. If this plan were executed, an enormous number of children and families would never realize their dreams of a better life.

Do not let politics or pride stand in the way of a child be taken into a loving home. Shame to those that would.

Wanting the best for these children...loving homes, and open arms!

I'm praying that God's will is done in this matter.

On behalf of the children of Ethiopia, please continue to allow these precious gifts to come to our families in America and throughout the world,

This policy will only hurt the children it is intended to help. Find another way to accomplish your goal!

Please allow those families waiting on a child to complete their adoption!

Please amend this measure to ensure the safety and best interests of Ethiopian orphans by allowing high-quality, ethical adoption agencies to continue to place orphaned children both domestically and internationally into "forever families." Please work toward a balanced approach that will allow international adoptions to continue while still carefully guarding the safety of vulnerable children.

Please allow those families who are seeking adoption the ability to do so in a more timely manner so that the children from Ethiopia can live with and become integrated into a loving family.

I have a dear friend who has been trying to adopt for years and has faced setback after setback. There are children who need safe homes, food and education, and paying Canadians desperate to provide that. Please don't crush this opportunity. I'm sure it can be worked out fairly.

Remeber the children!!!

Please allow adoptions to continue. My friend and her husband want a child and are unable to get pregnant. Please keep adoptions so that this couple may be able to give a child a loving family and a better life.

people should be able to adopt children from other countries

We are all responsible for loving the children of the world. Please allow people to do it directly in one on one relationships with the child in their arms.

Please reconsider your plan and look into other ways to allow Ethiopian children a permanent family.

I know several families that have adopted children from Ethiopia and now these once family-less children are loved and cared for by their parents and siblings! I also have several friends waiting adoption matches from Ethiopia, and I am longing for these children to be matched with these loving caring families. I can't imagine what good it would do anyone to not allow this to happen!

Please give these orphans a chance to have a good life. Thank you.

Please give these children what every child deserves: a loving home. I respectfully ask the government to reconsider this decision.

My friends have been trying to adopt from Ethiopia for almost 2 years. Please don't make them wait any longer!

Please don't punish so many kind and loving adoptive parents because of the wrongdoing of others.

My friends have been trying to adopt from Ethiopia for almost 2 years. Please don't make them wait any longer!

Please,please,let the children come home to their waiting families .

Dear Prime Minister Zenawi,
I have a gorgeous three year old son whom I adopted from Ethiopia at ten months old. When he came home, he was developmentally delayed, but now he is healthy, happy, well-adjusted, social, and very smart. I love Ethiopia and try to help him know his culture by taking him to an Ethiopian church and having Ethiopian friends. I would love to adopt a sister for him in the future and sincerely hope that you will consider relaxing the latest restrictions. Thank you.

There are so many families that are wanting to give these children love and a home...please continue to give as many children home's as possible.

Please, have a heart and let these children have a home. I myself at one time was homeless. I can think of nothing more important than having a home with love and direction. It is so important for life where ever you are. Thank you.

My sister-in-law & her husband have been trying to adopt from Ethiopia for almost 2 years. Please repeal this sanction so they do not have to wait another 2+ years! I implore you to give these children a chance to be adopted into a loving home abroad.

Working with reputable agencies diminishes the risk for vulnerable children and is a better option than preventing adoptable kids from leaving your country. While there is risk, the rewards are tremendous, both for the children who are loved in stable families, and for the families who welcome them, and what would life be like for those orphans who remain in Ethiopia?

Every child deserves a mommy and a daddy. They should be given every opportunity to have a loving home.

Please believe the integrity of the people and organizations referenced in this petition.

Our family has two adopted children from Romania and Russia and I am certain their lives are better now than they would have been had we not been able to bring them to this country.

Please do not reduce the adoptions by 90%. There are many Americans that are more than willing to open their homes to these children - giving them a family for life.

Every child deserves a family. Do not prevent these children from being adopted internationally.

To whom it may concern:

I ask that adoptions from Ethiopia not be slowed down. The children will be the ones to suffer greatly. Their lives depend on it.

Respectfully,

Rebecca Duke

Children's Rights for adoption

I know two families who have adopted children from Ethiopia. The lives of these children have been blessed more than one could ever imagine. Please do not take away the opportunity of parents around the globe to adopt these children. I know a family who is unable to have any children, and they are devastated to know that there is a chance that they may not have the opportunity to begin a family. Please do not take away the chance for this family to start something amazing.

I know the adoptive parents of an Ethiopian boy. He has the best parents in the world.

good people want to bring these children into their homes to give them love and life. please keep the doors open!!

Please help the Children

I have a niece adopted from Ethiopia. She is a beautiful child of God just like all of the children left abandoned without families. Please spend your efforts to assure ethical adoptions rather than take away the option to adopt. All God's Children International is a very ethical organization, please do not take away their ability to assist in adoptions. For the sake of the abandoned children who can have the chance at a loving home.

Praying for these children their families and Ethopia!

Please keep adoption doors OPEN. Thank you!

We know a very responsible couple who is interested in adopting children from Ethiopia. They would do anything to provide a happy and healthy life for two siblings.It would be a blessing for these children to find such a fine family.
Best regards,
Gisela Weinland

It would be a shame to decrease the adoptions that your country has provided in the past. Think of all the children that are not going to be given good homes because the people that were willing to adopt will give up on another adoption because of the time frame involved they will go someplace else. Please rethink cutting the adoptions

We just turned in our formal application yesterday, 3-10-2011, and are already learning how to "roll with the punches." We strongly urge the MOWA to advocate for these poor children. Please reconsider your plan to delay adoption cases!

Every child deserves a chance to have a family!! As soon as possible!! We should be caring about the welfare of these children and breaking down the barriers that keep them from being adopted by the families that want to love them.

please, help the children get in to good loving forever homes.

please, help the children get in to good loving forever homes.

As an adoptive mother, I can beg you to reconsider this legislation. Your children are finding loving homes and are benefitting from the current policies. Strong families are being built and we are grateful to share our love. Please strongly reconsider. Thank you.

Please continue to allow intercountry adoption for children from Ethiopia.

Love, security, and hope are not bound by borders. Please help give all humans a chance at the peace that only a loving family can provide.

I pray you will not reduce the adoptions of loving families that live outside Ethiopia. There are too many children whose lives depend on finding a family that will give them the love and care they need.

I am the mother of two Ethiopian sons, who are the light of my life. Emet joined our family at two years old. He weighed just 19 lbs, and was unable to walk. Today, at three years old, he runs more than he walks! He is a great helper around the house. Benjamin, who came home at 9 months of age, is now two and loves books and music. Sing that kid a song twice, and he knows it by heart! These boys, once orphaned and abandoned, have a home, a family, with us. Other families are waiting.

Please reconsider this decision. Wonderful families are waiting for these children.

These babies and children need loving families. Please don't hold them up.

That's a cute kid. Good luck!!

there are many loving families waiting to adopt and love these children.

DEFEND the cause of orphans!

Please reconsider this law and allow inter-country adoptions at current, if not greater rates.

I'm signing this for my friends Courtney and matthew.

Childern need loving parents to grow up as good men and women.

Please help these orphans find forever families.

This is just not right. There are so many families waiting to adopt, and so many children that need homes. Please don't do this.

Look into the faces of the children and you will know that they need to be given a chance at a better life. Reinstate adoptions to 100%!

Please do not stop adoptions. As the adoptive mother of a son from Liberia and an advocate for human rights in Liberia, I know the devestation that shutting down adoptions has had on children since January 2009 when Liberia closed to adoptions. Continue to allow children to be adopted that can be. This will allow you to focus your attention on the ones remaining in your country! DO NOT listen to the lies of UNICEF! Praying you will look at the needs of the children and reverse your decision

Please partner with governments, NGOs and foundations to achieve their goals and avoid the coming tragedy for children and families. Help the children find warm and loving "forever families".

Sincerely,

Cathy Ashmore

Please do not take the chance away from these children of a loving family.

My brother and sister-in-law are trying to adopt from Ethiopia. They are an amazing couple that would give a child a wonderful home. Please don't take that away from them.

We have been waiting for over 5 years for a second child and there are so many children who need a home. This seems so out of whack and to limit the number to 5 children just means more kids in orphnages.

I fully support the adoption of children from Eithopia

Our family has been in the process of adopting a child from ethopia and are very sad to hear of the changes. we have completed our home study and want a child that is in waiting. Our two boys asked me today about when they would get a sister and when they could pick her up. I had to say only god knows. please reconsider these changes

Please let these adoptions continue with the help of organizations to make sure of integrity. Childern need loving parents to grow up as good men and women.

Please help these children get the life they deserve. There has to be an easier way.

Please allow your young children in need of a good home be adopted to bring a blessing to the families waiting to help as God has directed them

As a young woman who has plans to adopt in the future to avoid adding to the overpopulation on our earth, and to save children in need of homes and family, hearing the news that the number of adoptions would be decreasing is not only disheartening, but seems cruel and unnecessary. Please, do not do this, for the children of Ethiopia and for the sake of all people who wish to better this world by taking care of and loving a child.

Dear Sir/Madame:
I applaud efforts by the Ministry to ensure the integrity of the inter-country adoption process. But the current plan to drastically slow adoptions would leave children in orphanages years longer, depriving them of loving families, and in some cases needed health care. It brings tears to my eyes. I hope and pray that another path forward can be found that ensures ethical adoptions and allows children in need to move to loving families as quickly as possible.

We, respectfully urge you to reconsider its plan and to partner with governments, NGOs and foundations to allow children and families to be united through adoption.

Please help children to be placed in loving homes as soon as possible.

It shouldn't affect the New Parents already waiting on a Child.

Let the children have a loving home!

The adopting parents have a lot of love to give the babies, and will provide them so many advantages in life. This could end up in their helping their country of origin. Please think of these individual babies and their lives as you make your decisions.

Please do not reduce the number of adoptions.

Please do not reduce the number of adoptions. These children need loving homes and these adults want these children to love.

Please open up adoption process in Ethopia. We have parents who want to love and care for these special children. These parents have filled their hearts with love before they even see these children.
Sincerely, Amy E.

Please don't let a few irresponsible people ruin the chance for a loving caring home for children who need this

It is important that those who are less fortunate are provided every opportunity to gain traction in life. By continuing with current policies and allowing the adoption and aid processes you will only be giving children and families a foothold they so desperately need. Sacrifice pride and self-serving ambition and continue to allow outsiders an opportunity to open their hearts and arms to those in need.

Keeping the children safe is the top priority of course, but surely that can still be accomplished by allowing adoptions only from reputable agencies, not a nearly wholesale shutdown of the adoption process.

Please allow more adoptions.

All children deserve a beautiful life. Wherever the people are that will love and give that to them is where the children should be.

Please allow the children to be adopted and find families that can care for them and show them love. Don't stop the adoptions!!!!!!!!!

Please reconsider the decision to reduce adoptions by 90%. I feel that this is a drastic overreaction to isolated problems.

Our dear friends currently await the day that they will bring their daughter home to the U.S., as we speak. They have so much love and opportunity to provide to this deserving child. Our prayers go out to them at this time.

Help us help the children!

Please return to the typical number of adoptions. These children need families.

Please rethink this policy change...I know so many amazing families in the U.S. waiting to adopt from Ethiopia! Thank you for hearing us.

Please allow these children to become members of loving families.

I understand the concern for the children's well being, but I feel that a 90% reduction of international adoptions is a huge step in the wrong direction. As a parent of a wonderful young Ethiopian adoptee, and one currently going through the process a second time, I only hope different (more reasonable) measures can be enacted to ensure the best interests of the children are met (after all, isn't that the whole point?). A few bad cases shouldn't prevent children from joining loving families

Please give these children the opportunity for a loving family, home--and a healthy life!!

There are many kind people who love children just waiting with open arms for a child. Please do not reduce your adoptions. My sister is in the process of adopting a child and this would break her heart

Please allow more fair and ethical adoptions. Many loving, wonderful families are waiting.

Adoption gives hope and life to hurting children in need!!!

There are plenty of good homes waiting for these children

please consider the number of children that can find loving families that could give them
what they most need....love!

This is ridiculous, why slow down the process of children getting a better home?

In respect of the need to find 'safe' homes, the 90% seems entirely out of proportion. Strict requirements and investigations should be enough to prove a child the wonderful home they so much deserve. There are many more really wonderful people able to take care of a child in an loving and wholesome atmosphere. Please reconsider this decision and do not fail these children and law-abiding waiting parents. Mary Johnson

Please reconsider for the sake of the children.

Please allow the families to be grandfathered in for the adoption process. They have been waiting along time as it is.

My cousin and her husband cannot have children and have been waiting very patiently for a long time. Now they are being told that they have to wait even longer for their children to come to them. This is not fair.

On behalf of my community and church of over 3,000 members please do not deny children loving families because of isolated abuses.

let the orphans have a HOME!

My grandson is Ethiopian by birth,
and been with us since August, 2006.
I cannot imagine him not being a part of
our family. He is loved and respected by
family, friends and classmates. I could not
imagine his or our lives without each other.

There are many loving and caring families out there who are just waiting for one of your beautiful children to accept into their families and love. Please don't let the actions of a few impact the masses.

We have so many friends who have beautiful well loved children from Ethiopia. This would be a tragedy.

Our daughter in law is from Addis Ababa and has explained the dire situation of women and children in Ethiopia. We wholeheartedly support continuing adoption of Ethiopian orphans by appropriate and willing American families. We have seen how children can blossom in these situations when they are placed with a loving family.

Please reconsider. Children will suffer as well as the Ethiopian economy.

Please don't turn your backs on those sweet, sweet babies.

My wife and I are a unable to have biological children. We want nothing more than to be able to raise a child or children with all of the love and opportunities we can. We have, over the course of our wait, grown to adore the cultures and history of Ethiopia and eagerly await the adoption of not just a child, but of a second nation.

My granddaughter was adopted from Ethiopia in 2006! We love her and so glad to have her in our forever family!
Please do not limit the number of children chosen for a farever family.

Our family has been in the process of adopting a child from ethopia and are very sad to hear of the changes. we have completed our home study and want a child that is in waiting. Our two boys asked me today about when they would get a sister and when they could pick her up. I had to say only god knows. please reconsider these changes

We have many families desiring to provide a secure, loving home for children from Ethiopia. All children, regardless of race, nationality, or age need caring families to grow up in. Adoption is a beautiful way for many children from Ethiopia to have one of those families.

We are seeing more institutional affects on these children as they are spending more(longer) time in orphanages. We need to process their court cases and visas quicker and get these children home to their forever families.
Slowing down the process is NOT in the best interest of the children.

I know three children of Ethiopia who have been adopted by Laramie families. All children are happy, healthy, well-loved, and thriving. Please return this opportunity to as many orphaned Ethiopian children as possible - more per year than before March 10 if at all possible.

People with resources to take care and love these children are available. Please don't take that opportunity away from the children.

please reconsider your action and truly take into consideration the good adoptions that have and are taking place. Each child deserves to have a safe and loving environment in which to grow into the best they can be and the partnerships mentioned in this petition will see that this will happen.

All children need a family to love them!

These children need loving and caring homes, it is not fair to rob them of a fair chance in this broken world. Please do not slow down the adoptions!

My granddaughter was adopted from Ethiopia in 2006! We love her and so glad to have her in our forever family!
Please do not limit the number of children chosen for a farever family.

my friend is adopting from Ethiopia and i want you reconsider stopping adoptions.

Please let the children be adopted.

Please don't destroy our adoption hopes and dreams. Please don't make these children wait another day for a happy and loving home.

My older brother and family is on the waiting list to be referred a little boy from Ethiopia. They are thee best and most loving family. I pray they will soon be allowed to meet their new son.

Please don't take away this chance for a better future, from children that would otherwise have no chance for a better life!

I am an parent who has already submitted my complete dossier and am waiting for a referral of my child/children from Ethiopia. There are so many orphaned children. I think children's homes and adoption working together can effectively help the orphan situation in Ethiopia. Please consider my plea and not slow down adoptions.

I know a young girl who was recently adopted from Ethiopia. She was 3 just over 7 months ago, when she was adopted and brought to the U.S. Not only has her health thrived, but her personality, cognitive abilities, and overall well being. I can't imagine what life would be like if she had not had the opportunity to be in a forever family through adoption. Please do not block other children and future parents from this beautiful opportunity.

We are currently waiting to bring home three orphans from Ethiopia ages 1, 4 and 6. They have been waiting for a family for over a year and statistically have little hope outside of adoption. It's our privilege to welcome them home, and we hope that opportunities like this will not be destroyed for the many children still hoping for a family of their own.

With such a considerable drop in cases being reviewed children needing loving families are going to be left waiting even longer while missing out on growth and development milestones and emotional support. Let's see how we can minimize unethical practices but still keep the process moving for all involved. Thank you and have a wonderful day.

Please reconsider the plan to restrict adoptions. Our Friend will be a wonderful parent to your child.

I understand the higher intentions and affirm the Ministry's decision for an increased focus on intra-country adoption of their children. However, I strongly plead with the Ministry to consider and implement guidelines for those families currently in-process of adoption.
In Love.
Ted Alvia

need to open the country for more adoptions

Please reconsider the plan to restrict adoptions. Our Friend will be a wonderful parent to your child.

For the sake of the children, I implore you to continue to allow international adoptions to continue.

Please help these children find a loving and carig home.

Seems to be very unfair

Seems to be an unfair and drastic step

Please protect the children of Ethiopia - I love them!

Please allow these children to enter into loving families.

Please reconsider your plan to reduce adoptions by 90%.

Please let the adoptions go on. There are so many families who would love to adopt and so many children wanting a forever home. It seems tragic to not facilitate bringing these people together as a family.

These precious children have no voice, so we must speak up for them, defending, protecting, and securing justice.

Please don't reduce intercountry adoption! Will pray for your leadership and that you may fight the corruption without reducing adoption for parents seeking to give these children loving homes.

The best interests of the children should be put first with a focus on reducing unethical adoption instead of stopping intercountry adoption altogether.

If kids can go to good homes then why not let that happen?

Why would anyone desire to shorten the opportunities of wonderful adoptions? I can understand being extremely careful, however, why not keep the broader possibilities open for all of these beautiful children of God who happen to need loving families!!!

For the sake of the children in Ethiopia, please don't do this. There are so many loving families waiting to bring them home.

If anyone deserves to. Help save and love a child its these two please reconsider the adoption laws and know that this request is simply out of love for a child.
The world can be a fantastic place for achild when given the proper chance, I myself was adopted and know first hand the life changing effects it has. Thank you for your time and consideration.

THINK ABOUT YOUR OWN CHILDREN SITTING IN AN ORPHANAGE WITH NO LOVE AND CARING - IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT FOR THESE POOR CHILDREN THAT HAVE LOVING FAMILIES WAITING TO BRING THEM HOME??

This new policy would be a tragic error. Please reconsider. I know of a number of positive and wonderful adoptions for Ethiopian children in need in my small city--ethical adoptions must be maintained for the sake of the children.

As a mother who has adopted a daugher from Ethiopia as well as an advocate for children, I do support that measures that are put into place that protect the innocent. The announcement from MOWA restricting adoptions where it is meant to protect the children are in fact will have opposite impact for those who are currently in orphanages and where there are families that can provide them a save, secure, and thriving enviornment for them to grow. I am sadden by these steps that will be implemente

We know two wonderful people who are trying to adopt Ethiopian children. They have a tremendous reputation for caring for children and people with disabilities. They will be negatively impacted by this for no reason. This will deny a future with great opportunities to these Ethiopian children.

Allow us to deliver some hope and love to these little ONES that are desperate for it!!It is in your hand.Thank you.

Adoption has greatly effected me since I am married to a wonderful adopted African man and we have an adopted Ethiopian nephew. This decrease in these adoptions would greatly disadvantage Ethiopian orphans and families who are looking to adopt. I urge you to give these orphans an opportunity for a bright future and a life full of love from adoptive families.

All children need a loving home!!

Please keep the international adoptions open.

So many of your children are waiting for a good home and adults are longing to care for them. Please reconsider.

PLEASE reconsider!

The cases of abuse are terrible, but reducing the number of adoptions so drastically is not a reasonable response. It is the same as starving yourself because you ate a bad morsel of food. The answer is not to stop eating, it is to be more careful in the selection process.

Please let the children come. They will be loved and blessed.

Please allow as many children a day as possible to be adopted. Limiting it to only 5 children per day will cause many children to wait lengthy times to be adopted and may cause them not to be adopted at all. God has a plan for these children and the families that are waiting.

Please help the fatherless and continue to allow eligible families to adopt orphans.

Please let these children be helped.

We have given a good home and loving family to one of your country's daughters. Please continue to allow loving families to care for your orphaned children.

I have three beautiful Ethiopian grandchildren that are loved and cherished by our family. To deny these children a home is heart breaking for the child and for the family.

Please keep adoptions going.

International Adoptions are not only great for the families that are allowed to adopt your children but also great for children and increasing the love and concern for you country internationally.

please help these children

Please do not decrease adoption by 90%. These children need homes. I have a niece from Ethiopia and she is such a blessing to us. Please let others be able to experience the same blessing.

Please let us give your orphans a home!

Reducing the number of adoptions and causing more delays with adoptions I feel is not in the best interest of the children anciously waiting and in need of loving families, as well as the families wanting to bring these beautiful children into their lifes. Reductions and Delays will result in the possibility for some of these children to not be adopted all together as they grow older in their current situation. This is so sad for both the children and their potential families.

I also several families who have adopted Ethiopian children, giving joy to their lives and giving the children a future they deserve. My daughter has done volunteer work at orphanages in Ethiopia and knows of the desperate situation these kids face if left there. Please allow adoptions! Thanks!!

Safety is a major concern for all children involved. With the proper guidelines and oversight, this process can still be safe and effecient!

Please continue to allow ophans to be adopted through legitimate agencies.

We cannot have children and are waiting eagerly for our two Ethiopian children to come home. Please do not delay their arrival! Our children need us and we need them! Please do not make thousands of good families and innocent children suffer because of a few corrupt agencies. Please remember us and have mercy on our family. We will continue praying for all the orphans of Ethiopia today and always in love. Thank you for our children and hearing our prayers to the Lord.

Please consider the good that can be done for these precious children.

I have adopted 4 children from Ethiopia. Please allow this process to continue. The children need us.

Please reconsider.

I respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry adoption. Rather than eliminate the right of Ethiopian children to a permanent family, I encourage the Ministry to accept the partnerships offered by governments, NGOs, and foundations.

Please allow the adoption to continue. We support ethical adoption and safeguards for adoption, but allow the children to find good homes quickly. They are already suffering.

While I sincerely regret that there have been problems with the adoption of Ethiopian children, and while I sincerely hope these problems can be quickly resolved, I just sincerely believe that reducing the number of adoptions so drastically will harm more children than would be harmed otherwise.

Please reinstate the adoption process in Ethiopia so that all the families waiting to welcome orphans can be united.

Please don't take our daughter and baby sister away for a loving home and family. We will be devastated especially since we've been waiting for over a year for her.

I think it is important to give these kids a chance of a good and safe life, especially if there are families who would like to help make their dreams come true.

Please make sure these children have a loving, caring home, regardless of location.

Praying for the children, and loving parents to be, that adoptions will not be hindered,

We just turned in our formal application yesterday, 3-10-2011, and are already learning how to "roll with the punches." We strongly urge the MOWA to advocate for these poor children. Please reconsider your plan to delay adoption cases!

My heart's prayer is that everything possible will be done to quickly reinstate the adoption process in Ethiopia so that every deserving child can be united with a loving and caring family. This is an opportunity for Ethiopia to be shining light to the rest of the world on behalf of orphaned children who deserve better. May God grant you the wisdom and courage to do the right thing.

As a mother in the Ethiopian Adoption program, I believe you really need to re-think this new objective. We are desperate for your children and will treat them with dignity and respect and will love them like our own. Please allow us to give your children a chance at a life of opportunity.

I have witnessed many, many families who have adopted children from Ethiopia. The children are well cared for and recieve love and nurturing from their families and communities here in New Hampshire. This petition is vitally important so that children in great need can continue to come home to loving homes.

Please do not reduce such a wonderful thing as adoptions to loving families. We hope to adopt within the next year and would be heart broken if the opportunity was not available.

Please don't let a few isolated cases ruin the chances for so many of these children find clean, loving, healthy homes!

I was adopted in the United States. EVERYONE deserves a loving family!!

I respectfully encourage you to reverse this decision limiting adoptions of Ethiopian children. Many good hearted people in the world sincerely want to help these children.

Please give these children a chance in this world. Change your mind and heart. It is the right thing to do.

I sincerely hope the Ethiopian government will go through with any actions that would slow down or reduce reduce the number of adoptions. That would be a tragedy. Children should not be deprived of an opportunity for a better life.

This move would be very sad for the many children waiting to be adopted as well as the loving families that are prepared to raise them.

There are many happy homes waiting to love and care for Ethiopian children in the adoption system. Please do not eliminate the possibility of their brighter futures.

Please allow loving people to connect with children in need of loving parents.

Please do not deny these children a permanent family and home.

PLEASE

I know two families who have been waiting for their new kids to be welcomed in their families and they are AWESOME families who would provide, love, and teach these kids great things.

please suppor inter-country adoption.

Please don't hurt the opportunity for so many children to have loving parents and a good future. I personally know a wonderful American couple who are ready and waiting to provide a loving home for children in need.

Fight abuses in the process but don't stop the process!

please keep adoptions going

THESE CHILDREN NEED HOMES AND LOVE TO GROW UP WELL AND HAPPY. THEY DON'T ASK TO BE BROUGHT UP IN THIS WORLD SO IF SOMEONE CAN CARE FOR THEM THEN LET THEM.

I believe all children need help. I support the efforts of Craig and Gail in attemptinf adoption in Ethiopia.

Change is needed, but swinging to the other extreme will just hurt children and families more.

I strongly support this petition and what it stands for. Please consider the consequences for the children.

There are children and families that need to be put together.

Please allow these orphans to find permanent families where they can be cared and loved.

I know a couple that are waiting on 2 little boys and be their forever family and make a huge difference in their lives. These boys will have more love than they could ever know and will have access to good healthcare.

Please please consider this petition as a representation of the people who truly want what is best for the orphans of Ethiopia.

Allow the children to have the lives they deserve.

EVERY child deserves a loving home with resources to support their growth and opportunites to become whatever their heart desires!

I have a dear friend waiting on adoption and they would be such wonderful parents.

Please allow these precious children to find forever homes without unnecessary time restraints. We would treasure them in our homes.

Let's make a difference for this children and families. God Bless you!

God says to take care of the orphans and the widows. Please do not stop ethical intercountry adoptions, for the sake of children who legitimately need a home.

do what is in the best interest of the children.

please do not choose to combat corruption by keeping children in the orphanages. we hope you find other means to resolve those issues.

The children in Ethiopia deserve to be in families where they will be loved and nurtured and given an opportunity to become all that they were created to become. Please do not stop the adoptions.

It would be a crime to deny a loving home to many children because of the reprehensible actions of a few.

A friend of mine who is one of the most amazing mom, and christian I have ever met and will be the best mom a child from Ethiopia could ever asked for is trying to bring hom her third child and I believe no one has ever wanted a child as bad as her husband, herself and 2 kids want this child.

amen

I have found the peoples of Ethiopia to be a most wonderful culture.

I personally adopted two boys from Ukraine in 2003 and 2005. Since that time, Ukraine significantly reduced the number of adoptions permitted and as a result, many children deserving of families will never get them. Ethiopia does not need to make the same mistake.

I feel strongly that the adoprtion availability does not decrease in the future

Please make it possible for those already in process to be able to complete their adoptions and bring their children home. These children are dearly loved.

Please don't let one bad apple spoil the whole bunch. Please consider the best good
for vulnerable Ethiopian children and families. Thank you for your consideration.

Let my people go. :)

By preventing international adoption, you deprive many children from having loving, caring parents who really want them.

Although Christian Adoption Services does not have a direct program in Ethiopia, I am concerned that the emotional and physical needs of eligible orphans will not be met under the cutback on placements for intercountry adoption if these children's needs cannot be met in Ethiopia.

Raising a child takes a world of Villages.

People that invested money in these adoptions should be able to fulfill that adoption. There are many little ones to find loving homes

We have been praying to adopt a child from Ethiopia for years - and just started the process. PLEASE don't take this step!

I am an adoptive parent of international children. Please give these waiting children the opportunity of a life filled with love.

Please open up more opportunities for adoption in Ethiopia !

long term institionalization has life altering and sustaining negative impact on young children who need a primary caregiver to attach to so that they can be healthy and productive members of our world. a child without a family is a child who is so alone and so unconnected to our world. i speak from experience and i plead with the Ethiopian government to keep the needs of their children, first.

Please keep the many, many successful adoptions in mind and also the future of the orphaned children in Ethiopia who need to be adopted into good, honest families -- and change this policy. Please do this for your precious orphaned children. Thank you.

Please do not leave these children homeless. There are loving families ready to adopt and this new plan will devastate these families and leave thousands of beautiful children without parents.

I know of several families who have adopted children from Ethiopia recently, and it has been a blessing to them and to the children. I would hate to see others lose this opportunity to make a difference in the lives of children in need!

There are too many children in orphanages now this will only increase the already long wait for them to find their forever family.

What a blessing our little granddaughter has been to our family. I know that when she grows up, she will in turn be a blessing to her country. Please give others that same opportunity.

Please keep the best interest of the children in mind, they deserve loving families. Let these families bring their sons and daughters home in a timely process. Thank you.

My prayers are with you. I hope you get to one day enjoy what is rightfully yours... a family

Please reconsider the impact of homelessness and starvation upon the children of Ethiopia before enacting this bill.

It is our sincere desire to support the best interest of Ethiopia's children. We hope that you will consider the potential for children, who are living without the love and security of a family, to be adopted internationally.

Please let American families provide safe and loving homes to the orphans of Ethiopia. Let us be hope to the hopeless and those without a mother and a father to love and care for.

This means a lot to my fiancée and I, as we plan to adopt, should the Lord will. Please do not take this away from us!

As an adoptive parent of a precious child with special needs, I urge you not to severely reduce international adoptions, but to take the necessary steps to insure ethical and successful family placements. The benefits of adoption are so great compared with institutional care. For the sake of the children and the many families longing for children, please reconsider the current plan.

Please let American families provide safe and loving homes to the orphans of Ethiopia. Let us be hope to the hopeless and those without a mother and a father to love and care for.

It would be a shame to deny these precious children the chance to have a safe home and a family who will love and care for them. Please reconsider.

These kids deserve good homes and as soon as possible. Please do not further delay the possibility of a loving home.

Please think about the children who need homes and love, not politics.

Please give the children EVERY chance to have a family!

Adoption should be fully supported regardless of nationality or culture.

Please reconsider your current plans.

My husband and I are currently working on our application to adopt from Ethipoia. Our hearts are broken at the thought of not being able to. We are praying that this will all work out.

wo wo wo u need to fuckin relax mi **s

By all means there a lot of willing parents who need to be given this opportunity to adopt, nuture and love these children

You best be lettin' meh adopt one of dem baybehs.

I have a friend who is a wonderful woman and has a beautiful family in Missouri and they are traying to adopt a kid from your country. Please don't stop them, any kid will be in the best care if they are with them. Don't take this family away from a ethopian kid.

Thanks.

Whatever is the most just, kind, and necessary for the children's interest is essential.

I personally know four different families who can't wait to welcome Ethiopian children into their families.

Please don't let those children sit in loneliness and poverty when wonderful families are waiting for them!

There is so many kids without parents and need them.

Thanks for the fine care you are taking of the orphans there. My son was able to visit Ethiopia and witness the situation. Those able to provide homes for them here in the U.S. have been blessed and the children have blessed all of us who know them. Believe me, they are loved.

Please do not limit orphan adoption!!!!!

Please do not limit this number. There are so many children needing a home and so many homes needing children.

My wife and I adopted our son from Ethiopia in 2009. Yes, there is a great deal of work to be done in Ethiopia on a domestic level, but where domestic resources expire or cannot reach, international adoption extends. I am certain that our son would have died at his orphanage if his case had not been processed in a timely manner (we all know that timely has a different meaning in Ethiopia). My heart breaks for the lives that will be wasted, in Ethiopia and abroad, as a result of this action.

We pray you will reconsider this decision and allow intercountry adoptions to continue in Ethiopia for the good of the children.

The 2 boys we adopted last year from Ethiopia have changed our lives as much as we have effected theirs. Our love for them and their many friends at the orphanage they lived at causes us deep sadness at the thought of a reduction in the amount of adoptions. There are so many waiting children, and so many of us in other Nations promoting the cause of International adoption. Please don't lessen the chances of millions of children to find their families.

Protect those who cannot protect themselves!

Please consider the children and the families who are waiting to share thier love, hopes, and dreams for a better future.

please reconsider

I agree with the Petition Text. The children of Ethiopia should not suffer because of a FEW poorly handled businesses. I support Ethical Agencies assisting in the adoption of these Children.

Honorable Prime Minister of Ethiopia
Please allow intercountry adoption to continue as the children of Ethiopia are worthy of a good and
prosperous family.

Please stay with 50 children processed each month for adoption!

We love Ethiopia and spent 17 years there in Gambela, Mettu, Dembidollo areas in medicine. We are active in the Ethiopian community in Cleveland and know several families who have adopted and work hard to give their children a good life and aquaint their children with276 their Ethiopian heritage

My family is in the process of adopting two children from Ethiopia. Please help us by not limiting the number of adoptions allowed by this drastic amount!

Reducing the amount of adoptions in Ethiopia will only hurt the precious children, not help them.

these children need a good home through a ministry with ethical adoption policies.

People that invested money in these adoptions should be able to fulfill that adoption. There are many little ones to find loving homes

My dear friends adopted a beautiful little girl from Ethiopia last year. From what I understand, there are millions of children in this country who need parents. Please make it easier for good people to give them a loving home.

I petition the restriction on Ethiopian adoptions. There are so many children in this world deserving of families. Our friends are waiting tirelessly for the chance to give one of these children a warm, loving home. Their hearts are breaking at the news this may not happen, and that it may take years.

We adopted our precious son from Ethiopia. He is a joy and a blessing to everyone he meets. His abounding energy and infectious smile bring a smile to our faces. What a great honor it is to have the opportunity to raise and love this little man.

Want to help ensure more children live in safe, permanent and loving families

We have just adopted our son from China who has special needs. We now know he has a bright future and he has brought us so much joy. We love him as if he were born to us and pray you will continue to give children without homes in Ethiopia a family. We know the sorrow and pain as my husband and I are also waiting to complete an adoption in Kyrgyzstan. Until our son comes home from there he is missing out on the love of a family. We are praying he is safe, healthy and feels loved until we meet.

Please allow adoptions to continue. Many people are willing to help the orphans in your country.

It would be a great opportunity for the child to have a better life.

In our country we supervise adoptive parents. There are not any reasons to stop children from reaching good stable homes here. What a sadness for children and parents with love.

Please allow adoptions to continue so that precious children do not have to spend years in centers hoping for a home and family. Let them experience the love a family as soon as possible.

I have seen first hand the benefit of adoption. Please don't take this away from the children or potential parents. Lives are being SAVED!

I have a 3 yr old neice adopted from Ethiopia. She is the delight of our family and we cannot imagine life without her. We hope she grows up with siblings from Ethiopia. My brother and his wife love Ethiopia and look forward to travelling again. She tells anyone who will listen that she is from "Epiopia" and loves to listen to worship music from her home. She sees children in the US adopted from her orphanage many times a year and will grow up bathed in all aspects of her culture.

Please do not take away the hopes of the families who have already made a place in their hearts for a little child in Ethiopia. Please fulfill those dreams for the benefit of all involved. You have no idea of the heartache that will be felt should you pursue this action.

So happy to assist in this endeavor.

We understand that sex trafficking and child labor abuses are a threat and that is why we urge you to work with NGO's and other ethical mediaries to ensure that a child is placed in a loving and unthreatening home.

Please allow those families who are already in process and have met their child to complete the adoption. This child has already taken hold of their hearts.

Please let the babies go to loving families as fast as possible.

Please allow the adoption of those children currently ready for adoption. Continue to work on other programs, but don't lose sight of the children in need of loving families right now.

My son and daughter-in-law are willing to give an orphan a forever home. Please don't stop the process to continue this pursuit!

Please do not reduce the number of inter-country adoptions--reductions will adversely affect children & families.

Please do not reduce the number of inter-country adoptions--reductions will adversely affect children & families.

There are so many loving homes with open arms for the children of Ethiopia. Please don't close the doors between them!

Please continue to place these precious children in loving homes where they can grow into who God created them to be.

Thank you for caring for the children.

please allow adoption.

Please considering partnering with others to keep this delay from occurring. Children and families are counting on you!

Please reconsider reducing the amount of adoptions!

This is for my niece who is wanting to adopt from Ethiopia!

We have been blessed with adopting a child from Ethiopia and have seen first hand the positive experience this has been for the child and adoptive parents. The entire process was straightforward and honest. Please allow this program to continue as it exists now.

Please do not put off the many families who want desperately to help the children who need a loving home. Someone needs to take care of the children. There are so many open arms waiting to receive a child. Make use of them!

Please don't close adoptions to families! These children shouldn't have to suffer because of corruption in the process. Just work on fixing the process!

Put the children's best interest first.

Please do not allow Children to suffer, especially the ones who have already found homes. If you must do this, at least allow the ones who have been promised families to go to them. The atmosphere of acceptance in America would be so much better if that were the case.

I know someone over in Ethiopia right now trying to adopt her daughter. She has been stuck there for months and cannot come home with her child because of how difficult it has become.

Please, people like her are the solution, not the problem. Please make adoption easier.

I have great friends, with beautiful children from Ethiopia. It would be tragic to see this love and opportunity taken as a result of isolated injustices.

We know a number of families who are in the process or will be attempting to adopt a child from Ethiopia in the next few years and pray that they will get a chance to give a kid a wonderful home to grow up in. It would be a travesty if kids were left in orphanages because of a law capping adoption.

Blessings,

Chris

Please let US citizens adopt needy children without delay!

My husband and I desire to raise children adopted internationally because we have worked in many orphanages and have been involved with the ending of trafficking issues. We believe that we can give a child a chance it may not get in an orphanage. We want to be a family who can raise up children who can better the world. I urge you to please consider the thousands of success cases with international adoption before you do something this drastic.

Our daughter C.J. (Melkamnesh) is now a thriving, happy, dancing, singing, 2 year old child who is learning her numbers, her alphabet, to love her dogs, her horses and most of all her momma and dadda. I cannot remember what my life was like before her, and I grieve for those who would miss this wonderful opportunity. We are in the process of applying for a second Ethiopian adoption. Please do not delay the adoption process.

I have a two year old niece adopted from Ethiopia who had been discovered in the desert, abandoned by her family and tribe. She is a precious and beautiful little girl who now has a loving family and a bright future. All children should have such

I respectfully urge the Ministry of Women’s, Children's and Youth Affairs to reconsider its plan and to partner with governments, NGOs and foundations to achieve their goals and avoid the coming tragedy for children and families.

These children have the opportunity to go to great homes and a better chance for a brighter future please re-consider.

Please keep the doors open for adoption.

I adopted my son, Shole in 2006. It has been the most wonderful experience of my life. We are very close and i cannot imagine life without him. He is 6 now and incredibly intelligent and sensitive. His grandmother was the one to make the adoption decision. From what I understand of her decision is this: She has another daughter who will one day soon marry and have her own children. The grandmother didn't think Shole would get the attention he needs. It was a life changing decision.

Children all over the world need loving homes and so many couples desire to love and raise a child, why deter this union. Please let's do what we can.

Please do not change the adoption laws. My sister-in-law & brother-in-law have been waiting for 18 months to adopt 2 children from Ethiopia & they will finally meet their children in Ethiopia next week. There are so many other children in your country that need loving families as well.

Every child deserves to be taken care of. We must put the orphans first.

All children have the right to a loving home. Please allow the children of Ethiopia the opportunity to be raised in a home with parents who will love, teach, and cherish them. Having a brother adopted from a Korean orphanage has been such a blessing in my life!

I am a Grandmother to a child from Ethiopia. She is the happiest child and her entire family loves and adores her. Please let the children from ethiopia get a chance like our grandchild had

I think every child in this world should have an equal chance to live in a home with a set of caring parents that will love them not matter what. If only certain people can adopt these children most orphan kids might not get the chance to have a loving family. Every kid deserves to be adopted by any one that are willing to open there home to them.

The children coming to the US is very safe and loved completely. They are given wonderful opportunities for loving home, church, and community.

Please consider all the children who need good homes.

they soldnt pass that thing

Allow adoption of your children by qualified families abroad!

We have a sweet and beautiful Ethiopian child in our family and cannot imagine life without him. I have seen the needs in Ethiopia, please do not close the door on those willing to help.

I think the poor kids over there should have the right to have a better life and not be an ophan, so people should be allowed to addopt the poor children over there and not let them just be alone without a family. everybody should have asecond chance, so why cant we give them one.

They should allow kids to be adopted so they can have a better home, loving family, and possibly a better future.

I just can't understand why they'd want to stop this adoption option. The children can have a better life than in an foster home, and they want to take that away?

Everone should have a second chance at life, even children.

This will only hurt the children of Ethiopia! The orphanages will overflow and the children will be left on the streets with no parental unit to care for them! Please reconsider this devastating decision.

It's not fair for children who have hope to have a family to get their dreams broken.

Praying for all of the children who will be richly blessed and loved in a forever family.

The orphaned children of Ethiopia deserve a chance to have a family. Please do not take this drastic move to cut adoptions by 90%. Our son, adopted from Ethiopia in 2008, is the love of our lives. In his words "I am glad to have a mom and a dad!"

Please let these sweet children be adopted by families who love them!!!! DOn't make them suffer by cutting international adoptions!

Please consider this from the perspective of the innocent, the vulnerable, and do what is necessary to repair the adoption system if it is broken. But do not penalize thousands of children who need loving homes and those who desire to welcome them into theirs.

I am the parent of a little boy adopted from Ethiopa. He has been home for a year this week. He is thriving in the United States. It scares me to imagine what his life would have been like if we didn't bring him home. Please reverse this policy.

Please give these children a chance to have a family and a normal life.

Please allow these children to live with loving families instead of an orphanage. I am sure they get good care in the orphanage, but these children need and deserve their very own families.

We adopted a child from India. She has been able to experience a loving family and a multitude of opportunities not available to a child in an orphanage. She has enriched our lives and we love her deeply. Please give your children the same opportunity.

We are Americans living here in Turkey and would love to adopt from Ethiopia. We are in the middle of the adoption process and love your country. Thank you

This would be a terrible mistake from every angle. Those children deserve the right to a better and happy life and there are many couples who deserve the right to provide that. Breaks my heart that a petition is even required when it comes to the needs of children.

I firmly agree with your position.

Please keep the number of adoptions per day at 30.

By taking away so many possible adoptions you are giving many children a death sentence. Please rethink your plan.

Please keep the number of adoptions per day at 30.

I adopted my son from Ethiopia 5 years ago. He is a beautiful and happy little boy. He has some developmental delays, but through adoption he has found a family to help him through. Here he can get the assistance he needs to reach his full potential. I couldn't imagine life without him. Adoption has given my son and others like him the opportunity to grow up in a family full of love. Please reconsider this plan.
Thank you

Please keep the number of adoptions per day at 30.

please consider the children!

Please keep the number of adoptions per day at 30.

I am in full support of ensuring that Ethiopia remain a friendly country for adoptions. My brother and sister inlaw adopted an adorable 4 year old girl last year from Ethiopia and she has been a blessing to our family. Not only does adoption bless the child but brings such joy and love to the adoptive parents.

PLEASE consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry adoption.

We need legal, sustainable immigration for economic and diversity reasons as well.

Please pass this on!

There is no excuse for delaying love for children who despartely need it.

Please allow these children the opportunity to have a family that will love and nurture them.

Planning on adoption in the next 3-5 years. Ethiopia is one of the countries we are considering.

We have adopted 2 children from Ethiopia. They are doing extremely well here in Spokane, WA. Both of them are interested in returning to Ethiopia someday and wanting ti help people in their home country.

Please consider the underlying purpose of providing loving, safe and stable homes for the orphaned children of Ethiopia by reconsidering your plan and partner with governments, NGOs and foundations in order to keep the belief that a loving, caring and stable home is the foundation for the next generation of responsible citizens and world leaders.

I have witnessed the immense good which is the result of Ethopian addoption..... My business partner has addopted two wonderfull twin boys from Ethopia and both the lives of the boys and the parents will be enriched forever.... The future lives of the boys are now bright and limitless..... These children deserve every opportunity they can take and addoption is clearly the single most important thing that can happen in their lives... Do not close this wonderfull opportunity for them....

Every orphaned child deserves a chance to be adopted and if you reduce intercountry adoption it will tragically limit their chances to have a happy and wonderful life! Don't do that to these special children!

God has sent angels (Andrew and Courtney) to be a blessing to a child and I pray the this blessing comes forth. As well as other parents that are in line to adopt.

This couple has inspired me to be interested in adoption my husband and I do not have any children, and there come a time that you look aroung your home and you say I could give a child a better life. So please do not stop this process for these families.

All things are possible through Christ who strengthens me - Philippians 4:13

Please allow Ethiopian adoptions! We want to give these children a bright future so that they can make a difference in this world!

In an effort to help children globally I pray that the forces that administer to legislation that govern adobption processs will act quickly and agressively towards freeing up barriers that allow good folks to take on desired positions of parenthood. The children of the world need to be loved now so that love can be established for thier future and that they can spread that love to the world.

We URGE you to change your decision to reduce international adoptions by 90%. There are so many loving homes ready for these children and it would be a tragedy to place children who are wanted and loved into a system of orphanages that are already overcrowded!

Hello,
I know a family waiting to adopt a little girl. They desperately want to bring their daughter home. Please don't make them wait any longer.

Don't do this. There are thousands of families ready to adopt these kids, who will not have chance if you close the doors.

As an adoptive parent, I would like you to know that the children that come into our home are loved beyond belief. They become our children and we do everything we can to bless their lives. I hope you reconsider your decision to limit intercountry adoption. Thank you.

We are the proud parents of our Ethiopian son and are waiting to bring home our Ethiopian daughter. We have done our best to give back to Ethiopia by returning to the country for missions work. Please reconsider these changes...we know that the improvements sought can be made through joint effort and compromise.

These children need homes and this is not the answer! Please reconsider your decision. There must be a better way!

There are so many bad things happening in the world today. Let's not prevent those that are trying to do good by these children. It's not like they're just coming over snatching kids. It is quite a process emotionally and financially. This comes from one who is a close personal friend of a family who just went through this process.

We want the adoptions to continue.

Please help the well-meaning, hopeful parents in the US and other countries provide the love and care to the children of Ethiopia that the children so rightfully deserve.

Children should not be used for your countries political gains. Let the children have a wonderful life with loving parents.

Please don't deny these children a loving home!

Every child should have a family.

These children need a home and need to be loved no matter where it is. Adoptions need to be in the best interest of the children.

Please don't bar children in need from loving families. The most important thing a child needs is a family and a home so that they can be the beautiful people they came into this world to be! Orphaned children of Ethiopia deserves loving homes, wherever they may be.

Too many homeless orphans in Ethiopia. Not allowing them to be adopted is an early death sentence for many.

Please do not reduce the number of adoptions from Ethiopia. As one who has waited many years for children, please don't make it more difficult for individuals who long to bring children into their homes. People are ready to make a difference in these children's lives. Please do not deny or delay them.

PLEASE continue to allow adoptions - for the children's sake.

Our family adopted my brother from Ethiopia last year. I had the privilege of traveling with them to Ethiopia. It was a life changing experience. I pray that the children who live there will have the same privileges as my little brother and come to a family that loves them dearly.

Please don't deny millions of orphans the chance at having a real family. Support ethical adoption at all levels!

Let the kids get adoped.

It is so important for these children to recieve the gift of a loving and supportive family.

I have 2 beautiful cousins who were adopted from Ethiopia so please do not slow the international adoptions for these children!! There are wonderful/loving people who gladly want to open up their home & show them God's love to these precious Ethiopian babies/children!

Please consider the children - do not focus in on the bad that is happening with the adoptions - look at the good and look for ways to help more good families be able to give the children loving homes where they can grow to be outstanding leaders for tomorrow.

These children deserve the chance at having parents and a home to live in. While it's tragic when adoptions turns abusive, the majority, I would assume do not. Please do not take this opportunity at having a better life away from these precious children!

There are many wonderful families waiting for children to love and care for. And God knows there are so many children who need them! Please: Let them come together.

God Bless the children and God change this mans heart!

You need to allow people to adopt from outside the your country because your country cannot support these children.

Please allow the love and compassion to continue to flow

Adoption is good for children and the families who adopt them. It is also a wonderful cultural exchange and breaks down prejudices.

Lets think of solutions that will not hurt these children that need and deserve a loving home.

My husband & I are the proud parents of 2 internationally adopted children. Their health & education is what we live for. The love we share is a reward beyond measure. I respectfully beg you to afford the same to your precious children.

This family's care and loving home is a perfect haven for any child. A child from Ethiopia would be so blessed to have this opportunity at a beautiful new start in America. What joy each would bring to each other!! Much love to all parties involved in this life-changing decision process.

Lets think of solutions that will not hurt these children that need and deserve a loving home.

I have a friend in line to adopt one of your children. The child would have a wonderful life with loving parents. They have been waiting for this beautiful child for over a year. The child and the adoptive parents should not be delayed in their union. To do so would benefit no one.

We're cheering for these babies and children!!

Please allow adoption to families who truly care about the well-being of these children.

Children are GOLD.....

There are families here waiting to bring htese children into their lives and make them a member of their family. We are blessed to have two of these precious children in our family...

My friends Gail & Craig are trying to adopt from here!

Please think of the children who so desperately needs homes and families that truly want to love them and provide safe homes for them.

This is so tragic and is going to crush the hopes of so many loving and wonderful families who are eager to bring a baby into their lives. Please reconsider this misguided decision!

Please allow adoptions! The children of Ethiopia who have no homes deserve to be part of a loving family!

Please allow the journey of hope for both children in need of homes and adoptive parents to remain open and show that love knows no boundaries.

Please allow these precious children and their waiting families in America to be united for a life that would be better for both. Thank you.

:)

(:

-

There are thousands of children in need of good parents worldwide. Please continue allowing intercountry adoptions.

Please make changes to policies and strengthen the ethical standards in place to protect all involved in the adoption process, but please don't stop hundreds of kids from finding their forever families.

For the sake of the children please keep adoption open.

Wherever this is opportunity, there will be a few who choose to act in a corrupt manner. Please don't let that evil bring all good to an end. Childhood doesn't wait.

I have seen how the adoption of a child from Ethopia can save their life and bring both the child and adopted family so much joy and love and a future. Removing this option would be tragic.

There are good hearted people out there that are trying to adopt 3 siblings from Ethiopia and I pray that this will be temporary and those kids can have a mom and dad soon.

My dear friend is trying to adopt from Ethiopia and she and her husband will be great parents...please reconsider!

I love your country, and feel this would be a tragic move toward increased poverty, and would be devastating to the children awaiting adoption currently in Ethiopia. I also cannot imagine the economic impact, as our money that goes toward adoptions goes toward helping the people of Ethiopia with Education, health care, and other vital services. I have visited your country, and it has a special place in my heart. Please, don't consider this option.

love is waiting for these children!!!!! let them be helped and loved ...there are so many families wanting to help and love them!!!!!

Please do not reduce inter country adoptions. Too many children in the world are in need of a good home.

Please do not deprive these children of a home with adults who so want to be parents that they go through the rigours of an international adoption! I have two wonderful daughters adopted from Russia and we are all so much better off because of the cooperation of the governments in helping parents and children find the families they so want!

Signing on behalf of my sister who is hoping to adopt from Ethiopia.

Our country offers many wonderful, well qualified parents to the orphaned children of Ethiopia; please do not limit the process of adoption.

Adoption is such a positive thing! It allows children with no families to become a part of something wonderful! Please continue to allow more adoptions to be processed in Ethiopia!

I currently know 8 children who have been adopted by loving families here in the US and it breaks my heart that there are families waiting to adopt children now will not have the choice to give more children the love these 8 children now know. I know trafficking is a risk in the adoption process, but I stopping or slowing adoptions is not the answer, but rather better regulation or partnerships with trusted organizations who would have closer relationships with adoptive families.

We are so excited to bring our child up to remember and love Ethiopia and know his heritage. We want our family to be Ethiopian and American. Please continue the adoption process so that we can fulfill this dream!

I urge you for the sake of the children to reconsider. There are so many willing and able families from all parts of the world ready to care for these children. I am one of them. I stand beside you in your desire to ensure ethical adoptions are taken place and I urge you to consider the large number of ethical adoptions that are taken place.

Save the kids. What is more precious than a child?

These children need a chance to grow and become happy adults. Allowing these adoptions is vital to both their own human lives and humanity as a whole. Don't take that away from them.

These sweet babies need loving homes. Why wouldn't we want to provide them a safe, nurturing environment with approved parents who would sacrifice everything to give them a happy life?

Our family would not be complete without our sweet boy from Ethiopia!!!

These kids deserve a better life.

consider the children

My wife,daughter and her cousin and there family are waiting for this precious LIFE to love and take care of everday. How can you deny that LIFE the chance to live a life of love and attention that is desperatly needed for these children.

Please help these children get forever homes. There are many loving families waiting to adopt them.

i am a 6 year old waiting for a new cuzin to play with teach her how to ice skate ride a bike and just have fun with. please dont let me not have the chance to play with her. i have been waiting for over a year and cant wait to have fun with her. i am white and she will be black that duz not matter all that matters is that we all love her. XOXOXO

Please seek a solution that both eliminates corruption and allows parentless children to be welcomed quickly into adoptive homes.

We were starting the Guatemala program when it was shut down. Please don't do this to so many hopeful, loving parents.

I respectfully submit this petition because I know how important a family is to each individual child.

Please keep the best interests of the children uppermost in your mind and in your heart.

I have seen personally the benefits to these children of being adopted into a permanent loving home. Eliminate corruption, not adoptions.

"He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it." 1 Thes 5:24

We share your concerns about child trafficking, which is abhorrent and unacceptable. This approach, however, is NOT the way to fight child trafficking. PLEASE RECONSIDER YOUR RECENT REFORMS AND LET US WORK TOGETHER TO ERADICATE CHILD TRAFFICKING.

Please don't take away the privilege for us to have these wonderful children in our homes.

Please do not deny the children of Ethiopia who need the love of a family access to loving homes in America with families who long for an Ethiopian child. Making the process so restricted deprives both the children and the prospective parents!

Please allow these children to quickly go to the families who are waiting for them!

Please allow these children in need to be taken in to loving families. May God bless you and guide you as you decide on this policy.

please let adoptions continue so the children can find loving families to take care of them and have a chance to grow to help others like them.

Let us adopt childern that you dont feed or take care for in your courntry

We believe!

Please allow the kids to be adoted to loving families.

I urge you to reconsider this change in policy to enable more children to find permanent homes with families who desperately want to provide for them.

It's a tragedy that so many children and loving families will miss out being together because of this. My friends have waited so long to bring their little girl home and now they are being put on hold. It's insane!

Please have a heart for these children!

pro life!

this is a great support!

What a wonderful cause. Many Blessings.

Our daughter would have died in Ethiopia due to lack of available nutrition and medical care. She is now thriving thanks to her unselfish father's sacrifice to have her adopted.

We know that you care for your children and encourage safe and legal adoptions. Children need families! We want to assist your country in these efforts. Please allow the world community to work together with you on this issue. Cutting back so dramatically will just hurt children

Please do not stop adoptions already in process.

Please reconsider. My family has been blessed by Ethiopia.

Please reconsider your decision to reduce the number of intercountry adoptions by 90%.

This is absurd. There are families who are willing to give all that they have to help a child from this country. they are willing to give financially, emotionally and physically to give a child a life. they are not all capable of commiting any sort of abuse. they are loving inidividuals who are unable to have a child of their own or feel that they are doig good, helping a less fortunate individual by giving them a better life. what would come of the children that are staying in the orphanages?

There are better ways to stop corruption without making the children suffer. Keep your country open.

Intercountry Adoption

Please do not reduce the opportunity for these orphans to get love and a better life. Thanks to all the adoptions that have taken place in the years past, there are now thousands of Ethiopian kids growing up in loving households. I know a few of them.

Help my friends :)

Please don't take the love away from a needy child.

We have 2 adopted grandchildren from Ethiopia that just arrived 3 months ago into a loving family. We love your country and urge you to continue to allow your orphans to be adopted as they have been. Not only does adoption of this kind benefit the children but I think also brings the world closer together.

Please serve the best interests of the children by letting good people adopt them!

Please consider the ramifications of what your action could lead to. Children are our future. Helping them in every way possible is not only their right, but the future of your country depends on it.

Please do not reduce the intercountry adoption. We would love to adopt a child from Ethiopia and raise the child as our own!

I am signing in support of Craig and Gail Backus. Good parents that want to raise a second child and for orphans that NEED homes. When things make sense, why create barriers??? Children shelter, food, clothing and LOVE – they need parents and GOOD parents want children.

My niece is Sadie Bizunesh. She was at Hannah's Hope this time last year. I will be praying for these children.

We have recently adopted two precious boys and pray that other orphans who need permanent homes will continue to be placed (and not have a huge backlog if only 5 cases can be processed per day).

All those kids want is a loving family. I don't think there's any good reason to deny anyone of that desire.

Please don't stop adoptions without a plan to care for these children. Let them go to loving homes.

We can make a difference together!

We are parents of a wonderful Ethiopian prince and hope to expand our family through Ethiopia. We support NGO's and give humanitarian aid to your country because of our heart for your children. Please consider our heartfelt wishes.

Please allow adoptions of these precious children to continue.

Please give careful consideration to what has been proposed. The first and foremost criteria should be the child! What is best? Make sure that a loving, stable, permanent family is the measure of success, REGARDLESS of where that family is.

Please allow those families who are in process already to finalize adoptions and bring their children home!

Please consider that these children need permanent families. I apreciate your wanting to protect the children but the long term consequences of this decision need to be weighed. Who will now take care of these children.

I appreciate the concern of the government to maintain a high standard of ethics in adoption, but to punish the good agencies (and the children and families they serve) along with the bad ones is unfair and tragic.

Changes may be necessary, but they must be made in a thoughtful and compassionate way.

I desire that the children without parents would be able to be adopted by loving parents in the U.S. or other countries where they will be provided for and loved.

I know one of the adopting families that has waited 4 years for a child from Ethiopia, now it seems they will wait even longer. This family, like many others waiting, I'm sure, is a loving and deserving family. This adoption is a selfless act and they are being punished for opening up their hearts and homes to a child in need. I hope the Ministry will reconsider and let families adopt these children and give them a better chance at life and love.

Children need families

My cousin in TN adopted last year from Ethopia and this little girl is getting the best care in all aspects of her life. Physically, mentally, and emotionally she has blossomed. Hopefully your board will consider opening this back up for loving parents to give back in this special way by helping these children.

I fear this huge reduction in adoptions will create a much larger problem and that this issue can be worked on and at the same time, without compromising what is in the best interests of the children.

In my prayers

Please allow the children from Ethiopia to be adopted at the same percentage that they were years ago. Do not reduce their chance of having a secure, loving home.

My wife and I have always felt called to help children less fortunate than us through adoption. Children require so much love and support as it is that if it becomes even more of a hardship to adopt it may be beyond our means to do so.

Please continue to allow intercountry adoption. The children are loved by their adoptive parents and what more than love of a parent could you ask for?

Please give these children a chance at a better life filled with love, hope and promise.

We have close friends that have adopted a beautiful little boy from Ethiopia are giving him a loving home. When they brought him home, he was malnurished and delayed in many areas of development. Now he is healthy and very energetic. His development is on target and will be attending preschool in the fall. He has had opportunities that he never would of had if they did not adopt him. Please allow families that are not able to have children to adopt beautiful and needy children of Ethiopia.

THINK OF WHAT IS BEST FOR THE CHILDREN.

Please do not reduce inter country adoption from Ethiopia!!!!

With so many children orphaned on the African continent, it seems it would be too costly to the government in Ethiopia to care for the children in the way a child deserves to be cared for.

I have internationally adopted two wonderful children who now have an opportunity to be part of a forever family, participate in school and after school activities, and have a future filled with love, family, friends, education and the chance to pursue anything they choose. Please allow your children the benefit and protection of a loving family.

There are loving families who simply want to provide love and a secure home for children who otherwise would grow up in an institution. Please allow them this opportunity.

Please don't do this...think of all the children waiting for forever homes and the love they will be missing..crack down on the ugly part of adoption not the good and the wonderful families with a home waiting...

There are loving families who simply want to provide love and a secure home for children who otherwise would grow up in an institution. Please allow them this opportunity.

Please were waiting for our child with much love in our hearts

Friend of the Backus family in the process of trying to adopt a child from Ethophia.

Life is not perfect but children desparatly need parents no matter what their color, race etc.

It is amazing how governments around the world seem to be so caring about their people especially in Africa and yet they don't care even a little bit about them. All they want to do is to sound politically right and yet they do so little to alleviate the hardships they go through. To me being politically right is just another name for candid hypocrisy. How many orphans have died here in Africa just because they are denied the very basics of life through corruption, nepotism, and
bad governance

please let us help the children .

The Ministry’s plan to reduce intercountry adoption by 90% is a tragic, and unnecessary reaction to concerns of isolated abuses in the intercountry adoption process.

I support the Ministry’s goal of ensuring ethical adoptions that serve the best interest of children and serve all vulnerable children & families.

I respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry adoption.

Please allow children to have families that care for them.

Please give these children a chance to live life to the fullest

Please give these children a chance in homes with families who love them.

Mark 10:14-16; 1 John 5:2

These children need homes. Yes, measures have to be taken to make sure all facts are true, but if you are working with a legitimate agency, they should verify the truth.

Please allow orphaned children to be adopted into loving homes. Every child deserves a family.

Please increase the number of adoptions. It would be great for the orphans of Ethiopia as well as for the people who want the adopt.

I pray the concentration be on the best interest of the children in your country.

Think about the difference of a family and home life rather than life in an orphanage without daily hugs, encouragement and safety with a sense of belonging.

What you are doing is wonderful..

Please reconsider opening up the adoption. Limiting will only cause more children to be homeless.

We are all responsible for god's children and we are all children of God.

Please give these children the loving homes they deserve

We LOVE the children of Ethiopia! Please reconsider and allow your little ones that need parents to fill the gap in our hearts to have children.

Please allow these children to move on to their permanent homes.

Please allow the children the chance to find good homes. There are so many good people in the United States that are waiting to offer a child the life he or she deserves.

Please keep these adoptions open.

Please continue to do what is best for the most vulnerable children in the nation. Continue to allow their ethical adoption into loving families.

We have 2 new granddaughters from Ethiopia. They have blessed our entire family, and are enjoying their new country.

We have 2 new granddaughters from Ethiopia. They have blessed our entire family, and are enjoying their new country.

Please reconsider the reduction in itercountry adoptions. There are many loving families that want to provide permanent home to these vulnerable children.

I believe a change in the law will not aid the best interests of the children.

If it can improve the quality of life for a child, then it shouldn't even be a question.

I fully trust that everything this couple does will be in the best interests of the child. If the child must move away from his or her homeland, I trust that the parenting couple will do everything possible to ensure a happy and healthy life for the child. There should be no struggle against this adoption. The parenting family represents new hope, opportunity and a healthy upbringing for a child from your country. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,

Andrew Thomas
208-859-5932

My wife and I would appreciate your support of ethical intercounty adoption.

for the sake of the children please reverse your policy asap

I support this petition and hereby respectfully request the Ethiopian Government to approve the adoption of those children who have homes and family waiting for them.

Please consider how important this is for the children that need families.

remove the red tape so these children, God's possession, to be saved.

Keep your heads held high, and make this happen.

We can save these children!

I am half rench and African.
Please help all the chids who can have a familly out side from Africa.
adoptions and expand services to more families and children.

My best friend is adopting two sweet Ethiopian children.

There are wonderful families who would love to care for and love little children. Neil and Kathryn Lewis are two parents who would be ideal for raising a child who needs parents and who would love them and take care of them.

Our son and his wife have adopted a daughter from Ethiopia. What a blessing it has been for her and for our extended family. We hope that more people have an opportunity to adopt a child and to help the many orphans that need a family to belong to. Thank you so much for your consideration.

My daughter adopted an Ethiopian baby last year and she is in a loving, caring home and is love by all of us. Please do not shut off these orphan children from finding homes like my little grand daughter has found with our family.

I am in the process of adopting from Ethiopia and have two successful adoptions already. I would love to give another child a loving home

I am looking forward to being the grandma of a little girl from Africa. It would be so sad to close off the opportunity for little ones in great need to be adopted into loving homes.

All three of my children were adopted from Ethiopia. They are the most love children in the world. My family and church treat them like royalty and royalty they are. Their lives have enriched us beyond words, but we have given them the ability to enjoy the advantages of being raised in a responsible Christian family. They would have either died or grown in poverty. Please do not deprive other Ethiopia children a chance to be loved in America. Please do not deprive parents of children.

Why would this happen? I hope not, my sister in law is adopting her son and this will not only break her heart but even worse be tragic for her son if this is passed. Please don't do it.

Happy to sighn this petition

This doesn't sound good and will restrict hardworking honest famililies from providing good homes to children who desperately need it. Please don't cut adoption and think of the children.

My husband and I have talked about adopting, but do not currently feel led to do so. We do know many wonderful parents that have adopted children (some from Ethiopia),within our family, our local community and our extended network of friends from the various places we have lived with my husband's occupation. There are indeed cases in the world of abuse, but there are so many more cases where there are just two parents that want to show a child love and the sense of being a part of a family.

This would be an utter tragedy for the orphaned children of Ethiopia. No one likes bad things to happen to children...and there needs to be strict guidelines to make sure no child trafficking occurs. However, cutting intercountry adoption by 90% only means more children will suffer, not less. PLEASE don't deny those children the love & care that only a forever family can provide.

my cousin dr. matt linam is a parent that adopted a child from ethiopia. i support him and his wife about the quest to help these children get the best the world can offer. i am not able to adopt at this time but i believe it is vital that the allowance of families that can adopt remain high so many of these children can get the best possible care in their lives. please dont drop the number to 5 children a day to adopt. please keep the number high for these children can get a good home life.

Please allow the children who need the security and love of a stable family to have that. The outcome of these adoptions will be felt for years to come in the way these children give back to their native Ethiopia. I know we say these families are giving these children a better life, and that is stated by our definition, however I don't believe you can classify a life without parental love, stability and security as better. Please don't hurt the future of these children.

Please consider giving these precious babies a chance to be loved and secure. We have some wonderful friends who have been saving for years to adopt specifically out of Ethiopia, they have been longing for that baby ever since they were married.
Please reconsider.

Please reconsider your decision to limit intercountry adoption. There is much love waiting for children without parents.

Please reconsider the fact that many people just want to love children. Corruption needs to be found out and stopped!! Keeping children from finding loving homes and parents from having loving children will not stop corruption! Please don't stop intercountry adoptions!!

As an adoptive mother, I beg the Ethiopian government to allow those wonderful children to be raised by the loving caring families waiting to adopt them. Every child deserves a "forever" family!
May Our Heavenly Father bless all of those involved in this worthy cause.

I have seen how happy and well adjusted these beautiful children are. They can only hope for a life filled with food, love and a wonderful home.

Please reconsider this ruling. We have two beautiful Ethiopian children and can't imagine life without them. Raising adoption fees by 10-20% would allow for additional Ministry employees to handle the adoptions and care for the needs of children who can't be adopted. Tighten regulations allowing only approved agencies, but please don't reduce adoptions by 90%. Thank you for your consideration.

1 more closer!

I support whatever gives the Orphans a safe and positive atmosphere for there development and happiness.

Please reconsider...for both the hopeful parents waiting abroad and the many children needing secure, loving, caring family.

Please reconsider this decision! Thank you!

my prayers are for all our children ... for their safety and love and care. Karen

All children need a home!

I trust you want what will be best for the children of your nation. I also join others in praying you will reconsider your decision so that the desired regulation may happen, and the children will have loving homes.

My sister in law is adopting children from Ethiopia and she and her husband are good people. This decision is tragic.

I have a niece who was adopted from Ethiopia...bless her and her family... they have saved her from a life in an over crowded orphange.... all children deserve a loving home!

Please, please, please do not do this. Many children will needlessly suffer because of it!!

We respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry adoption. Rather than eliminate the right of Ethiopian children to a permanent family, we encourage the Ministry to accept the partnerships offered by governments, NGOs, and foundations.

Such partnerships could increase the Ministry’s capacity to regulate service providers, ensure ethical adoptions and expand services to more families.

Let the children be adopted to loving homes

I do hope you find a way to continue to allow Ethiopian children that need homes to continue to go to good adoptive families.

WE are a family in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. We have so much love in our hearts and have been preparing our home for our future child. The thought of the process slowing down even more makes us so sad, to think of our child waiting longer and longer for their forever family. We are asking to please keep the process at the pace it was previously. Thanks

Dear P.M. Zenawi,

My wife and I are from the U.S and have 2 adopted children. We went to extreme lengths, significant expense and endured emotional distress to adopt. We urge you not to make the process more difficult or complicated than it already is on adoptive parents.

Our 2 adopted, bi-racial children are healthy and have easy access to a doctor; they attend a private school and we save for their college tution; my wife and I work from home and heap love on them.

Regards,
Trey Camp

We have been very blessed to know Luci Kollar. She came home to her family about two years ago. Please continue to let children find permanent, loving homes. Our church family is so blessed.

Children are in need of families and there are many wonderful families ready and willing to adopt. Please connect these children and families so that both can enjoy the benefits of health and happy lives together.

WE are a family in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. We have so much love in our hearts and have been preparing our home for our future child. The thought of the process slowing down even more makes us so sad, to think of our child waiting longer and longer for their forever family. We are asking to please keep the process at the pace it was previously. Thanks

please include my name as signing this petition

Praying that God will protect and provide for all of the children without homes.

There are so many wonderful families waiting to adopt and give these amazing children a wonderful home and opportunities in life. Please give them this chance by not holding back adoptions.

Thank you..The Taylor family.

There are so many grateful parents in America who have adopted from overseas. Please allow us to continue to care for those children who do not have families.

Please allow these children a loving home and an opportunity to prosper in life.

From personal experience we know the huge positive difference belonging to a family makes in the lives of orphans.

Please allow loving families to care for these precious children and give them a permanent home!

Please find a better way to get children into families as efficiently as possible.

Adoptions are the reason that we oppose abortion. Fight for life. Basic human rights for all, that includes allowing adoptions for kids who are homeless and orphans.

Our grandaughter is adopted from Ethiopia. We cannot imagine life without her and are so blessed to have her in our family.

I feel that if it is in the best intrest of the child then it is better for everyone involved. If a parent cannot give a child the proper education or food Or a home then shouldn't someone that has these abilities be able to step up.

Please, keep Ethiopia OPEN for international adoptions.

Childreny should be in loving homes where they are wanted and cared for. Don't make them live without that longer!

Childreny should be in loving homes where they are wanted and cared for. Don't make them live without that longer!

I care about little ones not having a mom or dad. I want these little ones to be in a family at any age.

Benefits outweigh the drawbacks!

There are so many good families who want to adopt and who can give children a stable, loving home in which they can grow physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Please allow these families to do just that.

I support the Ministry’s goal of ensuring ethical adoptions that serve the best interest of children and serve all vulnerable children & families.

I respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry
adoption. Rather than eliminate the right of Ethiopian children to a permanent family, I encourage the Ministry to accept the partnerships offered by governments, NGOs, and foundations.

Children are a blessing from the Lord. Please do not deny your orphans or families around the world the blessing of making their families whole!

Please do not turn away love, a healthy life, a happy home, and a good education for the children of your country.

So many of your babies have to live in squalor in your own orphanages. Why would you slow their adoption into a better life?

Please help more orphans get to loving families!

TO CUT INTERCOUNTRY ADOPTION BY 90% IS A IRRESPONSIBLE REACTION TO A SERIOUS PROBLEM.IT MAY SEEM THAT SOME REPONSE IS BETTER THAN NO RESONSE,BUT THIS COULDNT BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH.I AM NOT POSTIVE BUT I ASSUME THE GOAL IS TO HAVE ORPHANS PLACED WITH A LOVING AND CARING FAMILY NO MATTER WHERE THAT FAMILY RESIDES.PLEASE CONSIDER ALTERNATIVE WAYS TO PLACE CHILDREN IN A HOME USING AGENCIES THAT CAN BE MONITORIED AND VERIFIED AS EHTICAL AND ACTING IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THE CHILD.

This is a wonderful family.

Please reconsider your decision to discontinue adoptions. There are 1,000's of families waiting to give your orphaned children loving homes!

We have many wonderful friends that adopt and provide great lives for people and would like to continue to be able to offer that.

Please do not drastically and indiscriminately reduce the adoptions from Ethiopia, particularly from the agencies that have practiced in ethical manners historically. Without adoptions many children will loose the opportunity to unite with loving families. Please reconsider your process.
Respectfully, Dr. Nike Mourikes

Respectfully, we ask you to not reduce the amount of adoptions by 90%. There are a great number of children who desperately need a warm bed, food, and arms to hold them. And there are a great number of families who desire to do this for these children. Please make a way for the children and the families to come together. Thank you.

I believe that ethical adoption of children in need is beneficial to Ethiopian orphans.

Hope this Helps!!!

These children deserve the right to a loving home. Why stop them from experiencing that?

I know a few very sweet families who are patiently waiting for their baby from Ethiopia. They are amazing people of God and any child would be extremely blessed to become a member of their family.

Please continue to give the hope for a better life to the orphans in Ethiopia by continuing to allow adoptions. I am the proud grandma of a former orphan from Ethiopia. My grandson is greatly loved and nutured by many members of his adopted extended family. He will also be fortunate to be given a quality education. He came from a place of no hope as an orphan to a loving home with many bright possibilities for his future. Please keep adoptions open.

Please allow continued adoptions!

I know so many beautiful families who would be negatively affected by this change. Let's be a part of helping every child into their forever homes.

There are so many loving families who desire to adopt children who really need parents and a home and hope! Please don't deprive them of that by cutting adoptions!!

Please do not limit adoptions. Increase the screening process, but do not stop children from having the opportunity to thrive with a loving family,

Please don't reduce the number of adoptions. All these children deserve loving homes. Please make that possible.

Rather than eliminate the right of Ethiopian children to a permanent and loving family, I respectfully ask the Ministry to please work with the international community that shares your goals to make the system safe and ethical, and provide loving homes for the good of children in need.

I agree with the intention to stop the abuse
However, this will cause many children to be in the orphanages much longer and who have loving couple ready to adopt. My daughter and her husband were expecting to have their child by July. they even have her room ready and her name picked out. This could delay the procedure up to a year. Please reconsider a better alternative

My brother and sister-in-law are in the process of adopting two babies from Ethiopia. They are longing for these children and will provide an amazing home and life for them. We are longing to bring welcome these new nephews into our extended family as well. Please, for the sake of these two baby boys, don't stop the inter country adoption. There are families waiting for these children.

Let these orphans go to families that will love them!

Most adoptions are by loving parents who desperately want to help a destitute child. Please allow intercountry adoptions to continue.

We are concerned about the welfare of the children and look forward to bringing our child home.

We are the parents of an adopted child and also the grandparents of an adopted child. We strongly support adoption and believe the Ethiopean government should work to expedit the adoption process for couples who have proven eligible for adoption.

Please reconsider this decision. So many people around the world want to give loving homes to the children of Ethiopia.

Ethical adoptions have long served the best interests of children everywhere. A cooperative approach to intercountry adoption can be very effective in furthering the goal of providing every child a loving family environment.

These beautiful children are finding loving families in other countries - without this love they will grow up with so many social problems that will effect the future of ethiopia.

All for love. Love needs to reign over all this.

We want ethical adoptions to continue... for the sake of the true orphan, they are not to be punished!

We are the parents of an adopted child and also the grandparents of an adopted child. We strongly support adoption and believe the Ethiopean government should work to expedit the adoption process for couples who have proven eligible for adoption.

Please reconsider your decision. Think about the children.

Please give the orphaned or unwanted children of Ethiopia the chance to be adopted internationally. The system and the people involved aren't all perfect, but it will surely be a tragedy to deny these children the chance to become part of a loving family.

Keep international adoption alive in Ethiopia for the sake of those children who really are orphans and have no other options.

Since restricting the adoption will cause more problem than doing any good for the children, Please reverse your decision.

A good home with a mother and a father that really want a child is so much better than keeping them warehoused in orphanages.

We adopted from Ethiopia 2 years ago and we were starting the process to adopt again. We have given thousands of dollars as an adoptive family back to Ethiopia. Our son lights up our world and we have given new hope to his world. We respect the Ministry greatly and kindly request that you reconsider your hard stance on intercountry adoption.

All that matters is that the children have a full time family that will love them and take care of them every day. Don't deny them of that great opportunity.

This is a tragedy!!! These children need homes, and there are families who would love to help! Seems like a no brainer to me!!!

Please allow loving families the opportunity to provide a loving and caring environment for these precious children.

Please do not reduce the number of adoptions this drastically. All we want to do is take care of orphans in need by giving them a loving family!

Please allow the children to be adopted.

Please reconsider this move. There are many wonderful families that can be blessed with needy children from your country

I am a living prove that giving a chance for child not only will help that child or the adopting family it will give hope for the rest of the child's orphanhood , please give those kids waiting a chance

Please help these children find forever homes!

God help the children of Ethiopia.

As an adoptive parent it grieves my heart to think of any child being without a family for a single moment longer than absolutely necessary!

Please don't limit the adoptions - children are thriving and the Ethiopian spirit and culture grows through the children around the world.

God Bless these children and continue allowing their adoptions as quickly as possible into loving families.

Please reconsider this policy change to decrease the number of Ethiopian orphans that are processed and given a chance to have a forever, permanent home. My 3 1/2 year old daughter came home six months ago from Ethiopia after being in an orphanage for 2 1/2 years. She is thriving at home and we are both so blessed. I cannot even imagine what her life would be like without a home. Please allow as many of the children is similar situations the same opportunity to find loving families.

FVB4

For the sake of the children, please reconsider and give them the gift of loving families.

Please do what is right.

The children need families.

I respectfully urge the Ministry of Women’s, Children's and Youth Affairs to reconsider its plan and to partner with governments, NGOs and foundations to achieve their goals and avoid the coming tragedy for children and families.

We have adopted our son from Ethiopia, and children need a home with parents and love. It is so important, and I am praying for Ethiopia and all the children who are orphaned and need love.

Please give the Rose's the opportunity to give a child a happy and healthy home where they will be loved.

Do not put road blocks in the way of orphans finding forever families. We all want ethical adoptions to continue.

My prayers are with you.

Every Child has the right to happiness. They did not ask to be born. Give them a chance to have a normal life. I hope that a solution can be found and children not have to spend time in institutions.

As a parent of an internationally adopted child, I know first hand the benefits to both the child, the family and the nations involved. Please allow the adoption program to continue as it is for your nations children, the adoptive families, and for the relationships and understandings between the nations involved.

Thoroughly screen the potential parents, but please do not close the doors to international adoption of your precious orphan children.

Thank you for your consideration!

I support the Ministry’s goal of ensuring ethical adoptions that serve the best interest of children and serve all vulnerable children & families. There are many great families in America that represent this goal!

Let's help bring these babies home to their families.

please

Please reconsider.

Our friends will love the baby they adopt as if it was their own. Please give them the chance. Thank you.

Adoption changed me and my sister's lives and i wish for every child that is given up or abandoned to have the same opportunity to a loving and caring family.

for the children who NEED homes.

Please do not slow adoptions!! There are so many babies wanted here in the United States. We have a lot of love to give.

Please let these children continue to find loving homes in other countries.

Please do what is best for these children...find them a forever loving home through adoption!

Love my new little Granddaughter from Ethiopia. Hope many more children can be adopted.

Please let needy children in your country be adopted by loving parents.

Please reconsider cutting adoptions..there are so many loving families here that can't have children of their own and would love to give the children of your country a loving home.

I know of many families who are waiting for a child to love and care for. This decision is tragic for many families whose hearts long for a child.

Please make the "wait period" for placing these little babies with their adoptive parents as short as possible so that they can bond quickly with them. This is the very best way to show that you really care these special little babies.

Josh and Kelly Johnson will make wonderful parents to a child in need. We pray that this will come soon for them.

Sirs, do not let the misdeeds of a few, cloud your vision of helping children. Punish the culprets, not the children and the familys that are going about it the correct way. My son and his wife are one of the loving couples that would be heart broken if their adoption would be slowed downed or canceled. Because of the transgressions of others.

my cousin is so thrilled to have little solomon. there was a lot of going back and forth to Ethiopia, but it was so worth it to them. They even want to adopt a little sister.

My wife and I have anxiously awaited the day we will be grand parents to our grand daughter from Ethopia. We have watched our son and daughter in law's desire to become first time parents met with many disappointments over the year. We thought God would finally grant their wish for a wonderful child from Ethopia. We pray that our prayers will not go unanswered and the day will come when our wish for the gift from Ethopia will be in our lives.

I'm signing for those who have no voice.

Wonderful people are waiting to give a child the best life possible. Please do not limit the children's possibility at a wonderful life!

Please don't allow adoptions to slow. The special needs kids need medicine and help. Families are waiting on their precious children and love them already.

If this law would have been in effect four years ago I would not have my gorgeous little cousin in my life. Please know that adoption is a painstaking process and many look to international adoption before domestic. Please help our family and more.

My nephew was adopted from Addis Ababa at the age of 12. He's the light of our life!!!

Please consider the negative impact going through with this change will have on the chances on children being able to be placed in loving and caring homes abroad.

If you care about the children and what's best for them, you will allow those with yearning loving hearts to adopt them.

My son and daughter in law have a beautiful, loving home awaiting the arrival of their child from Ethopia. They have waited a long time to become parents and for this gift from Ethopia. They have been preparing their lives and home for the day they will bring her home. I know the life this child will have will be full of love and always be taught to be proud of her heritage. Their choice to adopt from Ethopia was made after being around other wonderful children from country.

Please accept the partnerships offered by governments, NGOs, and foundations to support adoptions of Ethiopian children.

Thank You

These Ethiopian orphans deserve the love of a permanent home.

pls don't decreas adoption

Please consider the many lives who have been changed for the most incredible good as a result of their being adopted OUT of Ethiopia and what a blessing their lives are to their new forever families and communities. Please consider other ways to solve the problems in your country than cutting adoptions. There are other solutions.

this is terrible

I am the parent of a 16 year old adopted child from a foreign country. We are just one of thousands of families who have made our home available to children who would have otherwise lived in abject poverty. I am also the pastor of a dear family who has been waiting for years for the day when they could provide Ethiopian children with a home and hope for the future. It's tragic that so many are being punished because of the actions of a few. Please repeal this decision.

PLEASE ALLOW THESE INNOCENT ORPHANS A CHANCE AT A LOVING HOME!!!!

Please allow the adoption of children from Ethiopia to come to the wonderful families praying to give them a new home in the United States. Please do not change the letters of recommendation from 50 to 5.

Please consider continuing adoptions at a greater rate. I have friends who are waiting for their child.

The Ministry’s plan to reduce intercountry adoption by 90% is a tragic, unnecessary and a disproportionate reaction to concerns of isolated abuses in the intercountry adoption process.

We support the Ministry’s goal of ensuring ethical adoptions that serve the best interest of children and serve all vulnerable children & families.

We respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry ad

Please don't punish children whose lives have been difficult enough for the misdeeds of a few. Many want to help in the most ethical ways possible.

Please consider allowing more international adoptions. We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of our friends' baby girl who is Ethiopian. She will have a wonderful, loving, and safe home.

These young children need loving homes!

Thank you for your consideration.

Thanks to Ethiopias willingness to allow her orphans to be adopted our daughter has a forever family that loves and adores her. She has a healthy and vibrant future ahead. Thank you for allowing this and I pray that you continue to allow the children to find their families. From the 2500 children adopted in 2010 out of 2 million children left behind....it is obvious that adoption is serving the need of only a small fraction of children. To reduce it even further would be a tragedy.

These children need homes and there are so many willing people out there waiting for their adoption to go through. Give these kids a chance at a future.

Please consider how the children will be affected by this decision.

May God grant you His wisdom, and strength to do right!
Blessings, Heather =]

Please let these children have loving homes!

Please allow these adoptions to take place. It is not in the children's best interest to be housed for years in orphanages while they could be in a loving christian home.

Respectfully I ask to the Minister to help parents and children to form a family with joy and love simply mantaing the old procedure and avoiding the suffering that is conncected with this new rules.
thanks so much for your acknowledge

Please allow your children the privilege of a wonderful home to those reputable persons desiring adoption. Thank you!

Every child needs a home and a family whether near or far.

Do not delay the ethiopian adoption process. Than you.

please dont drop the rate.

Please allow they children to be placed with their forever families.
Thank you.
Heather Petro

I have many friends who have adopted children from Ethiopia. My prayer is that the practice is able to continue.

My daughter and son in law are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. We know God has chosen our granddaughter and will keep her safe, but we want to bring her home soon.

Please reconsider international adoption.

Please consider fast tracking adoptions as these children need homes with loving parents!

These kids have did not chose their living condition. If there are families that can care for them and and love them as their own them they should get the chance.

IT'S TIME TO LIFT THE BAN ON ADOPTION

As the aunt of a child recently adopted from Ethiopia, I urge you to consider the millions of young lives that are affected by this decision.

I am a friend of Craig and Gail Backus who are in the process of trying to adopt a child from Ethiopa. They will make a child very happy, and give him or her lots of love.

These children deserve to be in homes of family's who will love them. Why would you want these children of God to placed in conditions beyond their means. You need to protect them!

Please do not stop loving and wonderful adoptive parents from bringing these children into safe and blessed homes!

Please lift the ban and allow couples to adopt the beautiful children of Ethiopia.

Two of our sons were adopted from Ethiopia in 2008. We are so grateful for the gift of our sons into our family, and can not imagine our family without them.

Please give these children a chance for a life with a loving family, no matter where in the world they are! God created us all and gave us all the capacity to love.

There are so many loving, caring people waiting for their adoptive children, please reconsider your decision of reducing adoptions. Give these children a chance to be loved and taken care of. Thank you.

I implore you to consider the consequences of such action. There are many successful adoptions and many loving families that would tragically suffer

BRING LUCY HOME!

We are a family brought together and blessed by adoption. There are many wonderful people just waiting to give homes to children who need them so they too can be become a family. Please give people like us that chance, and give children a loving home and family who need one. Thank you.

We are the proud parents of a beautiful girl that lived in an orphanage until age 5 and a half. She is happy and healthy and full of love and joy in her new family. A loving family is very important for the happy development of children. Please continue to let healthy, secure people adopt children who need their love and care.

It is my hope that the children in need continue to be placed in loving homes.

Lets bring Joleigh home.....where she belongs!

PLEASE ALLOW THESE CHILDREN TO BE ADOPTED INTO LOVING HOMES IN THE USA! THEY NEED LOVE!

Please help children continue to be adopted quickly and not delay their happiness from forming family bonds!

I was an orphan myself, so i would endorse this petition because i know what's like to have no family.

Do not rob the young children from loving homes and bright futures.

I plan to adopt one day, and this is extremely disappointing! There are families all over the world without children and would be absolutely ecstatic to give a child in need a home!

Love, warmth, shelter, and nourishment
to an otherwise starving, lonely child-how can anyone say no?

I HOPE THAT ETHIOPIA WILL ATTACK THE REAL PROBLEMS INVOLVED (UNSCRUPULOUS PRACTICES, CORRUPTION, ETC.), RATHER THAN A "BLANKET" APPROACH THAT WILL HURT THE ORPHANS INVOLVED BY GREATLY REDUCING THEIR CHANCES OF A BETTER AND GOOD LIFE.
THANK YOU FOR THE GOOD THINGS THAT YOU DO FOR THE CHILDREN.

I wish to support ethical adoptions in Ethiopia, these children need parents.

I am praying for wisdom for you in your decisions on inter-country adoption. It is complicated for sure, and many people are affected by these decisions. May God bless you as you seek to work for the good of all.

This should not happen when there are so many willing, loving families waiting to adopt these children in need.

Please allow the orphans of Ethiopia to be adopted into families.

I know personally a fine family wanting and waiting to give a child love, comfort and security. The wait has already been too long. Let's speed the child to its caring, loving family!

No child makes the choice to come into this world; that is made for them. But every child DOES deserve a fighting chance at being loved. Having a family to love and cherish them. Please dont take that from them!

The adoption of children from Ethiopia by families from other countries insures those who are orphaned a family of which to be a part and gives them opportunities they would never be able to have otherwise.

Please keep up with the adoptions there are so many couples who want children and can't.

Help these helpless kids.

There are so many children in need of loving, secure homes- I'm praying that this decision to reduce inter-country adoptions is reversed.

Mr. Zenawi, Please reconsider the policy to limit adoptions from Ethiopia.Although my family is upset about the extended wait. Our hearts go out to the children who must wait longer in orphanges and the parents who are not able to turn to service agencies due to lack of availability.We are honest and caring people who want to make a home for a child.We feel such love for Ethiopia and its people. Please give us a chance to make right the terrible wrong that was committed in the past. God Bless.

My nephew and his wife live their lives serving and loving our God, our Heavenly Father. I know that they are ready to be parents as God has called them. My prayer is that what has happened will not prevent people like Adam and Laura from adopting a child because I know that child will be raised in a Godly home.

We have a handsome grandson that is a wonderful example what love can do. Please don't let these children die on the streets.

We have had all of our paperwork in Ethiopia for our adoption since November. Everyday, we feel is one less day to wait for her to join our family who already loves her. Please don't slow down the adoption processes for families like us who are anxiously waiting to meet our children who we will love forever.

Please do not allow Ethiopian children to wait longer to be adopted or not be able to be adopted at all. There are many families able to provide safe and loving homes for these children.

Please allow JW and KC Godwin from Montgomery, AL adopt their little girl!!!!

5 a DAY???? A travesty.

Rather than slow downn - let's find a way to fund/employ the correct level of resources to support a more rigorous process.

please allow these children to find loving, supportive homes that will give them the best chance of survival

Let us consider the needs of those 90% of children who will be denied love and a home to call their own, and a chance to grow up with values and balance. Without this, you will only perpetuate the cycle of selfish, self-centered, me-first attitude you see in the adults who are presently in charge.

We adopted our daughters from Ethiopia in 2008. They are our greatest joy and we love them very dearly - as do our extended families and our friends. Our daughters are healthy, happy, and loved. We hope you will continue to allow other orphans to be adopted by loving families, and allow other families the privilege and honor of loving and treasuring these wonderful children as they deserve to be loved and treasured.

As the mother of a beloved adopted Chinese daughter, every bit as much a part of my heart as my four natural-born children, I beg you to carefully consider the plight of so many children who will miss out on having the love and stability of a family if you pursue this change in policy!

Please think of these little children who have done nothing to hurt anyone.

There is no necessary connection between international adoptions and corruption; nor is there any necessary connection between the stopping of international adoptions and the consequent rooting out of corruption. In fact, in Romania corruption and child trafficking, as well as abandonments have actually increased since international adoptions were blocked. And internal adoptions are not keeping up (as is usually the case).

Please allow wonderful families to adopt and give a loving home to these dear little babies. They will be loved and cared for very much. Given a great education and may someday come back to Bless Ethiopia.

All kids deserve the chance of having a loving family!

Please allow ethical agencies to facilitate adoptions of orphans by kind and healthy parents. My sister and brother-in-law are eager to share their lives with a child who needs them. Please provide them with the opportunity to give of themselves.

Please do not stop these kids from being adopted.

Children are not tokens in a gamble!

We are waiting on the referral of a young sibling group. We have been praying for our little ones for over a year and are so anxious to bring them home and provide lots of love, a good education, nutrious food, warm clothes, a comfortable bed, and did I mention lots of love? We want ethical adoptions. I am begging you to ensure these adptionis are ethical, but also to consider the many families and Ethiopian children that are ready for their forever homes.

No More Children suffering for adults dumb selfish greedy antics. Was in the works to adopt children from there!!!

Every child deserves to have love and a forever family from the day the arrive on earth. Please do make that happen.

please do not limit adoptions, these children need a home with a Mom and Dad.

Quit making it difficult for people wanting to improve the life of these children.

Our adoptive children are our lives. We can't imagine life without them. While we understand concerns, going through the right agencies such as Dillon SW in Arizona take great measures to place children with the right families. If we didn't have our children, our lives would not be complete.

Please consider allowing many more adoptions per day than the proposal calls for so those children awaiting forever families can be placed as soon as possible!

What will happen to the children that are left there with know one to care for them?

Please reconsider. Children need a home, not a lifetime in an orphanage.

Please allow the adoptions. This means so much to many people.

We appreciate the Ministry's concerns, but ask that they be addressed in a way that does not cause harm to the thousands of children who benefit from inter-country adoption.

As sad as I am for all of the parents awaiting their babies, I am more broken hearted for all of the thousands of babies who will be developing attachment issues as they have no mother to hold them and rock them. I pray earnestly that this decision is overturned so the children may develop in a loving nurtutring environment. Please allow theses children to go to loving arms so they will not have to live in a group situation during the most important formative years. Please!!!!

I believe in the power and freedom of adoption!

It is a very moving thing to see that all these people care so much.

While I agree that more should be done to limit abuses, reducing intercountry adoption by an arbitrary 90% would be a drastic over reaction.

Allow these children to be adopted already!

Help us help these children.

As the parent of two children adopted from Ethiopia, I highly encourage you to reconsider your decision to reduce adoptions by 90%.

LET HELP! =)

Please reconsider the decision to limit intercountry adoptions.This is for the childrens benefit.

Please reconsider this decision.

Please bless these children with faithful loving parents !

Don't reduce # of adoptions!!

Please help these children find loving homes and families.

Please reconsider this action so that many children will have loving homes.

There are so many safe, loving homes for children that have none. I encourage the good work being done and encourage thorough background checks of these homes as quickly and accurately as possible for the sake of the children. Time is a factor for these children less placement equals more sorrow and less joy.

Hoping this decision does not impact "waiting children" IE children with medical issues, who are typically difficult to place.

please reconsider this radical decision!

It seems that so many children who desperately need to be placed in loving homes, homes where their hopeful parents are waiting with loving open arms, will be waiting & in need that much longer because of this decision to reduce adoptions so dramatically. As sad & horrible as it is that some children have suffered at the hands of bad people, that many MORE will suffer now, remaining homeless & without the love and support of a safe & loving family!!

Please find ways to stop the unethical practices without causing harm to the children who would benefit from adoption.

Please do not allow the opportunity for orphans who need a family, and families who are wanting to share their love, to be compromised by dimishing the number of adoptions. What a cruel blow this would be to so many...and for what reason?

Every child deserves to grow up as part of a loving family. There is not an orphanage or foster home on earth that can compare to a real family and the lifelong love and support that comes with being someones child. Only by working closely with caring NGOs and adoption agencies will you begin to understand the compassion we all share for these precious children.

Please reconsider for the sake of your precious children, and allow adoption by loving, Christian couples.

We would like to adopt an infant from Ethiopia. We will have to look at other countries if the waiting time is too long due to not enough processed requests.

Every child deserves a home.

We have been blessed to bring Ephrem into our family and take our responsibility to shepherd him and grow him into a wonderful young man very seriously. Thank you for giving him the opportunity to flourish through in our family through international adoption. We look forward to giving back much to the country of Ethiopia as we help out son learn to steward what he's been given to bless his country.

I share in your goal to ensure ethical adoptions and also want to serve the best interests of vulnerable children and families and believe that partnerships with other reputable and ethical governments, NGOs and foundations will best accomplish this.
Thank you for considering this.

Consider the children and the wonderful future that will be provided for them through adoption!

These children will die instead of being adopted by loving parents in the USA. "What would Jesus do?!!!"

Please allow these children to come home to their forever families - families that will love them and give them a home and all the things that children need!

Children need homes and loving families. Do not deny them.

Signed by a hopefully (future) adoptive mother

Every decision should be based on answering the question WHAT'S BEST FOR THE CHILDREN INVOLVED?

please keep the lines open for adoption of these children!!! People want to help change the world and we can one child at a time.

Please do all you can to encourage loving homes for your nation's children in homes throughout the world. We value them as individuals and honor their heritage.

unspeakable tragedy for all the children needing families and those in line to take them

How will these children find loving homes?

Please allow these children a chance to live!

Please allow these precious children the opportunity to experience the love and care of a family who can nurture their growth and development. Many of these children may some day return to their homeland and contribute to the health and welfare of the nation of Ethiopia.

I have 2 adopted children from Ethiopia. I can't imagine them waiting any longer in the orphanage before joining their forever family. They have adjusted beautifully because of the quick transition from orphanage to our home. They are thriving here in Seattle, WA. Please allow Ethiopian adoptions to go through quickly for the sake of the health of the EThiopian children. Thank you for considering our plea.
Robert Andersen
senior Account Executive at UPS

Please reconsider your decision. We must do all we can for the most vulnerable - and these dear children need to have the opportunity to be placed in a permanent home.

On behalf of my friends who dream of becoming parents, and who I know will provide safe, loving, and empowering homes for adoptive children.

We implore of you to help our niece and her husband give a deserving child a chance for a good home and a future of happiness and love.
Thank you for your consideration.

Please keep the adoption of children more available! There are so many loving families that want to give orphans a wonderful life.

Allow adoption to continue!!!!

Hurry up the adoptions!!!

There are several viable, loving families ready to adopt and raise the orphans of your country. Give the children a chance for a wonderful future and increase the number of adoption cases per day.

Please allow orphan children to have access to families who will love and care for them. I have two friends who have adopted Ethiopian children and both adoptive parents and children have benefitted.

I am an adoptive mom to a beautiful Ethiopian girl. Please continue adoptions. Our family would never have been the same without ours.

Please do not hold up adoptions for the people who want to love and care for your children. We want to make them ours.

Thank you.

Please help my neice and nephew bring home their child that they have been waiting for. Faithful, loving and very strong parents are waiting to show their love for their child. We have so many people in our family praying and loving their Bella!!! Please help!

Please consider the benefit of allowing children to have a forever family.

Bring Titus home!

Bring Titus home!

Please don't let these children have less chances to be part of a loving family!

Think of the future of the children!

Two of your children have been placed in the homes of our friends in the USA. They have beautiful families now.

These children need to be with loving families. There are many wonderful married couples eager to adopt. Please do not cut the adoption rate.

As you consider the options for making the critical decisions about foreign adoption, please be sure to take into account what is truly in the best interest of the children involved. I realize that there has been a lot of media attention given to a few isolated incidents of abuse of the privilege of adopting children. While serious, this is not widespread in adoptions. The families I know that have adopted foreign children are all very loving, caring people, and treat these kids as their own.

give these kids a chance at a better life... one they could only dream of!

I personally know a really great family that has been in the process of adoption for a long time and I would hate to see this chance taken away from them and the child that they would adopt.

Please do not reduce intercountry adoption. There are so many loving families in America that want to give a safe, loving home to the orphan children of Ethiopia.

Please put the safety and health of all children above politics.

We have adopted from Ethiopia and are so blessed by our little boy! I can't imagine adoptions slowing down in this beautiful country when there are uncountable children that need a mom and a dad. Please reconsider your approach with these precious children that need homes.

Adoption should be promoted not hindered.

Please bring these children home to their awaiting families! Many of these families already know their child's face. They love their children. Their hearts are breaking. Please help connect these families.

Please allow people wanting the joy of having children the option to do so!

Please do what is best for the children!!!!

I firmly believe that orphaned children need homes wherever they are truly wanted. Keeping them in Ethiopa and unwanted or uncared for is a travesty for these children. My prayer is that those who have love to share should be allowed to adopt these little ones.

These children are thriving with families who love them. Please don't force a child to stay in an orphanage a single day longer than they have to.

Please do not slow the adoption process. Let the children find their forever families quickly.

Please reconsider, we have aloving home and are anxious to invite an Ethiopian child into it. This will extend our wait so dramatically that we will have to reconsider our country of choice, as we do not want 5+ years between our youngest 2 children.

My daughter's family wants to adopt a little girl so bad along with lota of other families.
Please find a way to make this happen.

Decreasing adoptions so much is an over-reaction to some problems that have arisen. Please, think of the many children, who without adoption will be sacrificed & will suffer until they die. We are grieving over this horrible decision & ask you to seriously reconsider it.

I just want to sign petition. please don't mail me newsletters or sponsor programs. I'm trying to minimize mail volume because I live in an apartment complex and share only one mailbox with several tenants who live with me. Thank you

Our niece and nephew adopted a beautiful little boy from Ethiopia over a year ago and I don't know what our entire family would do without him in our lives. He makes our family complete. Please do not stop adoptions out of Ethiopia to the USA.

I have a close friend whose family recently adopted from another country and seeing the joy and love that family has been able to give their son is overwhelming and such a blessing. They wouldn't have had that opportunity if restrictions like what are being considered existed a year ago.

Every child needs parents. In the United States we have many great families that want to love Ethiopian orphans and give them a great life. I have several friends that have adopted Ethiopian orphans and the children have a wonderful life. We want to give this children great opportunities to become educated and grow into adults with great opportunities. Please don't close the door on this opportunity for orphaned children and American families that will love them.

Please continue to allow children in Ethiopia the chance to be raised in a loving, safe and healthy home through adoption. By not allowing kids to be adopted you are taking away a great opputunity for them to recieve love. LOVE...LOVE...LOVE! Something no child should be denied.

I believe it is God's will that families' adopt both domestically and/or internationally. Why should we stand in the way of loving families bringing parentless children into their families? Every child needs a mom & dad whether it is from their home country or internationally.

I am a mom who has adopted four children. They are my life. It is my hope and prayer that you will consider the benefits that children gain when they have a family. God bless you!

Respectfully, please reconsider your plan to reduce intercountry adoptions. Thank you!

Good Luck and God Bless for you and your family.

As a parent of a child born in Ethiopia, I understand the urge to protect these children. Please reconsider your decision, and help these children find their forever homes.

We have twin sons adopted from Ethiopia. There is so much need. This policy needs to change.

There is no reasonable justification for the delay. Each day longer that these children spend away from familes that will love and nurture them is a crime against those children.

Committed families in the United States are waiting to adopt Ethiopian children.
Americans want to welcome these children into their homes. They want to educate and care for them. What better way to use our resources than to provide for children!

please re-consider your Ministry's recomendation and continue to allow intercountry adoptions. Our son is from South Korea, and we are grateful to them for sharing him with us.

Please allow these children to have the opportunity to go to a family that can love and care for them. There are not enough families intercountry to care for all children needing homes. Please give them a chance...

Every child deserves their own loving home with a family if possible, please help make that happen for the beautiful children of Ethiopia.

As a friend, to families that have already and /or currently adopting from Ethiopia. I have seen first hand the blessed lives these children now have. The only sadness is that could not be with thier adoptive families sooner. I can only hope the same for all the other orphans that are awaiting homes.

Please complete those applications which were entered prior to the slowdown.

Please release children verified as orphans as quickly as possible into those hands of residents of other countries considered qualified by those countries to be parents. Young lives and spirits are at stake. Thank you.

Please don't cut back guys. That response will not garentee fewer percentage abuses by any means. There are smarter ways to solve this problem.

To deprive any children of permanent, loving homes doesn't help anyone.

These children need homes and these homes want the children!!!

I pledge my support to the Ministry’s goal of ensuring ethical adoptions that serve the best interest of children and serve all vulnerable children & families.

There are many loving families here in the US waiting to adopt these precious children!

Please allow families from the US to continue adopting children from Ethiopia. If these children have no families at all, there are families here ready to love them. Without your loving decision to let this continue, someone's dream will be crushed. Thank you.

Our family would be incomplete if intercountry adoptions had not been possible in 2004. Joyfully, instead, my son Christopher is home with us and his future is bright.

Please re-consider this act. I personally know a family that is bringing home two children from Ethiopia very soon- and I am so thrilled to know that these two little ones are going to be blessed with life opportunitys that they would not have had in their native country.
This oppourtunity should be avelible to all the orphan children of other countrys.

My niece and nephew were adopted from ethiopia and they are very happy here!

Signing for my cousins who want a child

Please allow these children who have needs to have a chance to have a loving family and opportunities to grow. Leaving them in a destitute condition leaves them open for abuse as well. Their chances of a safe, loving environment is better if adopted.

Please think of the children that will be saved!

Please do block adoptions to loving families in the United States.

Please allow these children the opportunity to grow up in loving homes no matter where they may be. Extending the adoption process means these children spend that much more time away from a forever home.

Please rethink this decision for the sake of beautiful children who could spend their lives in orphanages. So many here want to adopt them, to love them and this is a great blessing for everyone involved. I am a black american and I would hate to see these beautiful black children miss out on any blessings that God has in store for them.

Please keep adoption open, it is best for the children and the loving families who want to add to their families. I now have two adopted siblings and they are so loved.

Don't let the abusers hurt the children's chances of finding a happy home anywhere in this world!

PLEASE change your policy regarding international adoption for your children. So many children need a home and so many families are waiting! PLEASE RECONSIDER!!!!!
Signed adoptive parents of two (Russia and China)

Wishing the best for all God's children.

I pray we can help these children find wonderful families. All children need a mom and dad to take care of them. I pray you can reach an agreement to help the children and continue to give them hope of a forever family.

Thank you,
Cristy Parker

BRING THE ORPHANS HOME

Thank you for your consideration of these concerns as you seek to provide for and protect the children of Ethiopia.

Children should be in loving home instead on orphanages.

1John 4:7-8

One Nation Under God!

Love is put to action, May He bless you and give you the wisdom to do , and grace to rise,
and love to to give.....

Let's find a way to keep kids safe and protected and not reduce the number of adoptions by such a large percentage.

Ethiopia's adoption program has been one of the most affective, inflluential and successful adoption programs in the world. I ask now that you do not allow it to be one of the key trouble spots, slowing and driving down adoptions, but to take solid care of the orphans as you will be commended. Thank You!

Ethiopia's adoption program has been one of the most affective, inflluential and successful adoption programs in the world. I ask now that you do not allow it to be one of the key trouble spots, slowing and driving down adoptions, but to take solid care of the orphans as you will be commended. Thank You!

A 90 reduction in approvals is unreasonable for adoptions in process and the time, effort and emotional attachment these families have been through.

Don't let this pass!

Please in the name of all the precious children that need homes with loving partents do not do this.... Thank you

My husband and I are grandparents to an adopted little girl from Ethiopia. She is a precious addition to our family. We are so happy and grateful to have her as a part of our family to love. She is a joy! We hope that adoptions will continue so other little children like our Ruthie will find loving homes.

This decision by MOWA is NOT in the childs best interest. Please, I beg of you, do something to help so these children do not grow up in orphanages

Im so very heartbroken to see this. What is gonna become of these sweet wonderful children now???

There are much better ways to protect your children than cutting off hope.

Im so very heartbroken to see this. What is gonna become of these sweet wonderful children now???

Please allow Christian families adopt your country's precious orphans. Allow these sweet babies to have a loving home.

Sincerely,

Shelley

I wish you well in your endeavor

Do ALL you can to insure ethical adoption but please don't close intercountry adoptions in Ethiopia. The children will suffer!

We adopted our son from Ethiopia in September of 2009. In the short 18 months he has been with us, he has grown 17 inches and has become the tallest boy in his class. He is fluent in English and currently is teaching his classmates about his homeland of Ethiopia. We hope we can provide a loving home for another child from Ethiopia in the coming years

I am an adoption worker, and have seen many Ethiopian children come to our community. They have adjusted extremely well and are so loved by their adoptive families. It would be a tragedy to drastically reduce Ethiopian adoptions. There are already too many children left without a forever family to love them.

Help the children!!!!!

You should not be targeting the agencies that have good relations with both Ethiopia and their placement families; and have no documented abuse issues. Let them keep the adoption process going. Holt has been ethical in their adoptions.

I have 2 adopted ethiopian children who we cherish and love dearly.

Please reconsider intercountry adoptions. There are many families without children who can provide loving, stable, permanent homes to Ethiopian children who are homeless. Thank you.

There are so many loving families out there that are desperately waiting for their son or daughter to come home. The children are also in need of loving families to love and support them.

Please don't slow down the adoption process!

Please reconsider this proposal. Adoption is an absolute necessity in managing this problem, and it can be done safely and ethically.

This is for my friend Nicole, who has been waiting patiently for her baby girl for more than two years now!!

Do not let the children suffer fro a few adoptions gone bad.

Being allowed to relinquish a child to be adopted provides families with the option to allow their children to grow up without poverty. The country of Ethiopia and the beautiful people did not intend for their own to suffer in destitution. Adoption allows people to love those who aren't able to care for themselves and it allows them to love selflessly. Please continue to support adoption and the opportunity to grow a family through this selfless act.

Almost two years ago my wife and I adopted a beautiful, terrific, wonderful, …, Ethiopian girl named Dinkinesh. She is a delight and a blessing to us each and every day. We are currently in earnest prayer about adopting another child from Ethiopia. Please reconsider the cut back on adoptions. Thanks to our experience in traveling to Ethiopia, and Dinkinesh herself, we have found a place in our heart for your wonderful country. Besides adopting a child we are also sponsoring an Ethiopian child th

As noted above, please reconsider your decision to limit adoptions from your country. Instead, work with existing structures to further protect and provide for these orphans.

We need to make sure all children born in this world have a chance to have their basic needs taken care of. If there is a loving family waiting and willing to do this why stop this?

Many good and honest people want to adopt. Please don't limit them.

Please consider the thousands of children who have had happy and permanent placements in families, who now have a Father and Mother to love them as every human should. Respectfully yours, Jennifer Smith.

I know of some many wonderful people waiting to adopt these children into their homes because they cannot wait to love on these children and to bring them up in a loving, caring and responsible home. Please give them a chance to serve these children and make a difference.

Am very concerned for the orphans. Please let them get the homes they deserve.

Please keep this program alive and vibrant. These children and loving parents need each other deeply. Please partner with the right resources in other countries to continue and expand this. I urge you.

Sincerely,
Josh

Please don't close this opportunity for these children to have parents!!!!!! Please have a heart!!!

Please realize how many children will never be received into loving arms if adoptions are cut. If you love the children of Ethiopia you will not allow this to happen.

Many children will fail to be adopted into good
homes if this new policy is adopted.

This is so sad. So many children who need loving parents are going to miss out and be left to be unloved or even to die without ever know someone loves them. That special couple and God could have showed them they are loved. Please reverse this decision.

Please consider the children

Every child deserves a hope and a future, please target the corruption and not the child. Ban corruption, not adoption and attack the system that allows it not the child that so desperately needs a family.

Our daughter and son-in-law were unable to birth a child of their own. They recently adopted a little boy from Ethiopia. He is a joy to our family and is loved deeply. They are wonderful parents and will provide well for him.

What is the worse evil, putting 1 child in the hands of bad parents of keeping 99 children away from good parents?

Lets Live together helping one another with Love and Peace. Lets remove barriers among us and nations. Lets believe that this Planet belongs to God and we are here for a short stay. Like a Picnic lets enjoy the little time of stay in Oneness and togetherness. Lets not divide and rot this beautiful planet.

Please consider what's waiting for these children; loving, caring families that have proven their worthiness and commitment to Ethiopia and these children. Please re consider the new limitations so we can bring home our new son and give him an incredible life. May God play a role in this oversight he asks for us to care for widows and orphans.

please don't leave these children at the mercy of a flawed world.

I have friends who are going to be AMAZING, loving parents when their son comes home from Ethiopia. They will raise him to do all the good that he can do. Please don't deny them this chance!

I have a co-worker who adopted 3 children from Ethiopia last year. She and her husband feel so thankful to have had the opportunity. These children are now part of a loving, caring, and supportive family, with a great opportunity for success and a bright future. Please allow other children this same opportunity.

These children need homes! And people need them! Please make it happen!

Please reconsider. These children need homes and we have good home for them.

We belong to one big earth community. Let us help one another!!

We just decided to adopt from Ethiopia. Please governs orphans a chance to grow in a loving home environment.

I am so proud of this family. Im sure it will be all the baby could ever dream of.

Please allow these children an opportunity for a richer more fuller life.

my son and his wife adopted in 2009 their baby boy, my first grandson. we all are very blessed with this remarkable child.

Please consider allowing more parents to adopt children from your country. There are many loving people, unable to have children of their own, who would provide a happy and stable family for orphaned children.

Please act in the best interest of the children!

My sister adopted from Ethiopia 1 1/2 ago and my little nephew has a loving home. It would be sad to think of him not to have had this opportunity.

Please let those who know there new parents be processesd if that have uses an organization that has a good record

Please pray about this issue, we want whats best for the children.

Our 2 youngest children are from Ethiopia and we are so grateful to their birth country for allowing us to bring them into our family. Please continue giving other children this same chance for a loving home that will care and nurture them to their full potential. Each child deserves a family. Thank you

Please let those families in process be honored and be able to finish and receive the children and may they be united with their new families!

Reducing adoption would be too bad for the kids. They need families, not just orphanages and group homes!

Please consider the children who still need homes.

Please for the sake of these children, my prayer is for you to continue to allow adoptions!

We have dear friends who adopted three beautiful orphans from Ethiopia. These children are happy and healthy, and needed to have a forever family.
We have other friends who are so thrilled after years of infertility to adopt two little boys in a few months. They cannot wait to provide for the children and call them their own.

Please continue to allow loving families to welcome these little ones in Ethiopia as wanted, happy children with a mother, father, and siblings.

no child should be turned away from a loving christian home! why would anyone deny a child a loving family no matter who they are or where they are from to me this is selfish, and cruel!!

I love to see a better life for needy Ethiopian children . I know the children adopted by Americans have a great life in USA. I have a long time good friend who adopted a child from Ethiopia, she taught her son about where he came from, the history about Ethiopia, ensures he has Ethiopian friends and takes him and the family out to eat in Ethiopian restaurant. I proudly say that the little boy is way smarter, stronger, healthier and fully informed about Ethiopia for his age.

Please let these children have families that want to love them and raise them.

These children

So many kids need a family! We need to get them to loving homes that want them!

Please for the sake of these children, my prayer is for you to continue to allow adoptions!

I believe this will cause undue hardship and possible permanent psychological damage to the children of Ethiopia who have loving families anxiously waiting for them.

I have a beautiful nephew from Ethiopia. Had it not been for intercountry adoption I would not have him. He is in a loving christian family, and is much loved even before he became a member of our family. Please do not pass this goal being presented by the Ministry.

There are SO many agencies doing things right ... please allow them to continue to offer hope to orphaned children.

Give these babies a loving home.

This is a severe tragedy especially considering there are loving and willing families wanting to adopt orphan children from your country. Please think of the children and don't make them wait any longer than necessary.
Thank you!

Adoptions are for the world's citizens.

God Bless

Please don't allow the transgression of the few to keep the many needy children find worthy families.

We hope to have the opportunity to provide a very loving home to a child in need. We will ensure that child is loved, educated and maintains his/her Ethiopian heritage. Please allow that child to have an opportunity to live his/her life to the fullest potential.

Please, for the sake of the children, allow more court appointments to go through.

These children are in desperate need of a loving homelife, and so many potential parents in the world are ready to welcome them with open arms. Please allow these children to have a better future!

We love our adopted grandson

I agree that agencies should be closely monitored, but legitimate sites should be allowed to provide homes for children who otherwise will be without safe and healthy homes.

Please allow the children to go to caring parents all around the world, desperate to bring their missing child home. Thank you

Children need a wonderful home whether it is incountry or not - we all want what is best for the children.

Bringing Ethiopian children to a permanent family. Please allow these children a chance at life.

Please allow these children to come to loving families!!

These children need homes! If you are privaleged enough to be using a computer right now, the least you can do is sign this petition to help thousands of children in need.

Please, leave these children a hope to have a family!!!

I have two beautiful grandchildren who were adopted from Ethiopia. They're such a beautiful and loving addition to our family. It breaks my heart to think of all the children waiting in orphanages for a family that will not find one because of this legislation.

I respect the Ministry's desire to protect the children of Ethiopia. Ultimately, I believe by reducing the number of cases processed daily the children will be the ones who suffer most. I respectfully request the Ministry to reconsider their decision and allow adoptions to return to their previous levels.

We are very close to completing our adoption of a blind 3-year-old girl from Ethiopia. She was abandoned, not relinquished and needs a loving family and proper medical care and education. She is in an orphanage while we await our court date, for who knows how long.

Please reconsider and allow more families throughout the world to share in the joys of raising a beautiful Ethiopian child. My 9th grandbaby is a gorgeous child of Ethiopian birth who has brought so much love, energy and peace to our family. Her bright eyes, her contageous smile, her developing wit and her ability to learn so quickly; well, she is the sunshine in my mornings and makes my heart beat throughout the day. I hope you will reconsider and allow others this joy through adoption.

Please do not decrease the number of adoptions you do. The children need families. Please allow us to adopt the children. Thank you!

Please make every effort to provide homes and families to children who so desperately need them.

Petition signed.

Please consider the welfare of these poor children above all else. There are loving families waiting to make a safe home for these sweet children. Please do not leave them in orphanages where they can not get the personal attention they deserve. Please continue to place these precious shildren as quickly as possible in the approved adoptive homes. Thank you!

Please keep adoptions open. For the sake of waiting children and waiting families, please keep adoptions open.

It would be a shame to punish all of the many waiting needy children of a chance at a loving home for the misdeeds of a few.

There must be better ways to stop fraud than to deny children the chance to be adopted.

There are so many US families that want to adopt children and give them a chance at life. Please do not take this opportunity away from them. The fatherless and motherless children of Ethiopia are precious creations too, and we have the obligation to give them the gift of opportunity.

I have seen the wonderful impact that international adoption can have for both the child adopted and the whole family. Please do not destroy this wonderful impact because of some abuses of the system, but rather work to correct those abuses to ensure that every child can realize the dream of being in a loving family.

Please do not allow the children to suffer due to the inexcusable actions of a few.

It is time for the world to protect children, no matter where they live. Adoption is one way to offer children protection.

Please give these children an opportunity for health & prosperity by having loving parents in The USA. Thanks. Sherryll Parker

Corruption is widespread in the adoption world, unfortunately. The solution, however, is not to close doors and by so doing doom orphans to an institutionalized life. We must all fight together on behalf of these children, both to find adoptive families for them and to stamp out corruption when it is uncovered. These children have already suffered because of others' choices; they should not have to suffer because of the actions of some who should be working towards their adoptions.

Ultimately, there are many factors involving adoption, but the children should be the primary factor, and any orphan should be allowed the opportunity to grow up with a family who loves them. Please do not limit any child's chances for a home or family.

Please reconsider your decision. Thank you.

Please allow orphaned children opportunities for lives in loving families who want to care for them.

Children need forever familes; they are not for profit or governmental gain. Knock it off let them go!

My sister intends to try to adopt a child from Ethiopia. She has the time, resources and ability to give an underpriviliaged child a strong opportunity for a bright future. There is irony that a policy aimed to protect children will likely rip this opportunity from the grasp of one of Ethiopia's children.

Our son was brought home from Ethiopia 2 1/2 years ago. His biological mother relinquished him when he was 3 weeks old because she loved him enough to recognize she was unable to properly care for him. Bringing him home has made a significant impact on our family, both our immediate family and our extended family. I can't imagine our life without him and I don't want to imagine his life without us. For the sake of the children, please don't reduce the number of children being adopted.

Many people are willing to provide a safe and loving home to orphans from Ethiopa. All orphans deserve a mother and father who are willing to open their homes and provide love, support and education that will allow each child the opportunity to become the young man or woman they are meant to be. Keep the doors open for Ethiopian Adoptions!!

an orphanage is no place for children to grow up :(

It is so important that the orphans of Ethiopia are not forgotten. Their lives are important and there are families that are willing to give them homes all over the world.

Please remember the BEST interest for the children!! We do not want corruption, nor do we want orphans waiting years for a family!! Please consider more options before taking such drastic measures. Our son is Ethiopian and we cant imagine life without him or his life had he remained without parents, hungy, and alone.
Thank you

We are an adoptive family & treasure our children! What a terrible loss it would have been to all of us, had we not been allowed to adopt them.

So sad to allow children to languish in orphanages when there are loving families that are prepared to raise them. It seems a terrible injustice to children for the sake of governmental control.

To the ones making the disission "What if u were up for adoption"

We were getting ready to begin an adoption for a HIV postive child that had lost his or her parents due to AIDS. Since Ethiopia has so many TRUE orphans, adoption is the best way to help remedy the situation! Please don't punish the children that truly deserve a family; work to end corruption without shutting down adoption.

As a social worker, I have worked with many families completing Ethiopian adoptions. These children are thriving and in loving families. I pray you will not prevent other children from having this opportunity.
Janeene Johnston, MSW, LCSW

It would be a horrible decision to make to take potential loving homes from so many needy children.

There are many adoptive parents that are aching for a child and will provide the best care and more importantly the unconditional love all children need. Please do not let these children suffer because of a few bad seeds.

It takes a world to raise unparented children.
Please refrain from denying adoptions by folks who will love and provide for these children in need.

there are way too many children in need of good homes, good medical care and good nutrition that they are simply not going to get in ethiopia for many reasons. those children can be adopted into homes where they can get those needs met as well as love, the comfort of a family and a warm, safe place to sleep.

Please consider all other options to provide a solution to the problem, such as those suggested.

Please reconsider your reaction to this situation. Our child and countless others will be affected by not allowing them to return to their forever-homes in the United States in a timely manner. Thank you for your help in changing this situation.

My wife and I are hurting with the planned changes in Ethiopia. We feel led to adopt from Ethiopia and chose to use an ethical well respected agency. We understand the change but to slow everything down for a few bad apples is heartbreaking.

We are not Madonna

Thank You for your consideration.

I know a married couple that are the most loving people that I have ever met. They are unable to have children, and would love and provide for an Ethiopian child if still given the ability to adopt in Ethiopia!

The only family I know of attempting to adopt Ethiopian children is a wonderful family and will be a tremendous blessing to the lives of the Ethiopian children they are attempting to adopt. Please don't stand ing the way of such a monumental blessing in the lives of these children and this family - and thier generations to come.

Knowing several families who have adopted children from other areas of the world and the success that they have had, I wholeheartedly agree with the above petition.

My son Wogene, adopted from Ethiopia in June 2010 at 19 months, is the light of my life. He is a radiantly happy child who is learning English quickly and loves soccer, music, trucks, and Ethiopian food. His stomach was swollen with giardia and his legs were bowed when he arrived; he is healthy now and growing tall and straight. I know that I was the one who was blessed to receive such a wonderful child; but I do think Wogene is flourishing in his new life and we were lucky to find each other.

I continue to witness several successful adoptions of children from Ethiopia including those with limb differences. They are in loving and protective homes growing and gaining in character and strengths of my kinds. I hope and pray that Ethiopian children who are truly orphaned will continue to find homes who welcome them with loving adoption.

For the children's sake, it would be wonderful for the country to free up some of these children that so desperately need a loving home.

I support the heartfelt intent of this petition. It is motivated by a love for children and a sincere desire to give them a home, a family, and a future they deserve.

My prayer is that every orphan child will have the opportunity to be in a loving family.

Let the children have forever homes, please.

When adoptions are to the right families the good for the children and the country of Ethiopia is beyond our best imagination. Please realize there are parents praying for the orphaned children daily. Their hearts are with your country. Please remember the children and how they will always have a heart for Ethiopia. Please remember that God cares for orphans and His grace is beyond our best hopes. God Bless you!

Many families filled with love and compassion wait in patience and faith, ready to nurture these children into wonderful human beings. Be the answer to their prayers and to those they have yet to help.

Please rethink this decision.

There is immeasurable good in these children going to warm, loving homes rather than being stuck in overcrowded orphanages for years to come. Let the greater good work! And let us continue fighting human trafficking while also bringing children to loving homes; not one or the other, but both

Good luck

For the best interest of the children, I urge you to reconsider your decision.

I have an adopted grandson from Ethopia who has brought great joy to my daughter and son in law and our entire family. To watch him grow and experience so much love is a wonderful thing and should cont. so others may be able to have a chance to grow, be loved and give love to others!!

Please keep adoptions open to the USA.

Please let these children enjoy love and a good home.

i sign this petition

These children need loving homes!

We have adopted a child and she now has the opportunity to grow up to be a healthy productive citizen of the U.S, Please screen prospective parents carefully but do not stop adoptions. Adoptions save children's lives!!!

Please give the children of Ethiopia the opporunity to have a lasting family.

Please don't prevent children from finding families that love and respect them. If there are inappropriate things taking place, please focus on correcting them where they happen instead of shutting things down. These children are a blessing to U.S. families and our country as much as we are a blessing to them. They help us look beyond ours borders in positive ways.

I am for ethical adoptions and for regulating service providers. I know so many families who are wanting to provide a safe and loving home to orphans and who want to follow the Lord's command of helping the orphans in their distress.

Please re-consider your decision. I am the grateful grandmother of an amazing Ethiopian child who has blessed our family. She is an intregal part of our family and blossoms each day as she is surrounded by our love.

Please don't let a few negative situations limit or end the future of millions of children being adopted by families who will love and cherrish them and give them the lives they so deserve. The world is a tough enough place without restricting hope for a better life. Please reconsider this ruling. For the Children.

Every child deserves a real home and family!!!

It would be a huge tragedy to place politics - or indeed almost anything else - above the welfare of children. Each child is a gift to us from God, and should be cherished and taken care of in the best way that we are capable of. Please do no limit those avenues for a child's life to be saved.

How sad for so many little children longing for a family of their own! How sad for so many families who would love to adopt these lonely children! Jesus has a better plan, being joined to a loving family through international adoption!

While necessary to balance a culture's concerns, it is also necessary to identify the needs of individual children and in what best way they can grow up to be productive adults. By limiting adoptions, so many children will not be given opportunities to participate in the international community.

Please do all you can for the sake of the children, and their right to have a loving family.52EW

Allow these precious children to be adopted by loving families!!!

I only know one couple who is trying to adopt from Ethiopia at this time, but if other adoptive families are half as wonderful, caring and giving as they are, children would be blessed and privileged to join them as part of their families.

Please don't slow adoptions. There are kids that deserve the best life possible!

Please consider all of the children whom this will effect. Not to mention all of the people that will now be deterred to adopt from Ethiopia. It has always been my plan to adopt from there, but it if this goes through it will be very unlikely that we will. We would choose another country where the wait was as long but the need was just as great.

It seems to many that care for the neglected children of your country that it would be benefical to all involved to continue allowing and even promoting intercountry adoption. Changes may need to be made to thwart corruption, or to streamline the process, but better to do that than to throw out the babies with the bathwater. Thank you for re-considering the welfare of the most vulnerable of your people.

Our daughter was adopted last year at age 6 from Ethiopia. She had a clubbed foot. She told me recently that while in the orphanage she had no one to help her up when she fell in the shower. We are about to send in our dossier for a 11 yr old orphan boy. We are afraid we might not be able to get him until he is 13. Praying for Ethiopia

If there is abuse against kids, those responsible entities should be brought to justice. However, please don't deny the kids from having a loving family abrod. Also another good thing to do would be nurture the culture of adoption among the Ethiopian families. Let Ethiopian families/adults learn how to open their doors to orphans in addition to foreign adopters.

Children should not be made to suffer for the evil of adults. Please consider the agencies that have a true and time honored reputation of caring for the genuine placement of children in loving families.

God will make a way when there seem to be no way. Remember God is always in control. He will get you where you need to be.

Please think of the children and the opportunities for them that will be lost if they are not allowed to be adopted.

I support the restitution of intercountry adoptions.

Psalm 68:5-6

Hundreds of children need homes. Do the right thing & let them be adopted!!

There are many Christian families who want to give a home to these orphans. Please consider the what is best for each child. These children do not ask to be born nor do they ask to be orphans. With loving homes waiting for them, it is sad that you want them to spend their life hungry with no home or love of family!

Please reconsider your intercountry adoption reduction. Many much wanted children are waiting for placement in their new homes.
Thank You.

We love Ethopia's children.

It's for the children!

Every child deserves a loving family.

Please avoid cuts that would seriously delay the adoption process for thousands of orphaned children. Families in the U.S. are waiting anxiously to receive their new loved ones and the children would benefit the most from a speedy adoption process so they won't languish in orphanages.

Don't hurt good kids and good people trying to stop a few bad people. Accept outside help if you like. The kids deserve the chance at a family.

We are so blessed to have a grandson from Ethiopia and want more:) Please don't stop letting these precious children from going to loving homes and families.

Please help children find their forever homes!

As an adoptive parent, it is my heart's burden that every child have the opportunity to grow up in a loving family.

I can't imagine my life without Baby Tate in it!

I hope this petition will sway the authorities to reconsider this extreme measure, and be open to alternative solutions.

Please reconsider. The Lives of your children are too precious not to be given the opportunity to be embraced by a family.

God bless you

Please reconsider your plan to limit foreign adoptions.My twin sons were adopted from Ethiopia three years ago. Their adoption has been such an amazing blessing to all of our lives.

I admire the families who are adopting the Ethiopian orphans. We personally know two wonderful families in the process of adopting. These will be lucky children to become part of such fantastic families.

Many orphas who lost their mam and dad leave in a very destitute life here in Ethiopia. Yes, we all whould strugle to divert the existing situation of our children. But it couldn't be made over night. In order to change the situation, it requires us to go ahead some more steps. I know that strategies like using local adoption is the best for these children to be grown up. But to make it practical, it needs some time. So inrder to make such vision practical, we should keep using external adoption

We are in the process of adopting from your country. We are thrilled to be able to love, care and support one of your children and love them as our own. Please do not slow down the adoption processes for Ethiopia. We adopted our first daughter from Guatemala and we adore her. We are very excited to adopt again. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Please, allow the children to be adopted to people who so desperately want to give them a good home and love them forever, making them part of their families, and giving them a future.

As a family with two adopted sons both from the US I am very appreciative of this petition and pray that the children waiting for new homes and families will no longer suffer from red tape and ignorance. May God bless this petition and those who are fighting for kids around the world.

Please think of the children

I hope my signature of this petition helps in any way. Every single one of God's children should have the chance to have a loving family.

Please do the right thing for these kids that so desperately need help.

Every child deserves expedious access to the best care possible. Leaving children stranded in orphanages is a huge loss not to each child, but also for the country that supports more and more them. Please leave adoptions open. Thank you.

These children need loving homes sooner than later.

I have an adopted child from Thailand. I am signing the petition to advocate for adoption in Ethiopia because I know first hand adoption can and does work. Please let children in need have an opportunity to experience parents who will love and cherish them as I do our adopted child.

We are praying you will reconsider and not change your laws on adoption. We have a 3 yr old Grandson from Ethiopia and cannot imagine life without him. We pray these children will still have the chances of getting adopted with out so many yrs weight. Thank you.

Words cannot translate the joy that adopting my son, Rui, from Ethiopia has brought to my life. I am grateful for the opportunity, grateful for the love and hopeful that others will be able to experience the same unconditional happiness that I cherish. Everyday of I am in awe of my blessing, my little love bug, of the love of my life!

We are on the waiting list for a referal from Ethiopia. We so desire to give our love and our home to one of these beautiful children. We are praying for God's mercy to be displayed towards these orphans.

Please don't let a few bad cases ruin the potential bright futures of so many children.

We adopted two children from Kazakhstan almost 9 years ago. They now have happy and productive lives with us in America. More importantly, they are loved in a forever family and have hope and a bright future. We are all blessed.

Do not put on hold the opportunities for life, health, education, love and the dream of belonging to a family for these children. Root out and expose the isolated and corrupt abuses where needed, but let these children be adopted through ethical and respected intercountry adoption organizations! Let "light" have victory over "darkness"!

"He settith the solotary in families"

We respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry adoption. Rather than eliminate the right of Ethiopian children to a permanent family, we encourage the Ministry to accept the partnerships offered by governments, NGOs, and foundations.

Please know the vast majority of adoptions are needed and supported by loving and caring individuals. Children need good homes!

Please don't punish the masses for the abuses of the few! Promote ethical adoption rather than supporting little to no adoption. Children need families!

please allow children the chance of a better future

Sad to hear this. Please change your minds. Many Families are awaitinig adoption from this country.

If they live and live well, they will return and make Ethiopia a better country.

We are devistated as we are in the middle of the process and now fear it could be years before we can adopt a child from Ethiopia.

Please reconsider and allow children to be placed with adoptive parents.

Please consider this change for the benefit of the orphans.

If this is being done to save money - has anyone done the math to show that this will increase the number of foster care placements needed?

Please allow HIV+ children to continue to be adopted on a expedited basis. They do not have the luxury of time to wait!

Please do not cut the number of adoptions from your country.

Please do not end the ability to adopt Ethiopian Children. We now have 2 precious little great-grandsons that one of our granddaughters and her husband successfully adopted about 1 1/2 years ago. They plan to adopt more and what a tragedy it would be if they cannot do this. They are not successful in having biological children so are fulfilling their desire to parent by adopting. This in turn gives orphans an opportunity to be raised and cared for in a safe and nurturing invironment.

Please don't allow the children to suffer. Allow them to have a Mother and a Father. Allow them to be loved and cared for. Please allow them to be adopted.

A dear friend of mine is trying to adopt from Ethiopa, and she would provide such a wonderful home!

Please don't punish the innocent while prosecuting the guilty!

Severly limiting the number of children who can be adopted, with millions of orphans and vulnerable children in Ethiopia needing loving families, would be a grave disservice to these needy children. Please consider the welfare of the children, and find other ways to control and prevent possible abuses of the adoption system.

I appreciate that you wish to protect the children from abuse. Please consider the partnerships offered by governments, NGOs, and foundations, allowing for the integrity of the adoption process to continue through this alliance. My witness and experience with intercountry adoption has been positive.

An an adoptive parent I strongly believe that a child will thrive more when given a family. The family provides unconditional love, care and support both emtional and financial.

Please give these children the chance to have a loving family.

As a dad who is working to give another child a permanent home, I ask you to reconsider this policy change. I appreciate the Ministry's concern about ethical misconduct, but perhaps there are other methods to address these important issues. Thank you for this consideration.

Please do not extend the time it takes for these children to have a chance to be with a family.

Children deserve to have a home where they can be part of a loving family.

I understand the reasoning behind this decision but also understand that there are wonderful, loving homes these children could be sent to. Their lives would be full of love and nuturing. Please reconsider this when making such a sweeping law as this.

I understand the reasoning behind this decision but also understand that there are wonderful, loving homes these children could be sent to. Their lives would be full of love and nuturing. Please reconsider this when making such a sweeping law as this.

Please consider to do the right thing....

One of my good friends (Anja Wood) and her family have been waiting to adopt their beautiful baby girl from Ethiopia. Please help Mebrat get home to her mother, father and big sister soon...they want to start their life together.

I have a friend who is waiting to adopt. She and her husband have sacrificed and worked really hard for this to be approved and now this will set them back.

Please do not allow this bill to go through. So many families and children will be affected. I see so many kids who will not be with there new parents.

I have witnessed in my family the wonderful adoption of four young Ethiopian children. It has meant so much to the parents and the extended family to have these children become part of our family. They now have love and care of two wonderful adoptive parents. It would be a terrible decision to stop these intercountry adoptions. Please do not make this decision.

A more equitable and proportional response is required here. There are many good families waiting to bring home Ethiopia's precious gifts from God. To go forward with the proposed near-shut down of the adoption process is tantamount to sentencing the adoptive children to an abyss.

I am a past Peace Corps volunteerPC10,1968-1970) in Ethiopia. I have always been proud of the friendship of Ethopia and the US. Adoptions are the ultimate friendship begtween two countries such as ours.

Do not punish all the children because of the greed of a few.

All children need families, especially orphans. Many families are waiting to adopt children. Give these children a chance at a better life with parent(s) that love them, an education, food, shelter, protection and security. No child should be without any of these things and they all deserve even more!

Thank you for being responsible and wanting to end corruption. Please just don't go to the EXTREME- which will place many at risk orphans in more difficult and challenging situation. Families have to pay ALOT of money to get thru paperwork and legal proceedings. Financially it is NOT worth it- but that's why it is out of LOVE that these families are doing this. I know it is hard to imagine LOVING someone you haven't even met- but it is by grace. PLEASE do not make the little ones suffer more

Please think about the children...

There are so many children waiting on forever families! If it weren't for adoptions, we wouldn't have sweet Helen in our family!

I PRAY THAT GOD'S ALMIGHTY HAND WILL EVER BE UPON THIS MINISTRY AND THE CHILDREN. MAY EACH CHILD KNOW THAT HE/SHE ARE TRULY LOVED AND SPECIAL IN GOD'S EYES.

Let's take care of these kids!

PLEASE allow the adoption to other countries move forward!! The children need a loving home and family!

Please allow for these children to be adopted by families who will love and care for them. These families want to share with these children and the adoptions should be done very quickly so these children can be loved and nurtured within a family.

I am a mother of three children. If I were unable to care for my children, I would want the best possible opportunity for my children to be placed in a loving, nurturing, & safe home that is not defined by country borders.
Please reconsider your situation and the best possible solution. Maybe another option for out of country placement is to redefine your screening standards. I know you are just trying to protect those little children. Bless your efforts! Cherise

every child deserves a loving parent, no matter where that parent is from.

Please allow these children to live in a safe and loving home, with a family that adores them. An orphanage or on the street is not a better place.

too many children need parents, it would be a tragedy to slow down the process.

I respectfully request that you reconsider the decision to reduce the number of adoption cases. I am heartbroken for the children who will stay in orphanages longer as a result of this. And my husband and I have a loving home and are waiting to welcome siblings from Ethiopia. We have family ready to dote on them, and our hearts ache to have them in our lives.
Thank you for your consideration.
Anastasia Carruth and Aldo Sesia

My brother and sister have been waiting for their Ethioian daughter and have been vetted through the adoption system with no problems, have met her in Jan. and are now hoping she can come home with them. Please allow this to happen.

All children are deserving of a loving home. A life in an orphanage is no way to live. Please allow adoptions to continue for the sake of these little ones.

Please do not jeopardize the chance for so many children to find a forever family. Do not overact to a small number of cases; intercountry adoption is a sound, safe, and beautiful way to create families. All children deserve a family.

I am the parent of a beautiful child who suffered emotionally from an adoption that dragged on far too long. She has THRIVED in the care of a permanent loving family. All children deserve the right to a loving family when one isn't available to them in their country of birth.

Please continue to cooperate with viable organizations and countries so that we can bring home children in need!

because of the adoptions so far allowed i have a beautiful granddaughter from this country. other grandmothers should be able to share in this.

Please allow these children to have a chance of a lifetime...to be loved by a family.

My friends recently adopted beautiful twins from Ethiopia. The current process requires prospective parents to undergo very detailed background checks. With as thorough as the checks are, I think the rules and laws are extremely tight and the adoptions should continue. They will end up in a wonderful home.

Please do not adda any more delays to the adoption process for these children.

There are many loving families in the United States, where children can have a chance to benefit from health and educational opportunities. Please give these children the opportunities they deserve.

Please reconsider the reduction in adoptions. All children need a loving caring family, this reduction will cause significant irreversible damage and suffering to thousands of deserving children.

What a shame to deprive children any opportunities to be adopted into a loving, caring family and instead be institutionalized for more years than they deserve. With proper procedures being followed there is no reason to deny these children .......

PLEASE DO NOT REDUCE THE SIZE OF ADOPTIONS!! THESE CHILDREN NEED TO BE IN LOVING HOMES WHERE THEY ARE CHERISHED AS CHILDREN!

I understand completely the aim of this new plan to keep Ethiopian children in their homeland. However, I know that my sister and my brother in law, Jen and Erik, would be the most wonderful, caring and inspirational parents to any child that they may adopt. They want to provide a life for this child where he/she can grow and prosper into an individual that will once give back in the same manner that they are trying to give by adopting this child. Please reconsider this new plan.

Timing is a critical factor in the overall health and development of children. It is imperative that children be united wtih their adoptive families in as expeditious a manner as possible to allow maximum bonding and advantages of the nuclear family. Please do not abandon this responsibility by delaying the adoption process. God gives us children that we might exercise stewardship and love abundantly. Let's not shortchange Him or the children and families! Thank you.

Please allow these precious children to experience a permanent home with international families who have a heart for them.

We respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry adoption. Rather than eliminate the right of Ethiopian children to a permanent family, we encourage the Ministry to accept the partnerships offered by governments, NGOs, and foundations.

Such partnerships could increase the Ministry’s capacity to regulate service providers, further ensure ethical adoptions and expand services to more fam

My youngest child was adopted from Ethiopia four years ago. From the first minute we met her, it was clear she was a bright and happy child. Her birth parents simply did not have the resources to care for her. On a visit to a pediatrician here, she was found to have a life threatening heart murmur. This was repaired with a simple operation, but the doctor said it would have eventually killed her. She also has severe hearing loss but now wears hearing aids and is doing beautifully.

these children are desperate for homes and there are people ready and willing to love them and accept them into their families. Please donot deny these children the love they deserve. Let them come home to their forever families where they have great hope and opportunities for their future.

Please don't deny Ethiopian children the chance to find a loving, safe permanent home in another country. The orphans of Ethiopia deserve this opportunity. I urge you to find a way to work with other governments and legitimate NGOs to find a solution that works for Ethiopia.

Close relatives have adopted a beautiful girl from Ethiopia and she is doing very well here in the U.S. I am American but my husband is Ghanaian and we wish that all children will have the chance to be with a family that loves them even if it is not in their home country.

Please don't take the opportunity away of so many families to provide a wonderful home full of love, support & care for these sweet children.

praying that all orphans can be loved in a family of their own!

Please open the adoptions back up. We have so many families over here praying and praying for their future children and just heartbroken that the process is going to be taking so much longer. Please continue to let us know what to do to make the process more improved, but we are crying for the children over there that aren't going to be united with their new families for such a long time. Please open them back up.

Please do not allow the corruption of others to affect the futures of these needy children.

Please don't keep these children from loving homes and parents

Bringing hope, bringing homes.

We adopted a 7 year old Ethiopian orphan from a reputable orphanage 3 years ago. I cannot imagine life without her. Please do not keep other children from having a loving home.

Save a child's life!! Is there anything more important? seriously

Please allow all children to have homes and someone who loves them!!

I am in support of caring for the best interests of children -- their physical, emotional, and mental well-being. As an adoptive parent, I know that adoptive families have much love and support to give to children.

There are would-be parents everywhere praying and yearning for these precious children! Please help them unite!

Please allow the international child welfare community and adoption community to join with Ethiopian authorities in order to together effectively address the identified abuses in the Ethiopian adoption system without prolonging the sufferring of children who desperately need security and permanency.

Allowing children to be adopted is certainly in their best interest. The large majority of people who want to adopt children seek to help and not hurt them.

There are so many families here in America that are committed to adopting children and providing loving homes. Its difficult to understand why the Ministry would consider cutting adoption numbers and putting more money/effort into children who will stay in the country, especially since this type of strict cut back means that a much larger portion of adoptable children will be staying in Ethiopia...

Thank your for your consideration!

With an adopted son now at home, and after having spent over 3 months in Africa, I can respectfully say I DEFINITELY see the importance of ethical, thorough adoptions... However, I feel this is too drastic and that the Ministry should form partnerships or hire more people to expedite adoptions in the appropriate way.

Please allow adoptions. There are so many families just waiting to love and nurture these children.

We respectfully request you to make a decision that is in the best interest of these precious children. A wonderful life awaits them if they can be adopted soon.

Thank you very much,
Jennifer Bland

All children need a loving family of a husband and a wife who want to raise a child. Please allow adoptions of children to all parts of the world. Children are a blessing to all families.

Please continue to allow the number of adoptions your country has allowed in the past.
Thank you.

Please open your adoption program to QUALIFIED United States citizens so that your orphan children may be given a wonderful opportunity with loving parents. Don't shut the program down, just make sure the adopting parents are qualified and loving!

Adoption is too costly. The love someone has to offer a child in need of a loving home cannot come close to a price, it is priceless. Many more families would adopt but the cost is often too much. Cutting the cost by 90% is a miraculous thing. I pray for God to be in the hearts and decisions of everyone involved because this would enable so many more families to support children and bring them into homes. Only God has the power and authority to change hearts and bring about this awesome thing.

We know personally a pair of prospective parents who are extraordinary people, aching for a child to love and educate, and have been waiting months for their adoptive child from this country. The agency they are working with is legitimate and well respected. We hope that organization and others like it will be allowed to continue its work and that our prospective-parents friends will be able to achieve their dream and adopt their child.

Please do not stop these adoptions from taking place. There are countless good families who want to open their hearts and their homes to these children.

Please don't make the child suffer because their country is so poor.

God wills that these beautiful Ethiopian children have true homes where they can be brought up with Godly values and realize their self worth. My daughter has adopted 2 Ethiopian children and we're all so thankful
God has blessed our family with them both.

Please don't punish the children because of a few instances... there are children in loving homes and have extended family who love them dearly. Please don't let this keep children from people who would love them and would give them a wonderful home and a hope for their future.

Please don't take away any chances for an orphaned child to find a loving home....

This action will harm many more children than it will help. Please reconsider such an extreme response.

Please consider the harm to children who are left to fend for themselves on the streets.

Please re think this decision for all of the children who are really Orphaned!!!

We are looking forward to being grandparents of an adopted little girl from africa. It would be a shame to close the doors to so many needy children from being placed in loving homes.

Please reconsider. I have a nice home and good family that I would like to share with a child from Ethiopia. My friends and I plan on vacationing in Ethiopia when I receive my referral and I am sure that I (and many others) plan to vacation in Ethiopia in the future with our adopted child. Everyone benefits: the child, me, your country, the world. Thank you.

Put the needs of kids first.

Please do not close the adoption for these children.

Please do not close the adoption for these children.

Please permit adoptions so these children aren't left as orphans who will have to provide for themselves in a hostile world.

Very concerned about the children in Ethiopia...

Please allow adoptions to continue for the sake of the children who would not get the love and care and help otherwise.

I support ensuring ethical adoptions continue!

It's about the children. Please try to do what is best for them.

When I look at my Ethiopian daughter haw happy she is my hart brakes for children in Ethiopia who will never have a chance for this same happiness.

Help these children have a great life!

At the end of the day every child needs a loving home, food, education, a chance. There are families that want to provide that opportunity. Sweeping Government policies often hurt more than help.

Please keep intercountry adoption open!!

There are so many families who want to bring these beautiful orphaned children into their lives. It's a great thing. Please don't punish the children and families who wait to give their love.

We adopted two children from Africa and they have been such a wonderful blessing to our family. We could not imagine life without them.

Please provide adoptions to families who are waiting to share love, opportunities, and stability with children who need them.

It is the world`s responsiblity to care for orphans. We cannot do this is if adoptions are restricted!

Some of our dear friends are attempting to adopt a child from Ethiopia and they would be wonderful caring parents to any child. If these laws are passed it would be extremely difficult for them to adopt a child from Ethiopia and honestly the children lose out in this.

As a parent of an Ethiopian child whose mother could not care for her, and who now has a devoted loving family that will give her every possible advantage in life, we urge you not to deprive orphaned children of the chance to live a healthy, happy life through adoption. Shutting down unethical service providers is the best answer to preventing unethical practices, not imposing a de facto moratorium that hurts children most of all.

Work on the reason for the corruption. It is a problem. Families are desprate for a child and want to help these children then agencies are able to keep comming up with reason that they need more money. Who really know where all the money is going. But in the end the families are able to get their child. A child is priceless but all the extra cost should be going to the children and not someones pocket. 90% would be hopless for the children.

We have adopted five wonderful children from Ethiopia. They were the ages of nine, six, six, four and two at the time of placement. They are all thriving and are very happy. In each instance, we were able to met surviving family members who expressed their deepest gratitude to us. They said, "God bless you" over and over. Of course, we said that the blessing has been ours.

We adopted our little girl from Ethiopia in the Fall. She is an absolute joy and blessing to our family. We love Ethiopia and it's people, and my heart is saddened to think Ethiopia might be narrowing the doors on adoption.

Why deprive someone of a better future?

Please consider alternate methods for protection and care of Ethiopian orphans.

We have adopted our first son from Ethiopia and would like to adopt our second from Ethiopia as well. There are so many children in orphanages and without hope, we can gather around them and give them loving families.

please don't slow the adoption process down. I understand the reason, but it's going to hurt so many families and children.

I have a friend that is waiting to adopt from Ethiopia..she and her family have made so many sacrifices in anticipation of this wonderful baby and they are a wonderful family that would provide an exceptional environment for a baby to thrive and grow in. I pray that they can adopt and continue this process for the good of the baby.

We have a beautiful little boy (now 3) adopted from Ethiopia in 2008. It would be tragic for such a stark reduction in opportunity, both for the children, and the potential families. Though this is indeed delicate and sensitive work, and though recent isolated issues have come to light regarding questions of ethics and human rights, I believe there a great number of international human resources yet to be exhausted, at the government's disposal to ensure an alternate solution.

It is ridicules.

There are so many willing and loving people who would just love the opportunity to give orphaned children a new life and a chance for success. May the children's dreams be fulfilled.

Please give the Ethiopian children at least a chance to live safely and with love in a home where there is opportunity for them to grow up and learn about their heritage and the wonderful country whose leaders loved them as welll but saw the wisdom in bettering their lives by placing them with caring coulpes outside their home.

My heart is heavy as we pray for the orphaned children of Ethiopia... we are praying that our dream of giving a child a home through adoption is still possible for our family.

There are thousands of willing, dedicated parents in this country who would like to have a child of their own to love and care for. They pay thousands of dollars to have this blessing which so many can have free, and in that, prove their worth.

please help the children by allowing adoption

Please consider the long term effects of so drastically reducing the number of children adopted. Intercountry adoption can be a win-win situation, and resources should go to improving oversight throughout the process. Please don't let more and more children miss out on having forever families.

Limiting adoptions is not the answer to this problem. These children deserve the hope of adoption! Life, love, and the ability to thrive in a healthy environment are at stake here!

Please allow the children a chance at life. Many need homes and there are many loving parents longing to love them, raise them, cherish them.

Children's lives are at stake. Children who may well be doctors, scientists, inventors, educators who return to their native land as adults to give back to their people. They need the chance to be healthy, happy and productive citizens via adoption by couples who will cherish them and help them acheive their God given potentials.

Please reconsider this action.....I deeply appreciate your help with these children. So for their sake, please reconsider this decision.

When we met our daughter Tsehay was 19 months old and weighed less than 5 ½ kilograms. She had gained barely 1 kilo during her 11-month stay in the orphanage. No caretaker seemed to know anything about her. She was racked with illness, emotionally unresponsive and had a big recent gnash on her nose. **She was clearly dying and we are scared to think what would have happened if we had gotten there a few weeks later.** Don’t let true orphans languish in orphanages!

Please allow adoptions to be at 100%

Adoption is a wonderful gift for all parties.

Adoption is a wonderful gift for all parties.

These people simply want to give these children a great quality of life.

This is one area that must not be restricted, for the sake of human lives.

Please do not stop or delay these precious children from quickly getting to their forever families who are anxiously awaiting them...

Do not let the children in need die!! They can be helped, they can be saved and adopted. Increase the costs for adoptions and let the families who love and WANT the children pay to help you.

Please don't stop the adoption process. Those children need to be placed in good homes.

Love partnering with Ethiopia to address the orphan crisis.

I personally know several children that have been given an wonderful opportunity through adoption for a healthy life. We also support a child in Ethiopia so he can go to school there. There is a definite need for both-adoption and supporting children within the country. Please don't curtail adoptions.

We need to get these children to their forever homes

Our prayers are with you.

Please allow those prospective adoptive parents who have been in the adoption process prior to this new ruling, be allowed to continue on their path to adoption with no delays.

Pray without ceasing. 1 Thes. 5:17

do not allow any children to live in orphanages longer than needed!! Good people want to adopt children and give them the best life possible. Let them!!!!!!!!

Let these children have loving homes with people that really want them
This is so long a process and now to make adoptive parents wait even longer seems so unfair The pain you are putting these people thru is wrong .Yes you want to be sure all children are truely adoptable , but isn't that you have been doing always.
Prayers be with you to make the right
descesion God BLess all and hope thing are back soons

I can't imagine not having our 2 beautiful Ethiopian daughters!

Please don't close the door for so many wonderful children who want forever families - so many of us love the people and children and Ethiopia and just want to see these children thrive and be loved in a stable family.

give children & families a chance

Help My niece's dream come true with her
adoption, a young girl from Ethiopia.

Please don't let the choices of some corrupt people determine the future for so many orphans in your country that desperately need good homes!!!

This is devastating for all concerned. We understand your motivations but please consider reopening as soon as possible.

Children's Rights!!!!!!!

Please reconsider your stance and continue to allow intercountry adoption.

let kids find homes!!!

Please reconsider your plan. The lives of so many orphans are at stake here.

Please keep this open. Why stop the children from having people who love them adopt them?

God bless all the beautiful children you are working hard to help, my heartfelt hope is that many more are able to be placed in loving families who are ready to love them.

Please reconsider your reduction in international adoption. There are so many orphaned children in Ethiopia who would benefit by be adopted by loving families in the United States.

Please help to do God's work. Please save these children.

My grandson was adopted from Ethiopia. He is the love of his parents' lives and ours as well. PLEASE don't limit the number of children to be adopted. Families waiting for "their" child here will be devasted. They are already greatly loved. These children deserve a chance to be loved and cared for!

Please don't deprive the children of Ethiopia the chance to grow up with a family.

praying for everybody involved!

Please allow more of these wonderful Ethiopian orphans be adopted by these wonderful parents!

Your adoption service is a wonderful opportunity for caring parents and children of Ethiopia to create a family. Limiting funding for such an organization is not only a disservice to these underprivileged youth, but to our global community.

Please don't punish everyone because of the folly of a few.

Please allow these little ones to have parents, to have education, to be loved & brought up with the attention & hope they deserve. When children raise children, there is no story of Ethiopia to share, no lessons passed on. Let them be adopted & to bring Ethiopia's future forward. Thank you for listening

While I understand the need for caution in intercountry adoptions, the majority of would-be adoptive parents are men and women who honestly desire to aid the welfare of a child. Please do not let isolated irresponsibility prevent good people from helping vulnerable children.

All children should have the right to a loving, caring home. This should not be limited by jurisdictions. Wherever God has loving parents for them, please allow these children to go.

While I understand the need for caution in intercountry adoptions, the majority of would-be adoptive parents are men and women who honestly desire to aid the welfare of a child. Please do not let isolated irresponsibility prevent good people from helping vulnerable children.

All children should have the right to a loving, caring home. This should not be limited by jurisdictions. Wherever God has loving parents for them, please allow these children to go.

We adopted our precious daughter from Ethiopia nearly 4 years ago. We have been truly blessed with this amazing privilege and we hope and pray other children and families with continue to have the same opportunity in the future.

Our experience adopting our son from Ethiopia was wonderful. I was very impressed by all the precautions our adoption agency had us go through to make sure the adoption was legitimate.

I am an adoptive mom and have seen how being in an orphanage for 21 months of my son's life has affected him emotionally. I feel it is really important to bring children out of the orphanages and into loving homes as soon as possible so that they can begin to heal from their traumatic start in life.

It's not important which country a child goes to, what is important is that the child is loved and in a home.

While I am not only in appreciating the concern for the children of Ethiopia, drastically cutting the number of adoptions by 90% will not solve systemic problems.

praying for the children of Ehiopia! praying for a change of heart so more orphan can find forever homes and loving parents........

Please prayfully consider your decisions regarding the adoption of fatherless and motherless children in your country. I support that you want to protect against abuse, but please don't forget about the real orphans that are waiting for mothers and fathers to love and protect the,. Thank you

Please change your mind so innocent children will get a loving home!

if this would have been in place 18mths ago i would not have my sweet little nephew now.

Although we would like to see the children stay with their parents, we know that economically this is sometimes impossible so for the children's sake, do not limit the number of adoptions----give them a chance for a safe and productive future.

All children deserve a chance to a good and happy life.

Bottom line-loving homes for children!!

Please allow intercountry adoption. There are so many children without homes, please allow them to be placed with a loving family through intercountry adoption. Thank You.

I beg of you to re consider restricting intercountry adoptions. My wife and I adopted from your beautiful country in 2010 our wonderful daughter. Our lives have been forever changed and we have been incredibly blessed by her. Our daughter is a bright ambassador for your wonderful country already even at her young age of two. So many people have been introduced to the wonder and beauty of Ethiopia through her. Please reconsider.

Blessings,

Greg West

These children need good homes. Providing them is the highest degree of moral compassion. The regretable abuses can be addressed effectively by means other than refusing good homes to deserving children.

I disagree with the decision to reduce adoptions.
Many Americans are honest, loving people who desire children and can provide a healthy, financial secure home.

Please, make the children the priority. Give them a chance at a better life!

Please allow adoption to continue within your country. There are so many people that have a love for your children and want nothing more than to adopt from your country. Please allow them that priviliege. Thank You

Please sign this petition to help orphans in Ethiopa get to their forever homes!

I agree that there have been a few horrific cases regarding adoptive children however, nearly all children that are adopted are adopted into loving, generous families who have already waited a long time to grow their families. Please consider another alternative to simply reducing adoptions such as using only agencies that thoroughly check out the perspective parents so you know that they are going to the right types of families. Thank you.

My prayers go out to everyone being affected by this. Continue to fight for these kids, and remember that God is so much bigger than this proposal!

Please let these children find permanent homes! Praying!

I believe this change will directly involve and affect how orphans will be served in Ethiopia. I am concerned for the well-being of these orphans; and my hope is for them to end up in healthy loving families. I plead with Ethiopia not to encact this change: please, instead consider the needs and welfare of orphaned children.

Help adoptions get pushed through!!!

We appreciate your work. Please for the sake of the children who have no family to care for them, please intercede and do good. We care for these children and want to see them in loving, safe, healthy homes. We look forward to a day when all children have a mother and a father.
We are praying for you and your work.

Be fair to the children!

Please reconsider your plan.

Please do not punish the mass for the wrongdoings of the few.

Please help these children have a blessed life.

I adopted my son from Ethiopia, and there are so many orphaned children in Ethiopia who need adoptive families. It would be awful to reduce intercountry adoptions so greatly and eliminate the possibility of permanent families for these children.

please help spread this petition.

Our youngest granddaughter is from Ethiopia. She is incredible. Her laughter and smile are contagious. What a bright child who loves life. Our family would not be complete without her.

Our daughter and husband are still waiting to come back to Ethiopia to bring home their daughter Mirta (their 1st trip was in January). They will give this child the most loving home. It breaks their hearts that this 18-month-old child is still in an orphanage.

Please prevent Ethiopia from keeping children in orphanages for years. There are many loving families who want to care for them. Keep the adoption process ethical and open!

People in power need to think about the children for once...

ensure ethical adoptions !!

Thank you for considering.

We have a granddaughter from Ethiopia. She is such a blessing and a joy! I cannot imagine life without her. Her smile and laughter brighten everything around her.

This wouldn't be fair for any of the orphaned children in Ethiopia, nor would it be fair for the families waiting for their children.

I volunteered for Adoption Advocates International in 2005 and was so impressed with their integrity and care for the children. Please consider our signatures!

Let's consider what is best for children without homes. If a family has the means to extend their hearts and homes to other, please give them the opportunity to do so. This so important for the emotional, physical, and social development of orphan children to have someone to love and provide for them. Adoption truly can make an impact.

It breaks my heart take the government would even think of doing this when the children could be placed in loving homes and taken care of properly. I fell the sooner they get adopted the better not taking even longer. How would the government officials like their children to have to live in orphanages with no love and family??

Please reconsider and allow these families to lovingly raise your country's children

My son is Ethiopian and is a delightful, loving boy. We value his Ethiopian heritage and the Ethiopian people. I know many loving parents who are in process of adopting from Ethiopia because they want to grow their family. I support ethical adoptions and hope any illegal practices are put to an end. I hope there is a different way we can ensure legal adoptions without cutting the number of adoptions.

Please don't take away the chance for children to be with loving families.

I was adopted from Korea and it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I was 5 and would have most likely died. I am very blessed and thankful for what was allowed to happen to me through adoption.

Do it

I understand your concern for your own people and your nation. That is very good! However, there are also many good people that love God and want to love children who need a father and mother. Please consider their offer to care for some of these children. My wife and I have adopted 3 children from different ethnic backgrounds and love them very much. You will be forever making Ethiopia a special place in those parent's hearts. God bless you!

children need families!

This is not just a large unrelated issue for me. This is nieces/nephews we're talking about! My sister is a great mother to her biological daughter and would provide a loving, healthy Christian home for other children. Please don't deny her that right!

Hi. from Bowdle, SD from Dr. Jadon. I really enjoy this petition program and what its doing. i think my buddy Dr. Kasey Wipf is doing this wonderful deed to. Thank You Very Much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please allow these children to have a better life through adoption.

This signature is in support of Winnfield and Marika Scott, they have been accepted to adopt an Ethopian child, and they would be more than fit to care for the child.

For the sake of Jesus' little ones so precious to Him and us!

Thank you!

I dont like what they are doing. Dont pass, im a doctor and know what im talking about. So listen to me people.

Dr. Wipf

My husband is a physician and I am a PA and we are considering adoption, specifically from Ethiopia, though we have no fertility problems. We are saddened by the news that Ethiopia is reducing intercountry adoption to a point that might prohibit us from providing a loving home for children in need.

Please add my support for the adoption of Ethiopian orphans. I work with orphans in Haiti, and I know of many orphans who would be adopted if the government were more cooperative. I commend the Ethiopian government on the policies they have had in place to allow foreign adoptions.

creating this policy will be the most devasting policy to those children and parents in the usa that want to make a difference the a child life and their own... we have so much to offer these children.

Adoption is such an important part of our every day lives. It is a blessing to be able to support and raise someone who would have been stuck in an orphanage or on the streets for the rest of their life. Adoption not only brings hope for children of Ethiopia but it provides the nation revenue that it will drastically lose by reducing the adoption amount by 90%.

Please don't take away this opportunity for children who need help right away!

The orphaned children in Ethiopia have been victimized enough by their circumstances, please do not put them in the middle of a political issue which has solutions available that would allow them to find permanent, loving families.

A child's life is far to precious to allow so many to suffer for isolated incidences of abuse of the system.

I personally know a couple that is heartbroken over this being done!! They are more than capable of offering a child an opportunity at a much happier, healthier life!

We adopted our beautiful daughter from Ethiopia in Sept. 2009. We love her with all of our hearts. Her biological Ethiopian parents would feel so peaceful if they could see how happy she is. We will always make sure she is proud of her country. We'd like to adopt at least 2 more from Ethiopia so that she can have siblings from her country. PLEASE continue intercountry adoptions!! God Bless.

Will more orphanages be built for these thousands of homeless, impoverished children? Who will house these thousands of human children? What hope can they have for their futures when the employment rate is so low? Think of what is right for the greatest number of children.

I attend Metro Church where Mike Darling attended growing up. I know the upstanding family well and see this adoption as a blessing from God.

Please reconsider this decision. The positive outcomes of intercountry adoption far outweigh the negative. Unfortunately, no "system" is perfect and this fact is particularly upsetting when children are involved. However, there are measures and other protective actions that can be put into place to ensure that every child has the best possible outcome! My family has been blessed by intercountry adoption and I would be devastated if others couldn't experience the same joy.

We adopted our two children from Ethiopia in Dec 2009. They have grown 4-5 sizes each in a year, and everyone who meets them comments how much joy they have in their eyes. We met our birthfamily, all of them - the entire village, when we traveled to Ethiopia and celebrated together. Their father said thank you repeatedly and said over and over how if his children stayed with him in his poverty they would die. He told us he gave them to God who gave them to us so they could live.

international adoption, in general, is a good thing for the future of Ethiopia.
the kids will come back and give, I'm a living proof.

Mother of 3 adopted children.

Please...just do what's in the best interest of the children. They are the important.

My wife and I are waiting on a referral via Bethany Christian Services since August. It broke our heart to see Ethiopia reduce the # of adoptions to only five/day. We pray that Ethiopia will reconsider this decision to help all the babies and children find forever families!

Reducing the # of adoptions only hurts kids in need. Allow kids the opprotunity to experience life with a loving mom and dad. Your reduction is not good for all concerned.

Please allow these children to be able to have families that will love them and care for them.

What a tragedy!

Please also consider all the LOVE that will never be given to these children if this remains in effect. Better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.

I respectfully echo the words in this petition. Please reconsider your decision to reduce the number of adoptions. If anything find a way to bring more children to families who want to love and care for them. I will commit to praying for your beautiful country daily until a decision has been made to change the reduction. God be with you! Jim

I have personally seen several children adopted from Ethiopia and every one of them have been placed in loving caring families. It breaks my heart to think that so many children will continue to die and live in horrible conditions if they are not allowed to be adopted outside of their birth country. Don't condemn these children to a life of poverty and starvation because of a few bad outcomes. Instead, find a better way to weed out the bad apples so that these babies can find a forever home.

Opportunity and affection for children should know no boundaries. Please allow children to have more opportunity and affection than otherwise would be the case by allowing international adoptions to continue as much as possible.

For the children.

Please don't reduce intercountry adoptions. I have a friend who would make a great parent to a child. She is in the middle of her adoption process. Why spoil the hopes and dreams for her and others wishing to adopt?

As a woman whose only option to have children is through adoption, I am passionate about seeing children adopted.

Please keep Ethiopian adoptions open. There are too many orphans who need our help!

Only by faith. Look at Hebrews 11..it tell us only by faith in God will He move mountains.. Our God is great and powerfull...

Please reconsider this unnecessary decision.

Please let these children have loving families who will follow all procedures to be able to parent them!

Please...these children need families. There are ways to ensure the process is safe and that the chidlren's best interests come first. An orphanage is never the best option. PLEASE reconsider...these precious kids need families.

It would be a tragic loss to thousands upon thousands of Ethiopian children needing safe and loving families; such as those like my friends, who have had the opportunity to adopt a vibrant, and loving child who now thrives as an integral part of that family. Please do not reduce the number of adoptions.

tragic for the children. We are such a happy family and my heart breaks for the kids that can't ever know that.

We are currently in the process of adopting from Ethiopia and can't imagine the children that will suffer as a result of this unneccesary action. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE reconsider.

Please rethink this plan. There has to be a better way to ensure that children adopted are safe. All children deserve to have a family.

Please reconsider this measure. There are many wonderful homes in the USA that would love to be parents to these children who so badly need a family and a home!

Please re-consider the idea to reduce the number of inter-country adoptions. There are loving and acaring families and communities around the globe that would allow these children to lead richer, fuller lives.

please don't decrease international adoption. Give these kids a chance to a wonderful life to families that want to share GOD'S LOVE and JOYS.

We NEED to keep the adoptions open... It is SO IMPORTANT for all children to get a "forever" home/family that will show them the love they so deserve!

Please do not disallow inter-cultural adaptions. Many families are willing and desirous to adopt. As always in these situations, we need to be wary of human trafficking and the rampant childhood sex trade industry, but with proper monitoring, we can help many people.

I am an adoptive mother to a beautiful Ethiopian baby boy, Tegegn. He has changed our lives forever, and is loved immeasurably. We are starting another adoption soon and fear this measure will hurt Ethiopian children. Please reconsider.

Our Ethiopian children are deeply loved and treasured. Please allow other orphans to be cherished by their waiting families.

To God be the Glory!

Please let loving parents raise children.

ALL CHILDREN DESERVE LOVE and RESPECT. IF THEIR OWN FAMILY CANNOT or WILL NOT PROVIDE IT, GOD HAS ALLOWED OTHERS TO CARE ENOUGH TO STEP IN TO PROVIDE THIS MUCH NEEDED BASIC SUPPORT.

Please continue to allow adoptions at the present rate in Ethiopia. Our precious grandson was adopted from there and we LOVE him so much!

Please keep these adoptions going forward. These children need our help and prayers. Please do not close these doors. These kids deserve families and love.

The plight of every child in need of a good home should be the priority of every individual; whether in government, working for an agency, or orphanage or future parent. I implore any and every law maker to consider what each and every law will do the long term safety and future happiness of the great majority of child who need to be loved. This law will diminish this hope and dream because of a select few. Please do not let it happen.

Please allow children the opportunity to grow up in a family.

I want to help all the kids in ethipian kids continue to get all the best homes possible.

Please do not reduce the number of adoptions from Ethiopia. Please remember the children and the help they can get outside of Ethiopia.

There are peoples hearts at stake here! Why leave a child unloved when there are familys who want to love them?

I am adopted and I can only hope these children are given the same opportunity I was given.

Please do not limit the adoption of Ethiopian children by people from other countries.

Please allow these adoptions.

My darling niece is from Ethiopia and is thriving. She is loved by everyone she meets and cherished by our family. Please don't keep other precious children from the love and support of a family.

Please allow these children to be adopted by families that have been waiting and are willing to provide them with a caring and loving home.

Please allow these children to come to their adopted homes- we have so many families awaiting these children!!!!!

There are so many families here in America that are committed to adopting children and providing loving homes. Its difficult to understand why the Ministry would consider cutting adoption numbers and putting more money/effort into children who will stay in the country, especially since this type of strict cut back means that a much larger portion of adoptable children will be staying in Ethiopia...

I have a grandson who was adopted from a wonderful orphanage in Adis Ababa, Ethiopia. The process went very smoothly and he is such a joy to our family.

Thank you for putting the children first in all decisions. I pray that all problems with adoption will be resolved in a manner that is both wise and honest. Our daughter has been home from Ethiopia for two years, she is now 12 years old and has the ambition to one day go back to Ethiopia and work for women and children's health! thank you so much for rethinking the amount of children processed

Please consider encouraging safe, legal adoptions of Ethiopian children into families where they will be loved and cared for.

Many wonderful, caring people will be denied the opportunity to provide a good, loving and healthy life for one of the thousands of deserving children. Please reconsider this strong overreaction to a problem.

Please help to keep these children safe!

It is commendable that the government is taking actions to ensure ethical inter-country adoptions. However, reducing the number of inter-country adoptions is not the answer. Rather, the government should encourage and support inter-country adoption. There are various ways to ensure ethical adoptions such as increasing the fee charged by the government so that the government can add personnel to eliminate and punish rogue agencies and individuals.

Please do not reduce inter-country adoptions!

Limiting the options to save a child's life is a hanis injustice. The children of this world are the future. Anything and everything that can be done to enhance their lives should be done and adoption, in most cases, is a true blessing.

Please consider the children. The best solution should be what helps the children the most.

We respectfully plead for you to consider the children like the child we are trying to adopt. At a year old he is 10 lbs and in the last month has had two serious illnesses including pneumonia. He and others like him, cannot wait. Here in our arms he will receive all the love and care he needs to thrive and grow and find joy. Please make these children your priority.

Please reconsider your plan. There are so many children waiting for homes. Do not take away their chances!

We adopted a five-year-old boy almost a year ago, and he is doing so well! He adores playing with his brother and two sisters, is doing well in school, and enjoys playing on a local soccer team. He mentioned yesterday that he felt lucky that he has a family because he had friends in the orphanage who had been waiting for a long time for families. Don't these children deserve loving families, too?

ETATI am a grandparent of a wonderful three year old who was adopted from Ethiopia. All rules and regulations and ethics were a part of this adoption. She is such a joy to our family, and we hope another child can be adopted from Ethiopia by her adoptive parents. Her adoptive parents are maintaining close ties to Ethiopia and love the country. She knows she is from "Epiopia" as she says it, and they intend to have her have great love for her birth country also.

Please give these children a chance for a loving home and a good future.

We wholeheartedly support MOWA’s goal of ensuring ethical adoptions. However, we respectfully urge MOWA to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry adoption. Rather than eliminate the right of Ethiopian children to a permanent family, we encourage the Ministry to accept the partnerships offered by governments and agencies.

We respectfully plead for you to consider the children like the child we are trying to adopt. At a year old he is 10 lbs and in the last month has had two serious illnesses including pneumonia. He and others like him, cannot wait. Here in our arms he will receive all the love and care he needs to thrive and grow and find joy. Please make these children your priority.

These precious children just need a loving home. Precious families just want precious children to love. Please keep the option of adoption open. Thank you.

Tony and Carrie Given are Christian parents and would be wonderful loving parents to an adoptivie child. The child would be raised in a Christian atmosphere.

Children must not be forced to wait longer than they already do before they can be part of a loving family.

While I am not an adoptive parent of an Ethiopian child, I have adopted four children from other countries, and am part of a huge network of friends and acquaintences who have adopted internationally as well. I know any one of these people who have biological children as well as adopted would agree with me..the love for our adopted children is truly not one bit different than the love for our biological children. Please don't deny children the chance to be cherished members of a forever family.

For the sake of the children, please accept all assistance offered to help you with administrative and governmental cost to process as many applications for adoption as possible.
One of these children, given the opportunity to proper nuturing and education may change to world for al of us. If you do not give them every opportunity to get the required help, their contribution to humanity may neve be realized.
Respectfully submitted,
Andrew J. Walvoord
U.S.A.

Please allow loving families to adopt Ethiopian children in need!

Please, Give this petiton your full consideration and know that those envolved have the childrens best interest at heart.

Respectfully,
Kristopher L. Smith

Many children are needing loving homes so I implore you to reconsider your new policy on adoption review, and reinstate the previous policy.

Please help adoptions not be reduced in Ethiopia so children can receive hope and care.

Please do not take away the opportunities for these children to live in loving homes as a result of isolated negative events. I urge the ministry to hear this plea.

These kids deserve a chance!! They are all God's children and if there is a remote chance at a better life, please honor them by giving them the opportunity.

We adopted two children from Ethiopia (brothers) who needed a loving family. Please allow the many orphans in Ethiopia the opportunity to be adopted into families who will love and care for them. Everyone deserves the opportunity to be part of a family.

Please do not go forward with this act to decrease adoption. I know several families who have or are planning to adopt from Ethiopia. These children are a blessing to their lives and I am confident that they are a blessing to your children.

Please reconsider the MOWA decision to reduce the number of children placed into loving, healthy families. We have been serving Ethiopian orphans through our church for 2 years now, and we love them. We hope many of them are able to find a loving mom and dad.

Please allow all those in the system to finish the process and go to their new families.

I urge you to reconsider this ban and instead support children being placed in loving homes.

Please consider the sweet children in limbo waiting for loving, caring, patient, supportive parents, who want nothing more than to provide a home to children who need one.

Please continue to give hope and love to children that need it and families that want to adopt

Please continue to allow the children of Ethiopia to find forever homes with loving parents who can provide their needs.

We have an adopted daughter from Russia who came to us at 9 months. She is now 13 years old and, with my son, the joy of our lives. It's unthinkable to me that anyone would have given her up at birth; that, without our intervention, she would have spent her youth without family and the love of us all. She has been a gift to us and she has thrived in her new life here. Please give other children the chance of a lifetime to love and be loved; to be welcomed and nourished within a family here.

These children NEED loving Mom's & Dad's & healthy homes!

Please continue to advocate so that all children will have families.

Please find a way to allow ethical adoptions to continue at a pace that enables true orphans to be safely matched with loving families as quickly as possible.

Please allow the orphaned children to find homes.

Praying for the children of Ethiopia

Please don't let politics keep children from finding forever families!!

Adoption is the last resort for both the children & parents, but it is a rewarding and beneficial experience to both in the vast majority of cases. I plead and beg you to please reconsider this drastic measure, as it only hurts the most vulnerable. NGO's are unable to sustain care for these children for life. Many are abandoned, homeless, & neglected. The few children who get adopted are considered lucky by those who know them, go on to live fulfilling lives & are considered a blessing to all

Please do not reduce intercountry adoption for the childrens sake.

I truly hope that children in Ethiopia who need homes will be allowed to be matched with families who can care for them in the most expidited manner possible. I also pray that those seeking to gain money through the mis use of the adoption system will be stopped.

Please let good families help these children in need.

Please allow children to continue to be adopted into loving families and not be institutionalized.

My daughter and her husband have been in the process of adopting a child from Ethiopia for the past 13 months because they believe that it is the path God has set for them to begin their family. We are all waiting with much love in our heart for this child and will continue to do so no matter how long it takes. Please do not further lengthen what is already a long process.

Children need loving, healthy, stable parents from any country or race. Please don't punish the children by ending adoption. Please allow those in the system presently to finish and go home with their new families. Ethiopia needs to honor their promises.

Please think of children's present and future. The love of family is a wonderful gift you can give many children.

I agree with the writers of this petition. All children deserve a permanent, safe, loving home!

Orphans, we have our homes/families, but they have neither. If the only thing you can do is pray for these chlldren, please make it daily.

Please continue to allow the adoptions of the orphans in South Africa. They deserve a better life.

Please help orphaned children to find a home where thay can be loved and cared for.

Please allow these beautiful children to be adopted!

As an adoptive mother I beg you to allow these precious children to have a family.

Please continue to openly allow the adoption of these children take place to loving families, wherever they may be found, without restriction to the numbers. If these children need homes, let's find homes ANYWHERE in the world.

We have an adopted 5 yr old son from Ethiopia and is he doing so well. We would love the chance to adopt more siblings from Ethiopia and are very saddened for all of the many children in Ethiopia who need a family and will now be living in orphanages for years or permanently. Please consider other options.

For the sake of the children, please don't reduce adoptions. Every child deserves a loving family.

We should not punish so many for the sins of a few.

Please re-consider this. Intercountry adoption is a wonderful solution for those children who have no other option for adoption. And these children will be loved unconditionally by their new parents. Please do not deprive innocent children of the love these families have to offer.

May we, the U.S., continue to stretch out our hands to those in need. To whom much is given, much is required. Please allow U.S. families the right to continue to reach out to Ethiopia and bless many children and families with the gift of adoption.

More stringent oversight of adoption procedures would eliminate abuses. It would be tragic for these children not to benefit from adoptions by loving families.

Please don't reduce adoptions in your country! There are so many good families that can offter love, food, and a good home.

I strongly support this petition.

It would be a shame for those children to sit in cribs and not have the human contact they would receive from a loving family. These children are in crisis and need the security of parents that will love them and care for them. Please keep the adoptions going at 100% and give these children a chance to have a wonderful life with a loving family.

We adopted a 10-month old boy from Ethiopia and he is the joy of our life. We hope that the Ethiopian government will do everything possible to speed up the adoption process so that children can adjust to their new homes and parents as early in life as possible - it makes a big difference.

I urge the Ethiopian government to increase the number of adoption petitions reviewed and approved for international adoptions.

I support ethical adoptions and a process that ensures integrity. I also support a process that makes it possible for good people with the means to adopt a child in an efficient way for the good of the many, many children whose lives will be changed for the better.

Thank you for all of your work!

Ethiopian orphans find loving homes with willing American families. Rather than nearly stop adoptions, the system needs to be reformed to assure that orphans really are orphans and that no child trafficing occurs. To reduce adoptions 90% is drastic and unnecessary.

We have an adopted 5 yr old son from Ethiopia and is he doing so well. We would love the chance to adopt more siblings from Ethiopia and are very saddened for all of the many children in Ethiopia who need a family and will now be living in orphanages for years or permanently. Please consider other options.

Please help these deserving children have a wonderful family!

I can't imagine our family without our sweet daughter from Ethiopia!! We desire to adopt more Ethiopian orphans and hope the integrity and efficiency of the Ethiopian adoption program will be retained!

As an adoptive mother myself I would love to see forever families united quickly!

Please allow these children every chance to a better life.

Please give these children a chance to have a home with loving parents and a chance for a better life.

I am adopted from Texas and I have 4 sisters from Guatemala, and when i am ready to have children my husband and I plan to adopt!
Thank you for the support!

Please allow these children to be adopted. Our son and daughter in law are so looking forward to raising a little boy or girl. They are wonderful parents and what a tragedy it would be to not allow an orphan to become part of their family.

Our recently-adopted grandson from Ethiopia has been a great gift to our family. He is loved and loves us in return. He has adjusted rapidly and very well to his new surroundings. The first time I saw him, he put his arms up to me to be held. We shall make sure that he knows of his connection to Ethiopia. Thank you for allowing this very small boy to come to our son and daughter-in-law and to us. With them, we shall nurture him and care for him.

My husband and I are in process of adopting from Ethiopia

Last spring our friends adopted and welcomed home 3 boys home from Ethiopia (ages 7 and 1--twins). They are in a loving home, and they have made great strides developmentally and emotionally. Slowing the rate of adoption would mean more children like these beloved boys will be sitting in institutions without the love and support of families waiting to welcome them home. Please consider the well-being of these children as you form your policies on adoption.

Steps should be taken to prevent abuses, but preventing children from finding a loving home is not the answer.

We have friends who adopted a boy from Ethiopia several years ago. He's been blessed to be a part of this family and is himself a blessing to them. We recognize the need for strict control of the adoption process in order to protect the children. However, please consider an alternative that would provide both protection for the children and an expedited adoption process.

Please reconsider - you have done so much to help the children of Ethiopia and we have been blessed to be able to adopt from Ethiopia and appreciate that opportunity so much. These children need & deserve families, first & foremost we support domestic adoption w/in Ethiopia and then international as the next option. Help these children experience the love of a family.

Allow, encourage and support the facilitation of uniting families with orpahns.

Most families and agencies do the right thing for these children who need loving homes. Orphanage life/institutionalization causes significant delays and attachment disorders in children. Please allow your orphans to be adopted into forever families. Thank you.

These children have ready and willing couples waiting to adopt. Please bless the children and these families by allowing them to be adopted.

Please keep access open for these needy children.

Please think of the children - there are so many families that would give them wonderful caring loving homes. These children deserve this. They do not deserve to be used as pawns and kept in orphanages where they aren't given any real chance at life. The human thing to do here is allow for these adoptions to take place. Nobody is caring for these children where they are now, why punish them for being born by refusing them a loving caring home?

I am a dental hygienist and I have a patient who adopted a sweet little boy from Ethiopia. His birth father had died and his birth mother could simply not care for him and his siblings alone with the limited resources she had. She loved him and cared for him for 9 months, then he was placed in the loving home he's in now. He is 1 1/2 years old, and could not be any happier or healthier. I believe his birth mother is kept up to date on his life. It is a blessing.

The worlds children need our assistance and at this time especially in Ethiopia. As adults in this earth community we must care and pray.

I support the Ministry’s goal of ensuring ethical adoptions that serve the best interest of children and serve all vulnerable children & families.

I respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry adoption. Rather than eliminate the right of Ethiopian children to a permanent family, I encourage the Ministry to accept the partnerships offered by governments, NGOs, and foundations.

Please help the children of Ethiopia by allowing adoptions to continue.

Adoption should be seperated from politics, children need parents.

I prayerfully sign this petition!

Please do not do this to these helpless children who need love and tender care ASAP

My close friends are adopting from Ethiopia. They have adopted one beautiful son from Ethiopia. They are amazing parents. There are so many beautiful homes that are awaiting for their children. Please keep it open.

We adopted our son two years ago. We are now so blessed to have him in our lives. Please allow other families and children to have the same joy that we have also felt.

Somebody has to think about these poor children. They need homes! Let the people who can give them a home and a better life be able to adopt them!

Our daughter was not able to remain with her birthfamily, we know this to be a fact. She is happy and healthy and just started walking! We love her more than words can say. ET is forever part of us and we will raise our daughter to know and love her birthcountry.

This affects so many orphans who truly need a stable, loving family to live forever with. Please reconsider for the children's sake!

Please reconsider your position on adoptions. Many good homes throughout the world are awaiting children.

Children need loving homes. Please allow adoptions to loving families.

My beautiful niece was adopted from Ethiopia. She is in a loving home and I can't imagine life without her. She makes our family whole.

Please reconsider. Everychild deserves a forever family. This would greatly reduce the number of kids finding forever homes and would have a huge financial impact on the country as it is responsible to care for these kids.

God's children should be allowed to be taken care of, raised, LOVED by any of God's children. I know of a couple who live in California in the USA, who have made an incredible little boy their one and only priority in life. He, regardless of the material aspects he is surrounded by, is one of the most loved, appreciated and well taken care of children I know of. To prevent other children from getting the same loving home is a tragedy

Everyone wants safe and ethical adoptions for children. I also believe children should not be deprived of an opportunity for a better life (or to simply live).

Please allow the orphans to be adopted quickly so they will have a home and be loved.

Please allow your beautiful children the chance to be a part of a family which in turns allows us to BE parents. Know we are honored to have the opportunity to love these children as our own and encourage our children to know and understand the culture/traditions from their birth country.

Please do not reduce the adoption from your country. The children need to be in loving homes as soon as possible. Thank you.

Please continue to work in the lives of these children by uniting them with loving parents and families! Orphanages are not a permanent solution to the orphan crisis in Ethiopia.

I support ethical adoptions. The agencies and individuals that are unethical should be removed from the system. There are, however, plenty of agencies that are completely ethical and put the children and birth families first. Children that do not have birth families to turn to still deserve to have families that love them. Please reinstate the intercountry adoptions back to their previous capacity.

Please reconsider this reduction. The children need the love and opportunity provided by a family. These are resouces that even the best orphanage just can't fully provide. Please don't penalize the children and honest waiting families because of a few dishonorable people.

Children should be given every opportunity to be placed in a loving home, whether it is in their own country or with a family of another country. I personally know many wonderful families who have adopted children from other countries. They spent years, time and money so they could give a child their love. They do this because of their love for the child and there is no malice.

There is so much love waiting for these beautiful children of Ethiopia. Please do not allow the actions of a few to penalize those whose hearts are waiting to give love to these precious kids. Thank you for you consideration.

I hope they do not do away with the adoptions. I am looking foward to holding my friend's baby and seeing her happiness when she adopts which she has so looked foward to.

These babies deserve good homes and parents in the USA want these children. Please keep allowing the adoptions for these hopeful parents and children.

I believe in international adoption

So many children can be loved and well taken care of by some many families here that desire to share their love. Please reconsider the decision to limit the adoptions.

Have faith and go through the process rationally. There are better ways to combat the limited amount of corruption that is taking place.
Our son is a blessing.

Please allow us to offer homes to the children in need!

Please consider accepting the partnership of agencies working to secure the adoptions of the precious children in need of homes. Respectfully submitted.

There are good families with extended support who wish to help the children of Ethiopia. Please let them. These children have a hard time developing in understaffed orphanages.

Thank you for your consideration.

My husband and I have adopted 3 Ethiopian sisters who had no father and an elderly mother who was unable to care for/feed them. They are now happy, thriving, healthy girls, doing well in school and family life in America. Intercountry adoption gave them the chance they needed for a fruitful, fulfilling life.

Please reconsider this action and don't cut back the cases processed so drastically. Even without this sort of reduction, it took us 18 months to bring out beautiful ethiopian born daughter home. She was in an orphanage for 15 months out of her first 18 months alive and although was well taken care of those months, was without the love of our family who so desired her to come home. Extending the time to bring her home would have made it much harder on her to make the adjustment into a family

Please, for the sake of the children, reconsider cutting down on the number of adoptions processed.

We have formed our family through adoption and we hope that you will reconsider this plan and allow the many, many children without a family to be able to be adopted by families who will love and care for them. Thank you for your consideration.

i have seen the effect on children and families of successful intercountry adoption and cringe at the thought of leaving children in need of family parenting to remain unadopted when there are so many good couples and families who can improve the childrens' lot in life and show them the kindess of God.

Please allow the children in need to go to loving homes without delay. It is the least you can do for them.

PLEASE DON'T LET NICE DO IN ETHIOPIA WHAT THEY WERE IGNORANT ALLOWED TO IN GUATEMALA. LOVE THESE CHILDREN ENOUGH TO GIVE THEM A FUTURE W/O MISERY.

Please help the children of Ethiopia

Please release these beautiful children to go to homes where they are loved and cared for.

Please continue to allow inter country adoptions.

Please at least consider allowing those already matched with their child to finish their process quickly before closing down international adoptions while you investigate corruption.

Give your children the family they need!

Delays in this process are delays in the quality of life and improvements of living conditions for these children and their families. It is imperative that these changes be reversed as they are not in the best interest for ALL children. There must be an easier solution to the problems international adoption faces other than drastically reducing adoptions across the board. Please make the needed changes to the system without disrupting loving families and their adoptions.

Please consider all of the children who have no one to love and care for them. Allow international familes to provide a loving, safe home for them. Thank you.

Every child needs a home, why deny a child the option of adoption?

There are many wonderful people who have the means and desire to love, educate and raise these babies into independent, productive adults. Help them to have a quality life as well as giving the world help and hope for a peaceful and successful future for all peoples everywhere. We need to think about working together and educating the children. They are the hope for a better tomorrow!!!

Please allow adoption of Ethiopian children.

Ethiopian children without parents need the gift of a loving family who will always be there for them. I truly believe it is God's will to make adopting these little angels as easy as is humanly possible, by American prospective parents. God's Word is filled with how important family is to the Christian life. Please don't let these precious children - and wonderful families who want to adopt them - suffer.

Those Children need this, if anything the Government should be thankful of Programs to help give their people a future.

So many wonderful, loving families want to help an Ethiopian orphan feel loved and included

Children thrive in stable families. Please allow for the practice of intercountry adoptions to continue.

Please use your wisdom to know that there are many families who have been praying for, loving, and waiting for their child/ren to come home.

Children are the blessing of the Lord...please allow these precious children be a blessing

As a parent of an internationally adopted child, I repsectfully request that you do not reduce intercountry adoptions from Ethiopia. Many countries work though these same issues, while allowing loving families to adopt children in to good homes.

We are hoping to adopt a baby boy from Ethiopia. Please allow us the opportunity.

Our daughter was simply not able to remain with her birthfamily, we know this to be a fact. She is happy, healthy and astounds us every day with the new things she is learning. She is the light of our lives and we love her more than words can say. We also love ET and are proud of her heritage.

Please consider the immediate needs of these children and do not delay adoptions any further.

There are so many loving families outside Ethiopia hoping to welcome orphan children into their home. Please don't let the minority of bad examples hinder the successful, loving new families formed through adoption.
Respectfully,
Amy Williams

Please these children need loving families and these families are willing and ready to help.

Please!!!! Let these children find forever homes....WHEREVER they are!!!! Thank you and GOD BLESS YOU in your decision!!!

I'm signing this for the millions of orphans that need a loving home.

Please do limit the number of adoptions!

With a family member awaiting the release of their daughter to come home to the US with them, I strongly support this petition.

This is unfair to the children.

Please, please reconsider. No child should have to grow up without a permanent, forever family.

Dear Sir,
Please use your power to help these beautiful children find loving homes!
Thank you,
Alice

Thank you for your tireless work for these orphans, and for your time and consideration in these matters. To these children and to waiting families, the urgency and important of your work goes without stating. Thank you again.

Ethiopia will be a stronger, more honored nation the world over for having allowed some of their precious kids to be given families the world over. The children who grow up in institutions there will not have the blessing and privilage every Ethiopian child deserves.....a family to call their very own, their whole life long.

We adopted our daughter over 2 years ago and we love her so much and hope to adopt a second child from Ethiopia. We are truly blessed to have our daughter and to have had the opportunity to adopt from Ethiopia. Please continue to change the lives of these children and certainly to change ours.

Please reconsider the decision to limit adoptions in Ethiopia so that more children can be placed in loving, caring and forever families!

Please allow intercountry adoptions to continue unhindered, for the children's sake!

This would only benefit both parties...please remember those in your own families who have wanted to have children and could not. The Lord will bless those who even give a cup of cold water to a child in need; how much more could we do in our affluent western society! Thanks!

Every child deserves the right to grow up in a family that loves them, and can nurture and provide for them. Sometimes they are born into this family. Sometimes this family is found in their community of origin. Sometimes it is found within they country where they were born. But sometimes, you have to look farther - across many borders and oceans, to find the forever families that every child deserves.

We urge you to allow these children to be adopted by loving families who will care for them and give them all the things in life they could ever want and need.

There are so many loving families who have the desire to adopt and love the children from Ethiopia who need a family. My husband and I are one of these families. There are many orphaned children who will not otherwise get adopted if international adoption is stopped. We humbly ask that you reconsider this decision.

The couples that have been waiting deserve their children and the children deserve them!

For the benefit of the children, please reconsider.

Please do not delay the placement of children into loving families. Wth your help, cihldren can find their forever homes as soon as possible.

Please reconsider this action for the sake of the children and families currently in the adoption process.

Taking away this opportunity for intercountry adoption affects both parties, the children that need to be adopted and the willing, responsible adults who have longed to be parents and desire to care for a child. I understand the need for caution, but drastic reduction in planned adoptions is unnecessary. Further research should be conducted to see the benefits and positive results of adoption versus the limited, isolated cases of poor placement and/or abuse.

These children need homes. There are so many loving families that would love to adopt these wonderful children. Taking the opportunity away from those loving families isn't the right option.

It is time to put the lives of the children ahead of international politics.

Every child deserves a forever family.

Priority of a loving family Spiritually secure supersedes race and culture not the other way around-Christ as King and Father of all is the highest authority and loving relationship and are priority over national or ethnic consideration and family's that submit themselves to that form the best source for a loving nurturing family.

Please allow the children of your country to have a permanent home wherever that may be.

Please include my signature on this petition.

Every child needs a family to love and be loved by....

Please reconsider this plan. It would be a great tragedy to prevent these orphans to not have the privilege of loving, caring homes.

everyone please help these poor kids!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This policy will hurt children in Ethiopia who have families waiting eagerly to welcome them home. It will hurt the over-extended orphanages of Ethiopia. It will cause untold anxiety to the many families waiting to adopt who have already spent so much time and money trying to act in love to little ones who need it. Please do everything in your power to overturn this policy.

There are so many loving families who will love and nurture the children of Ethiopia.

My wife and I are on the waiting list to adopt to beautiful children from Ethiopia. We are so happy and excite to share our love. Please reconsider your actions!

A very Christian Family for a very Christized/lucky Child.

GOOD LUCK

We adopted from the beautiful country of Ethiopia and our daughter could not be more of a blessing to our family. Please keep adoptions open in Ethiopia!

Every llife is precious. Please consider the lives and futures of all the children.

Please keep adoptions moving! So many families are waiting to adopt the precious orphans who need a home.

Please do not make this 90% reduction in adoptions. There are so many children who need homes and so many people, like myself, who want to adopt them. I respectfully ask that you will please reconsider.

Let's do what in the best interest for these children. There are loving families in the US who want to adopt them

As a women that has survived 5 miscarraige and 2 chemical pregnancy, I can tell you personally that there is no greater joy or blessing than the gift of adoption to a family that is medically unable to have their own child! Please pray before making this decision and honestly look at what is best for these child in reagrds to have a forever home with a loving set of parents. The lor'd love and grace be with you!

Please place as many adoptees as possible with qualified parents. The children need the love and security that can only be found in a family environment.

These children deserve a loving home as fast as the law will allow. Please help them!

It would be better to have more people working to scrutinize paperwork than to reduce the number of adoptions. As a special needs adoptive parent, time is critical to saving lives!

As the adoptive white mother of a biracial (African-American and Hispanic) child, I feel blessed to know how a child can thrive in a loving, ethnically and racially diverse family. Please allow loving American parents to give orphaned and abandoned Ethiopian children a home.

God Bless all these innocent children.

There are many loving families that want to give needy children a home. Please open your hearts to answering the prayers of both the families and the children.

God Speed...

We know a fabulous couple that have been waiting to adopt from Ethiopia for years. They have been very patient and the children couldn't ask for better parents.

Please don't make this any more difficult than it already is. As someone who can not have children naturally, I will eventually be adopting, hopefully. I pray that it isn't made so difficult to adopt that many people give up because we need these children as badly as they need us.

As an adoptive parent of a child who had special needs and was rejected time and again in his birth country, I urge you to reconsider for the children to have the opportunity to grow and thrive in a family of their own. Please do not allow the evil of a few to result in the greater evil of thousands of children to be without a family for the entire lives. With much respect, Pam DeArmon

Without adoption my husband and I would not get to be an Uncle or Aunt or my sons a cousin to the newest addition to our family. My brother and sister- in- law have fallen in love with their adopted son forever. This sweet little baby boy is meant to be a part of our family. Without adoption, none of this would have been possible.

I think it would be a shame to deny the opportunity for loving families to provide a stable home for your countries orphaned children. My wife & I are in the early discussion stages of possibly adopting an Ethiopian child.

our family has been blessed with two sons through adoption from Guatemala. Adoption is truly a blessing! Just last night our oldest son said he wants to adopt two sons someday like our family! I want to encourage the Ethiopian government to not decrease their international adoptions!

The inerrancies of a few should not endanger the lives of many. Please allow adoptions to continue for the posterity of the helpless.

So many good homes here in America just waiting for a child to love and care for. Please reconsider .

Please reconsider, for the wellfare of the babies.

Please place the best interest of the children waiting in orphanages first and the detrimental long term affect this will have on them.

Please do not limit the opportunity for a family to adopt a child and give them a home filled with hope & love.

I have friends who have adopted a little boy from Ethiopia and they love him just as much as they do their own son. I also know a couple who want a child of their own who are trying to do adpot from this country. They are all wonderful loving, caring people who just want to have a child and give a child with no family the love and attention every child deserves. Please don't limit the number of children who could have this love because of a few who are rotten.

We must allow children to be taken care of. Please don't slow down adoptions speed them up Children need home's and parents that will love them.

I hope you will reconsider and allow the children in Ethiopia's orphanages to be loved and raised in families.

These children will be afforded much more opportunities of getting adopted if there is no exclusion based on where qualified parents live.

There are so many loving families who want to take care of these children. Please give your country's orphaned children the opportunity to thrive.

There are so many children waiting in the orphanages. Why delay placing these children with loving families? It is such a joy to hear my recently adopted four year old grandson laugh and play with his mama, daddy, brother, sister. Please don't slow down the process of placing children who need families with families who can't wait to love them.

A loving home awaits this little girl.

We have an Ethiopian Granddaughter. She is a joy to us. When she arrived at 2 yrs. old she had acute medical issues which probably would have caused her death or severe disability if she had not come to the United States to be loved and provided for. We want that opportunity for all the other orphaned children in Ethiopia.

Please continue to allow the children of Etheopia to be adopted.

I believe all children deserve warm, loving homes! Please don't take that opportunity away from them!!!

Anna and Russ are trying to adopt. and have been praying and waiting such a long time. It is my prayer that this adoption will take place.

Why would you take away such a life-changing opportunity from less fortunate children that could possibly give them such a better life. This is just crazy.

Please consider the children first and allow adoptions to continue as rapidly as possible to awaiting parents. Time is of essence in regard to bonding and adjustment. For the children's sake please do not slow or stop the adoption process.

Please let us bring our children home!

People who do not have the money to adopt yet scrape it together, do so out of love and the heartfelt desire to share their lives with a child in need. Because a few misguided people MIGHT be causing a concern is no reason to punish not even just those who are sincere but the fortunate children who are destined to be part of their families. PLease do the right thing... these children need it!

Please allow these children to be afforded a happy, safe and well nourished environment, by people who choose to love and care for them.

We are currently in the process of adopting a baby girl from Ethiopia. I support ethical adoptions and respectfully request that the Ethiopian government works with those agencies to keep the process moving in an efficient manner so that children may find their forever family.

I hope these children would be able to have loving families and have all their needs met.

Please do not reduce your adoption numbers - people want these children and these children need families.

Create familys through love. Solve the problem, these babys are not the problem.

Please help Ethiopian children to the best of your ability and don't slow down the adoption process. Thank you!

I am the social worker for two adoptive families whose children's cases went through court but are not signed off on by MOWA official. There are a few others in this same situation and many others with referrals and those who have made a trip and spent time with their children. They need our help now.

Please reconsider and don't cut intercountry adoption services. All countries can work together to do what is best for the children.

My neice and her family will provide a loving home for their new daughter, respecting her past and heritage, offering opportunities for a healthy, happy present, and creating hope for her future well-being. I respectfully request your opennes to international adoption, offered in a legal and loving manner. Thank you for your consideration.

Thanks to the adoption process in Ethiopia my husband and I have a wonderful daughter and we have become a family. The joy we all have in being a family is like no other joy I have ever felt. We feel a deep attachment to Ethiopia and its wonderful people and are thrilled to be in the process of adopting once again so we can welcome another child into our happy family. Please continue to do the great work you have been doing by creating families and most importantly giving children a loving home.

I believe strongly in children being adopted by a loving family who want to provide love first and formost, a secure stable home, and a mother and father that will provide for all their physical, mental, emotional, as well as spiritual needs. Adoption outside your country provides more couples to be able to help more of your countries orphans. I pray you will be lead of the Lord, Jesus Christ as you make these decisions concerning adoption in your country.

I respectfully urge the Ministry's of Women's,Children's and Youth Affairs to reconsider its plan and partner with governments and NGOs and foundations to achieve their goals and avoid the coming tragedy for children and families. Thank you

God loves all the little childeren

Care for the children and don't allow a small portion of problematic adoptions ruin the opportunity for thousands and thousands of children to find a permanent caring and loving family home. Work on the problems within the system rather than an overreaction that resunts in a multitude of unintended consequences.

Stopping intercountry adoptions is horrible. You are taking away from millions of children the hope of every having a forever family to love them and care for them. Furthermore, you are taking away a hope for any future at all for these children. They are tossed on the streets at 17 or 18 with no job skills or chance at a college education left to turn to illegal activity to survive. I pray you will change you mind so my family and others can adopt a child to love and cherish.

As a parent of two internationally adopted children who are now grown, I understand the issue from both your perspective and that of prospective adopted parents. Please find a secure, and suitable solution to your concerns, for the sake of the children who will benefit from loving parents and secure homelife.

Meles Zenawi,

My wife and I have been trying to have kids for the past four years and haven't had any success. We are a happily married couple with a fire to serve the Lord. We would love to start a family. God hasn't given us our own childern so we have begun to explore adoption. We have fallen in love with the kids in Ethiopia and would love to bring home a little girl. I am asking you as a father to please reconsider your stance on the decision to close off 90% of all adoptions.

Please don't reduce the number of adoptions that are allowed. These blessed children deserve a chance at a good life too.

please do what is best for the children

Please don't shut down 90% of adoptions because of the 2% corruption. This only harms children and keeps them from forever families. There has to be a better way to get rid of the curruption without refusing homes for children.

saved these children give them a happy live with loving parents that are willing to love them and raise them as their own! Please allow these parents that are in this process to adopted these children. Thanks

We have family who have adopted two children from Ethiopia who are thriving in a loving family environment. Please continue to allow those who desire to create a loving home for orphaned children to continue.

As a family that has adopted from Ethiopia and had a lovely and very gentle process to our son, we are grieved to hear of this new change. Please reconsider! For the children and for the waiting families who, like us, truly just have love to offer these beautiful kids!

The children will be the ones to pay for this in the long run. I believe something should be done to prevent corruption, but putting such a large hold on the adoptions is going to cause big problems too.

This would hurt the thousands of ophans waiting for a family. Look at the specifics and fix or punish the wrong doers, NOT THE CHILDREN. mY heart breaks for these orphans and your should too.

broken hearted

Please do everything possible to allow this little girl to have a home and become part of a family. We are still trusting God, and we know that all things work together for good, to those that love the Lord, and called according to His purpose. God has led them thus far and by Faith we claim His blessing, of Ally to her new family. May God guide and direct this adoption. Thank you and God bless each of those involved in this case.

More children will be hurt by reducing adoption than will be helped by continuing as has been done before.

Intercountry adoption can help so many children who desperately need homes. It is a far better solution than long-term orphanage care. Please do not limit intercountry adoption further. Thank you.

Please do not lessen the babies that are made adoptable to families who will love and care for them. They need these families and these families desperately desire to have them in their lives.

Please give these children a chance for a healthy, productive life.

Please allow the lawfull adoptions occur in a timely matter, for the benefit of both the child and the adoptive families.

We, respectfully urge the Ministry of Women’s, Children's and Youth Affairs to reconsider its plan and to partner with governments, NGOs and foundations to achieve their goals and avoid the coming tragedy for children and families.

Love for a child is the most important gift. That gift is all over the world. No matter where it falls.

These children need homes and families.

ie urge with great respect the government of Ethiopia to provide as many Ethiopian double orphans as possible a future and a hope provided by a permanent family. Thank you for reconsidering the MOWA decision.

We have so enjoyed the process of adopting from this beautiful country. There is a great need for these amazing children, and we have been blessed by our stay and this whole process. We are brining out daughter home in a week's time and are very excited.

For the children and their future's sake, continue to allow needy children to be placed in loving homes.

All children everywhere deserve hope, peace, faith and love!! Don't deny them of their God given rights!!

Having lived in Ethiopia I knew people who adopted Ethiopian orphans. The children were underweight, sad little babies and they soon grew into healthy and happy children much loved by the families who adopted them. They have since grown into beautiful and successful adults. Please do not take away the opportunity for other beautiful children to have a safe and happy life. Please continue to let them be adopted by loving families who want to love and nurture them. Thank you

Lets help these babies !!

Please continue to allow the children in need of homes to be adopted internationally. Loving parents wait to love and raise these children. The entire world will benefit from the loving guidance these children will receive and deserve.

Please allow these deserving children to be adopted by loving families!

Two years ago, my husband and I became adoptive grandparents of a sweet little Ethiopian girl. We have no other grandchildren so little Ruthie has been such a blessing to us.

As a family who has languished thru a halted Guatemalan adoption in December of 2007 and now waiting for our Ethiopian adoption to come about (#69), we beg you to continue processing adoptions. We desire to love and care of this child and know there are so many families waiting to do the same. We pray for the children of Ethiopia, that they will not be institutionalized any longer than necessary. We desire to make a difference for them and not bring hardship on your country. Please reconsidr

Please hear the cries of the people on this petition. There our children's lives who will be forever changed through adoption to loving families. Imagine the wonderful things that will be accomplished in this world if we put the children before politics or self-interest. Thank you for considering the voices of the people on this peition as we are speaking out because the children cannot. We are their voice.

My husband I are in the process of an Ethiopian adoption. There are so many orphans in the world, and we want to be able to help give a loving home. Please take this petition into consideration.

I've seen several families here with children from Ethiopia that they love and treasure as their own. We have so much prosperity in this country, please don't cut your children off from this opportunity to go to loving, stable homes.

Every passing day that a child is left without a home is another day that they are subject to a profound sadness they do not have to experience. Many are waiting, willing, and able to love these children and gift them with the fullness of joy in a family that seeks the best for them. I strongly ask that the governmental authorities reverse their decision to reduce intercountry adoptions because the children are the ones that suffer the most.

Would ask that each case be considered individually, and that truly the child's best interst is considered. Thank You!

Please re-open the adoption for Ethiopian children. I have a delightful grandson born in Addis Ababa and adopted by my daughter and son-in-law. I cannot imagine our family without Elias who is now three years old.

Let's do all that we can to get these precious children into homes quickly and efficiently!

Every child is worth saving. Set up an accountability system to end the corruption but don't prevent life saving opportunites to happen. My daughter and her husband have beautiful twins thanks to a system that can work with the right oversight.

Please do not sacrafice the welfare of ALL Ethiopian children.

It would be so helpful to the country and the children to have them adopted. Only good thoughts.

Please allow the children to go to loving homes and have life.

please allow adoptions to continue

For the sake of the children, please continue to support the adoptions in Ethiopia that give the children permanent homes and hope!!

Please help the orphans in Ethiopia!

These children need families. Please don't stop this effort to save your beautiful Ethiopian children. My daughter is one that needed a family since her Ethiopian family could not take care of her. Thank you so much for this precious gift!!

We brought our daughter home last April and little Tseganesh is healthy, happy and thriving! We want other children like her to have the chance to bring such joy to families everywhere.

Please help us continue adoptions. My husband and I are patiently waiting for our beautiful child.

Thank you Ethiopia for my grandson. Our family will forever honor your country. He is happy and loved -forever. My wish is for other children to be united with their families.

There are so many children in need of families to love them. Please don't take away their chance at a bright future.

Allow these children to be loved and cared for... think about it - if it was YOU... what would YOU want?

Although I respect the decision to ensure ethical adoptions, the children are going to be the ones to suffer if this policy is followed through with. Please consider other options and not leave these children without loving homes. Thank you.

This would be a tragedy for the thousands and thousands of orphaned children.

The soul of a child is precious and we are obliged to nurture all those souls which we may touch

Please keep the kids in mind, we want to provide them a safe healthy home!!

Please reconsider this action and afford these poor children who could be adopted a life of love, good health and hope rather than a life of poverty and despair. Thank you for reconsidering.

Our son has so enhanced our lives. With three bio children we delight together in the adoption process. Our younger children speak of adoption to help an orphan when they are married because they see the blessings they are receiving. We are in plans to work with our agency and others we have met to continue to help the children who will not be adopted and to help the living mothers with HIV be able to care for their children.

As someone waiting to adopt a child from Ethiopia, I support this petition and respectfully urge the Ministry of Women's Affairs to reconsider this drastic decision.

Please don't cut the adoption rate!! Those children need loving families to care for them!

We are in the process of trying to adopt a child from Ethiopia and are completely shocked that the program might be all but shut down. Why do this, when there are so many kids in desperate need for a home and so many loving families that would like to make that happen for them!

The solution for exposing evil is NOT binding the hand of good. Please re evaluate your position.

Please don't do this...you're hurting the children of Ethiopia who are already hurt enough as well as parents across the world who are longing to provide a child a forever home.

We are asking that The Ministry of Women, Children, and Youth Affairs (MOWA) would not reduce the number of cases it reviews to just 5 per day. This would greatly increase the waiting time of families who want to adopt these precious children and give them good homes.

This is a tragedy. Let us help them'

Having a son by adoption, I strongly support this effort to assist US citizens in safely and ethically adopting children needing families and homes to raise them.

Many wonderful homes are available and many needed children that would benefit from those homes. The children are the primary concern.

Many wonderful homes are available and many needed children that would benefit from those homes. The children are the primary concern.

Please consider alternate options as it relates to the new process that is to be implemented by the Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs. Thank you.

Please think about what is really BEST for the CHILDREN.

There are mothers and father in this country ready to bring their children home from Ethiopia. Let's keep these families together.

Let these children be loved!!!

Please continue International adoptions of orphaned children. Offer these lovely children a better future,education and life filled with love, happiness, security, loving family and option for a fine future they may not have access to staying orphaned in their home country.

We are hoping to adopt 2 children from Ethiopia and would love to love on them and give them a forever family. Please do not shut this door for people who are anxiously awaiting this opportunity and for children who are waiting for a family to grow up in and be loved by.

Please let these children have a home, wherever in the world it might be!

Please do not limit the adoptions and harm the children of Ethopia

Please don't let innocent children suffer!

I hate to think where my two beautiful daughters would be if we had not been able to adopt them from Ethiopia. I so appreciate the investigations into corruption, but my concern is for the millions of children who need help NOW. Thank you!

There are too many hurting orphans in Ethiopia that need to be in forever families! I have 2 daughters in the process of adopting now, and they are devestated by this news. Please allow us to bring my grandchildren home!

please let children have homes

Children deserve loving families. Please keep them in the forefront of any decision making about adoption policy.

These kids need a loving, supportive home, no matter where that may be. Stopping any kind of adoptions, whether it be within the country or between other countries, is not a way to make sure these children are taken care of the best they can be. Please let these children be adopted by anybody who has a loving, good home and that is truly grateful for being able to adopt a beautiful Ethiopian child.

These kids need a loving, supportive home, no matter where that may be. Stopping any kind of adoptions, whether it be within the country or between other countries, is not a way to make sure these children are taken care of the best they can be. Please let these children be adopted by anybody who has a loving, good home and that is truly grateful for being able to adopt a beautiful Ethiopian child.

Please allow these children to have the best future possible. I've been to Uganda and have seen so many children in need. A child should never have to grow up without a loving home to care for them.

We are an adoptive family of 3 Ethiopian children, all siblings. One of them is HIV+. I can't imagine what life would have been like for any of my children, if unable to join a family that loves and cares for them. I am especially fearful about what could happen to HIV+ children. I believe our daughter might have died if she did not come to a family and be cared for completely.

Stopping adoption is not a solution to unethical practices. It's just punishing the chidlren for things out of their control.

Please reconsider your decision for reducing the number of adoptions that you will be allowing out of your country. We have adopted from Ethiopia and had a wonderful experience. Please don't let the people who abuse the system hurt the ones who want to help your country.

I understand your reasons for tighting the rules , but please consider the negative implications of your decision to reduce intercountry adoptions. Many loving homes are awaiting a child who desperately needs a forever family. Please don't take that from them!

Please allow innocent children to grow up in families, please?

We have adopted a child from another country. I cannot tell you what joy she has brought to our home and what opportunities now lie ahead for her life that would otherwise never have been available to her. We know several families that have adopted from your country and to see them progress as they have is beautiful. I ask you to please research and reconsider your position on this issue. Close regulation of qualified adoption agencies should result in the current issues being rectified.

Please help the children.

This is a great program to help people that truly need it.

I beg of you not to reduce the number of cases seen regarding intercountry adoption. It would be a travesty to stop a population of your children from having healthy, sucessful lives.

Please allow more adoptions. So many families and so many kids who could be helped by this. This is an unnecessary reaction to isolated cases. I know so many families who will be hurt by this decision!

It breaks my heart to hear that you will be reducing adoption in inter country by 90%. Children need a loving family. Please do not do this to the children that need a chance for a better life.

Please don't cripple your country's childrens' ability to have a loving forever family. Our internationally adopted child is the best thing in our lives and we thank God everyday for her. Please keep your adoption program open--all children deserve a real home, safety and love! There are good, honest people out there that want to give them all these things and more!

We need to help the Children

Two years ago we brought our beautiful son home from Ethiopia. He has been the treasure of our lives and we can't imagine our lives without him. Please don't make it more difficult for children and families to be united by decreasing the number of children approved for adoption. Time is too precious when you are separated from your child. Each day is a day that could have been spent holding, reading to, playing with and just generally loving on your precious child.

Children deserve homes and we please ask that you not cut off so many children from having the opportunity to have a loving family.

Interntional Adoption puts more children in safe adn healthy places than is possible when fewer children are allowed to leave their native land. We adopted our son from Russia and he is living a far better, safer, and healthier life than would have been possible in his birth land.

My friend adopted a baby girl a few years ago and she is so loved. All of these babies deserve to come to a family where they can be loved and cherished like her daughter is.

It is my prayer that authorities that ultimately make this decision will keep the BEST interest of the children in mind. And that all will consider the importance of a permanent family in a person's healthy development.

PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS! PLEASE DO NOT SLOW DOWN THE ADOPTION PROCESS!! I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR MY CHILD FOR A VERY LONG TIME. I JUST CAN NOT BEAR TO WAIT ANY LONGER.

All children should have the opportuntity to grow up in healthy loving homes that have strong Christian core values. I pray that they all are given that opportuntity both inside and outside their country demographics and pray that the structure is reconsidered.

Give these innocent children a chance.

Please allow the children to be adopted.

support adoption! Your country needs you to defend the needs of the children

No child should be alone or without the love of a family. Children that are adopted are thriving with the love and support of their new families.

I believe all children should have the right to be loved and be a part of a loving caring family and there are many families out there who would love to take these children into their homes and lives.

Tony and Carrie have been our Youth pastors for at least 7 years and I have entrusted them both with my daughter several times with out one single bit of worry. Please seriously consider them for the adoption.

Please reconsider! Give these children a chance to find their forever families. Their arms are open and waiting to love them.

I know that the Lord will take care of this matter. He will hear our prayers and will stop the ones that are trying to change the rules. Why would they keep people from adopting the children in their country when they have no way of better them there? Why not give them a chance where they might become a wonderful doctor who will go back over there and save lots of people, or a child that might grow up to learn how to make there country better for everyone to live in. They need a chance!

saved these children give them a happy live with loving parents that are willing to love them and raise them as their own! Please allow these parents that are in this process to adopted these children. Thanks

We adopted our daughter in 2009 at the age of 4 from Ethiopia and cannot imagine life without this beautiful person in our lives. She has grown and accomplished more then we could have imagined in just 2 years. Our agency, Wide Horizons for Children, does a wonderful job caring for the children and preparing them for their new lives. Our daughter had an emergency Appendectomy in May 2010. Her symptoms could have been overlooked if she was not here. Without proper medical care she may have died.

Please look for ways to continue adoptions. My friends that have adopted are all wonderful families!

Please rethink your decision & consider the bigger picture.

I agree that each child and family partnership should be seen in their own individual light, and not lumped together in a negative light.

There are too many loving, caring and financially capable couples in the United States to disallow them the chance to make a better life for an orphaned child anywhere in the world.

What better way of life for these children than to adopted out or their country and given safe, loving homes.

Please don't let corrpution win. By allowing corruption to reduce 90% of the children from finding forever families is tragic.

All children deserve permanent, loving homes. Crossing ethnic and racial boundaries to meet this basic need serves the child and the world's society as a whole, promoting understanding and appreciation.

The focus should be on the children - denying access to adoption only makes the issues worse for the children not better. Instead of limiting adoption, it should be made more available to more children and potential adoptive parents while putting boundaries around the process to ensure integrity and honesty. Limiting adoptions is like punishing the victims instead of the perpetrators.

I understand the concerns and share them - we must be diligent in combatting them. But this would be a mistake - millions of orphans are crying out to you! We brought our son, Isaiah, home last year -- would be lost without him!

Children deserve a loving home. Don't let politics decide where children live, let God

Please don't hurt further the hurting children in your country.

Basically a death penalty for many, many children.

My voice on behalf of these precious children who need a family.

I find this reduction in adoptions disturbing. I am a mother of four in The US and see couples each day that would be fantastic parents to children in need. Please strongly consider the negative effect your recent actions will have on the future of so many of your young children.

Please allow these beautiful to go home to a family. Children need love and stability. Adoption provides that for them.

I urge the Ministry to realize the needs of the orphaned children of Ethiopia and that for some intercountry adoption is there only chance for opportunity and for some there only chance for survival. Prayers are with you.

Please consider the impact your decision will make in the lives of the children awaiting adoption.

As the proud parent of one Ethiopian daughter, and the anticipating parent of a second child, we urge you to reconsider the potential impact a delay in the adoption rate will have on the children directly impacted by this decision.

Children need families. Please keep the doors open for these precious children to be in loving families with effective procedures to protect children during the adoption process.

Please reconsider your position. Cleaning up corruption is a necessary step toward transparent adoptions, but children shouldn't have to go without families while adults make all the decisions. Please try to find a way to clean up corruption AND keep adoptions moving. Thank you.

A family that is very dear to me,have been blessed with a child of their own & have also been blessed with another child of their own from Ethiopia.From day one,after we saw her picture,this little girl has so many people that love her and she has grown & learned so much being with her new family.I hate to think what would have happened to this precious angel from God had she not been brought to the US.I fear for all left behind,never to have a chance for a "better life" with those able to adopt

Please do not limit the adoptions by 90%! Children need loving homes to grow into loving adults.

please help give these orphans a home

PLEASE CONSIDER FOR THE CHILD"S SAKE!
LET THE CHILDREN HAVE A HOME

Please reconsider the number of children that will be adversely affected. I am an adoptive mother of one Ethiopian boy, Yami, 10, and he is happier than ever. Please, please reconsider.

To the Ethopian Ministry: Please do NOT jeopardize the lives of your young children. Allow the adoptions to continue, please.

Children need a family. Ensure as much as humanly possible that the adopting family is a good, worthy family. Please do not limit the number of adoptions.

Please don't deprive these children of the love and commitment of their own adoptive family.

My wife and I have adopted two sets of siblings from Ethiopia. All were older than typical adoptions, and waited for families for years. We actively support programs in Ethiopia that help keep families together and prevent the need for adoption. But for those who have already lost families, adoption is the only solution. Please work to reform the system rather than stop it.

Every child is a gift from God and WE all should treat them as such. Let the little Children Come

Many people are realizing they have a heart for your country and your children. We hope that knowing your children are wanted and that those who are adopting have something to offer. Folls that want to make a difference. With love filled hearts and out streached arms, won't you consider allowing them to love and care for your dear children?

Please reconsider this course of action. In reality, by reducing the number of international adoptions instead of dealing with isolated instances of abuse, those most greatly affected are the children and orphanages in need. There are other solutions out there. Thank you for your consideration.

Please do not take families away from these children in need.

Children are need of families, wholesome adoption families are in need and willing, and there seems to be a lack of evidence to support the Ministry's claims. Please reconsider.

We are an adoptive family and Ethiopian adoption changed our lives forever! We love our sweet MG, and our time in Ethiopia and pray we will be able to go back again someday and that many more children and families will have the chance to be blessed like we were.

We adoptied from your country3 years ago. I daughter need a home right away since her mom was diying of AIDS. She may not be alive if we would of had to wait.

My family has been blessed by adoption. I would hate to see any children or parents have their opportunity of having a family taken away. Please don't limit the number of children who can have a loving family. My life would not be the same without the blessing of adoption.

Please help these poor babies continue to be available to loving families that want to care for them.

I urge you to support the ethical and legal services provided to children through intercounry adoption giving the children a wonderful and loving home. Why deny these children the love and support that a family can give them.

As an adoptive mom, it makes me sad that children who are needing families will have to wait years for their forever homes!

I commend your efforts to keep adoption ethical, but please don't prevent your children from finding a permanent home in another country. I personally know of two children adopted from Ehtiopia by American families who are loved, treasured and given excellent care. You can't believe they would be better off growing up in orphanages.

There are wonderful, loving families wanting to complete the adoption process to bring their children home. Please continue ethical adoptions.

We have friends and family right now who are BOTH trying to adopt in Ethiopia right now. Any child from there would be extremely blessed to be a part of either of their families and gifted with so much love and support. I pray that they will be allowed to shower their love on Ethiopian children!

I'm sure many will be praying that this decision is overturned! I guess I don't understand why the organization would significantly limit the number of adoptions to loving families, giving the children in Ethiopia a wonderful chance at life!

We have so many families here in the US that can welcome in the orphaned children of Ethiopia. These children deserve the chance to be a part of a loving family and know a better life than an orphanage can provide for them.
Please continue this wonderful program that benefits everyone involved.

My people would love to have a child to care for.

This is very sad news. These orphans are in need of great and loving families. Adoption reductions will only cause more heartache. I believe in protecting the children and that the isolated cases of corruption should be investigated, but overall adoption should not be reduced.

don't deprive the children who are wanted elsewhere...all children deserve to be loved!

We have a grandson who was adopted from Ethiopia and his a real blessing and joy to our lives. We would hope that more children are allowed to be adopted to healthy and safe families.

These children need to come to loving homes in a situation that provides the greatest opportunity for success. Considering the long and difficult road to an intercountry adoption, these prospective parents have shown their willingness to commit to a raising their adopted children in the very best environment.

I find it hard to believe that this process helps kids without a future and they want to shut this down. Not logical.

Praying this is stopped!

We know many who are in the process of adopting from this country or who would like to. Please see that the door remain open! We will be praying on your behalf.

Please allow families to love, nurture and care for orphans in Ethiopia. Please do not hinder them getting a home and a family. There are too many orphans that need homes. Please prayerfully reconsider.

Please continue the work of adoption for the sake of the children in need of the love of a family!

For the children.

Adoptions need to happen in Ethiopia. Please let us take care of those children who need it! I would not have my son today if it was not for an Ethiopian Adoption.

I hope that you will consider the best interest of children over all. There are good, solid homes with parents who are willing to love these little ones. Please don't take that opportunity away from them!

i belive everyone deserves a chance to have a good family

please help these children

This will only hurt the children...please let these adoptions continue so the children can be given better lives.

Please let these sweet children be adopted by the very loving, caring families in the US. Please don't commit them to a parent-less childhood.

We've been blessed by the adoption of our sweet daughter, Sarah Bisrat. When we were going through the adoption process, the phrase "every child deserves a family" stuck with me. Sarah Bisrat got her home and there are millions of other Ethiopian children who deserve their home as well. Please keep the doors to adoption wide open.

PLEASE, PLEASE, don't limit the number of adoptions! The children are the ones who will be hurt. Please don't do this!

I have a personal friend waiting to adopt an Ethiopian child. She's a great mom to her 2 biological sons & I'm so sad that a child in need may not have the opportunity to join their wonderful family due to this legislation. Please reconsider.

My neighbors are in the process of adopting a child from Ethiopia. They are WONDERFUL with children. Both work with young people at their church. I believe that there could be no better family for a child to be loved and protected. It would be a shame for a child to be denied this opportunity with this loving family.

I think this would be awful. Why wait to unite a child with his or her parents?

Please, do not keep these children from having a forever family.

There is a special need to find forever homes for "special needs" children in Ethiopia since ET is not able to care for them adequately.

There are so many deserving families who can provide safe forever homes to Ethiopian Children who need them. Please don't let those bad adoptions hinder all of the ones who are hoping to complete their international family. There are so many other things that can be done to insure the right placements, rather than stopping placements and leave the children and international families both needing each other. Please don't judge all families by the worst ones.

Adoption blesses us and also blesses the children we have the privilege of bringing home and having them become members of our family.

Please, please let the children go to homes where there will be love, safety, food and a future. Let the world love them the way God loves each of us. Praying you will decide for the children to be adopted, CMP

The mortality rate breaks my heart. There are loving people waiting with open arms for these children. I pray this does not come to reality.

I can only speak for Childrens Home Society, for that is who we are going through for our adoption, and they are an upstanding
agency that requires an incredible amount of background checks, moral standards, and
only the best intentions for parenting an
adopted child. We would be so blessed and fortunate to be able to adopt from Ethiopia.

We have adopted two children from Ethiopia and could not imagine our lives without them. They have changed our lives for the better in so many ways. They have impacted our neighborhood, church and community through the testimony of their lives. And, I believe, they have a promising future here that would not have been possible in their birth home. Please make this opportunity possible for other children in dire need. They have good, loving homes here.

My niece & her husband are in process of adopting a son from Ethipia.

My brother and his wife are two of the most caring, gentle, and loving people. They have been trying to adopt a child for 3 years but they are always finding a bump in the road. This couple is deserving of a child because they would give them a wonderful home filled with love.

As an adoptive parent I know first hand of the benefit to orphaned children that having a family can have. Orphaned children in Ethiopia deserve the opportunity tobe part of a loving family regardless of where that family lives.

We have friends who are eagerly anticipating adopting a child from Ethiopia. They are a wonderful, caring family who are able to provide good opportunities for a child from your country. Please don't deny them the chance to provide love & care for one of your children.

Thank you for trying to protect the children of Ethiopia, but please PLEASE do not delay the process of so many who really need families...especially as there are many families willing and ready to adopt them into loving homes where they will have a Father and a Mother. Thank you.

Our family has been so blessed by the adoption of our twins from Ethiopia. We hope that adoptions will continue in Ethiopia, as adoption is an incredible and amazing way for families to be formed. We are forever grateful!

As a social worker in adoption for almost 30 years, I have seen the good that children gain when they have a permanent family. Ethical agencies can provide that home. Please allow them to, so that children who might otherwise grow up without a family will have one.

Please do not allow the actions of some to ruin Ethiopian adoptions for all leaving so many orphans in need. Revision to prevent fraud is necessary, but please keep the orphans best interest at the forefront of your minds as you make decisions regarding Ethiopian adoption. We pray for God's guidance in your decision making process.

Please reconsider your position on Ethiopian adoptions. Adoption gave my son and his birthmother a chance at life.

I am saddened that isolated incidents of corruption can affect the lives of so many children in such devastating ways. Also, the parents who have made the painstaking choice to relinquish their parental rights in hopes of a better life for their child will be dishonored when their child ends up living their childhood in an orphanage with no family to love and care for them.

Those that are willing to take the time and energy to adopt children from another country are doing it from a heart of love. That is what these children need—love. Let the children experience a forever home.

Every Childs Life Is A Gift!!!

I ask that the orphans best interests be at the heart of all the Ethiopian country does.

Our family would not be complete without our little blessing from Ethiopia. Please do no prevent the beauty of Ethiopia's culture and people be limited from those around the world seeking a child from your country.

In December 2010, Ethiopia granted the adoption of 2 little boys into our family. We met two boys who trusted few and who had no joy in their lives. 3 months later, these boys have come alive, are joyful, and are a pleasure to our family. We held hands with their birth mom. We heard her story. We saw her love them so much that she chose a different life for them. She gave us the greatest gift and we thank her and pray for he daily. I pray this decision is reconsidered!

Please consider more court/adoption dates each month. Many hearts are affected by this recent decision, including the hearts of my friend MacKenzie and her husband Dave.

Having worked abroad (away from U.S.) the past 13 years, has solidified our view that giving children a stable home is the best insurance for their healthy future. As counselors who have helped people with foreign adoptions & having a grandchild adopted from Ethiopia, we know first hand how the majority of adoptions are well done and are successful for the child and the family. Please show your love for your children of Ethiopia by offering life & hope using your gift of leadership wisely.

The kids are the one that will suffer. The Government there are not going to make things better for them.
We need to protect all the children.

Please reverse this decision so that these children can have a life that will allow them to grow and become what God intends them to be.

Please reconsider this action. Many good families want to help the orphans of Ethiopia.

Let God match families with orphans that need a family!

All children deserve a chance at succeeding in life - no matter where they live. Adoptions are just one way of ensuring kids have that chance - unless your government is planning something else to aid these kids (which would be amazing) then let the kids have a chance. Life within a family is the best gift you can give these kids. Don't turn your backs on them.

My family has been involved in a number of adoptions, so we know it makes a wonderful, positive difference in the lives of individuals.

Please help these children and not slow down the process for them to join loving families in their new homes.

We need to a voice for these children!!!!! Noone else will.

These children deserve a good home. There are hundreds of loving american families waiting to adopt these children now, but can't get through the council in Ethiopia. The Belt's are one of those loving couple's. Please don't close the court's by 90%.

We adopted a little girl that was abandoned on the streets of Addis Ababa nearly 3 years ago. She is doing amazing and is so happy to be in our family. I can't even begin to think about her being in an institution while she grows up instead of receiving the love and nurturing of a family. Please give these children a chance at a hope and a future!

Children need a loving home nearly above all else. I have become impassioned with the orphan crisis in your country after reading a book called There is no me without you about the selfless love through orphan care of Mrs. Haregewoin Teferra. There are orphans who need loving care, regardless of the country in which they receive it. Please reconsider. Thank you, Sarah Woodruff

My friend is waiting for her daughter. It was love at first sight.

Cutting adoptions and denying children their forever homes is the WORST decision. Especially when there are much better options, like teaming with other countries and organizations to eliminate fraud and corruption!

There are many loving families in the US that would be great parents for orphans of Ethiopia.

Every one needs a FOREVER family!!

We urge the government of Ethiopia as well as other countries not to close their borders to adoption which creates opportunities to those less fortunate or left destitute for whatever reason. A life is a terrible thing to waste. Keep the gift alive.

This would be such a terrible thing. All of those children are waiting for a parents/family/home and to do this would deprive them of this. Also there are so many loving families around the world that just want to bring this children home and love them and provide for them.

Please do not stop families from being joined together.

I have so many friends who have experienced an adoption of a child from Ethiopia who is thriving and who has blessed the lives of everyone around them. They have impacted me to be involved in helping Ethiopia and praying for the children there. Please don't stop giving orphaned children this opportunity. They in turn can come back and make Ethiopia an even better place to live.

THE LOVE OF A CHILD IS THE GREATEST GIFT ANYONE COULD RECEIVE. I BELIEVE ALL CHILDREN SHOULD HAVE THE RIGHT TO A HEALTHLY AND HAPPY SURROUNDS. I WOULD LOVE TO GIVE THE GIFT OF HAPPIES TO A CHILD.

we want to see abuse eliminated and so we hope a solution can be found that protects children but also allows new homes to be found for children who are without.

Please do not deny available homes to children that need them. Punish criminals, not children.

The needs of these children must be the focus. Please continue to allow these precious ones the right to have a loving, caring family adopt them. Thank you

Please, for the sake of these children, proceed with the current adoptions. Work on the system for the future without interrupting these lives.

Let's work toward an ethical solution of finding loving, permanent families for the truely orphaned.

Please allow intercountry adoptions of these precious children to continue. Thank you.

please love these children as jesus would and do what is best for them.

This legislation seems to be in the catagory of "throwing out the baby with the bath water". Don't severely limit, but carefully scrutinize the adoption process so as to minimize and/or eliminate the abuses, but maximize the opportunities for the children.

WE NEED TO HEPL SAVE THE CHILDEN OVER SEAS AND THEM A BETTER LIFE TOO!

Please, let those who have more to give do their part.

All children deserve to live in a loving home where they can feel safe and cared for. We all need to feel that we belong and that we matter!

We have been in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. Please let us have our baby.

Please do not let a few isolated occurances ruin the chance for thousands of children to find their forever families. That would be so absolutely tragic.

let us help take care of the kids

We adopted brothers from Ethiopia. We brought the boys home December 12, 2010. The boys are 4 and 7years. Our daughters ages 13, 15 and 17 years have been wonderful with the boys. The boys are quiet loving, active and are learning English at an incredible rate. We and the boys have been blessed by the adoption.

Please, PLEASE reconsider your plan. There are so many children without families and without hope! Allow others to give these little ones a happy and healthy future.

Please consider this global petition as many people around the world care for the well-being of your country-men.

Prime Minister Zenawi
You graciously allowed me to adopt a 4-1/2 month old infant in June 2005 and I am incredibly grateful to you and your country for bestowing this privilege of being a parent to a smart, creative, loving child.

I know there are unethical individuals anywhere there is money to be made. Please do not deny an orphaned and/or needy child the opportunity to be part of an adoptive family who can and will shower them with love, kindness, and caring.

Regards
Terri Epidendio

Every single eligible child should be adopted. They all need a chance at a wonderful and successful life. Money is already something that can prevent adoption, this would just make it worse.

please. give these children a chance for a family. there are families that want to love them.

Too many young lives have been successfully changed and redeemed through the ability to adopt to justify this reduction. 90% of children who have the potential to have a family again should NOT pay the price for what the Gov't needs to figure out. 10% open adoption isn't enough. It's not close to enough!

Please allow loving parents-to-be to bring home these needy children into their forever homes.

Please let Ethiopian adoptions proceed to allow orphan children a healthy and loving home.

Please don't reduce intercountry adoption!! There are so many loving families waiting to adopt, and give kids good homes.

Please do whats right and let these beautiful children be adopted and be cared for by loving couples who will give them a happy & prosperous new chance at life. Thank you!

Please do whats right and let these beautiful children be adopted and be cared for by loving couples who will give them a happy & prosperous new chance at life. Thank you!

Please keep Ethiopia open to international adoptions!

I know several people who have adopted children from Ethiopia all of them have wonderful children and wonderful homes. It would be tragic if this were to cease.

This will be devestaing to reduce the adoption numbers so drastically.

My sister tried to adopt an Ethiopian child, but wasn't recently told that how it wasn't going to happen. I think it is only right that we be allowed to provide a comfortable lifestyle for children in need, and in return get to be loving parents.

While I understand the desire to maintain the youth in their birth country. It is not a practical option for all Ethoopian children at this time. Ethical and careful pre-adoption screening should continue and children should be placed where they can develop to their full potential.

Please do not take away the chance for kids to have a forever family. I know many families who have adopted kids from Ethiopia and go to great lengths to make sure their children know the history and culture of their home land. Many of them keep in contact with family that still live in Ethiopia. Please let these children have a Mom and a Dad.

As a father of an ethiopian boy, I am blessed beyond belief in love and pride from Ethiopia. I truly hope that you will study this situation and take the best steps forward. The children are the most important thing and they need to be recognized, loved, and blessed. Please work out a ethical means to continue intercountry adoption and find forever homes for children in need.

I think it would be equal to a crime to keep so many homeless childrren in Ethiopia, when there are people just waiting to love them and give them the things they need to learn and grow.

Praying that God opens the doors for these sweet orphans to come home to their new parents.

As a mother of three children, one of whom was born in Ethiopia my compassion and heart for the children in Ethiopia is devout and strong. It is my sincerest hope that you will take the best interest of these children into account before shutting down so many adoptions. My son is our family and our life would never and could never be the same without him. Please remember these children. Thank you.

I am a close friend of a couple who is hoping to adopt a baby from Ethiopia. They are a loving couple that is reaching out to provide a loving home for a child that does not have one.

good stuff. africa united.

Some dear friends of ours need to be able to bring home their precious little one!!!

Praying a new solution can be found to still let intercountry adoptions happen.

Please consider another option to deal with corruption and to help kids for whom intercountry adoption is not an option.

Please, is there no other way to stop unethical practices? Children need parents. What wonderful parents my son and daughter in law are to their adopted Ethiopian child. What a joy he is: content, loved, in a two parent family with a large extended family. Please, reconsider.

To God be the glory

May God's children receive their inheritance, and may we be the ones to love them. Come Holy Spirit, fill our hearts; may our lives be an offering to you.

The safety of children is of primary importance but to limit adoption so drastically for children who need loving homes seems unnecessary. Can protecting them be done in some other way? To see people coming together in a global manner to care for the most innocent of all the children, is inspiring and I believe necessary.

We adopted our daughter from Guatemala, she is such a blessing, we were hoping to adopt another, considering Ethiopia.

To many children are already falling through the cracks and left in institutions while they could have been adopted into loving families and have a bright future. More children in orphanages also causes more pressure to be put on the country's already poor economy.

As a parent of international adoption and a perspective parent of an Ethiopian orphan, I ask this not to come about. International adoption is already a difficult process, and I would hate for children to miss out on an opportunity of a loving family.

I will begin pursuing adoption soon, and Ethiopia is an option I am currently looking into. I would be deeply saddened if my chances (and other peoples chances) were cut down to this extent. People love these children and want to provide a wonderful, loving home for them. Please see that these people love the children and want to help them find forever homes!

don't reduce adoption, these children need a forever home.

Please be open minded on this. So many people want to help

As an adoptive parent of a child from Kazakhstan. I implore you to reconsider the change you are considering. We are now preparing for our second international adoption and one day hope our journey takes us to Africa.

please remember the orphan chilidren thats what this about!
Carol D Harris

Please do not limit the number of adoptions!

Please allow more childeren the hope of a loving and caring adoptive family in the USA.
Many many couples in the USA will provide for a child a much better life.

These children will be find a wonderful home to be raised in with their adoption into my sister's home. Please allow this to go forward.

I love your heart, Makenzie Bratcher!

Please reconsider your reduction in adoptions. They are many legitimate families waiting to adopt children.

Please continue to make available to a wide range of giving loving families the ability to adopt children from Ethopia. My cousins were blessed to adopt two of the sweetest twin boys from Ethopia. They have brought everyone they connect with joy and have made us all better people just by knowing them.

Please consider the children's lives beyond the walls of the orphanages they live in. They deserve a future of opportunities and the love of a family.

Please do not throw away the opportunity for thousands of orphans to be taken into loving families who have spent years of going through intense adoption processes along with spending thousands of dollars to adopt these children that have been put on their hearts to love and to provide for. We know of one such family who are in the process of waiting and will give any child a safe, loving and encouraging home. Please reconsider!

Our little boy adopted from Ethiopia is wonderful, has adjusted beautifully to life in the US, and would have had no home or family had he stayed in the orphanage in Ethiopia. Please ensure that ethical adoptions continue to be available for children without families.

The earlier children can attach to their adoptive parents the better for all aspects of their development. Please put the needs of these children first

In honor of the Fraser family

As a guardian-parent of an Ethiopian girl adopted by our close friends, I have seen first hand how crucially important a loving family can be for an orphan. Please reconsider your decision.

Please continue to allow these children the chance to have loving families who want and care for them.

My brother & sister in-laws are both from Ethiopia. I can't imagine what our lives would be like without them, or what their lives would be like without my mother-in-law. Please reconsider. Allowing adoptions change and save lives.

Praying for the children invovled now and those that will be so greatly affected in the future.

My friend is in the process of adopting a little girl from Ethiopia. Please don't deny this little girl from having a forever family or make her stay even longer in institutional care. I'm all for keeping corruption out of the system, but not at the expense of the precious children that truly need families!

Pleae allow more children to be adopted. I am sorry for the abuses, but they are so few compared to those who have done so much god.

please give the children a chance at a happy life

Please allow the adoption of the orphaned children. Give them a chance.

Please continue full inter-country adoption privileges for needy children, and do not let a few bad cases ruin it for everyone else. Thank You

Please find ways to allow children to have loving families who will provide for their needs.

Please reconsider.

As an adopted child, and as an adult that has adopted two children myself, I know first hand the benefits and blessing children who are adopted can and do experience. To have a family is so important to their overall development and who they develop into as an adult.

Please allow loving families to fill the needs of hurting children.

The simplest and most important thing in a child's life is his or her parents. Please let these kids have at least that.

Have Mercy on these childrens lifes.

As an adoptive parent, my heart aches for the children who will never know the joy and security of growing in the heart of a loving family. I also understand pain and frustration of families, willing and able to provide love and security for orphaned and abandoned children, but still cannot. I hope that the Ministry is able to reconsider this recent decision and seek a way to work within the partnerships being offered to help all Ethiopian children in need and the families that can help.

It would be really nice if Ethiopian children could be adopted by Americans without such a hassle...

Please resume normal adoption rates...don't deny children families and families children. Please for the sake of the majority of cases that are legit and have no corruption. Dont give into the American Embassy and their idealist demands that there be a perfect adoption process. There are so many great adoptions that have saved so many kids. Families are changed because of adoptions from Ethiopia....my family is one of them. Please dont stop the process...resume normal operations.

The reduction can only negatively affect the orphans.

I have signed this petition for the obvious reason, so that these precious children and families can avoid this "could be" tragedy! Every child deserves a PERMANENT FAMILY...and adoption would clearly serve these childrens best interest! Please consider the devastating impact this would create in the lives of these children taking away their right to a loving family.
Respectfully,
Mrs. Stiles

Please heal the children that need help and give them loving homes where ever that maybe.

Please reconsider

Please consider the plight of the children in need of loving families who are willing to open their homes, heart, and love. My family loves Ethiopia and her people, may God bless Ethiopia and enable a resolution which will assist needy children and families.

please do what is best for the children, they need people who love them.

As an adoptive parent, I personally know the joy of bringing a child into one's family and offering them a loving, caring, stable family that they might not have had otherwise. I believe that 99% of adoptive parents have nothing but loving intentions to create a family where both parents and children benefit in every way. Please consider doing what is truly best for orphaned children. Sincerely, a concerned parent.

Adoption is a beautiful gift to offer the deserving children of Ethiopia. Please allow the loving families help your countires children. We raise then with Ethiopia in their hearts and heads.

Jesus is Lord in Ethiopia!!

I urge you not to drastically reduce the number of Ethiopian children available for adoption. The international community wants to respond in generous solidarity with the plight of these innocent children.

Please allow families in America to adopt and provide a forever home for Ethiopian orphans! We continue to pray for the orphans and for everyone involved in making the tough decisions. May God bring peace and hope to all.

Please put the best interest of the children first and don't allow bureaucratic policies and procedures to get in the way of allowing meaningful adoption that enable children to fullfill their highest potential and become positive contributors to society as they grow older.

Honorable Minister Zenawi,
Last year I visited your country, and helped my daughter and son-in-law adopt an Ethiopian baby. We worked with the adoption agency named Holt International. The agency named Holt International is the premier agency that is used as a model for many other countrys. Please consider their methods to safeguard your children and your high reputation.
Sincerely,
-Mr. Ogden

Please do not deny orphans in Ethiopia the right to be part of loving family. Please keep the doors open to legitimate, ethical adoption agencies and organizations who have proven they have the best interests of the children at heart. Please do not reduce the number of adoptions in Ethiopia. In the end, it is the children left without a family to call their own that willl suffer.

Please, please, please let us adopt children and give them loving homes!! Do not make them grow up in orphanages!! THIS IS PREVENTABLE!

We have adopted a child from China and one domestically. We have good friends that have adopted kids from Ethiopia, and my wife traveled there to help. There are many children that need a family. I applaud the efforts being made to ensure the kids are safe when adopted, but please do what you can to make the system efficient so many kids can become part of forever families. Thank you, and know that my family and I are praying for you. God bless you. Thank you for all your hard work.

Thank you for considering our request.

As an adoptive mother to my very precious son, I plead with you to allow the orphaned children of your country to be united with families that will cherish and love them.

Praying for reconsideration of this new change. I have been in the process of adopting from Ethiopia for just over a year now. Do desiring to bring my children home soon...

I think that this is a urgent need to help these children overcome this injustice of finding loving caring homes as quickly as possible and the process should not be hendered at the cost of a childs precious childhood years

My niece and her husband recently adopted a beautiful baby boy from Ethiopia. He will has loving parents and a life and privileges he would not have had if he had otherwise. His father was unable to provide even basic necessities, such as food. Although painedl to give up his son, he was proud to be able to provide a better life for him. This child would most likely not have lived were it not for the adoption. Please do not deny any other child the right to live by denying int'l adoptions!!!

For the children...all orphans deserve a family.

Praying that God will Stop this before it happens. So sad that Children have to suffer.

Every child deserves a chance at finding the right family. Every child deserves love. As unfortunate as it is, there will always be wrong doers...stop them. But don't take away the opportunity of so many good and loving families who's sole purpose is to raise a child in a loving, caring and giving family.

Please reconsider. There are many families who are waiting for their forever children just as the orphans in your care are waiting for their forever homes. My family members are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia, and we are so excited to have the opportunity to love, cherish, care for and learn from the child that they will adopt. We will honor their heritage and will be proud to welcome them as members of our family.

PLEASE!!!

I have been in an orphanage where there are literally hundreds of babies and children all desperate for someone to reach out to them and love them. It is the most heartbreaking thing I have ever seen in my life.
I urge you. PLEASE, reconsider your stance on intercountry adoptions. I know, personally, people who want to open their hearts and homes to the children of Ethiopia. Please consider joining together with others for a common goal: placing children with loving forever families.

Adoption is necessary gift of life; I know. I was adopted by my wonderful parents 25 years ago, from Taipei, Taiwan. Without their help, and love...I too might have been a victim of being behind close doors. My life has been spared by the grace and love of God, the one who gives life, and it shouldn't be regulated by any one government; trying to cut back on doors being opened by God in the hearts of those wanting to adopt. I am part of a non-profit, that helps in special needs adoptions as well

My sister and brother-in-law are already in love with a child from Ethiopia who they are ready to call their own...even though they are still on the waiting list and don't know who their child is yet. A baby somewhere needs a home, and they yearn for a child...please help their baby find it's way home to them!

I really think and believe this christian couple will do a great job as parents...

Please do not limit the children who can go to a loving home in the United States. Please know that these children are being raised to not forget they are Ethiopian. This generation of orphans from Ethiopia raisded here will someday bless your country.

Keep adoptions open and let these family's complete their adoptions! I'm outraged that another country may be closing it's doors....SHAME ON YOU UNICEF, IM SURE YOU ARE BEHIND THIS AGAIN!

Every child deserves a forever family. We adopted our daughter from Russia in 2003 and she is a happy, healthy 18 year old. She was malnourished and had no future in Russia. Please don't deny your children the opportunity to be loved and to be safe.

I am the lucky, honorary Auntie of two very wonderful children from Ethiopia. These two beautiful kids were adopted by my dear friends after the children had lost their parents. The children are happy and healthy and are beloved by their new brothers and their new Mom and Dad. Please continue to allow new families to be made and allow inter-country adoptions of children from Ethiopia. Please do not allow the actions of a few to hinder the happiness of so many. Thank you.

Please reconsider!

Please reconsider your decision to minimise the number of intercountry adoptions. I understand that you want to do what is best for the innocent children and their families in your country, but I also know that many loving parents from other countries would care for these children properly. Please join in partnerships with governments, NGOs and foundations to help find a way for the Ministry of Women's, Children's and Youth Affairs to meet their goal of conducting proper and ethical adoptions

Please don't allow these precious children suffer without families that would love and take care of them!

Support those who are fair, honest and loving to connect with those children in need.

Please allow these children to have a home and a family.

I respectfully request the ministry to consider what is best for the children and consider continuing these adoptions, as a way to give them a chance at the best home possible.

Please keep the doors open for adoptions of these precious children!

I have a wonderful 2 year old grand-daughter from Ethiopia and we planned on adopting 2 more children from there to love.

Whatever good anybody can do for these poor homeless children should be allowed.

I have watched one of my best friends and her husband adopt 2 Ethiopian children over the past 3 years. They are so loved and so well provided for, both physically and emotionally. My impression of the process was that extensive research was done to confirm the legitimacy of their need by administrators on both sides of the process. I celebrate the happy, happy result for these two beautiful children, their parents, and their siblings.

Please reconsider your plans to reduce the number of intercountry adoption. Thank You.

I appreciate your efforts. Please, do the right thing

Please do not restrict our adoptions of a needy child population.

Please do not play political games with the life of these children in need.

Please think of the children who will go without families if you reduce the adoptions by 90%.

please don't make policies that hurt innocent children.

There are some very wonderful families looking to make a home for a child without a family, it would be sad to see something like this happen.

The Ministry’s plan to reduce intercountry adoption by 90% is a tragic, unnecessary and a disproportionate reaction to concerns of isolated abuses in the intercountry adoption process.

We support the Ministry’s goal of ensuring ethical adoptions that serve the best interest of children and serve all vulnerable children & families.

We respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry adopti

thank you for taking the time to consider this petition and work so diligently on behalf of orphaned, hurting children.

As an adoptive parent of 2 amazing children, this saddens my heart. Adoption is a beautiful thing, and there are so many children who need and want a family of their own, please reconsider this law! I know the adoption community as a whole really care about these children, please don't punish all because if the horrible acts of few!

My family adopted the child of a family affected by AIDS. We have an open adoption and a relationship with her birth mother and brother. We support ethical adoptions and whatever measures are necessary to ensure that international adoptions are legal, ethical and in the best interest of the children.

Please help children in Ethiopia to be loved and cared for by adoptive families.

We have many people praying that these precious children may be given the hope of a permanent family to love them. The ones already promised must surely be given to the families who are hoping that they will come home to them.

Children need love and homes. Families are waiting with open arms. Please continue to unite these children with the families who are just waiting embrace them.

we have a son from Ethiopia and wish for him to have sister from there as well. I know there are many children who need loving homes and we hope we willl be so lucky to have a new daughter from ethiopia

Every child deserves a good home and parents to love them

I believe that not only do the children need the blessing of wonderful parents, but the parents need the blessing of these children. Most of them have waited a long time for a child to fill the void in their hearts. I couldn't imagine being told that these poor children have to wait in limbo even longer. Please, I pray that you can find a way to connect these families in a more timely manner and help to put more children in worthy homes each day, not less.

We have fallen in love with the people of Ethiopia, please continue to let us love and help the families and children of this country.

Please reconsider your decision to slow down the process by 90%. This seems so drastic.

We would urge you allow intercounry adoption realizing all of the benefits. Our family has experienced such joy giving our adopted grandchildren love they need and deserve.

Please do not reduce the number of adoptions. There are many orphans that need homes and there are many international families that are willing to provide them homes.

In support of Charity Harris' son Zion!

Please give these children an opportunity for an improved life including education. We personally know of many families who have adopted children and created loving homes for them.

Please don't make these children wait any longer to get home to their forever families.

We have fallen in love with the people of Ethiopia, please continue to let us love and help the families and children of this country.

I am praying that the open adoptions will remain open.

There are so many if us in the united states who have a sincere heart for providing homes for children who may otherwise not have one. Please do not do a disservice to the next generation of Ethiopians by taking that away from them.

my husband and I are very interested in adopting a child (particularly) the orphans in your country, and have been very supportive of groups working with your country on this process; we hope that the adoption process for all of the wonderful children waiting for good homes will remain active.

Sincerely,
Colleen McFarland Ringvold and Jan Petter Ringvold

All Children deserve a good loving home. Delaying this opportunity will just cause more suffering.

PLEASE LET THEM BE ADOPTED

I think that it is terrible for these children to remain orphans when somebody in another country has the heart and desire to take care of them. They should be allow adoptions to take place in other countries!!

We love these children and only want what is very best for them. I'm sure that is what you want too!

Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.
James 1:27

Orphans need homes. Adoption is the best way to assure homes to orphans.

Please allow these precious children to be welcomed into loving homes. No child should grow up without the love of a family. Our daughter was adopted 3 yrs. ago from Kyrgyzstan and she is the biggest blessing our family has ever receieved.

let these precious children go to their forever homes!!!

Several wonderful friends have adopted Ethiopian children, and we are thrilled to know them and be friends with them, and to see these adopted kids be happy & healthy and have good, loving homes!!

The children are very much loved and wished to complete a family by having them join. I hope that they focus on the agencies and let the ethical agencies continue and focus on cleaning and removing the questionable agencies from operation.

Esteemed Sirs and Madams,
Please reconsider your decision to decrease international adoptions. Please consider partnerships offered by governments, NGO's and foundations to ensure better regulation and ethical adoptions.
Sincere thanks,
Rebecca de Siguenza

Please continue to allow these inter-country adoptions...let the children have a chance.

I implore Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to reconsider the proposed changes to Ethiopian adoption. Please continue to help and support these children in finding homes where they will be able to survive and flourish.

These lovely children need the opportunity to know the love of a family.

Every child deserves a home!

We, respectfully urge the Ministry of Women’s, Children's and Youth Affairs to reconsider its plan and to partner with governments, NGOs and foundations to achieve their goals and avoid the coming tragedy for children and families.

We hope the Prime Minister of Ethiopia will reconsider this decision.

Every child deserves a family.

Please save these children.

Please help! If passed, this measure may end the adoption of my new Ethiopian niece/nephew later this year. :(

Loving parents give precious children a new beginning in a confusing world. The love that comes into a family with a child heals not only the child, but the world.

Please don't let a few isolated cases deprive children from having a forever family that will love and cherish them. Have three adopted children..I see daily the difference having a forever family can make! There are far more positive experiences than negative.

It would be a shame to deprive orphaned Ethiopian children of the opportunity for a better life.

We love our adopted nephew. He is a cherished member of our family!

There are many Americans who feel called and are more than willing to adopt children from Ethiopia right now.

If this proposal must go through as written, families that are currently in the middle of the process should be allowed to complete the adoption process.

The children who have come to us here in Oregon have been such a blessing, and they are very happy here. It would have been so sad if they had to wait longer to come. Children are happiest in families. Please consider this as you make your decisions.

Please reconsider the limit change. We have good friends waiting to adopt and they are an amazing family. Please don't take away the chance for a sibling group to become a part of this amazing family.

Please allow people of faith and responsibility to adopt Ethiopoan children. In the vast majority of cases, it is a win-win situations.

So many Ethiopian orphans waiting for loving, forever families. So many loving, forever families waiting to adopt Ethiopian orphans. Please don't keep these children and families apart from each other.

For Davis

When moratoriums on international adoptions are started, they are very difficult to reverse. Children languish in limbo for a long time, when loving families are willing to care for them. Please work to resolve concerns without limiting options for these homeless kids. Thank you

Please allow the adoption of the children to be done as before to the wonderful people that want to help these children have a home.

Please consider how such drastic actions will affect waiting children and families alike.

There are so many loving families who would love to adopt children. Please allow these families to share their love, life and future with these children.

Please allow more families to be completed by allowing more adoptions.

Please do not cut your adoptions by 90%.

Let Micah come home!!!

Please do NOT stop your adoption program or make it more diffucult to adopt these beautiful children that need homes!!!

Thank You,

Nanci and Chris Moes

These children need homes - please don't deny them an opportunity.

Although I've not adopted I'm aware of the situation around international adoption and have spent time in Ethiopia - where I've seen 1st hand the positive effects of (the vast majority) of inter-country adoption, for all parties.

With the statistics of infant and child mortality, please give these children a chance and let them be adopted!

The Lord has done so many good things through adoption in Ethiopia. Sweet children who otherwise would not have the love of a mother and father are able to know that love through adoption. I ask you to please reconsider your proposal. We are praying God's will be done.

I am parent to two children adopted international children. Please continue to allow international adoptions in Ethiopia.

Please help these children find loving homes quickly. There are many families that are waiting to bring home these children and love them. These children are anxiously waiting for families to take them home and love them.

We're adopting from Ethiopia. Please consider this petition.

Please do not deprive your sweet children the chance to have loving, life-long families. Please consider other options to the situation and allow adoptions to proceed.

Please reconsider your decision to reduce intercountry adoptions!

My wife and I adopted a beautiful little girl back in 2009, and all of us have never been better. Our daughter is enjoying life and thriving in her new home. She is continuing to grow each and every day. Our experience has been wonderful in this process. My wife and I believe we have provided a loving home for our daughter and would like to do it for son in the future. Please keep the International Adoption process open. It has been good for every one involved. Thanks Stewart Hubbard

We are hoping to adopt siblings and have been waiting almost a year. Please don't slow down!

Let children have a better future.

Please consider the childrens' best interests! They need loving families - not orphanages.

Please reconsider your decision. I have seen the pain and heartbreak in my son and daughter-in-laws eyes when they received this news. Their dream is to be blessed with a child to share their love, home and family with. Looking forward to being a grandma again.

Thank you for your prayerful consideration of this request! May God grant you wisdom.

Please do not reduce the adoptions. Many would love to provide a loving home to these orphans.

Please do not limit intercountry adoptions as we have these children's best interests in mind. We have so much to offer them.

I pray for these children and their forever families!

Please reconsider the decision to limit adoptions, there are so many children that need loving families and adoption can be the answer to all prayers.

The amount of love that we have for these children should not be restrained!

It saddens me to read this plan to reduce Ethiopian adoptions and I fully back my support of this petition.

All children have the right to have a loving home wherever that may be...

While I am also deeply concerned about the potential for abuse in the intercountry adoption process, I am equally concerned that true orphans have the possibility to find a family to call their own. Please do what is necessary to keep this option open for the orphans of Ethiopia.

Thank you.

Don't take away the only chance these children have to have a loving forever family!

I have 3 Ethiopian sons, one of whom was old enough to remember being taken by family and left at a police station; the other two had documented abandonments as infants near police stations. Although each has/had significant medical problems (abnormal limbs, Hepatitis B) that would have been impossible to have treated in Ethiopian orphanages, here in the USA they are all proud members of their new family, healthy, and strong. The issues of adoption in Ethiopia can be fixed. Please fix them.

My husband & I see the need of orphans in Ethiopia and have dreamed of having an Ethiopian son or daughter. We would be devastated if we no longer had the opportunity. It makes me so sad to think of children being raised in an institution when they could have a loving family.

Please do not decrease the number of adoption referrals that you give each year. There are many wonderful homes waiting to shower these orphans with love. Please allow them the opportunity to be part of a family.

There are many good and kind families in the U.S.A. that would provide loving homes to orphans. Please allow more adoptions to take place. Thank you.

We adopted a sibling group of three children from Addis in 2009. They have been such a wonderful blessing to us and have grown and flourished so much in the past two years. Please continue to allow children to be united with forever families like ours. God bless you.

Please take this petition to heart, and recognize that there are many legitimate, loving, wonderful parents wanting to adopt children from Ethiopia. Please find a way to allow these GOOD adoptions, as you work to avoid the bad ones. Thank you and God bless.

With so many children needing a family, and so many people wanting to love and care for a child, I ask that you reconsider your decision.

Think of the children BEFORE you think of your politics!

Please don't deprive these children the right to have a family!

My daughter and son in law adopted the two most precious boys. They are so happy and the boys and parents could not be happier. They both made the family complete.

Our daughter and her family are waiting for their daughter from Ethiopia. She was in tears tonight. Please reconsider what this will do to Ethiopia's economy and how many children will be left waiting. Waiting for parents that can take care of them and love them when their 3rd world parents cannot. How many children will suffer or die because of this decision. The differences are tremendous, 4000 finding homes to only 400 in a years time. Think of the children.

Our hearts are in Ethiopia. We are so close to being matched with a child and our hearts break that orphans may not have families for years because of this change. Please consider the children. We do respect that adoption must become more ethical.

Please keep the children safe, but please also allow adoption to continue.

As a community member of an area in the USA where a family is hoping and praying to adopt an Ethiopian child, I pledge to support this family in any way possible, and to support the wonderful aims of the Ethiopian Ministry and the family to ensure each child finds a loving, safe, and positive life experience. We, as friends of the prospective adopting family, will be a part of the "ripples of love" an adoption brings to a family, to a community, and to the world.

Please consider what a dramatic reduction in intercountry adoptions will do for the numerous children who do find supportive homes and loving parents. It is imperative that adoptions have heightened safety and ethical considerations, and this can be done without a drastic reduction in the number of adoptions allowed to take place.

The Ministry needs to be allowed to continue finding good homes for these children as it is important that the best interests of the children always be considered.

Please take a stand to give these children hope and the opportunity to receive the care and love that they need.

Don't make it about politics, make it about the children. If a family wants to open their hearts to an orphan, why not allow that child to be loved and cared for? Please don't take this opportunity away to change a life.

Please reconsider your decision.

these children desire a better life and loving parnets I pray this happens .

Please do not restrict the international adoption of your country's beautiful orphan children by decreasing the caseflow through MOWA. We adopted our son from Ethiopia in 2009 and he has blessed us immensely - he is a joy and light in our community. Thank you for considering this petition to keep Ethiopian adoptions going to bring more light and blessing to the communities of the world.

my nephew was adopted from ethiopia and his parents do such a terrific job and my nephew is such a happy and well loved child. in fact, this experience has inspired me to adopt when i'm ready to have children.

Please pay attention to the words of this petition for the sake of numerous children and loving families who will love and care for them.

Please help children find forever families! Do not cut back on adoptions.

ALL ORPHANS DESERVE A CHANCE.. GOD HAS A PLAN FOR EACH OF THEM:)

Children need to be placed in homes as quick as is safely possible for their own best developmental interest.

Please reconsider this drastic reduction... all adoptive parents are more than willing to do whatever it takes to ensure ethical adoptions- but please give us the opportunity.

I am supporting my sister and her life long dream of adoption. It is heartbreaking to think that a beautiful child may not have the oportunity to have her as their mom.

My daughter and her husband are anxious to give a loving home to a child in need of a home and parents who will love and care for her. Please don't slow down the process.

There are many wonderful families who would love to give a new life to the children of Ethopia. I would hope the adoption process is not closed to those outside of Ethopia who are wishing to truly help and love one of these childen as their own.

God bless your children in Ethiopia. May you connect them all with loving parents.

I have friends that have recently adopted a beautiful baby boy from Ethiopia and other friends with plans to adopt soon. These are wonderful families who long to provide for and love children in need. Please don't make such a drastic reduction to intercountry adoptions, it's the children who will suffer most.

Please reconsider this decision. Many families would love to give these children all of the love and care that is available and help them become part of their families.

Stopping adoption is not a solution to unethical practices. It's punishing the children for things out of their control.

This reduction in Ethiopia adoptions can only hurt the children who are waiting for loving homes. Please, rather than essentially end international adoptions, strive to eliminate any unethical agencies and practices that are taking place. So many families are waiting just to love children who need to be loved. Every child deserves to have an opportunity to have a loving family.

These, along with all children, deserve the right to grow up in a loving home instead of extended stays in institutions and orphanages.

Please allow these beautiful children to be part of a loving overseas adoptive family.

Denying children loving homes is tragic. Not allowing adoption is tragic.

please allow intercountry adoption for the sake of the children.

My family is an adopted family, and our adoption was a huge success. We hope to further grow our family through inter country adoption.

Give the children a chance for a solid, happy life...

Praying for God's love and protection of His children and the blessings to come in His name.

Lisa Weisman & Andy Beach are waiting to bring their daughter Davy home...every day that this is delayed is a day lost in Davy's life. This is tragic and pointless.

Praying!!!

Our prayers go out to the Ethiopian children in need of families and to all the families like ours who need children. Adoption is a blessing.

Thank you for graciously considering this position. We desire to work alongside the Ethiopian government to provide long-term, stable, loving options for orphaned and vulnerable children.

Please allow the children to go to homes where they will be truly loved and given opportunities not available to them where they are currently.

As a parent currently on the waitlist to adopt from Ethiopia, my family and I humbly ask that the Ministry of Women's Affairs please allow us to adopt our precious baby. Please continue allowing adoptions for families that wish to provide a loving home for a child without a family.
Thank you and may God bless you!

Jeremy Ebert and family

Please know there are kind, loving parents who desire these unwanted. Don't punish the children or parents because of systemic abuse.

I know numerous children who have been adopted from Ethiopia who are now in very loving homes and doing very well! I also know couples who are looking to Ethiopia to find their child...please do not take that away from the children and the parents!

Please do not slow down the process of adoption. The children need to being giving a chance to have a better life that these children so richly deserve.

Please consider what is for the best interest of children.

Please do not limit the opportunity for these children. Please keep the adoption processes open and accessible so that children of all ages can be adopted.

This is an out rage and why should the children have to suffer? Let them have the opertunity to know true love and happiness. Lets not take this away from them. We need to stand up and give them a voice... This is our voice for them!!!

Ethical adoption are a wonderful way to enhance life!

Give these children a chance at a new life.

Please reconsider! These children deserve a permanent family who will love and care for them.

So many families have been united through intercountry adoption in Ethiopia our family included. I love my son with all my heart and he would not be a part of our lives if it were not for adoption in Ethiopia.

Please help these children join their forever families!

Children need to be in families! Work out the problem areas and keep going!

These children have a chance for happiness. Why would you stop that? Solve you problems. Don't punish the kids.

I might not be able to have children of my own but for now we are still trying and being hopeful. But if my wish of having a baby of my own didn't happen I wouldn't like for someone to keep me from being a mother. I don't like this idea and I'm doing this for all the women out there that can't have babies of their own and for all of those that are trying to adopt and opening their hearts to a baby that really needs to be loved and cared for..

PLEASE allow the International Adoptions to continue!

My wife and i just completed an international adoption and know firsthand how critical it is for children to have a loving family. This simple fact applies to all human beings regardless of race and limiting adoption of any orphan only hurts their chances of developing into a loving, well behaved and productive person. Please dont limit the children of Ethiopia and their ability to be loved early in life.

please do not allow these poor children to suffer. Especially the older children who are waiting for families.

These children are blessed when adopted by loving families who are in turn blessed by beautiful Ethiopian children.

This is another attempt to curb racial diversity in Canada and it is unacceptable.

To the honorable Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of Ethiopia,

Please consider the best long term impact on the many children orphaned by no choice of their own. It is unfortunate that there may have been inappropriate, misuse of the current adoption process, but please consider the positive impact and the thorough process exercised by prestigious organizations such as Children's Hope. From personal experience, I can testify to the fact that this orgainization holds to the highest standards.

Please reconsider reducing intracountry adoptions! Increase the number so kids can have a safe place to call home and reduce the burden on Ethiopia!

Please contiue to allow these children to be adopted and to be able to have a brighter future!

"Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these'."

Please let us adopt...we will honor your country by doing this.

I teach 10 Ethiopian students adopted into a private school. They all intend to go back to their country after college and put to use their learning. They are so studious and godly, if something like this happens, they're won'te be any more students for that school.

Please continue to allow international adoption.

There are plenty of wonderful parents willing and hoping to make happy homes for the orphans in Ethiopia.

We have adopted two girls from Ethiopia. There were brought to the care center when they were 3 and 8 months old. Without the care center, they would have likely died of malnutrition.

We are an extremely happy family. The girls are smart, healthy, and now have normal weights and heights. Our four year old is reading already, and she is going to have opportunities to go to lots of school.

They have suffered no abuse here. We believe our agency, out of St. Paul, MN, USA, was honest and ethical

Please do not deny a child the opportunity to live and love in peace with a loving family. Please partner with those agencies who require and ensure ethical and safe adoptions. Just as Moses was adopted in order to survive, let us allow other children experience God's gift of adoption.

Please help all you can for the needed Children and families.

These little ones (and big ones) need homes so desperately. Please consider other options and increase staffing instead of reducing letters for cases. We believe in protecting these children. More people to investigate and insure the integrity of you program would do that...please.

so many children in need of homes, let them have them!

Please keep the opportunity for a permanent, loving family for children alive!

Please consider focusing your attention on the agencies in question rather than the whole adoption program. There are so many children who need homes and so many families who want to give that to them! Thank you for hearing our requests.

please help the kids and allow legitimate adoptions to move forward quickly

Keep adoptions open! These orphans need homes with loving parents.

As an adoptive mom with 4 kids - two from internationa countries, I can assure you that the love between the parents and children are as strong or stronger than with biological children and that adoption was the best thing our family ever did, for us and for our foreign born girls.

I have very close friends who are awaiting the final call to come and pick up their adopted child from Ethiopia. I assure you they are a loving family, and will bless this child with their love. Please allow them and their son the chance to be together.

There are plenty of wonderful parents willing and hoping to make happy homes for the orphans in Ethiopia.

My husband and I were privileged to adopt our daughter 15 years ago from Paraguay and our son 12 years ago from Guatemala. It breaks my heart when geo-political boundaries are used to stop families from adopting. Children need homes and there are many like my husband and I who are eager to provide a loving and forever family to a child from far away. It is a joy that my name is now Mom.

give every child a chance at a forever family, at the earliest age possible!

Please help these children go to their new homes as soon as possible

Please ensure that orphaned Ethiopian children can still be placed with forever families!

There are so many wonderful, loving families who are eager to adopt a child in need, but the restrictions, costs and legalities make it extremely difficult. Please reconsider and make it easier for families to help the poor children.

Please help children who need a great home.
Thanks for your help.

Please give the children a voice.

May God bless those children

These families want to love and care for your children and give them home of love and care... please do not deprive the children of this opportunity.

I have two daughters we have adopted from another country. They have been such a blessing in our lives.

Please, please allow the clean adoptions to continue! We have friends who are waiting to make a great home to a sweet orphan girl! There are so many who are doing this right, please don't deny those babies a home to grow up in!

Please do everything you can to assure ethical adoptions, but please do that without reducing the number of children that can find a family to care for them through international adoption. Keep the level of scrutiny high! Give MOWA more staff! But do not resort to slowing the process and causing children to languish in institutional care. That is simply a losing proposition for the children.

Please do not take this step, which will keep Ethiopian children from a healthy, loving family.

As a mom, I understand your need and desire to keep all your children safe. Please consider other alternatives to protect these precious children. There are so many wonderful loving families who are willing to bring children into their homes and give them a safe and loving home.
Best Regards!

All children deserve a permanent family.

Every child deserves a family. For the sake of so many deserving children, please re-consider your position on this matter.

My family has been traumatized by some of the same procedures in Guatemala three years ago. We have adopted two biological, older daughters from Guatemala. We were blessed to bring home our older daughter at the age of 11 years, but her younger sister was forced to be left behind at 8 years of age. Even after all this time, there is no end in sight. Our daughters will incur life-long consequences. I pray this does not happen to any other children who are denied having a loving family.

Please consider the children. Beautiful granddaughter from Ethiopia.
thank you

Its for the kids!

We have three internationally adopted children. They needed us and we needed them. Please allow other children the blessing of being adored by a family.

Please permit these children to have a chance to realize a healthy future with parents who do care and love them.

Do what's best for the children!

International adoption is a good thing. It changes lives for the better.

i support this petition

Every child deserves to be loved by a family of their own. Please do not reduce inter-country adoption. Continue to partner with those organizations and governments who uphold ethical adoption practices.

Having seen families here in the US with beautiful children from Africa, it would break my heart to see other families deprived of the opportunity to be put together and the lives of the parents and the children enriched. That would be a travesty.

Don't stop the adoptions!

We have happily adopted two beautiful children from Ethiopia. Our adopted children sing songs of how happy they are to be in our family. They pray prayers of thanksgiving for how loved they are now. Please do not deprive other children from having the same joy.

Give these kids a chance at a family!

All children deserve a loving forever family. There are parents longing to bring them home. Please do everything to enable this to happen as efficiently as possible.

Please let any loving family adopt these children as we are all children of God no matter where we live.

Please give these waiting children a chance

We support this petition while also encouraging the government to seek out and greatly reduce corruption and trafficking.

Please do NOT deny these children the ability to be adopted into forever homes. It's heartbreaking to know children who don't have family to care for them will suffer while there are so many opportunities for them to find love and stability with caring adoptive parents in other countries! PLEASE THINK ABOUT THE CHILDREN!

Please allow these adoptions to continue. So many wonderful families are waiting to help these children.

People are trying to care for the "least of these" by bringing them into a loving home. Please reconsider and allow them to love and care for the precious orphans as soon as possible.

Please help my sister in-law and brother in-law be able to adopt their baby. They will make the most wonderful parents!!! They have been so patience with the process. This is a couple who will love and charish this little baby with all their heart!!

We truly care about your children.

Abuses of children should be something we all work to eliminate. There are well known cases of abuse in intercountry adoption. However, there are also many, many good stories and wonderful lives developed out of intercountry adoptions. These intercountry adoptions can serve as wonderful ways of opening the countries of the world to the wonders and goodness of the varying cultures in our world. Please give children in need a chance to be adopted to deserving families from other countries.

Please do not reduce the number of adoptions from Ethiopia. There are so many children, who through no fault of their own, have no families, and so many adults who would love to make them part of their family.

Intercountry adoption is one of many ways to help Ethiopian children to lead a happy and productive life. Please do not cut this valuable program!

Please reconsider this sad decision & please know that we waited 2 years for our precious children (a brother & sister). It took so long because everyone wanted to be sure these children would be safe & loved, and they are!

please give the orphans a chance!

Please reconsider this change in process and help ensure ethical intercountry adoptions continue in order to help match Ethopian children who need parents with those who can provide for them.

All of these children deserve a warm home and a loving family especially if there are families out there that are more than willing to adopt these children.

Don't stop families being born!!!!!!

Please make your decision based on the needs of the children. They need forever families.

Please reconsider. Our family has adopted from Ethiopia and he is a treasure to us. Let other families experience the blessing of adopting a child from Ethiopia!

My husband and I have built our family through adoptions from Ethiopia. We adopted our two sons in 2005. They are now 6 and 8 years old. We adopted our daughters, who just turned 4, 9 months ago. We have met our children's birth families and have an amazing bond and connection with them. Take care not to further devastate 1) the waiting children and 2) the birth parents who made the difficult choice to relinquish. Slowing adoptions is not the answer to the problem--but the creation of a new on

Give these children who may have been orphaned or abandoned a chance at a new life. Let loving families help those in need.

There are no words in any language to express our deep sadness at the news that the doors may soon be closing for the orphans of Ethiopia to be placed in loving and healthy homes in our country. With great respect we ask you to reconsider your ruling. Please also allow the adoptions already in motion to move forward so that parents may be joined with the children they have placed their hope and hearts upon.

We've adopted and know how important it is to get children as early as possible for their benefit.

Please do not punish the children of Ethiopia and the families waiting to adopt them because if a few isolated abuses in intercountry adoption. We respect your position for ethical adoptions. We are waiting for our daughter to come home, we do not want her to have to grow up in an orphanage. Thank you for your time.

We are grandparents of two wonderful girls adopted from Ethiopia. We had the opportunity go go with our daughter to Ethiopia and visit AGC orphanage and see the great need for loving adoptive families. We love our grandgirls and hope that the Ethiopian government won't limit international adoptions.

i was blessed to adopt 2 and 3 year old siblings 3 years ago. they are amazing children who will now have the opportunity to live happy, healthy lives with a stable family who loves them. their birth family has given us a gift that we could never repay. these children were much loved by their ethiopian family but they were too impoverished to provide necessities. please, reconsider. there are so many families who can provide loving homes to these children. please give them a chance.

All children need to be in a forever home, where there's love.

Every child is a child of God and deserves to have a loving family to take care of and raise them. Please don't take that away from these children and the parents who are praying and waiting for them every day. Our children are the future of this world and it is our responsibility to do everything we can to care for them.

I have close friends who are amazing parents to 3 children and are so excited to adopt a son from Ethiopia and provide him with a loving home and upbringing. The kids are looking forward to having a little brother. I am saddened to hear that the Ethiopia is looking to limit the adoptions. There are so many wonderful families that are ready to provide for these deserving children.

Adoption is a beautiful and precious thing. By reducing the number of adoption you are leaving many children parentless and without love. Speaking as an adopted child I would not want to be without my parents!!

I have close friends who just began the process of adopting a child from Ethiopia. They are incredible people who would lavish love and provide a bright future to a young one who would not otherwise receive it. It breaks my heart that this will not happen if this plan to reduce intercountry adoption is carried out....
Please, consider your decision.

Please allow the children that have no homes or parents to be adopted. It would be the best gift to them and your country. My daughter is adopted and she is proud to be from her native land. SHe has not forgotten her birth place and we continue to help other children in need there.

Knowing somewhat of the corruption that can occur in this process, I do understand the need for action but to stop 90% of the intercountry adoptions would truly be a Tragedy for so many children.

Please unite these children with their forever families so they may find the love they so deserve.

"Whatever you have done for the least of these you have done for me"

Please reconsider your plan to reduce the number of adoptions approved each day so these precious kids can find homes sooner.

We have a new family, with a new meaning and purpose, because of adoption... Someone left a door open for us to receive God's blessing... our children...

We adopted 2 girls from Ethiopia in October 2010 and have witnessed the transformation of these two angels from poverty and hopelessness in an orphanage, to hopeful, learning, happy children with a family and a future that includes education, medical options, love and support. We hope they will grow up to want to return to ET and make a difference, in the area of medicine, missions, or teaching. We hope to adopt a boy in 2011. Please for the sake of the kids, allow the adoptions to continue.

There is a need for loving families. And there are loving families WAITING to provide for this need.

Children are meant to be in families not institutions.

It is about time that we start doing what is IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THE CHILDREN instead of what is convenient for the adults involved in placing children in their forever families regardless of the country of the child or the adoptive family or what looks good on paper. Children need a forever family!

We brought home our son from Ethiopia almost 2 years ago. He has special needs and is just flourishing. During our process we constantly stated how much we respected how the Ethiopian government and the agency we dealt with in Ethiopia was so respectful of the children and of us . We felt his interest was well protected and that the agency upheld the laws to the letter. It is my hope that reconsideration of reducing the adoptions from Ethiopia will happen.

Please honor this petition

My wife and I are very good friends with another couple that has had a wonderful experience with an Ethiopian adoption. It would be an absolute shame to see this program scaled back in such a drastic fashion.

Please reconsider your decision to reduce adoptions. There are so many families that want to provide a home to children without one.

Please allow these adoptions to continue, especially the ones who have been matched and are in progress. Let these families unite, and do not delay or contribute to more heartache and anguish for these children and the families who love them with all their heart. Please reconsider your new position. As parents who have adopted our daughter from Ethiopia, we urge you not to delay or slow down inter-country adoptions underway. We fully support your continued pursuit of the highest ethics.

You often hear about the few negative or corrupt adoptions without hearing about the thousands of upstanding and legal adoptions. It is important to maintain the integrity of adoptions for the safety of children. This is possible while still providing children with a safe and loving family outside of Ethiopia. Our children were adopted from Guatemala. I have returned twice this year to serve and see the negative effects closing adoptions has had on the children in Guatemala.

Please reconsider the plan to reduce the number of intercountry adoptions.

I am hoping to adopt one day and Ethopia was one of the countries I was looking at as a possible country to adopt a child from.

Keep it happening and safe.

American families whom are unable to have children want to provide homes for foreign born children and have no families to provide the love of family. To allow this adoption greatly benefits the child who would most likely have an uncertain future.

Stacy Rogers is a wonderful woman, and I'm certain she'll be an outstanding mother. Stacy was one of my major role models growing up as she led in the ministry of Young Life. Young Life is a Christian outreach program that has aided countless kids in discovering the grace and love of their savior, Jesus Christ. I've met her husband, David, on multiple occasions and he's also proven to be a man of God. This couple greatly desires to parent this child, and I've no doubt they'll love him immensely.

All children deserve to have a family. Children should not grow up alone. Please give these children a chance for happiness.

Please allow people to adopt children in need.

Please do not scale back. These children need good homes, and there are so many good people looking to love these beautiful children!

We adopted our daughter four years ago and she is such a joy. She is as loved and cared for as our three biological sons. I can't imagine our family without each and every one of them. Please give those children every opportunity to have a family of their own.

Please reconsider. Every child deserves a family

We love these children!!!!!!!!

Please continue intercountry adoptions. Do not cut by 90 percent.

Please help our wonderful, devoted, smart, generous and loving friends bring their child home.

There are many loving families that willing to open their hearts and homes to care for these children and provide the care they need.

Please help these children who cannot help themselves.

Please don't let "red-tape" get in the way of helping the less fortunate.

-Matt-

We have adopted and are ever so grateful to be able to. God is great and He loves the orphans all around this world.

Please help these children who cannot help themselves.

Please allow the children to be raised by committed, loving parents from other countries. Their lives are so precious to us. We want them to have a family, medical care, education, and all that every child deserves.

Please help my sister in-law and brother in-law be able to adopt their baby. They will make the most wonderful parents!!! They have been so patience with the process. This is a couple who will love and charish this little baby with all their heart!!

If there is any opportunity to improve the lives of children in poverty stricken countries, wouldn't humanity be well served to make that happen. If there is corruption in the adoption system, why not improve the system; why make innocent children pay the price for their unfortunate circumstances. There isn't a sadder scenario than a child who has no hope for achievement in life.

Please reconsider restricting adoptions. Thank you for helping couples who are unable to have a child.

There are many of us here in the US that are unable to conceive children. We love these children, care for them and would love them as our own! Skin color is irrelevant to us as we see the hearts! There are many of us that are very legitimate, honest and loving homes! Please do not penalize these children and our families. In the love of Christ, our Lord and Savior!

I fully support this campaign

Intercountry adoption from Ethiopia can insure so many of your children from dying or just living out a horrible life. Please consider this carefully with your children in mind. Respectfully, Lynda Harvey

We adopted our two sons from Ethiopia in 2007. There is an upmost importance on ethical practices but please do not hurt the children more by keeping them in the orphanges longer. Kaleab only 2-1/2 at the time of adoption still has a hard time believing we are not going to abandon him and he has been here for 3 years now.

I believe that there are so many loving parents that have been praying for many months and years that are anticipating adopting specifically Ethiopian children. Sometimes there are better adoption agencies than others that need to be used first instead of others instead of only targeting giving a smaller percentage of adopting opportunities of Ehtiopian children. Maybe Ethiopia needs to consider this instead - only using certain agencies where positive experiences have been shown/demonstrated!

Please let adoptions continue. I have a good friend who is on the list!

Please let us care about the kids!

Adoption opportunities for qualified, loving, caring couples are so important to the welfare of those children in this world who need families in which to belong. I respect your concerns regarding this matter, but please consider the incredible humanitarian opportunity for your country and redirect efforts to be proactive in securing good homes for these orphan children. Every child on this planet deserves a chance to have a family. Thank you for your consideration. Respectfully, Andy

The reduction of intercountry adoptions by 90% would be a tragedy of huge proportions. With so many able and willing to help care for orphans and make them a part of their families, it is cruel to inhibit these adoptions. Why should children pay this price and spend their childhoods in orphanages rather than with loving families? Allow the adoptions to proceed!

Thank you for considering the children's needs and putting them first.

These children deserve a safe loving environment.

I strongly believe it is every child's right to have a family. How sad it is for children who have no one who cares for them. Please have mercy on the children, God is watching you and everyone when we don't do what is right on their behalf. Children have the smallest voices, it makes my heart very sad for them. We personally have adopted three children and they mean everything to us. Delilah

the Ethiopian people and culture are great and please let the adoption flow going strong!!

We are asking that you consider the wonderful, beautiful, and healing pieces that encompass adoption. We are a world which should all be responsible for the least of these, children. Let us continue to proved the possibility that every child has the opportunity to be loved and cared for by a family and community.

Ethiopia

I am a proud and grateful mother of a beautiful Ethiopian gift!

Please do not decrease the adoption. These children are in desperate need of a family.

All children deserve a safe and loving home. If one cannot be given in their home country, please let one be given elsewhere. We plead with you to let us, among so many other families, be the hands and feet of Jesus as we desire to adopt your orphaned children. The work, time and prayers we put into the adoption process will be NOTHING compared to what we put into that child's life as we humbly welcome them into our family!

Please keep the Adoption open. There are so many kids that need loving homes.

I signed.

Please continue allowing the children of Ethiopia to have the opportunity to be adopted by families that have the means to care for them. I call on you to be compassionate and give these children the opportunities in life that they deserve.

Please let those who have completed everything and are in the top 10 to continue with their adoption process. Think how hard they have prayed and worked to make this miracle happen. God bless all involved in this process

There are parents and families eagerly awaiting the homecoming of their children. Fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles, praying for them to finally come home.

We have adopted two children from Ethiopia a 9 month old, then a year later a 13 year old. Our 13 year old was in the orphanage for 5 years waiting for a family. She shares her testimony with tears that for 3 months they had no food. Actually she says they each had one piece of injera to eat, divided into their 3 meals for the day. They together cried out to God for help. Please don't take away their hope. We love Ethiopia and its people. Please let adoption continue for their sake!

Let those kids get homes 100 percent of those kids deserve loving ho,es

I think it is completely ridiculous that they are making these limitations and increasing the time that families have to wait for children.

This has a direct effect on the children waiting to be adopted. Why would anyone looking in their best interst prolong the amount of time that they must wait to go to a family that willingly wants to and can adopt and take care of them.

Please allow orphaned children to have the opportunity to be adopted into a family in the swiftest manner possible. No child should have to live without parents. Please consider partnering with reputable organizations that have the child's best interest at heart. Do not delay intercountry adoptions.

Please do not reduce the number of children to be adopted!!!

Every orphan deserves the right to belong to a family. I have seen the life changing effects personally. I am parent of an international adoptee.

let these babies have a future!!!!!

We urgently request you allow the adoptions to go forward. The children need homes & families need children to love & care for. It would be better than having the children on the street, doing who knows what. Please approve the options & soon.
Thanks so much.

Please do not reduce intercountry adoption. There are so many bright futures for these young individuals.

Please do not reduce the number of children to be adopted!!!

We have adopted an Ethiopian son and he is doing GREAT! This deeply saddens us and we beg for you to keep the adoption doors open in Ethiopia.

We are currently working on our home study to adopt from Ethiopia. We hope the Ethiopian government strongly considers all the people who want to provide loving families to children in Ethiopian orphanages!!

We, respectfully urge the Ministry of Women’s, Children's and Youth Affairs to reconsider its plan and to partner with governments, NGOs and foundations to achieve their goals and avoid the coming tragedy for children and families.
Thank you

Please allow the Ethiopian children be given a future by being adopted by loving families who have gone through the system and been cleared for this awesome opportunity. We love your children.

I have adopted two childern. Every child should be LOVED. GOD BLESS!

We are currently working on our home study to adopt from Ethiopia. We hope the Ethiopian government strongly considers all the people who want to provide loving families to children in Ethiopian orphanages!!

We fully support any measures necessary for making adoptions in Ethiopia more ethical, but hope that those measures can be taken without slowing down the adoption process and keeping children from finding permanent families.

Dear Prime Minister,

Please don't let thousands of orphans in the adoption process be left without families due to some isolated cases of potential corruption. Please work with MOWA to find a solution that can ensure both ethical and fair treatment of all orphans and birth families, but which can also ensure orphans are placed in homes where they can be loved and cared for rather than left in institutional care.

Please allow those of us who want provide a loving family for an orphan continue to do so.

we adopted our precious daughter last June and can't imagine life without her. Please don't close international adoptions.

My Ethiopian grandchildren are being taught to love their Ethiopian heritage and country. Who knows what potential these children will have, one day, at giving back to Ethiopia...their birth country? There is no doubt that all three of my grandchildren would have perished, if not adopted. Please, please reconsider before assigning this tragic fate to Ethiopian orphans, by removing the possibility of their being adopted.

I am an international adoptive mom, and believe strongly that all children have the right to a permanent loving family. I support the Erhiopian ministry's desire to eliminate corruption from adoption proceedings, but urge them to seek methods that do not sentence orphaned children to a childhood of institutionalization.

Please work to find a better way to make the process less corrupt--this reduction will only hurt the children!

I have two daughters that I adopted internationally. Please reconsider the planned decrease in intercountry adoptions so that the children may have a chance at a better life.

Please don't prevent these children from finding good homes.

Dear Sir.

I am the father of four wonderful children and seven grandchildren. My oldest daughter and her husband have been working on an adoption for several years now and have just received a referral for two beautiful little boys.Please do not let these precious children languish when a loving family is awaiting them with open arms.

My youngest son was brought home from Ethiopia in September 2009 (American calendar). He has thrived, healed, and is loved beyond words. We speak fondly of Ethiopia everyday, we are in love with the country, the people, the history. We feel proud and privileged that Ethiopia is part of our lives.

The children deserve better!

Please allow adoptive families to provide futures for Ethiopian orphans

Let's take steps to a better solution....this will only harm the true orphans who wait.

We Love the children of Ethiopia and it is our hearts desire to adopt one very soon. Please don't change the process, we are so excited! Thanks and May God help you in this decision!

We have a beautiful Ethiopian daughter and are in the process of bringing home a 6 year old boy who has been in an orphanage for almost a year already. Please let us bring him home quickly.

There are good God honoring people who would love to cherish and care for these children, please reconsider. There are numerous alternatives to combat the issue. Why hinder the goodness that awaits these children? There are many people who have a James 1:27 mindset and those who long to love children in distress. There is undoubtedly another answer; I urge you, do not penalize the good prospects because of the bad.

Thank you for considering childless couples and children without parents. Please allow adoptions to continue. Our daughter has tried for over four years to conceive and is on the list in your country for a child. Please help her to be able to adopt quickly. She has waited so long....Thank you for your help.

Please consider how important these childrens' lives are and how much better their quality of life will be in the hands of chosen American families.

please allow adoption of these children to parents that will love them. thank you

Children need a safe haven where they can grow and be LOVED

give these children a chance to live in happiness w/ love

Please think of the children. Go homes will be good for any child without a home.

I can not believe that they want to slow down the Adoptions and make Children & Families wait for 5 to 7 more years!!!!! That is outrageous...these children NEED loving homes NOW...they need FOOD & HEALTH CARE NOW!!! please don't make them wait any longer than they already have

These children are waiting for loving families and loving families are waiting for them. Please do not slow international adoptions.

We have a beautiful Ethiopian daughter and are in the process of bringing home a 6 year old boy who has been in an orphanage for almost a year already. Please let us bring him home quickly.

Please realize that helping kids who are not available for intercountry adoption doesn't need to conflict with getting other kids into permanent families.

If you go through with this, these children will not even have a chance at a loving family they so much deserve!

As the parent of a child adopted from Moscow Russia, I understand the complications of international adoption but can assure you there are many wonderful, caring families waiting to care for their Eithiopian children. Love does not know international boundaries, a child simply needs a caring a parent. Please consider the grim future of this generation of orphans and allow them to find the homes they are meant to be in. Thank you!!

We adopted our son, Mesay from Ethiopia in Dec. of 2009. We went through Holt International and had such a positive experience. Mesay is the love of our life and we couldn't picture it any other way!!!

Please don't keep these children from the loving families that want to give them a home.

There are families who will love and care for these children. Please don't them deny this gift.

We believe in inter-country adoptions in Ethiopia. We have a daughter, adopted from there in 2009 who would not be alive today apart from her adoption. We ask you to please not bring about this slow down, but to find other solutions to the problems currently being dealt with. Thank you for your time.

The children deserve the right to be given a successful future in a loving family that can provide for them.

May The Lord open the doors and hearts of the government officials involved in this process.

There are wonderful parents wanting to adopt and give these children a home- a life that they will not have had the chance to live otherwise. That chance shouldn't be taken away from them.

Please reconsider this motion. The future of my child rests in your hands....

Please reconsider the decision to limit inter-country adoptions. I am the grateful mother of 2 beautiful boys who i adopted from Ethiopia. I would have wanted nothing more than for their biological mothers to have raised them. Because for whatever reasons they were unable to do so i have been given the honor to be their mother. Children need families who love and honor them. My children are proud to be Ethiopian and that will never change. I am their mother and i will ensure that.

We brought home our precious son from Ethiopia in December. Every child deserves a family's love and care. Please continue to help children join their loving families as quickly as possible. Thank you.

Helping provide adequate homes and living for the Ethiopian children, would be the least the Ethiopian government could do! And in that, I mean to make easier the laws of adoption for those who are willing to provide such living.

Please reconsider this motion. The future of my child rests in your hands....

Praying for the children of Ethiopia

Having adopted internationally we have seen the amazing changes in a 3 year old child medically fragile. Had she been adopted at 6 months she would have avoided 6 surgeries she has had to date (8 years old) PLEASE do not hold children hostage from families that are willing to love and care for them in their home.

Please allow these adoptions to move forward as there are loving families all over the world wanting to bring a child from Ethiopia into their forever home.

We have been so blessed by our adopted son.

As an adoptive parent, I respectfully urge the Ministry of Women’s, Children's and Youth Affairs to reconsider its plan and to partner with governments, NGOs and foundations to achieve their goals and avoid the coming tragedy for children and families.

I appreciate the ministries concern but I I hope that they will consider all of the lives saved through intercountry adoption. Denying a child a safe and happy home by significantly reducing the number of children allowed to be adopted is not in the best interest of the children of Ethiopia. The focus should be on identifying organizations that are providing safe & happy families for these children.

Please reconsider the huge ramifications of your reaction.

Our family adopted from Ethiopia. Our lives will be changed forever. Our princess has brought so much joy to our lives, and she has learned so much in such a few months. Her malaria is gone, she has gained six pounds and grew inches. Please don't stop these miracles for families, on behalf of parents and children.

So many children will be denied a safe and loving home if they cannot be adopted by those who have been waiting for them. My grandson who was adopted from Ethiopia is the light of my life and I cannot imagine life without him. I know he feels the same way about his adoptive parents and his grandparents. Please consider the children.

We are in the process of adopting four sisters from Ethiopia Eyerus is 13, Hiwot is 9, Tizeta is 7 and Adanech is 4. Adanech is HIV+, PLEASE do not allow our children to be caught up in this attempt to root out a small bit of corruption. Our family loves them SO much. Please do not slow down our process!!

We are in the process of adopting four sisters from Ethiopia Eyerus is 13, Hiwot is 9, Tizeta is 7 and Adanech is 4. Adanech is HIV+, PLEASE do not allow our children to be caught up in this attempt to root out a small bit of corruption. Our family loves them SO much. Please do not slow down our process!!

Please hear the cry of thy children!!!

We have one Ethiopian son and hope to adopt a special needs sibling group from Ethiopia in the next 2 years. This resolution would make that very difficult, and would doom many special needs children to never having a forever family. Please reconsider this.

Have adopted 3 beautiful children from Ethiopia.

Think of the children! Think of your own children!

This petition is respectfully signed on behalf of those children in need of a home, their future, and their welfare. Loving families await your prayerful consideration. Thank you.

Please consider the 160 MILLION orphans worldwide that need loving homes. It is in the best interest of children to be in loving safe homes.

Please don't deny all the children who truly deserve to have a familu the opportunity to have one! There has to be a middle ground to developing a ethical way to have adoptions continue.

My sister and brother-in-law went through a thorough and lengthy process to adopt twin boys from Ethiopia. These boys are such a wonderful part of our lives. I would hate to think that other families would not have the opportunity to have the joy that we have experienced from my precious nephews. I strongly urge that the reduction be reconsidered.

I also believe that the measure is disproportionate and needs to be reconsidered with participations of all/most concerned. Please do not throw the baby with the bath water! Intercountry adoption gave the world people like Chef Samuelson.

Please allow true orphans to have the opportunity to come home to a loving family. Every child, regardless of race, income, gender, or nationality deserves love and a family to call their own.

I personally know of two fine adoptive parents, Kim and Morgan Cowle, who are wonderful and responsible people. Please reconsider and allow them to make a home for Mirta.

Please reconsider your position on adoption. The children who are waiting need families! Adoption is a gift from above!

Please let me love another grandchild.

I am an adoptive Mom of an hiv+ son froom Ethiopia. He has been an amazing blessing to our family and a blessing beyond words.

My dear friend is in the middle of trying to adopt from Ethiopia. I can't think of a more loving person to provide for a child in need. She is an American woman and has much love, opportunities and a beautiful spirit. Please don't take her dream of having a child away from her. It will also be a disservice to the child.

Please, every child deserves a loving home!

Leaving orphans to die (emotionally as well as physically) is not the answer. Why punish the innocent? Punish the criminals!

These kids all need loving homes. Please keep the adoptions open and please don't punish the kids for the few that are taking advantage in the industry. Thank you!

Please reconsider this action and know that we are all concerned about not leaving any child alone...blessings, Jamie

We have a new nephew from Ethiopia.

Let these babies have a chance!

I have two amazing friends that are waiting for children. Don't keep these families apart longer than they need to be.

These children are hungry in every way: body, mind and spirit. They are starving for food, love and hope, with little to no futures ahead of them. Halting adoptions is imprisonment. These are tiny, innocent beings who go to sleep each night starving and lonely, and if they don't die of malnutrition or some other travesty before they grow up enough to reach their futures, they will not be children anymore, but adults without hope. Rob them of their culture? What about their lives?

Please don't take away the chances for these children to have a better life!

Please do not cut the amount of adoptions allowed a day. These children need your help. Thank you! and God Bless!

Please do not limit the ethical adoptions of the children of Ethiopia to loving and caring parents around the world. God loves these children and has a purpose for them.

Please, give these children a better chance in life.
Let them have a family.

Sensitivity of, and compassion for, Children's well being is the goal shared by both sides of this issue. I hope this will lead to both sides standing and working together towards their mutually agreed ends.

All children need a home with loving parents. It makes no difference where the parents come from, as long as they are wanting to love and provide homes for the children. Please put the needs of the children first!!!

Why would you do this to the children?

These children are children of a loving Heavenly Father that need to be given the opportunity to be in families who love them and can care for them unconditionally. The sacrifices that these adoptive parents are making to bring these precious children into a life where they will prosper is HUGE. It is obvious that they are wanted and loved even before they are placed. Please reconsider your decision and make the choice that would best benefit those who matter the most--the children. Thank you

I'm signing this petition is support of my sister and brother-in-law who are waiting to be matched with their Ethiopian child. No one could provide a more loving and caring home. Please keep these extraordinary families in mind.

Please support ethical adoptions by qualified agencies with good governance to continue without undue delays that do not address the heart of the matter.

Please continue to allow adoptions without the added restrictions.

Please continue to allow adoptions without the added restrictions.

John and Melodee would be the most loving parents you can imagine. John is the sort of person that children flock to. Melodee has worked with children all of her adult life. She taught public school children with special needs, and also taught children in a Mexico orphanage. Returnig to college, she has gotten a degree in Nursing, and now works as a hospital nurse--mostly with children. Both John and Melodee come from good Christian families, and are themselves active in their church.

As an adoptive mother, I urge the Ministry to reconsider their decision.

To discontinue intercountry adoptions hurts the children not adopted...and perhaps their families. It does nothing else.

Jeep the adoptions open!!!

There are so many children who need homes and a loving family. Please continue to allow qualified families to shower your children with love and provide for their needs.

Children need families.

I am an adoptive and biological parent. Please do the right thing by these children and keep intercountry adoption open.

I am an adoptive and biological parent. Please do the right thing by these children and keep intercountry adoption open.

Please do not reduce the number of adoptions allowed. This would be disatrous for these little children that deserve a loving caring home.

no child should suffer!!!

For the sake of the children and adoptive parents I pray this problem will be cleared up quickly.

Please consider the needs of the children and those families seeking to adopt.

If you reduce the number of intercountry adoptions I hope you increase the funding for orphanages.

please consider what is best for the children.

So many of us would like to adopt children and love them for a lifetime.

Please allow these children a loving family no matter where that is found.

Please reconsider putting such a drastic limit on international adoptions. There are so many wonderful people wanting to give these children loving homes.

We respectfully ask that you please reconsider this position and work toward a positive solution. Everyone's goal is a loving, happy forever home for all Ethiopian children.
Thank you

We support the three families in the process to adopt a Euthiopian child

We have been sending money for the care of children in Ethiopia whose parents have AIDS for the past year and our daughter has applied to adopt an orphan. We are praying that these children will have the benefit of a loving and caring family.

Yes!

I respectfully urge the Ministry of Women’s, Children's and Youth Affairs to reconsider its plan and to partner with governments, NGOs and foundations to achieve their goals and avoid the coming tragedy for children and families.

These children need a chance at being a part of a family and growing and developing as they should.

May our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ be with every one affected by these laws and may he continue to guide each of us in such a way that his beloved children be placed in loving, nurturing, and caring homes. May each of us be blessed to do his will even in times of uncertainty.

We support the ethical adoption of vulnerable children.

I am so thankful that you are concerned about the integrity of the Ethiopia adoption program; however, please consider alternate methods to verify orphan history that will not impede the legal process.

Please let more children find wonderful homes!

Families should have the option to adopt children and to bring them into better homes.

We are considering adopting from Ethiopia. This reduction in adoptions will greatly reduce the number of families who will want to adopt from Ethiopia due to the increased wait time. Please don't add to the number of children who will never get to see their forever family.

Our first grandchild arrived from Ethiopia 6 weeks ago and he is the joy of our lives. Please keep making this possible for other families!

My wife and I are the process of adopting a precious 8 month old boy. We just received a court date and are so excited to meet him and welcome him into our family. We are using All God's Children International for our agency. They have been wonderful... ethical, honest, and it has always been very clear that their #1 interest is the children of Ethiopia. Please consider this a plea to revise your proposal so our sweet boy and many other children are welcomed into a wonderful, loving family.

Wonderful God loving and serving family.
Any child that enters this family will be truly blessed!

Please don't hinder our adoption. We want children to be protected from unethical practices, but we are working with a reputable agency and should not all be punished. We love our Ethiopian child so much already.

There are many qualified and devoted parents able and willing to provide a loving home for an adopted Ethipiopian child. Please allow that process to go forward.

We have adopted 3 children from Ethiopia and we love them dearly. We hope that more children can find loving homes also.

Please allow the intercontinental adoptions to be continued, especially those that are already in progress. Many adoptive families and "to be adopted" children would be heart broken if these in process were not allowed to continue.

Please allow international adoptions.

Ethiopia has a tragic situation with children losing their families and parents to aids and sickness. Please allow these little ones to be placed in loving adoptive homes. They are anxious to embrace the Ethopian culture and to raise your precious children to be happy successful adults. That's not even mentioning the tremendous blessing your children are to the adoptive families. We pray to a loving God that you will think of the children.

jg

Please provide for the MOWA to do their job thoroughly and effectively.

Good luck!

Please reconsider this decision. Please don't punish the children and good families who are waiting to be united.

Just began our process of adoption & Ethiopia is where we have been lead. Please help us with this opportunity to bring our baby home.

Please consider the harm that will done to children left in orphanages for years. They could spend those years with a loving family, helping prepare them for a successful future.

Do not rob the orphans of Ethiopia of the opportunity to be loved and cherished by wanting parents!

Children need families. I respectfully ask that the rate of adoptions in Ethiopia not be decreased.

There are so many families ready to love and care for these children who are in such desperate need of help.

Adoption is so important, there must be ways to allow it to continue while also protecting the children.

Please keep adoptions available for responsible parents

We all welcome two beautiful boys into our lives via Ethiopia. They are loved and cherised by all of us.

Do it for the children!

My wife and I have just begun the process to adopt from Ethiopia. While we support the desire to reduce corruption, this plan would likely mean we are no longer able to consider Ethiopia for our adopted child.

There are so many children that need loving homes, don't deprive them of a loving family.

Please reconsider placing your parentless children into adoptive homes. As a grandparent of a beautiful 2 yr old boy, we are committed to teaching him to be a strong Ethopian. Your country is loved and represented out of your boundries. What a blessing to allow the world to help and share in raising children that will give back to a global community in the name of Ethopia. Many families are anxiously waiting. We are praying for your positive decision.

I know of a couple of families who have adopted and are in the process of adoption. Lovely homes and people just waiting for a child to love.

These children NEED to placed with their adopting parents ASAP!!! To hinder this in any
way is cruel to both the adopting parents and the child. So many of these children have already started the bonding process and to have a long length of time go by before they can go to their perspective homes is NOT in the interest of these children. Please allow these partnerships that are being offered so that all can reap the benefits of such. Thank you for the cooperation that I pray will occur.

As a parent of two children adopted from China, I know first hand how vital a permanent family is for children. I am aware that corruption can exist in adoption but I am also aware of the Hauge Adoption Convention and several other safe guards that are in place to protect children. The good far outweighs the bad here, please seriously consider the best interest of Ethiopian orphans and the families who long to love and parent them. Sincerely, Melanie Chaput

Please reconsider your position on intercountry adoption. There are so many children who need forever families to love and care for them. Please do not deny these children the basic human right of a family.

We recently adopted a son from Ethiopia through Wide Horizons. Although the wait time for referral was quite long, we are extremely confident and comfortable that our process was ethical and legal and that the rights of the biological family were not obstructed. Please do not give the unethical companies control of the destinies of the beautiful children and people of Ethiopia. Let's put our efforts towards STOPPING the illegal activity and making the dishonest people accountable.

Please allow the already processed adoptions to proceed.

This will cost many children their lives. No reason is good enough for that.

Children are being offered homes where they will be cared for and loved. Stop using human lives as political pawns. Open up adoptions now! Give every life a chance!

Children are being offered homes where they will be cared for and loved. Stop using human lives as political pawns. Open up adoptions now! Give every life a chance!

As a waiting adoptive parent of two beautiful Ethiopian children, please consider the well-being of all Ethiopian children that can receive benefit of a loving, devoted family through adoption.

Please consider the needs of these orphaned children who are being kept from loving families who only want to love and care for them.

Please decrease the halt on adoptions from Ethiopia and allow the babies to go home to the families who already love them.

Please defend widows and orphans.

This is not a noble way of stopping criminal behavior. Please don't punish the defenseless orphans in the name of fighting crime.

Children should be able to have two loving parents to raise them regardless of where the parents are from....

Ethiopia should make children and their needs a major priority.

This breaks my heart to think children who deserve a loving home will sit and wait for years now when there are so many loving parents ready to be their forever family. My friends adopted in 2008 and are now waiting for their 2nd for over 20+months. I have seen the joy in their first little girl from Ethiopia as she has grown and flourished in loving care with her parents. I want that for all of the children and think it is a shame to delay an already long process.

Every child needs a good home for a fair beginning in life.

Our family has been blessed with the addition of our son, Isaac who was adopted in Ethiopia. We would never want to see any corrupt practices, but we respectfully urge you to consider the impact a loving, permanent family can have for a child who otherwise might grow up in an orphange. We are eternally grateful for our precious son!

My family is eagerly awaiting their new daughter. This has been a desire for a long time and they will make marvelous parents.

May God so richly bless Ethiopia that it's children no longer need to be adopted and until such time may her children rest in the loving arms of fellow believers that are willing to stand in the gap.

We have been blessed with the adoption of our daughter Ruhama from Ethiopia in late 2010. We are looking forward to providing her a bright future while securing her Ethiopian heritage and we would be heartbroken to think that this change in policy could cause similar children to miss such an opportunity in their lives. Please reconsider this action.

It is unthinkable that the Ministry would so drastically reduce the percentage of adoptions! Our grandson adopted from Ethiopia is the light of our life and couldn't be more loved. Please give this decision more thought and take the time to reconsider.

We had a wonderful adoption experience which was ethical and lawful. It would be tragic to deny families like ours and children like our adopted son the opportunity to be united into a blessed forever family.

Please don't take away the opportunity for these children to have a family who love them! Give them a chance to love and be loved, to grow up healthy and happy and productive.

I support the need to root-out corruption but not at the expense of children with loving famalies waiting in the U.S. and other countires. Please focus on the KNOWN violaters.

We adopting a beautiful 17 month old girl. She is incredible and we look forward to her joining our family. We were in Ethiopia last month for our court date. At this point, all we are waiting for is MOWA to write a letter to the US Embassy. Please find a way to resolve this issue swiftly. It is time for our daughter to have a family of her own. Thank you.

It's ALL about the children!

I wish i can help the kids who need everything

Please allow these children a chance in life...please carefully consider this petition.

We respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry adoption. Rather than eliminate the right of Ethiopian children to a permanent family, we encourage the Ministry to accept the partnerships offered by governments, NGOs, and foundations. I am especially concerned with the slow down effecting older, waiting children.

The focus should be on the children. They can stay in crowded orphanages or be placed into loving families that will give them stability and the chance for a future.

Please let these children be adopted by these families. The families are sacrificing greatly to gather the money to adopt the precious children.

Please continue to allow and encourage inter-country adoptions.

Please consider another solution to the problem. There must be another way to protect the children from being taken unnecessarily.

There are many wonderful families all over the world that would provide love, security, and a home for the orphans of Ethiopia. Please do not deny us this chance to open our arms and share our love.

I pray that these children find a good family. In God's will he will make this allowed for these children to find a home.

We have been waiting to receive our adopted Ethiopian twins for over a year and can't wait to hold them in our arms. We promise that we will give them the best home environment possible and will love them as long as we live.

This is spiritual warfare at its best... God is doing amazing things and Satan wants to steal joy from people of faith who desire to follow HIS Word and will.

Please do everything possible to unite these loving couples and children.

For the petition

Do not allow so many innocent children to suffer because of isolated abuses! Rather, pinpoint the corruption and crack down on it specifically - it can be done! Many, many families are waiting to be parents and to love and care for orphans as their own.

Now is not the time to limit adoption in your country. Families all over the world are eager to welcome Ethiopian children into their lives, their homes, and their countries while honoring the cultural heritage of Ethiopia. Penalizing the children is not the honorable way to deal with whatever circumstances have led to this decision to restrict the number of processed adoptions. Please reconsider your position in light of the impact it will have on the children.

Every child deserves a loving home and to be joined with a family as soon as possible. Please keep the children and their needs foremost in your mind, without their families to love them, they suffer. My daughter (adopted from India, 2004) told me when children are in orphanages they are so lonely that they cry. Please think of these children who need a home the most.

We are an adoptive family and know the joy of bringing child into our home. It breaks my heart to think that our son may never had a chance to know a family if the government climate would have been different.

Please seriously think about all those who are able and willing to give Ethiopian children a loving home ,I have witnessed several families who are overjoyed to provide a stable, healthy home -who consider themselves blessed by these children& the chance to make a difference .I was not aware of these adoptions previously, and want to adopt from your country also, God willing . How can I explain to you how I feel that myself & others that this desire is a God given drawing of the heart ? Love,T.

Please do not do this. We currently have a referral and are waiting on our court date to go pick up our four month old little girl.

As African Americans wishing to adopt an Ethopian child, I was shocked to find that your government is attempting to restrict adoptions. Keep orphaned children away from loving families, like mine, is so concerning and painful. Both my husband and I have Ph.D.'s, ample income and love to provide a child. Please...please reconsider. Don't hurt the thousands of loving families due to a few isolated issues. Wouldn't it be better to change or strengthen your screening process instead.

Please consider the children!

I, respectfully urge the Ministry of Women’s, Children's and Youth Affairs to reconsider its plan and to partner with governments, NGOs and foundations to achieve their goals and avoid the coming tragedy for children and families.

It is already TO much to adopt do NOT take away EVERY chance of these poor unloved children from getting a family!

Please continue placing Ethiopian children with loving families who are waiting to bring them into their homes.

this is tragic and unnecessary. Many decent families and many decent kids will go through life with something missing...a chance to make a difference in each others lives.

Please allow adoptions in progress to take place before doors are closed on these children and their adoptive families.

Please do not punish the children of Ethiopia and the families waiting to adopt them because if a few isolated abuses in intercountry adoption. We respect your position for ethical adoptions. We are waiting for our daughter to come home, we do not want her to have to grow up in an orphanage. Thank you for your time.

Please let these children live the lives they deserve. With families that will love and adore them.

There are so many wonderful agencies who make sure adoptions are completed ethically. I know this first hand we have a son from Ethiopia and we have seen the wonderful care he had in Ethiopia but also have seen how he has thrived being part of a forever family! His health and emotions have both improved knowing he has consistent healthcare and individualized attention and most of all love! Please allow reputable agencies to continue to find homes for children without families! Thank you

My youngest son (Kyson) is from Ethiopia and I would like the opportunity in the future to adopt any siblings he may have if they ever become up for adoption. I think this is very unfortunate for a country with millions of orphans to put a halt to their adoptions out of their country. This will affect their struggling economy even more. I donate money regularly to help these orphans until they can get the proper care and medical attention they deserve. I hope the Ethiopian government would recon

Please clarify and enforce adoption laws and procedures. Do not punish the children by limiting adoptions. There are many children in need of homes, please let them know the comfort of a family.

Absolutely

As an adoptive mother, I know firsthand the beauty of adoption for both child and adoptive families. My heart is broken for those children who still wait for their forever family. Please do not take away this hope from the children in effort to protect the children. Thank you for working for the children.

There is a little boy/girl that will not have a wonderful home if this plan goes through. I hope for the welfare of the children it is not implemented.

Please let the orphans find their forever familiy which may be in America

We love the beautiful people of Ethiopia and want the very best for them! Please continue to allow us to offer God's children the gift of a permanent loving family. We love you!

Please reconsider the action to reduce the intercountry adoption. It is by this process that several children get the opportunity to become part of families that are willing and able to offer a loving, nurturing home that may not be possible in their current situation.

Through dear friends who have engaged in this process. I've seen their little boy go from his health being in jeopardy to a happy little boy.

Again, please reconsider this action and continue to provide hope for these children

We are so desperate to adopt a child from Ethiopia. We are in the beginning phases of the process. Please keep these children accessible for those of us who have love and homes to provide them here in the USA. Thanks for your consideration!

We were lucky enough to bring our son and daughter home this past September. They are loved and cherrished members of our family. if their adoption had not passed our family would feel like we were missing members of our family. We are grateful and excited to have the Ethiopian culture as part of our family history. Please do not limit the amount of adoptions to good, honest and caring families who live in another country.

Please open adoptions in Ethiopia. I have two adopted brothers that are the best thing that has happened to my family. There are 150 million street kids around the world who need families. At least let these amazing families adopt so they can provide a family to a child who has no one. Every child deserves a family!

Children need love does it matter how or where it comes from.

I ask you to consider the plight of the children that will be affected by this decision. This is an opportunity for many childern (living and not yet born) to live a long healthy life in a home filled with love and caring. Please do not take away the longing desire of the adoptive parents, grandparents and extended family to reach into their hearts and have a special place for the child they are aching to have as their own. As a future granparent I guaranty they will live in a life full of love.

Please do not let a few bad cases of adoption interfere with the potential family lives of so many orphans. Let the children be adopted! Thank YouQWWT

James 1:27, Isaiah 1:17, and by the way The word of God shall prosper and not return void.

This is an unnecessary and a disproportionate reaction to concerns of isolated abuses in the inter country adoption process.

May the Lord bless you.

All children deserve a good home with good parents. Sadly sometimes that may be away from their birth parents. May God help provide children with loving parents in all parts of the world.

All children deserve a good home with good parents. Sadly sometimes that may be away from their birth parents. May God help provide children with loving parents in all parts of the world.

These children needs homes now! Allowing children to remain helpless when help is waiting is unspeakable and only serves the process and not the children. Please find a better way to ensure ethical adoption.

- adoptive mom of 3

I am the proud grandfather of an Ethopian grandson. My daughter & son-in law have applied for a baby girl that they will be able to give a wonderful new life. Please consider renewing adoptions to worthy parents who can keep these children safe and secure.

Give the Ethopian children in need the opportunity for a better life. I am the proud Grandmother of an adopted Ethopian boy who is thriving in America. Thank you

Please let these children continue to come home to their families.

Please reconsider your plan and help the children in your country who need to be adopted.

A truly just and worthy cause.

While abuses in the system do need to be corrected, I do not feel that the measures being implemented will be helping the vast majority of children in Ethiopia. Suspend those agencies or organizations found to have these problems in their programs, not all of them together. Slowing the system to such a near stand still will only cause these orphans to sit even longer in orphanages, rather than in the arms of families, where their needs can be better met. I beg you to consider an alternative.

Thank you for allowing adoption to sincere, loving parents - in whatever country they reside.

We are awaiting a court date for the adoption of a beautiful 9 month old boy. Please allow us to give him the care he deserves.

Alot of families are wanting the opporitunity to love and be parents and there are alot of children who need and want the opportunity to be loved.

America has been so blessed with the privilege of partnering with Ethiopia in their efforts to help the orphans of their country. We thank God everyday for our precious Ethiopian son and hope MOWA will not deny other families the honor of providing a loving home to one of Ethiopia's orphaned children.

I am adopted, thank the Lord.

I think that they should at least not enforce the new rules on families that already have their Dossier in country. We care about ethical adoptions, but so is finding homes for the children who genuinely need them.

We have just submitted paperwork to adopt two children from Ethiopia. Please reconsider your decision. We are so excited about the opportunity to embrace children from another country and have the opportunity to expand our family.

We support the Ministry’s goal of ensuring ethical adoptions that serve the best interest of children and serve all vulnerable children & families.

We respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry adoption. Rather than eliminate the right of Ethiopian children to a permanent family, we encourage the Ministry to accept the partnerships offered by governments, NGOs, and foundations.

As adoptive parents of 2 beautiful girls from Ethiopia we strongly encourage and support the adoption program when it is in the best interest of the child. Please consider other ways to deal with isolated cases of corruption that won't eliminate the possibility of homeless Ethiopian children being placed in permanent loving families.

This will keep the children institutionalized for very long periods of time. Please do not do this.

Reducing adoptions because some people would be unethical, does not hurt the people who chose to behave unethically. Rather, it harms the children who have no families to care for them. Please reconsider your position and work towards safeguards against abuses in the system while still allowing these children the opportunity to love with families who love them.

Please allow the desperate orphans in Ethopia to be adopted into international families that can insure their survival and health. It would be a tragedy to watch them suffer and die unnecessarily.

The adoption of our beautiful Ethiopian daughter has changed our life forever and I would ask that others have this amazing blessing of adoption from Ethiopia. The country has been blazed into our hearts and we long to see it rich with blessing because of the hope it gives to Ethiopian children and the hope it gives to families that desire children or more children.
Thank you,
J

Please don't let children of your country suffer the lonley, scared life of an Orphan.. Let them Live a Happy Life With Families who Love Them So Very Much.

As an adoptive mother of a son from Russia and hope of another child adopted from Ethiopia, please consider what we (as adopted parents) will go through to help you make sure the children matched are true orphans. We want to work WITH you to reform, not stop adoptions from Ethiopia.

I know several children adopted from Ethopia and they are doing so well and have so many advantages now as well as loving families with good support.
I urge you to consider the future of children by doing all possible to have them adopted by families who go through so much here in the USA to bring them home.
Thank you,

Recently home with our 1 year old daughter from Ethiopia, she has blessed us so much and we are happy to give her a home with us

We have been waiting for our son for 9 months and can't wait to have him home. We have his bed ready, his room ready and our family is anxiously waiting for this adoption to proceed. Please reconsider this policy!

With so many families in the United States excited about adopting from Ethiopia and willing to provide a loving home, it is disappointing that the process will become more difficult and lengthy. Ultimately, the children of Ethiopia are the ones that will suffer and not have the peace and stability of a permanent family.

I have seen and am currently watching the miracle of seeing a child united with an adoptive family. To see those miracles stopped is heartbreaking. Please work with people who desire the same thing as you - the lives of children saved!

We have adopted internationally and would love to do so again. I don't want these children to miss any years with their new families!

Please do not prevent children from being placed into loving homes!

Look at the great life these adopted have and you will see that it is much much better than living in an orphanage

We have been on the waiting list since June of 2010. Please help us to complete the adoption as soon as possible. Thank you.

This would be a tragedy for many children. Please don't overreact.

Please allow these wonderful families who want to share their love, the ability to adopt these beautiful children who deserve a family.

If a child needs a home, and someone can give them a loving and safe place to call home, it shouldn't matter what country they are from. Learning to be a kind, compassionate, and respectable citizen of the world is more important than any allegiance to country flag.

Please don't do this!!! We are getting ready to start an adoption process and it saddens my heart to think it might be even longer till we would have a child.

FOR THE SAKE OF THE CHILDREN.. DON'T REDUCE OR STOP ADOPTIONS!!! PLEASE!!

It is a shame that there are so many children in orphanages out there! So why limit it? Children deserve to be in a home with loving parents!

The older a child is at the time of adoption, the more complicated the adjustment process and the higher the risk of psychological damage. Please reconsider the ramifications of this act.

let people who want to be parents help children by giving them a great home!

Praying for you

Please do not pass this!! My sister just adopted a 7 year old from Ethiopia this summer and saved her life. She has gotten medical care she needed and is thriving here in the US with her new siblings and extended family. I have friends that have done the same. Please allow these children to be adopted think of their lives and their future.

Please reconsider this policy. As the adoptive Mom of two thriving kids, I can attest to the different we can make in the lives of children.

Please allow adoptions to continue, we have been waiting for our daughter for 3 years! We have fell in love with the country and the child we have never met.

All children deserve a safe, warm, loving home. Please continue the adoption process so that each child may know love and security.

Please hear these childrens' cries for a forever family who will provide them unconditional love, support, medical care, and financial stability. Do not crush these children's dreams!

there are GOOD, loving people ready and willing to provide an exceptionally loving and caring home for these children! the ethical and moral stance on the issue comes from a good, much-needed position, but better and strictly enforced regulations, paired with a more extensive background and interview with families should be implemented.

As an adoptive parent, I beg you to carefully consider the impact limiting adoption will have on those children without a family with the means to care for them. The love and care of a family changes a child's life. While there needs to appropriate laws in place to protect children from being trafficked, Please look for a way to have adoptions continue and put safeguards in place.

Please allow families with the ability to do so to adopt a child who does not have a family.

PLEASE DON'T SLOW DOWN ADOPTIONS FOR THE CHILDREN! THEY NEED LOVING FAMILIES AND HOMES WHILE THEY ARE YOUNG!!

I ask that you assure adoptions in the quickest and ethical fashion.

I am an adoptive mother of a beautiful son who has immeasurably enriched my life. I respectfully entreat you to reverse your decision so that these beautiful children of God can have the riches that can only come from the tender care of committed parents and the inclusive circle of a loving family. Thank you. May God's grace & mercy bless your life and govern your decisions. Dawn Kirkland

We personally know several children that have been adopted from your country. The love you have for the children of your country is commendable. These children have come to their new homes and adjusted so well. They are receiving the medical care they need and have found loving communities to grow. Please don't put a stop to expeditious care many of your orphans are in need of.

Lets think about the children.

Please reconsider this tragic plan and pursue work with with governments, NGOs and foundations to prioritize and allow loving international families to continue to adopt the orphans of Ethiopia.

Best Wishes to your family

Please ensure that the children continue to receive parents through inter country adoption. There are so many people here with open hearts and open homes.

We have been incredibly blessed and honored to welcome two orphans from Ethiopian into our home. I pray that as a nation with a strong Christian heritage that you will reconsider, so that we may continue to adopt children into our families with the same love that Christ adopted us into His family

Yes- please make sure that children are finding homes ethically but please don't slow it down by 90%. Target the agencies that are being dishonest, and hire more employees to do the leg work for adoptions that are truly in need but PLEASE don't commit to slowing things down by 90%.

We adopted our beautiful son in May, 2010. In 9 months he has moved from the 20th percentile to the 96th percentile in weight. He is strong, curious, joyful, and content, and he is so well loved by his family and friends. We can't imagine life without him.

Please do not limit the number of adoptions in Ethiopia, there is so much love waiting for these children, it would be a tragedy to see that come to a halt!

Praying on behalf of the millions of orphans, several friends who are in adoption processes, and for our own future adoption that these proposed restrictions are stopped.

As adoptive parents of 2 beautiful girls from Ethiopia we strongly encourage and support the adoption program when it is in the best interest of the child. Please consider other ways to deal with isolated cases of corruption that won't eliminate the possibility of homeless Ethiopian children being placed in permanent loving families.

The best thing you can do for children is give them a loving home, in any country.

Let not the boundaries of your country become boundaries on the future of your orphan children. They are children of the world, as are we all.

Our adopted children ages 6 and 7 have been given a loving home, parents to provide food, shelter, education and protection. We love them very much and they love us. They tell stories of their Ethiopian family and the death of their father, which left them hungry, alone and afraid.

My 3 chidren came home from Ethiopia in June. They are a true blessing to us and I fear what would have happened to 3 siblings under the age of 5 with no family to care for them had they stayed in Ethiopia.

Keep Ethiopia adoptions open.

If there are good and loving people willing to care for the children of Ethiopia, they should be given the chance.

My sister has one child from Ethiopia last fall, planning to go back for a sibling and this may be a hindrance to that plan! So very sad for the kids

Please allow the loving adoption of children from your country to continue. The Bible says unto whom much is given much is expected. Please allow those with much to give be allowed to follow their faith and their hearts. Keep adoptions feasible in Ethiopia. Thank you for your thoughtful consideration in this matter.

For those of us whose lives have been changed forever by international adoption, I encourage you to allow young people the right to have a family of their own. No child should be raised in an orphanage when there are hundreds of thousands of waiting parents who would love to share their love with these young people. Please allow us to share our love.

When loving families want to adopt and care for these children, how would limiting the approvals help anyone. Please re-consider.

Please reconsider and allow children to be with forever families as soon as possible rather than being forced to stay in an institution for an unnecessary extended time period.

PLEASE allow more resources to process adoptions!

Please consider the number of Ethiopian children that have been united with forever families that will love, provide and care for them always and whose adoption processes were ethical. I simply cannot imagine my life without my daughter and I am forever grateful for the many ways Ethiopian adoption continues to bless my life.

Keep the adoptions open please.

All children deserve the chance to live a happy healthy life. There is so many like myself that can't be a birthmother. Without adoption my family would never have been complete. Thanks to international adoptions I now have the greatest son in the world , and can't imagine my life without him.

There are so many people in this world that want to love and cherish a child that has no one left. To take that away from both the parents and the child is unfair to both sides.

Please consider the children. Thank you

Please think of the children that will suffer and die. As the orphanages will not have room for more kids .

Ethopian orphans need loving families to care for them.

Please allow Ally to join this very loving family.

I am hoping and praying that quality control and continuing adoptions with Ethiopia can continually coexist.

These children need loving homes. Until Ethiopia can provide the resources for biologic families to stay together, adoption is essential.

I just returned to America this week after spending 3 weeks volunteering in the government orphanages. Please reconsider as these beautiful children need families. Thank you.

There are way to many children who need loving homes and way to many loving people who long to be parents with empty arms. Please do all you can to bring these two together.

One of my closest friends adopted 2 brothers from Ethiopia. If this ruling was in effect then, her sons would've spent years in an orphanage instead of months and her youngest son wouldn't have received the medical help he needed to survive that he finally got when he was brought to the U.S.A.

These babies need our homes

We hope you will plan to serve the best interest of your children by allowing them to be adopted by loving caring families that want them. Thank You

Please investigate and remove any adoption agencies that use unethical practices. But, please allow children who desperately need loving homes to continue through the ethical adoption options available

I believe that children should be allowed to be adopted from Ethiopia. All Children need a loving and nurturing home to grow up in.

These precious children need to be home with their forever families!

Please continue adoptions. These children need homes. These children need families.

When someone is willing to extend their home and heart no one should attempt to jeopardize that.

All children should have a fair opportunity to receive the love of a family in a timely fashion!

Please help these children find a good home - whether in your country or another.
Thank you.

Our son from Ethiopia is a miracle and we love him dearly. Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister, for allowing us to be forever connected to you and partners the great Country of Ethiopia. We hope to visit again and again in the future.

My friends already love the boys that they are waiting to adopt from your country. Please consider giving these children good loving homes and families!

My granddaughter and husband recently adopted two Ethiopian children and it would be very sad to perhaps be preventing other happy and loving unions such as we are witnessing.

My dear friends are in the midst of their adoption process and have waited so long already. I would hate to see them and so many others go through the pain of losing these children they have so carefully planned for and prayed for over the years. Surely there are better ways to protect the children and still allow them to become part of these loving families. Thank you.

I understand the urgent need to stop abuse and support your efforts to do that. I also feel adoption is a beautiful thing when the children are in loving homes. Praying for you as you seek to do what is best for the children in your care.

I, respectfully urge the Ministry of Women’s, Children's and Youth Affairs to reconsider its plan and to partner with governments, NGOs and foundations to achieve their goals and avoid the coming tragedy for children and families.

While my two years of service (1966-8) were actually spent in Eritrea, I maintain an interest in & concern for the people of present-day Ethiopia. This change in policy is not in the interest for the numbers of children who might benefit from intercountry adoptions.

Children deserve to grow up in a family. Their well being depends upon it. While it is imperative that the adoption process be ethical, an artificial cap on adoptions is not in the best interest of the many children who have been legitimately freed for adoption and are waiting for a home. There must be a better way to both protect children and allow adoptions to proceed.

I have a good friend that adopted a child from Ethiopia. He is now part of their loving family and living a happy, good life in America. PLEASE leave this option open to all of the other children awaiting a family to adopt them! Thank you!

Please allow more adoptions - your children are precious - do what is best for them. Thank you. Joan Burkett

Please reconsider so that these children can have a permenent loving home

Give these children a chance for a "normal" life being brought up in a loving home instead of an understaffed orphanage. Please !!

Please do not let a few bad incidences ruin a good life for many beautiful Ethiopian children.

Please keep adoptions from Ethiopia open internationally.

As an adoptive parent of a beautiful daughter from Ethiopia I strongly urge the Ministry to reconsider this policy. I support policies that protect the children, however a reduction of adoptions to all agencies despite their history of ethical adoptions, would only lessen children in dire circumstances the chance to have a loving family, access health care and receive an education.

Please consider the families in the US that are wanting and longing to love and care for your beautiful children.

I am the mother of adoptive children. I understand that the need is great for adoptive parents for the many orphans of Ethiopia. I beg please do not decrease the number of inercountry adoptions that are happening. All children deserve a loving family of their own.

As an adoptive parent, I plead with the Ministry of Women’s, Children's and Youth Affairs not to allow any more helpless children to go unnoticed.

We are in process to bring home our daughter's older birthsister. While it's absolutely critical that all adoptions are ethical and transparent, I believe there are solutions other than the proposed changes. We are with an ethical agency and know our adoption is ethical. If these changes go into effect, our 4-year old daughter may spend far too long in an orphanage before coming home.

We pray you will allow the wonderful, God loving families that want to adopt these children the opportunity to do so.

Please let the families on the list finish the adoption process!

Please continue processing the adoptions as quickly as possible. These precious children need to be with their forever families and be loved.

May God's Unfailing Love be with you!!

I have two wonderful friends who have their hearts set on bringing home their children to love, care, and give hope to. I can no even imagine the devistation they would face if they were unable to complete the adoption process. Please, Please, Please do not decrease the adoption of children!

Please do not reduce the adoptions. I support work on helping make sure adoptions are ethical. But this plan would harm those you say you are trying to protect, resulting in more child trafficking, deaths, malnutrition, etc. I am sure that is not the outcome you are wanting instead.

Please do not make this drastic change!

Opposed to passing law limiting Ethiopian adoptions.

Please reconsider your stand on adoption and open it up to intercountry adoption again. There are many people who want to adopt these precious children.

Please reconsider this plan. The children of Ethiopia will only be hurt by this plan. We have been waiting to love and care for one of your children for over a year. Why such a drastic cut? Please reconsider.

God, bless everyone involved in this ministry. God my prayer is that all the children who need families will be adopted and loved by their awaiting families in the quickest way possible. God, please be with the children as they anxiously await the wonderful families that are ready for them and that already love them even though they have never met. I pray this in your sons' precious name. Amen

Please do not stop these beautiful, precious, creations of God, from having mommies and daddies. We brought our baby girl home in January and truly can not imagine life without her. We can only pray that other families have this same opportunity and blessing!!!

How sad to think of all the children needing a mom and dad and the government denying them that love. God commands us to take care of the orphans why would Africa not allow us to do that.

I understand the need to ensure ethical adoptions, but I, and thousands of others, urge you to reconsider reducing the number of adoptions. Please don't let a few isolated incidents deprive thousands of orphans an opportunity to thrive with a loving family.

I am mother to an adopted child, and now cannot imagine my life without my most precious son. Please continue to allow children to be adopted.

We beg you to overturn this decision for the children of Ethiopia and the families that love them. My dear friends have held their baby, know him and had to leave him in his orphanage. MOWCY was closed the one week they were there, leaving them without the paperwork needed to pass court this week. They want him home and we beg you not to keep this child from his parents that love him dearly. This new ruling will delay their bringing him home by 6-12mos. Please consider our prayerful request.

The short sightedness of this move is sad and only cost many children the ability to have a happy home and future

Please reconsider this. All children deserve a home. We are all from the same world.

I want my beautiful nice home!!!

I cannot imagine life without my adopted daughter, please allow my friends the same privilege as they are seeking to adopt from Ethiopia and this decision may increase their wait time for 2 more years.

My husband and I are just now beginning the adoption process, and had planned to adopt from Ethiopia, to share the love of our family with a child who has no parents to love them. Please do not hinder us from coming to your beautiful country to adopt our son or daughter by increasing wait time and the possibility of bringing home a child in the near future.

I have a cousin who was to adopt last year and now it is held up and the young man is missing a loving, wonderful home. Please rectify this situation as soon as possible.

Please remember that by reducing intercountry adoptions, you are greatly reducing the chance of a child having parents in their life that can take care of them. I understand the concern for possibilities of abuse and neglect but instead of taking the chance of a child being adopted away, consider ways to improve the screening process of potential adopters.

I know of four adoptions from Ethiopia, two completed, two pending. These children receive exceptional family lives and care.

Please reconsider your decision to signifcantly decrease intercountry adoption for the sake of the 1000's of children who you are denying a chance at a prosperous future and a loving family.

There are a lot of families who are trying to adopt from Ethiopia.

Please let these children grow up in a loving family.

Hope for the Church family!

I have friends who have adopted internationally and who are currently adopting from Ethiopia. These people love their adopted children; your ministry allows for the fulfillment of life-long dreams. Please reconsider your current stance and allow the adoption of babies that so desperately need these loving homes.

I have two beautiful boys from Ethiopia! They are thriving in our family and love the Lord who made them.

I have some very good friends who are professionals and are close to receiving their adopted girls. This sudden chnage in policy could delay the girls from being with their new family for months if not years. Please find a better way.

I'm here to support two lovely friends who wish to adopt. Please make their dream come true, not for them, but for the children.

It would be a terrible mistake to block children in need from finding a wonderful home and family!

We brought home our daughter in february 2008. She is a joy for us, we couldnt be happier, and know we are waiting for our little boy to come home, Kalkidan is very excited to have a brother to play with . We understand the child well being comes first.
we sincerely hope you take in consideration and soon find a solution.
sincerely

Thy Will be Done!

Please allow precious children the opportunity to go home to their forever families where they will be loved unconditionally for life. It is what our God would want. The miracle of adoption is a gift for all involved.

As an adoptive parent of children from the US foster system and Haiti, I plead with you to let legitimate adoptions continue. Adoption isn't the only answer to the orphan crisis, but it's part of it.

We have two brilliant daughters from Ethiopia and can not imagine own lives without them.

We are in the process of adopting a child from Ethiopia. Please do not do this!

I believe the welfare of the children will be best served by placing them in families who will love and care for them as quickly as possible.

Please do not punish the good people and good parents of this world because of the actions of a few. Surely there is another way to achieve all goals and bless the lives of many.

Please reconsider. There are so many legitimate cases, so many children who need adopted. Amaseganalu.

Please allow these beautiful orphans to be adopted by loving families as soon as they can. Please don't extend the time it takes for these lives of the little ones and their adoptive families to have their lives changed forever.

PLEASE DO NOT MAKE HUNDREDS OF CHILDREN MISS OUT ON A LIFETIME OF LOVE

I would like to please ask for a reconsideration of the proposed change of MOWA procedures. Thank you!!

Your plan to reduce intercountry adoption by 90% is a sad mistake. It is an over reaction to concerns of isolated abuses in the intercountry adoption process.

We support the Ministry’s goal of ensuring ethical adoptions that serve the best interest of children and serve all vulnerable children & families.

These kids need healthy, happy , loving homes - please reconsider your plan so these adoptions can be expedited

I know a couple who want to adopt two children and who would be wonderful parents. What a shame for the children and for them if this is now not possible!

This is a tragedy that can be averted. Please carefully consider all the lives that can be saved.

Help the children!

I have a niece and nephew both adopted from Ethiopia. We cannot imagine our lives without them. Please do not close the door for adopting the precious children from your country.

There are many loving homes waiting for children in need. Do not forclose these children's opportunities for a better life because of a few isolated cases.

do not reduce intercountry adoption

Babies need families. Families want babies...
Com' on!

Please reconsider this position. I know of many people internationally who are called to your beautiful country to help give an orphan an home.

Blocking many loving people that would provide a home and future for orphans would be a tragedy to any nation. Better to put money to investigate those who seek to adopt.

How devastating this is for the poor children who wait, now in vain, for a mommy to tuck them in at night.

"Where is love?
Does it fall from skies above?
Is it underneath the willow tree
That I've been dreaming of?
Where is she?
Who I close my eyes to see?
Will I ever know the sweet 'hello'
That's only meant for me? Who can say where she may hide?
Must I travel far and wide?
'Til I am bedside the someone who
I can mean something to...
Where, where is love?"

Please let our family expand and allow us to have a new

DO IT FOR THE KIDS!

PLEASE DONT STOP GIVING THE CHILDREN OF THE WORLD LOVING HOMES, AND THE EMPTY ARMS OF PARENTS CHILDREN TO LOVE!

I know a wonderful loving couple in California that would love on any little girl from Ethopia. Please don't delay the process any further.

Please reconsider your adoption reduction. All people deserve to live a safe and healthy life with people who love and will nurture them. Give all of the children a chance at a happy and productive life. There are so many families that want to provide love, guidance and a safe haven for these children. Please give not only these children a chance, but the people who want to love them as well.

Parents are in love with their kids and just want to bring them home, please let them

I am now preparing to accompany my sister on a trip to Ethiopia to bring her daughter home. I was blessed with the opportunity to travel with her four years ago to bring her older daughter home as. I have been very impressed with everyone I have met and their dedication to doing the right thing for the orphans of Ethiopia. I share the goal of the Ministry in assuring that ethical practices are followed. I urge you to look closely at this issue and continue to focus on the children. Thank yo

I am the adoptive mother of 8 wonderful children that would now be in institutions if they had not joined our family. Please do not deny any child a home and family no matter what country they are going to.

We have adopted two children and are prepared to adopt 2-3 more.

Please prayerfully do whatever you can to make sure that these vulnerable children are placed into the loving Christian homes that await them. Our daughter is now 18 months and is from Debre Birhan. She is a precious member of our family and we are so grateful for her. There are so many children in need of this kind of care and love.

Havilah is my granddaughter, and the single biggest blessing of God to our family. Having the opportunity of knowing her, watching her, and loving her deeply has connected the hearts of our family and community to Ethiopia, and we have become advocates of the Ethiopian people because of our beloved Havilah.

I am an adopted child from Nigeria (half Filippina). Intercountry adoption is key to the survival and success of many needy children, as it was for my brothers and I.
Now, as an adult and a mother with plans to adopt in the future, I realize it takes special people with special hearts to provide the love and care for children who become their own. Don't put any more hurdles in these potential parents way than they already have to jump.
Sincerely,
M. Beers

Every child deserves a loving family. Every family deserves a child to love.

Please don't let the sins of a few affect the future of these precious children who need to be in their forever homes.

These kids deserve the right to a family and a home. Taking that away ruins their chance at a future.

Please let the orphan children find a home where hugs and smiles daily show them that they are loved. Children are GOD'S treasures that we should not take for granted. Use these families who want to help the orphan situation decrease. There will always be orphan children in the world but, the less there are - organizations are able to better care for them. Share a life with a family that truely wants to give a child a permant home.

Please continue to allow international adoptions from Ethiopia!

Praying God's will be done for these children!

The children I know who have been adopted from Ethiopia are happy, healthy, and thriving in such a wonderful way. They are such a blessing to their families.

The families I know who are waiting for one of your precious children are aching and heartbroken at the prospect of not being able to bring home the child they already love and have been planning for.

I respectfully ask you to please reconsider cutting intercountry adoptions in such a drastic manner.

Thank you.

Please reconsider for the children who need families and homes.

As an adoptive parent to an orphan born in another country, I hope that you will reconsider your decision to reduce adoptions, for the sake of the many children in need of homes.

Please let responsible parents be allowed to adopt these children please let the gov know we care about kids who need caring homes. Let adoption begin!

It's a shame that adoption has become so difficult. Unfortunately the losers are the children and the adoptive families who would be loving permanent families. We were finally able to adopt domestically after having our international program close on us (Vietnam) we were encouraged to try Ethiopia next and I'm now so glad I didn't pursue it. More heartbreak I could not endure. It's however nothing compared to languishing un-loved in an orphanage without any family. I pray for these children.

CHILDREN ALL OVER THE WORLD SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO KNOW THE LOVE AND WARMTH OF A FAMILY. PLEASE GIVE THESE PRECIOUS LITTLE ONES A CHANCE.

My plea is urgent. My two adopted children remain in Ethiopia waiting for my return. They are older and very aware of the fact that we came for court and haven't returned to bring them home. Please consider uniting our family quickly!

We brought our daughter home from Ethiopia in 2009, and she has been an amazing blessing to us. Please continue searching for options to best meet the needs of the children who deserve to have permanent, loving families. Thank you for your hard work and dedication.

Please give orphans the chance to have a family and be loved.

Praying and signed.

We are so blessed with our son Kaden who is from Ethiopia and I pray that other families will be blessed and that we can continue to help these children by giving them a forever home.

Please have the best interest of these children in mind!! There are so many loving families in the world ready to share their lives & hearts with them!!

Good luck

I have friends finishing up their paperwork for an Ethopian adoption. Any child would be fortunate to have them as parents. I hope this does not keep them from giving a child from Ethiopia love and opportunities he wouldn't otherwise have.

There is no reason to stop ethical adoptions!!!!!!

Please reconsider as there is much positive impact for the children with intercountry adoptions. Thank you!

We have adopted from Ethiopia; us and the children are mutually blessed!

Allow these children to come to loving homes.

Please do not reduce the rate of adoptions as proposed. Children's lives are at stake!

Every child deserves a loving family. Every family deserves a child to love.

Please, keep allowing intercountry adoption! There are wonderful families and individuals i the US who are just asking to be given a chance to provide a bright future for your orphans. Please listen to the voices of children who want and need a family.Thank you,
Eva Zanardi

Please continue to allow the children to be adopted and come home to their forever families.

let us help these children, please!

How can you prevent babies from being loved and taken care of? Orphanages are NOT better than mothers and fathers who want the children.

I am adopted and I am extremely grateful not only to be alive, but to have such a wonderful family. Please give these children the same opportunity!

Don't let the transgressions of a few ruin the blessing many can be to each other.

Don't punish the many for the faults of the few. Stop corruption, but don't make the innocent children suffer because of a few bad situations.

Please reconsider for the sake of the children.

As I do understand the importance of maintaining a high level of integrity, it seems the children already awaiting adoption should continue through the process in a timely manner. It does not make sense for those children to be separate from their adoptive families.

Truly sad for these children who didn't ask to be in the situation they are in.

Please don't allow these children to go without families a moment longer.

Please partner up and help these children.

Please keep Ethiopia open to foreign adoptions. As an adoptive mother of three beautiful girls, I can testify to the significant impact adoption has on children. Adoptive families provide loving, stable homes as well as wonderful opportunities for children to magnify their potential and thereby honor their country of origin. Our dear friends are waiting to adopt two lovely girls from your country. They will be outstanding parents to these children who are currently in an orphanage.

The adoptive parents I know in the U.S. are devoted to providing loving, supportive homes for the children of Ethiopia. I pray you will continue to allow them to provide a safe and secure haven for children who may have no family otherwise.

Help these children don't take the chance to have a wonderful loving home.

I am an adoptive mother who can't imagine life without our beautiful Guatemalan-born daughter. The opportunity to adopt her is the most wonderful thing that ever happened to our family. Adoption is an enormous blessing for so many children and parents who NEED each other. If there is corruption then it should be fixed but don't punish the children of Ethiopia (or prospective adoptive parents) by shutting down the system like they did in Guatemala.

We respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry adoption.

My wife and I are in the process of adopting a sibling group from Ethiopia and were devistated by this news. We are preparing our home for these children and praying this matter can be resolved quickly.

We know several people in Minnesota who have adopted children from Ethiopia. The children are very much loved and are very happy. Please continue to make these happy unions possilbe for children.

Please allow orphans to be adopted by parents who will love and care for them.

Ethiopia receives a large amount of funds from those coming to adopt - please don't allow this wonderful opportunity to end.

every child deserves a loving family

I agree that the proposed response to this by MOWA, cutting Ethiopian adoptions by 90%, seems inappropriately severe and detrimental to the children waiting and hoping for adoption.

Please allow people to adopt these precious babies. They are a gift from God and must be treated as such.

Please don't deny the children the love and care they need.

My friend is adopting. Please don't take this opportunity from her.

There's got to be a better way to make sure ethical practices are being observed. These children need families.

There are far too many children in need of a home to not truly understand that so many of us work together for the good of the children. I work for an Int'l adoption agency and these children are our hearts.

my daughter and son-in-law have adopted one boy from Ethopia and are beginning the process of adopting another child from Ethopia would be tragic if the reduction would happen. Two of her friends are also adopting.

The Ministry’s plan to reduce intercountry adoption by 90% is a tragic, unnecessary and a disproportionate reaction to concerns of isolated abuses in the intercountry adoption process.

We support the Ministry’s goal of ensuring ethical adoptions that serve the best interest of children and serve all vulnerable children & families.

We respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry adoption

My daughter and son-in-law are in the process of attempting to adopt a little boy from Ethiopia. They are a wonderful Christian couple with a little girl...we are all praying for this little boy and looking forward to him joining our family. Please allow this adoption.

So many wonderful things await an adoptive child as well as the adoptive family. Let's unite our world.

The addition to our family last year of a baby boy who was born in Ethopia, has been a blessing beyond measure. We are thankful to his birth father and the government of Ethopia for entrusting his life to us. The people of Ethopia will forever be in our hearts. I pray that you are moved to do that which will be best for the people born of your country. May you flourish and be blessed for generations to come.

We are so blessed with our son Kaden who is from Ethiopia and I pray that other families will be blessed and that we can continue to help these children by giving them a forever home.

Please help my daughter get her newest daughter home.
thank you

Ethiopian children need homes urgently. There is a great need for these children to have a stable and loving homes.

I have a neighbor who just adopted a fabulous little boy from Ethiopia. Their lives have been blessed by this addition and it would hate to hear that others would not be given the same chance.

Please urge their government to maintain their present number of adoptions since we have several friends currently awaiting a child from Ethiopia. If they change their number, our friends may not be able to get a child.

We have adopted three children from Ethiopia and I cannot imagine all those children not being able to have a family.

Please don't do this.

Our nephew has been legally and ethically adopted from Ethiopia. Without his adoption he would have died. He is loved and cared for beyond measure and this opportunity should be available for other Ethiopian Children as well. Thank you.

I have known the prospective fathers family for many years. The child will have an exceptional mother and father. He will also be welcomed and loved by and extended famil of aunts, uncles and grandparents.

We would very much like to adopt an infant. We wish the adoption process would become significantly easier, so that younger children could be adopted. Please do not add extra restrictions; it only further hurts children. Thank you.

We adopted from Uganda 3 years ago and had a great experience. Please do reconsider your intention as there are loving families for these orphans.

Please continue to allow adoptions.

Please act in the best interests of the children involved. Although isolated incidents of abuse do occur, for the majority of the children involved, intercountry adoption leads to a stable, permanent, loving home. Long delays mean these children spend their formative years in an institution rather than with loving parents.

Organizations like Wide Horizons for Children provide an invaluable and ethical service to Ethiopian children who have no opportunity for domestic placement with adoptive families. International adoption provides these children with loving, caring families who respect and honor their Ethiopian roots. My concern and prayers are for these children.

My sister and her family adopted a five-month- old girl in Ethiopia who is now two years old. But I tell everyone I know that "we" adopted a little girl from Ethiopia because she is a beloved part of our extended family, a precious part of my heart.

Please don't cut the number of adoptions

Please do not prevent these children from being part of a loving family. Everyone needs to belong to someone and the prospective parents want to welcome each child into their home and their heart.

Please make every effort to ensure that the children of Ethiopia who are in need of good solid homes and families are able to be adopted as soon as possible, for their sakes.

Approving key adoption agencies who do detailed background checks on families seeking to adopt would be good.

Please don't let the good and love done by many, but undone and stained by what a few have done.

Please do everything possible to minimise the suffering of the children.

Children need food, clean water, education & loving homes to grow up in. Please give these children a chance for a successful home life!

Please reconsider this reduction. These children need loving homes. We can find a way to make international adoptions transparent. Please don't take away these orphans only chance to have loving families

Please reconsider this action. There are many families who have so much love to give and although it is great to make sure all children are protected, there has to be a better way than reducing the amount of adoptions by this many.

Best of luck!

We adopted two from Ethiopia in August through Hope Adoption Agency of St. Louis. As a pastor I felt that the children were very well cared for and our two children were desperately in need of a home since their parents had passed away. With 5 million orphans I don't know how they could handle all of that within the country

I respectfully ask you to consider talking to adoptive families and looking at the positive outcomes of adoption before removing this option from children who need it. The love between parents and child is not limited by national borders or ethnicity, culture or politics. Let's all work together to eliminate corruption where it exists, but not at the expense of providing families for children who have none.

Every child deserves a loving home. Please do not penalize all the children who need loving families based on the inappropriate and illegal acts of the few.

Please do not deny these children the opportunity for a loving family.

There are couples willing to pay THOUSANDS of dollars to save a child's life. Why stop or making this selfless act more difficult to play out?

PLEASE EVERYONE HELP

Please let people help orphaned children. I did 15 years ago from China and it has meant the world to me.

Please continue to allow adoption

Please do not cut the adoptions. These children need loving homes and we have the ability to provide this.

The adoptions should not be delayed in any way for the sake of the children. Please reconsider this, and let the adoptions go forth.

I am an adopted child, and fully support adoption both at home and abroad to give children a permanent, loving home so that they can thrive.

Allow adoptions!

I personally know a couple who would make wonderful parents who would be heartbroken if this restrictive policy prevents them from adopting a needy child from Ethiopia. There are many more, I am sure. It is important to screen adoption agencies carefully, but the good ones should not be penalized for abuses by bad ones, nor should prospective parents and the children they long for.

Adoption is a wonderful thing and every child deserves a home.

I believe in sharing with other countries a common goal of doing what is best for homeless children who are without hope or resources.
Please continue to allow adoptions by loving people who care about others.

This would be devastating to all if you decrease the amount of allowable adoptions.

Let my people GO!

Adoption is a real option for legitimately orphaned children. It is also an ethical option that alleviates the pressure on the system for those children who are not legally free, but require support. God bless your country, your people and your precious children.

Please reconsider the adoption changes in process. There are many children and many families that can join together to form a very special family. I realize that corruption abounds in all countries with regards to adoption and I do not support that. There must be a better solution to the current problems without taking away opportunities for families and children. We have two adopted children and feel so blessed to have them as part of our family. Thank you for your consideration on this.

Adopting our 2 children from Ethiopia has been the greatest experience of our lives. We hope other families can be blessed in the way we have.

Please do not reduce the number of intercountry adoptions. So many children need
good homes.

Please help the children and families.

We are concerned about abuses of the program and want them to be addressed. At the same time, we are a family seeking additional children, longing to give a home to a children seeking family. We are willing to invest a lifetime in two children. I suppose we could go to another country, but our hearts are with Ethiopia and we long to be part of your solution to meeting the needs of orphaned children. Please do not exclude us.

Do not punish the families that have love to give these children. I believe each case should be observed and assessed on an individual basis. Loving guardians should not be denied according to where they live or ethnicity. I encourage the Ministry to accept the partnerships offered by their global neighbors. Every child deserves a family.

Please don't close the door of opportunity on so many little ones to fix the problem of so few adults ;(

I know a family who has a heart for adopting children from Ethiopia, and they have already provided a loving home to one beautiful child. I don't want to see children lose the chance to be part of loving families like this one.

Please allow these children to be adopted. A loving family and home. Loving parents and family with security what child our country could ask for more.

Many people want to love and care for a child who has no home. Please do not forget the important subject is blessing the child with a family who love them. Do not punish all of the children, because of some isolated incidences.

Please reconsider your possible change in policy. The lives of the children you are trying to protect is at risk. I understand that in some instances there may be corruption in the world of adoption. However to so severely limit intercountry adoptions because of a few dishonest and greedy people puts the children who wait at risk. The risk of never having a place to call home. People to love you to call your own.We know that istitutional living for children is not optimal.Give them a chance.

We are hopeful that the Ethiopian Government will work to ensure that every child has a home. We are also hopeful that children who do not have a home/family will have an opportunity to be adopted!

Please keep international adoptions open, as many babies need good homes.

As an international adoptive parent I completely understand how hard the wait is when your child is so far away and all you want is to bring them home so you can hold them in your arms and love them and embrace them into your family. With so many children in the world needing families it's a shame that governmental policy's make it difficult for families wanting to adopt. Adopting a child in need of a home and family should be the main priority and happen much more quickly than it does today!

While we appreciate your efforts to end corruption within international adoption. Please keep in mind that there are better ways to go about this like investigating the guilty parties and not punishing the entire Ethiopia adoption communities. We have all the faith in the world that you will come to a sensible resolution in the days to come. We traveled to Ethiopia in March of 2010 to get our daughter and fell in love w/ the country and it's people.

I am mom to 2 adopted children. Most adoption agencies are ethical and work for birth family & community preservation. To close adoptions because of a few bad apples will do disservice to the children. It would be great if all children could be placed in permanent families in their home countries, that is not the case even here in the US. I would plead that Hague guidelines be put in place to further secure child welfare instead of closing adoptions.

While we appreciate your efforts to end corruption within international adoption. Please keep in mind that there are better ways to go about this like investigating the guilty parties and not punishing the entire Ethiopia adoption communities. We have all the faith in the world that you will come to a sensible resolution in the days to come. We traveled to Ethiopia in March of 2010 to get our daughter and fell in love w/ the country and it's people.

I am signing this at the request of the adoptive mother of a beautiful Ethiopian daughter. Little Maya has brought so much happiness to her new family.

Why? Why would they do this?

Please reconsider this action of committing to allow fewer adoptions from you country to the United States. I understand your corruption concerns as every country has problems with this. But I still believe that there would be several children helped by adoption.

We have 2 adopted children and 2 not adopted children. Adoption can be an outstanding life enhancement and opportunity.

Please let these babies go to families who will love & cherish them & give them a life!

Please do not diminish Ethiopian adoptions. We adopted our beautiful son from Ethiopia 6 months ago and he is very happy, healthy, and thriving in our family and in America. These beautiful children need a family to take care of them. We understand the need for increased cautions, but please continue to allow the adoption of these precious children. It is our honor to become their parents. Thank you so much.

For the sake of the children in need, please do not slow down the adoption process! Thank you!

My friend adopted twin girls from Ethiopia and they are the happiest, most beautiful girls in the world!

This can't happen to those poor children. I can undestand if the government were to actually help out their country but this isn't the case. Think of all the jobs that will be lost is this happens.

When children need homes and families, it is tragic and an egregious crime to keep them from those loving people who can care for them. Regulations and policies to protect these children in the process are a must. Hindering their placement by relegating them to a very small pool of possibilities is just plain wrong.

Please put the needs of the children first and reconsider cutting international adoption.

My friend adopted twin girls from Ethiopia and they are the happiest, most beautiful girls in the world!

My friend adopted twin girls from Ethiopia and they are the happiest, most beautiful girls in the world!

Please reconsider the extreme of this change and focus on the childrens best interest.

PLEASE DO NOT reduce the intercountry adoptions!! There are many loving families wanting and waiting to adopt these precious children. Every child deserves a safe and loving home and family. Thank you!

So many are looking for children ... let's adopt these that are available and provide them a solid family and healthy start into the future.

My neice and nephew were adopted from Ethiopia, please do not stop these children from finding families. They are a beautiful addition to our family!

My husband and I are hoping to adopt a little girl from Ethiopia in the next few years.

We adopted a little boy in the fall of 2009. Saying that he is well adjusted is an understatement. He has grown physically, emotionally, socially and spiritually during his time with us. We all would like to return to Ethiopia to bring home a brother and/or sister for our little guy and he would love to spend time back in Ethiopia. A change in policy would limit our opportunity to do this. We respectfully ask that this change does not occur so more deserving kids and families can be united.

Please allow chidren who would otherwise not know the love of a family to join parents who long for them.

Please allow our children to come home to the USA!

I really hope this campaign is far reaching and wisdom & love will prevail in all this.

My niece and nephew got two little boys from Ethiopia before this and would love to adopt more but can't due to the new regulations. Their boys here are healthy and happy and ALIVE... which is more than I can say for those stuck in this situation. WAITING for someone to adopt them.

Children deserve to have safe, secure and loving homes to grow up in.

Please - so many worthy families are waiting to help these little ones to reach their potential.

These children need families so very much. Please don't deny them the love a forever family can give.

If it pleases the court, for your consideration are several children and familes who are waiting to be matched together. Please do not delay this slow waiting process any longer. The health and happiness of the children should always come first. Thank you for your time.

That these adoptions would be decreased when so many families are willing to adopt these children is truly a sad prospect. Please reverse this decision.

My dear friends from college are two of the most generous, patient, and loving people I've ever known. They want to open their home and their lives to Ethiopian children, children that would otherwise be going unloved, and I'm asking on their behalf that you do not close this door for them. Let them help, let them love, let them adopt these children!

Please don't punish those with pure intentions to offer a loving home to children in need!

Please allow our children to come home to the USA!

Please do not make cuts to adoptions

There are many loving families that wish to adopt and lovingly care for children from Ethiopia. Please don't take such an action that would prevent many families from being able to do so.

please don't reduce intercountry adoption! there are so many people who are eager to adopt these precious children and raise them with love as a part of their family. please do not take this away from the children or the families who want them. please reconsider. thank you.

This is not a solution but a knee jerk reaction that will hurt so many. Why?

We are one!

Please protect the innocent children and the families that wish to bring them home by reconsidering it's plan to cut international adoptions by 90%.

We adopted our son from Ethiopia 2 years ago, and he has been an amazing addition to our family. He is happy and thriving. He has significant special needs, and received a surgery that literally saved his life, which was not available to him in Ethiopia. Because of the need he had for surgery, if we had not been allowed to bring him into our family, he would not be alive today. Please consider all the children who need a family to love and care for them when you make your decision.Thank you.

Please don't hurt children's chances of adoption by overreacting to isolated instances of corruption (though your desire to stamp out such corruption is admirable).

Please, do not allow the Ministry of Womens Affairs to reduce intercountry adoptions. Please, as adoptive parents and lovers of Ethiopia, we beg you, do not let this happen.

Please open up adoptions so orphan children can have a family and opportunities for their future.

Think of all the precious lives!!

We are ready & waiting to bring home & take care of two sisters (6&8) years old. The girls await their adoption and long for the day they can come home with a mother and a father to love them.

Orphans need a home where they will be taken cae of and loved.

I know a wonderful family who has had their paperwork in before this even happened. I pray with all the signatures that our voices be heard, and that everything is made right in His time.

There are many, many wonderful families waiting to welcome Ethiopian babies into their homes. Please do what is best for everyone and reverse this decision!

Good American people want to help these children! What you are doing is wrong!!

Please reconsider the adoption plan. My boss and his wife were lucky enough to have adopted a beautiful boy from Ethiopia last fall or should I say their boy is lucky to have them as parents. Thank God their child is home here safe with them now!

Thru God all things are possible.
GOOD LUCK

Keep this going - we NEED to help these children.

We pray that you do right Ethiopia. Oramos que hagan lo que es justo Etiopia.

Please serve the best interest of the children.

We are preparing a dossier right now for an Ethiopian adoption of 2, so we hope this proposal does not go through as there are so many willing and capable families that are able to care for the fatherless and motherless Ethiopian kids.

We are praying for a good resolution to any problems that may be occurring in helping to find homes for the orphans of Ethiopia. Our hearts are heavy for any and all of God's children that are in need of a family.Psalms 68:5 Father of the fatherless and protector of widows
is God in his holy habitation.

I am passionate about caring for orphans and want the orphans in Ethiopia to have families.

Please consider what is in the best interest of the orphans in Ethiopia and don't let a few concerning cases jeapordize the future of an entire generation. Please re-expand the inter-country adoption process.

I was especially interested in adopting a child from Ethiopia in 2012-13. I sincerely hope that the Ministry reconsiders. We do not wish for corrupt practices, but do wish to provide a family for a child in need.

Ich finde es wichtig, dass man kindern, die chance auf eine gute zukunft geben sollte. die chance in einer familie aufzuwachsen, die geborgenheit gibt, wenn dies in der eigene familie nicht möglich ist. helft diesen kindern. danke.

Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these - Matthew 19:14

Dear Mr. Prime Minister;
I greatly admire your concern for your people, and I truly understand your desire to address all forms of corruption, especially when it comes to the youth of Ethiopia. Instead of curtailing intercountry adoptions, I respectfully suggest that you consider other strategies to resolving the problem.

Please do not reduce your adoption numbers! Those children are a treasure to those longing to love them.

I love my nephew Matthias and I would never know him if he wasn't adopted by my sister in law and brother in law. He's a sweet boy and has a great family who loves him dearly. Inter-country adoption does work when you have the right families involved.

Please reconsider! There are a lot of loving parents who would love to adopt, please do not punish them or the children for the mistakes of some.

Please continue to allow Ethiopian adoptions!

Please do not take away rights to adopt children from Ethiopia.

Reducing the number of inter-country adoptions out of Ethiopia to protect the children is not productive if the solution is permanent. Life-long psychological damage due to extended stays in institutions and orphanages is well documented. The # of children suffering will grow exponentially. The overwhelming majority of adopters want the best for these children. Please make this reduction temporary, and focus on correcting the institution, and improving oversight of the care of the children.

We are an adoptive family of 2 brothers from Ehiopia. Although a tragedy that they have lost their parents I am thankful that we were able to bring these sweet boys into our family. They are a joy and we love them so much. We are now raising money to help bring clean water to Ethiopia so we feel like our connection there is just beginning and will grow. Don't let children with no families suffer more than they already are. These children need another chance to be loved and in a family.

Please reconsider. With an open heart I kindly request that you reconsider and keep the adoptions open as they are now. Thank you and God Bless.

PLEASE do not delay or stop ANY Ethiopia adoptons! There are so many children that need homes and so many families wanting to give those children everything they NEED. Please change your hearts and let the adoptions continue as normal....Please.

My sweet, young nephew Kolton is such a blessing in our lives. Though we as a family may have saved his life from a bleek Ethopian future, he has done more for all of us. Kolton is a symbol of hope for all of us and more children should be given a chance to live, love and change the world.

Please give us the opportunity to help Ethiopian orphans.

I have traveled to Ethiopia 2 times and have seen the need of the children, please do not allow a very small problem to stop the hope of so many children. There are many, many people who are waiting for a child to bless their homes forever.

You'll always get my support, i'm from Kyrgyz adoption group

Love the children I know from Ethiopia who have been adopted into forever families. Want to help however I can.

I'm heartbroken for the children who are legally available 4 adoption&now face the trauma of extended institutionalization,while options for a better life slip further away. I ask MOWA 2 look @ Romania@ C the tragic&irrevocable results that came from keeping displaced children in extended institutionalized care.And what the ramifications have been to the children& Romanian society since.I ask MOWA 2remain open 2 finding a solution that's less detrimental 2 the very ones they're trying 2 protect.

Please keep adoptions open to the United States of America.

If this goes into effect, our dream of adding to our family may die, and a child in need will not get the home they deserve.

I am an adoptive mother of an Ethiopian daughter. Adoption has given her a life full of options and my husband and I an opportunity to be parents. She has given us a new meaning of living! The reduction in adoptions means she will never have a sibling from her home country. This is such a sad day.

Please reconsider the decision regarding the restriction of international adoptions for the children in Ethiopia. Our good friends adopted a child from Ethiopia this past year and have received multiple blessings because of this opportunity.

We have known a few families who have adopted children from Ethiopia and they are thriving children whom are love and cherish and whom we consider family. Please reconsider this decision and keep in mind all of the good that is being done through adoptions from Ethiopia.

These children have enormous opportunities when they are allowed to be adopted by United States couples who are ready to love them, feed them, clothe them and teach them how important they are while in their new, permanent home in America!

We are adoptive parents to twin girls from Ethiopia. We are so blessed to love and cherish them. They were malnurished and one was close to death when we arrived home but with excellent medical care, good nutrition, love and lots of prayer, they are happy, healthy 2 year olds today. We thank God for them.

Childrens lives are spent one day at a time and those day are gone so quickly. They have already lost so much. Please place them in good homes quicky

PLEASE APPROVE THIS PETITION PROMPTLY

My Ethiopian grandchildren are growing and maturing into wonderful members of our family. What a loss if we did not have them.

this would be a tragedy!! too many wonderful homes for children who need them!!

I would ask you to please reconsider your plan to restrict intercountry adoption.

Please don't punish the children

My beautiful, beautiful Grandson, Jonathan, was adopted from Ethiopia by my son and daughter-in-law in the USA - he is a happy little boy surrounded by a loving family where love and laughter is the norm. It breaks my heart to think that other children may not have such an amazing future where they can feel safe and loved unconditionally. No child should be denied such love and security, for ANY reason.

I have friends involved in an adoption from Ethiopia, and my husband and I will be starting the process to adopt from Ethiopia very soon. It would be heartbreaking for families and devestating for the children to lose the opportunity of whole families.

There are many children around the world who desperately need parents. Why would anyone want to deprive a child of that. They should not only allow adoptions from Ethiopia but they should open up many other countries as well. Yes, corruption will happen no matter what. We live in a fallen world. But, I do not believe that is the majority. And, the people I know who are adopting would never even consider doing anything to harm their child. They simply have love in their hears and want to share it

Please reconsider the proposal. We support the ethical adoptions of children needing a forever family

We have a wonderful daughter from Ethiopia who will grow up in a loving family and be provided an excellent education and support system. More children deserve families and a chance to succeed. Pls continue your mission to connect orphans with loving families.

Please allow these important adoptions. It's a mutual benefit. Thank you!

As an international adoptee and adoption professional, I respectfully request you to reconsider your decision. Without the prospect of adoption, I have no idea of what my life would have been if that opportunity were not available.

Do not let the children go uncared for.

On behalf of all children and families please allow these children a home where they are loved and cared for.

I am the mother to three wonderful children through adoption, please don't let children grow up without families when so many are will and ready to add to their families through adoption.

please keep these chidren in progress with their adoptive parents they have this right

There are so many kids that need a home and people that are more than happy to take them as their own. Don't deprive them of a much needed family!

We have adopted 3 children from Africa and they are well and thriving. Please remember that children who have a family have many opportunities open to them. They

I am the mother of two precious Ethiopian daughters who my husband and I adopted a year ago. They have been such a blessing to our family and all who know them! I am so thankful to God for allowing me to be their mom. I can't imagine life without them! I pray the Ethiopian government will change their policy on international adoption. Every child needs to feel loved and special and every child needs a forever home and family.

I agree

We have godly friends in Canada YEARNING to adopt siblings from Ethiopia, and to give these children a home and family!!! Please give them an opportunity to increase their loving family and to bless not only the children, but also the parents and siblings who have been praying for them for years, and who already love them and are just waiting for them to come 'HOME'!!!

Please Please let adoptions continue!

Praying for a favorable resolution.

So cruel to leave a child in an orphanage when a loving family is waiting for them. A real hearbreaking situation for the family awaiting the child.

I respectfully urge the Ministry of Women’s, Children's and Youth Affairs to reconsider its plan and to partner with governments, NGOs and foundations to achieve their goals and avoid the coming tragedy for children and families.

We have two adopted children from Ethiopia whom are a huge blessing to us. We would hate to see adoption close! Please reconsider this, especially for the children!

Please, those children need homes now not years from now.

My wife and I are the proud parents of a 4 yr. old girl and a 2 yr. old boy. They have been home since Dec. 4, 2010. We could not imagine life without them part of our family.

Children should have as many options as possible to find a secure, loving home in which they can grow.

Every child needs a permanent home, one in which parents will loveland care for them.

Please give these children a chance.

Adoption is hard enough without it being terminated in the middle of the process.

Please allow desiring parents the opportunity to share a loving and privileged lifestyle with deserving children.

While adoptions *have* to be done ethically, I had been proud of Ethiopia for being one of the few countries putting the welfare of kids over political grandstanding by allowing intercountry adoptions. Please, keep up the courage to put kids first and allow them to go to homes if they are legally free for adoption! The damage of institutionalization can never be undone.
Our son Ferhan has been with us for a year and half and at age 4 is now thriving, healthy and happy. We are blessed by him.

Three of my great grandchildren came to us from this process. They are so precious, I would hate to know others could be denied the happy life they are enjoying. God Bless all the little ones.

We are the proud and loving parents of our Ethiopian daughter who was left at a Northern orphanage in a malnourished condition. Over a year passed before she was legally our child. When we met her mother after our case was final she thanked us profusely as she said her daughter would have never survived had she not given her up for adoption. There are so many children in the Ethiopian orphanage system and they need parents, not institutionalization. Please continue to keep adopting.

Please allow these children homes and families that desperately want to give that to them.

I pray that the Ethiopian government will reconsider such drastic action that will rob countless orphans from being placed into healthy, safe and loving families. Adoption agencies that have proven trustworthy and reputable should be allowed to continue their noble work of connecting needy children with caring families who have proven themselves through the extensive adoption process.

Let us love the children of Ethiopia who have no family to do it!

Please reconsider your decision to reduce the number of cases MOWA reviews each day. We are a family that is in the process of adopting a child through your beautiful country and were very disappointed in the news of the drastic cut back.

As an adoptive dad of two from China I think this is a tragedy. If their are orphans in Ethiopia then they deserve a home. We must all think of the children first.

Do what is right for the children involved. Allow them the opportunity to be adopted by loving, caring, responsible families around the world.

Please allow adoptions to continue. You will be allowing your countries children to have a opportunity at a better life.

Adoption is a blessing for both parties involved. We adopted in '08 and our lives have been full of joy since that day! The media seems to only focus on the very FEW sad stories of corruption that exits everywhere, NO ONE seems to look at all the blessed children that have a new blessed future because of adoption. I many many people who have adopted from ET. and their children are the most special thing in their lives! PLEASE PLEASE allow this beautiful process to continue - Thank you

All children deserve loving homes!

Over 140 million children need forever families. Please do not shut down or drastically reduce adoptions. Children need homes.

Please don't make these children sit in orphanages any longer than they already have. There are thousands of loving families waiting to embrace their children.

Please reconsider your stance on international adoption. There are many loving people who would be able to give Ethiopian children stable, caring homes if you continue to allow the adoptions to happen.

Thank you,
Christine Hopkins

Keep adoptions open to the U.S.!!

Our son Setotaw was born in Ethiopia. He is the light of our lives. He is an absolute treasure from God. Our lives have forever changed in the most beautiful way since he joined our family.

We are pleading with MOWA to reconsider their decision and find another solution other than drastically reducing the number of adoptions from Ethiopia. This situation is sitting so heavily on my heart.

It is important that all chidlren are loved and cared for. There are many families here who are more than willing to love and care for a child in need from Ethiopia. Please re-consider and lift the ban on US adoptions.

Please figure out how to increase resources to process more applications in a responsible manner every day.

Please, lets united these children with their families as soon as possible.

Having just watched a beautiful, touching story about an American family who adopted an HIV-positive daughter from Ethiopia (along with her siblings), It makes me sad to think that these doors would essentially close on children whose life, literally, hangs in balance without proper medical care. I hope that a more moderate solution will be prevail--one that would weed out unethical adoption facilitators while at the same time helping legitimate, loving families to adopt. Thank you.

I'm so thankful for my cousins' son and the joy he has brought to our family. I pray others will still be allowed to choose to adopt from Ethiopia.

I urge you to continue allowing adoptions to be a process that allows individuals to quickly merge an orphaned child into a family unit. An oprhaned child needs a family and there eventuallyare families like ours that desire to pursue an adoption of a child from your wonderful country.

Please reconsider your decision to limit adoptions of Ethiopian children. Adoptions create a permanent mind-set in favor of Ethiopia in those who are allowed to adopt and preciously care for the children from your country. Thank-you for your thoughts on this life matter.

There are many families I personally know that are trying to adopt from Ethiopia and will be fantastic parents/are also already! Don't take this blessing away!

Please consider all the children who are matched and waiting to be placed with a family. As the wait increases, their little lives are lived and there is a greater lapse in time until they can be in the protective, loving environment a family offers.

Please do not hinder these precious but needy children from getting the help they deserve from potential parents!

Please don't allow these beautiful children to be deprived of a better, more healthy and happy life.

My husband and I have not adopted from Ethiopia although we have adopted 4 children internationally and know how remarkable and awesome adoption is. It has truly changed our lives and our children's lives will forever be changed. We would love the opportunity to adopt from Ethiopia and were considering it for our next adoption. Please consider all the children that have already found a forever home and the children and families still waiting for their chance. Adoption is a miracle and a blessing

I have a dear friend who has adopted from Ethopia. This child is happy and well adjusted. This may have not been possible if adoptions are closed off to certain areas.

PLease let these children be safe, loved and fed.

Please continue intercountry adoption in Ethiopia.

There are many wonderful parents in America that want to parent and raise Ethiopian children. Please save your children by lifting the slow down in the adoption process.

Please consider the parents who truly want to provide a loving home for these little ones. I am saddened to no end over the abuses, but don't punish the other children for the sins of these evil people.

Limiting adoptions of Ethiopian children is ridiculous. When do children and not politics become the priority? I didn't realize Ethiopia was in the position to reject humane efforts of any kind from other countries.

Please do not restrict the number of adoptions.

Our children were adopted internationally. They are such a joy! We can't imagine our lives without them. Our entire adoption process was very ethical from start to finish. I hope you reconsider your decision to reduce inter-country adoptions. There are many willing, loving families waiting to bring a child into their homes to love and cherish just as much as a biological child. Please give the parents & children a chance to have a forever family. Thank you for caring so much about what is right

There are couples who can take these children into their homes and give them LOVE! Please allow all the adoptions to continue. The children need this desperately.

Having a family is a sacred right for every child. International adoption requires a rethinking of the paradigm upon which it is based, NOT complete dismissal. I have no doubt that a clean, legal, safe platform for international adoptions can be adopted wordwide. We can do no less for the children of the world than to offer them a mentor to guide their growth and development, and a family for love and security.

Institutions are not replacing families, they should only be used as a crutch, not as a permanent fix. At a time when we should unite as world citizen to deal with our problems and solve them Ethiopia chooses to separate and to limit the solution for the kids in need. Very sad!!

All children everywhere need to be in loving permanent home. Please reconsider the changes you are making to the adoption policies for intercountry. I personally know of a loving family who is trying to adopt one of your county's children. It would be a shame to deprive this child of these wonderful parents.

Please allow the adoption process to continue and correct the internal problems to allow the children the many opportunities that the US can provide.
Respectfully Yours
Dr. Dennis Bruno

i think it is very important that adoptions are maintained during the very critical formative years of a child's life. Adoptions give these children the care they deserve in loving families.

There are a greater number of valid adoptions than illegal giving very needy children homes and a far greater opportunity to be all they were created by God to be and do. Don't slow the process which is already slow enough to get these children into loving homes!

Please allow ethical adoptions of needy children to continue.

Adoption is the best alternative for those children unable to remain with their birth families. Please allow adoption to remain a hope to Ethiopia's orphans.

Please allow more adoptions, many loving families are waiting.

I have good friends who just brought their daughter home from Ethiopia. No child could ask for a better family! I have friends who are similarly wonderful and scheduled to bring their daughter home in April. Both families have loved their time in your country. Please, improve the process where possible, but don't deny children loving homes and magical childhoods in other countries!

I personally know of 4 families who have adopted children from Ethiopia. The children are so loved and respected. It would be a grave tragedy for such adoptions to be stopped. It will be so sad for the children. Those eligible for adoption do need to be protected but reducing the amount of adoptions does not seem to be a good way to do this as it would hurt many. I hope the ministry will reconsider and try partnerships with reputable organizations whose concern is to ensure healthy adoptions.

We've been home 7 months with our 4 year old son. His situation was such that due to abuse in his home he would not have survived. We are blessed to be his family and to love him and help him heal.

Please consider how important it is to provide safe housing, adequate nutrition and loving families to all of your children who deserve the best. May God direct you to do what it best for these little ones.

I agree safe guards need to be placed to ensure all children are placed into loving families. I would not like to see a sweeping change like this that would prevent a loving connection but would prefer more safe guards instead. The USA has many loving people that would make loving homes for your countries children.

Please help these children!

Please do not commit this grievous injustice to the children of Ethiopia.

Please don't make these children stay in an institution any longer than necessary! They need to be in their forever families with the love, education, and medical care they deserve!

Allow those that are willing to maintain the opportunity to help those in need.

"Blessed are those that help the widowed, orphaned, those that are in prison."
Jesus Christ

I hope that the MOWA will look closer at the agencies with unethical practices and punish them so that children that need families & homes for ethical reasons may still receive that basic right. My son was 4 years old at the time we adopted and we had an ethical adoption.

My parents could not have any more children and I would still be their only child if they had not adopted from Ethiopia. We love her so much and she fits right in with with our family perfectly. Even though she was adopted after I was grown and married, my relationship with my sister is close. I would not choose a blood sibling instead of her any day.

Please allow ethical adoptions to continue. There will always be a few bad apples but they are small in number to those who really care and desire to adopt. Please do not punish the adoptive families and children who really long to be together.

give these children homes!!!!

I have worked hard to support an Ethiopian Orphan care NGO called Yezelalem Minch, helping to get nearly $65,000 USD donated to their cause over 2 years. We adopted our son Esias from Ethiopia in 2009. I believe strongly in ensuring safety and protection for orphans and vulnerable children, but I have seen the impact that adoption can have. I strongly encourage MOWA to reconsider and search for other options than this drastic cut.

This makes me very sad. I pray that this can be resolved.

Please don't delay these children finding healthy families!

Thank you for ensuring the procedures stay ethical.

I have four siblings adopted from Ethiopia and they are the light of my life. Their birth-mother was an HIVW orphan with no living relatives to taker her children when she died. The Lord brought her children to us to be cared for and loved the way that she wanted. There are so many other hopeless mothers and lonely children that are given hope and are blessed through the miracle of adoption. Please continue the work that you are doing for these beautiful people. Please continue to bring hope.

please

Do not cutback adoption potentials

Orphan children need good parents.

I am an adoptive parent to 2 daughters from Guatemala. This decision is tragic and although the Ethiopian government may have kids' best interests in mind, the realistic outcome is hundreds, thousands of children who will be sentenced to a childhood without families growing up in overcrowded orphanages....this is not the way! Please reconsider and look for a compromise, for the sake of these precious young lives.

Although your concern about focusing ministry attention on in-country adoptions is admirable, the simple fact remains that there are more families outside the country who have the resources to offer to your children not only the things they need physically, but ALSO time, love, and support, so that they can grow into successful, happy adults.

I sincerely doubt this petition will change the mind of the Ministry, but I will gladly sign. Just as inter-country adoptions have all but stopped in most countries, it is obvious that the Hague does NOT protect all vulnerable children, especially those that would have been given a loving home via adoption, but now face harsh living conditions. I'm skeptical that these governments give a damn about children. It's always about $ and lining the pockets of officials. I have one word for you...Karma

It takes people with big hearts to adopt children. Parents who are willing to do it should be applauded.

There are many couples in the USA who dream of having children but are unable. Adoption helps them realize those dreams of having a loving family of their own. The time, money, and effort put in by these families is a testament to their desire to be able to raise children regardless of race, religion, or background through adoption. The children deserve the opportunity just as much if not more. Don't take this away from them.

There are so many amazing families who long for the opportunity to adopt an equally amazing child from Ethiopia. As an educator, I know that the early years of a child's life are important to their development and future success. It seems to me that the Ehtiopian government would want to provide a way for better lives for its orphaned children. Please reconsider this proposal and maintain the number of adoptions being approved daily.
Thank you.

We were blessed with an Ethiopian son in 2008 and are working to adopt another Ethiopian child to keep our childrens' culture as intact as possible. Our son in the light of our lives. At no point did we then, nor do we now feel there was any corruption in the Ethiopian Adoption system pertaining to the United States of America. On the contrary, we were most impressed with the Ethiopian people and the country.

As a mother of adopted children from another country, please reconsider your position. There are so many children who need good homes and so many families that are willing to give them the love they need.

I am praying you will allow these children to be adopted and to partner with NGO's, governments and foundations so these children will have a chance to live outside of an orphanage with loving parents who will give them a good home and love them like their own.
Sincerely
Maria G. Robinson

I'm signing this to help my cousin adopt her kids She is a great person and should have every chance to add to her family

Finding homes for orphan children must be a priority for all of us, given these children will pay a central role in the future.

My wife and I are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia and chose our agency based upon its integrity and desire to aid Ethiopia's orphans. We love you and are praying for you, Ethiopia.

It saddens me to hear that the Ministry is considering to reduce Ethiopian adoptions by such a huge percentage. Our family adopted from Ethiopia two years ago and we felt our process was ethical, well handled, and efficient. Our daughter has been such a blessing to your family, extended family, and friends. She is happy, bright, and full of life! Please reconsider your plan and continue to allow adoptions to take place from Ethiopia.

Please allow these precious children to be cared for by 2 parents who will love them dearly. They will have a forever home.

Children belong in families. Please don't allow them to get stuck without one.

Good Luck to everyone who is adopting a child or children, hope this helps!

Please do not stop orphaned children from being adopted by loving families. Allow agencies to work with the Women's Ministry to insure appropriate measures are taken to secure children's safety.

We love our little girl, Maia, grandaughter from Ethiopia

I am so saddened to hear of this development because I know many families who have adopted with great success and it is on my heart to also adopt from Ethiopia. We cannot allow a few bad apples to ruin something which is wholesome and good and right and just for the children.

Please give these children a chance to have a great life. I have meet a lillte boy who was adopted from Africa while I was in Haiti. His new parents are missionaries. What a wonderful life he has. He is loved by so many people. This family that is trying to adopt is the most loving, giving people. I consider it a previledge knowing this family.I pray that this adoption happens in a timely manner. God Bless<><

Please let us help the children to grow up healthy and strong so they can help others.

I want Ethiopia and Africa to increase intercountry adoption and reduce the number of children in poverty and growing up in orphanages in that par of the world.

We love these children . Please don't take away their right to have a family. We are grateful to the Ethiopian Government for allowing us to adopt our son. . If they change the law we would probably never be able to adopt again. We all won't the kids to have safety and love. Their will always be one bad apple , please don't punish all the children for those few. I hope that the Ethiopian Gov. will know of our respect and grate hope that MOWA will reconsider there decision.

Allow us to love the unloved! :-)

I respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry adoption. Rather than eliminate the right of Ethiopian children to a permanent family, we encourage the Ministry to accept the partnerships offered by governments, NGOs, and foundations.

We have been so blessed by two wonderful children from Ethiopia, siblings we adopted in 2008 at the ages of 2 and 5. Please don't break the hearts of waiting families who so desperately want to love these precious children for a lifetime!

Our family is eagerly anticipating welcoming a child into our family. My son and daughter-in-law are in the process of adopting a child from Ethiopia.

Please don't stop thousands of children from finding loving, stable families this year.

Please allow these children with no family to become part of a forever family.... we all need to work together for the children

Our grandaughter is from Ethiopia

There are many familys in the U.S. that have adopted children from Ethiopia and the outcome has been wonderful. Their adopted children have bonded well and become secure and attached to their new familys.

Wonderful families are eagerly awaiting new additions to their homes. These are Christian families who are hoping to share, not just their abilitiy to support but more importantly their time, their love and their existing natural family. Commitment, dedication and determination.

Please reconsider your adoption policy. The famlies only want to gie your children loving and safe homes.

There are tons of sweet children that are in need of parents and a ton of wonderful loving parents that want them in their lives. Please do not squander their chance of belonging to their future mom's and dads!!!

All children deserve love and a forever home!

Please reconsider.

Please don't do this!

I pray this my dear friends will be able to continue to adopted these sweet babies that need homes!! Please dont take this away from them!!

I think children have the right to a good home, whether that is in thier country of birth or not. Depriving them of a home and family would be wrong.

Please give children of Ethipia a chance. Every child deserves a loving home with a mom and dad!

Please reconsider the plan to close adoptions out of Ethiopian.

Adoption is a great option for many children and parents. Please reconsider this policy, as I believe the proposed changes will negatively impact many lives.

Please do not reduce international adoption from Ethiopia. There are many Ethiopian children who need adoption and many loving individuals from other countries who would make great parents for these children.

Don't deny these children a chance at a better life and love. These families have love to give, let them be a part of something bigger.

Please allow these children to go to good homes where they will be raised, cared for and loved in a wonderful family household.

I respect that it is felt that there is some corruption in areas of the process. If so, work on those issues and enforce safeguards. This is an overreaction. This is only going to hurt the children that are true orphans and/or need homes, and the people that are ready and willing to do so.

I am a pediatrician hoping to adopt from Ethiopia this year - please continue to allow us to adopt these beautiful children.

Please reconsider, we have a wonderful home and the resources to support the 3 siblings we are trying to adopt. This gift of love and hope between families and children will be paid back to you and your country 10 fold. I pray that you will seek other ways to ensure that the best interest of the children are cared for.

We have adopted 3 children from Ethiopia who were hungry and uneducated. These children, while with their mother, were the youngest of 8 children and she a widow. Her choices in Ethiopia were limited and she made the difficult decision to place them for adoption. These children are a delight. They belong first to God. Our great hope is that they will one day return to Ethiopia to be a blessing to other and to share God's good news!

Since there are many childless couples who want to bring a child from Ethiopia into their lives, it would be a tragedy to so greatly hamper these children's possibility to have a loving family of their own.

james 1:27

I am the adoptive mom of two teens from Ethiopia, both who are now 18. I've discussed this change in adoption laws with both of them, and they too have concerns about how this will affect other kids like them waiting to be adopted. Especially the older kids who don't have as much time. Please consider how this will affect many, many children who will linger much longer in orphanages without families.

Adopting from Ethiopia is something my family is strongly interested in. I know the need is strong for those children to have forever families. Please reconsider.

Don't cut adoption!! These children need loving homes and there are so many good people in the world that can give them that. Don't decrease their chances of finding a loving family. They don't deserve this cut.

Please consider other measures to protect vulnerable children. Keeping them captive to poverty and institutions is not an adequate response.

I respectfully ask you to please consider the scores of ethical adoptions that have taken place and the many families who yet wish to adopt these precious children. Please accept the partnerships offered to you, especially the NGOs, so that more children can be placed in loving homes.

Adoption is a blessing for both parties involved. We adopted in '08 and our lives have been full of joy since that day! The media seems to only focus on the very FEW sad stories of corruption that exits everywhere, NO ONE seems to look at all the blessed children that have a new blessed future because of adoption. I many many people who have adopted from ET. and their children are the most special thing in their lives! PLEASE PLEASE allow this beautiful process to continue - Thank you

Sir-please continue to focus on the positives that are brought about by intercountry adoptions. So many children have been given loving home as compared to scattered cases of child abuse. Please do not reduce the allowances, it would be devastating to the children that would be placed in amazing, loving homes and devastating to those parents that long to adopt the child and share their hearts and lives with them. Thank you for your consideration. -Alexis Stanton, Enumclaw, WA

Please reconsider you decision to reduce intercountry adoption in Ethiopia. There are many wonderful families, mine included, who are willing, able and trying to give a home to an Ethiopian orphan. While we understand the need to change adoption practices in Ethiopia, we respectfully ask that you not reduce the number of adoptions so drastically and give opportunity to the children who need homes to be joined with families who are willing to open their hearts and homes to a child in need.

Please allow parents who really want to provide loving homes to children who need them bring their adopted children home.

Please reconsider this Campaign to significantly reduce the amount of adoptions you are allowing in Ethiopia. There are hundreds of thousands of orphans and needy children sitting in orphanages just waiting for a home and so many loving families ready to give one. Thank you.

My adopted waiting child from Ethiopia would have died if she wouldn't have been able to come into our home. Thank you.

God Bless You and I am praying for you and the children.

Please don't slow the adoption process AT ALL!

Our experience with our grandson is that he is receiving excellent care beyone what he could have ever dreamed about had he remained in Ethopia. We love him as much as our other grandchildren and is included in our wills. In our family we have a total of four adoptions and couldn't be happier. God bless you in your decision.

As an adoptive mommy to 2 precious boys from Ethiopia whose parents are deceased. If adoption was not an option for them,they would be sitting in an orphanage or possibly deceased themselves by now.

I respectfully urge you to reconsider such a drastic plan, for the sake of children who need a permanent loving home and the parents who long to provide such a home for Ethiopian children.

for the children's sake find another way to combat the problems. Let these children have homes with families who work so hard to adopt them and love them.

A loving parent and a loving child can be from different countries.... really what more is there to say?

Please allow adoptions to continue without reductions. Thank you for your consideration.

I have two daughters adopted from Guatemala. They attend private school, and are happy well adjusted children who love life and are learning and growing into wonderful human beings. Please allow other couples the same chance to love these children without homes or families.

Please consider the above mentioned request. My family is awaiting the adoption of a precious little girl.

Thank you.
Michelle Kirkland

My cousins adopted a beautiful baby boy over two years ago and he is a member of a happy and loving family. We are all grateful to have him in our lives. It would have not been possible without the Ministry's current policy. Please do not limit these adoptions.

Please allow adoptions to continue! I know several adopted children from Ethiopia and they are doing wonderful!

Our adoption has been wonderful for both our new kids as well as us and our entire family, immediate and extended. Please consider leaving your program open to as many people as possible as the addition of our Ethiopian children has enhanced us and also brough the beautiful African culture into our life. Thanks.

please let these babies come home!

Please open back up adoption to the many families are able and willing to care for these precious kids!!

Please don't do this, it is doing so much more harm then good. These children need a home sooner, rather then later!

We already had three children of our own. We adopted three form Ethiopia in an effort to help those three kids. It is true that a long term solution could help kids in the future but in the meantime, there are children that need help right now.

All we want is ztto help children

Please continue to support intercountry adoptions.

So many honest, loving families in other countries have opened their hearts and homes to Ethiopian orphans because they believe there are not enough Ethiopian families to take care of all of the orphans. If this is true, wouldn't the "saved" resources be used up caring for those orphans that would be adopted otherwise?

My husband and I desire (as a longterm goal) to adopt from Ethiopia after we get married within the next year. Please do not take away the ability for us to share love to these orphans through the reflexion of the gospel. Please don't hinder us from adopting these beautiful children.

Having a close friend who has personally adopted twice from other counties and loves her babies as though they were born to her, I strongly support this petition as the Ministry's plan would make inter-country adoption near impossible for caring, loving mothers such as herself. Thank you.

I believe the welfare of the children will be best served by placing them in families who will love and care for them as quickly as possible.

So many of these children need a good and loving home. Why would you deprive them of this?

Continue adoptions so children can having loving homes.

My Ethiopian daughter is happy and loved. Please don't limit the number of adoptions so dramatically.

Please do not keep children from the loving forever families that God has planned for them. Prayfully consider the plight of the orphan.

Please. Let the waiting children with parents asigned to them be adopted and taken home!

We have an adopted daughter from Ethiopia. She brings us so much joy and is a wonderful blessing to our family. Our adoption experience was great and we did not feel anything unethical was happening. With the help of our adoption agency, they made sure that everything was legit. We are excited about a second adoption and many future family trips to Ethiopia to enjoy the culture. As long as there are children in Ethiopia who need loving families, please do NOT end intercountry adoptions.

Every child deserves a forever family.

Let those lucky enough to be fortunate allow the same opportunities for children.

A child needs love and a family. There are so many people from every part of the world that only want to be parents. Dont take away there dream

Children's lives are on the line. Please change your position!

Praying that a child trafficking can be stopped without preventing these precious children from being brought home to their families.

Please do not deny a child an opportunity to have David and MacKenzie as parents. They are a wonderful young couple.
Sharon

Please do not reduce the amount of adoptions. There are so many children that need help and adoption is by far one of the best ways to give these children a life of dignity.

We are in the process of adopting siblings from Ethiopia are scared about what this may mean for our wait and also for the future of adoption in Ethiopia.

Please continue intercountry adoptions from Ethiopia.

Dear Minister, We are in the process of adopting our daughter from ethiopia. We have already met her and fallen in love withg her. We have traveled to Ethiopia nd appeared in court. we have a heart for the children in your counrty as so many others do. We want to provide safe and loving homes for these children that do not have them. We are wanting to show them God's love as we are called to take care of orphans and widows. Please reconsider your decision to cut adoptions.

Please do your best to fight for the rights of these children to have loving homes.

This would be a tragedy for thousands of orphaned children that deserve the chance of finding a family.

I personally have friends that have adopted from Ethiopia and have seen many lives changed through the blessing of adoption from Ethiopia. There are too mnay children left without parents and so many willing to adopt a child.

please don't place the orphans under a limit

Children belong in families! There are many wonderful families who are waiting and ready to adopt orphaned children. Please consider the children. Please rethink what you are about to do.

Children who are in need of good parents should be allowed to be adapted by anyone who is willing to give a loving and stable home.

Children are a vital part of life that many can achieve through adoption. Allow children to be adopted by loving families who can provide quality of life for them that their birth families can not. It is the greatest gift of love a family can give.

Please do not go through with stopping international adoptions. I know how much these children need to have families. I personally know so many loving families who have adopted children and I have not heard of one case of abuse. Those that do abuse children should be proscuted and I know they will be. Everyone (especially the needy children) should not be penalized for the wrong deeds of a few.
Please reconsider your response.

Kids need parents! Please, please allow loving families to adopt these kids, rather than setting things up so they may have to be raised in an orphanage. So many here in the U.S. are longing to take one of those Dear Little Ones into their homes and hearts.

Please know that these children need to be in loving families as soon as possible, not left in orphanages. Slowing down the process is not the answer.

My parents adopted a little boy about two years ago. He is one of the happiest children I know. They are also in the process of adopting another. I would be a sad thing to not be able to give another child a happy home.

Please do not take this action. These children need every avenue available to them to be placed in forever homes with parents who can love and care for them. Reducing the percentage of intercountry adoptions will drastically reduce their chances.

While the preference should always be to keep a child in the country they are born in, by slowing down placements of children you prolong the amount of time they are in orphanages and slow their growth and progress.

This month it will be 2 years that we've waited for a referral, when I read that report, I could hardly breathe......praying for all of us that are waiting.

Please consider not enstating this petition. There are so many families desperately wanting to adopt to build a family as well as so many children in need of a loving forever family it would be a shame to slow this process down.

Please reconsider your stance.

PLEASE! Allow families that are currently in process to complete their adoptions and bring their babies home! You will be destroying families if you don't allow them to complete the process!

PLEASE! Allow families that are currently in process to complete their adoptions and bring their babies home! You will be destroying families if you don't allow them to complete the process!

My daughter's family is waiting to bring home my adoptive grandchild. Please reconsider the decision to delay these adoptions.

There are so many loving, good families hoping to welcome a child- please allow them to do so...

Everyone deserves a chance at life. The kids never put themselves in the lifestyle they have. Why not let your heart break for the broken and wanting...

Love those adoptions!

Eli has been home 1-1/2 years, is 11 years old, and in the 5th grade.
He loves to play soccer, American football, wrestling, basketball and the drums. He has helped other new Ethiopians by translating for them. Today, he is a happy, healthy young man who would like to someday be a dentist and help the people of his country. Please consider that many more children need good homes to care for them.

As the adoptive mother of an amazing little boy I plead that you consider the long term well being of children as every child deserves a family. Life in an orphanage will never provide the necessary love and opportunity for a child to grow and be loved and offer the world everything they are abou.

I know what ever decision you make for the many children of Ethiopia will be the correct one but I hope that the decision doesn't eliminate my chance of possibly adopting a child in need of two very loving parents.

Thank you,

Two VERY loving people hoping to be parents one day.

There are many loving families that would gladly welcome the beautiful children of Ethiopia into their homes to keep them from spending their youth in an orphanage. Please do not limit adoptions as this would hurt your own people. I beg you to reconsider this impending decision.

TOO MANY GOOD POTENTIAL PARENTS ARE OUT THERE FOR THESE CHILDREN

Please do not deny these children the opportunity to grow up in a safe, loving family atmosphere because of a perception that problems exist within the current adoption process. Please punish those who are abusing the system and allow the majority of adoption agencies that comply with the rules to continue providing loving homes to these children

All children should be given the chance to have a loving and stable family!

PLEASE. DEAR PEOPLE. HELP MY FRIENDS THE ERIKSONS TO GET THEIR CHILD.

It is very understandable that Ethiopia want to keep their children but What about the 4 millions orphans waiting for a family?We al agree that intercountry adoption have to be closely monitored and all checked,but surely there is a way ,not so drastic,to make everybody happy...

Please keep the adoptions going, the kids need help!

My niece is adopted from China. I think it is good policy to allowed orphaned children to have a home and loving family. If its not available within their own country then allow intercountry adoption.

Many wonderful and compassionate families here are eager to share their love and lives and material goods with needy orphan children giving them a chance at a better life. It is just too sad that this opportunity may be denied to these children and to the families who have so much to share and are eager to do so.

We have a family of five, one biological and four adopted. The adopted children are all from countries outside of the U.S. and three of them have disabilities. We LOVE them ALL and can't imagine our lives without them! Please, find another way. Don't take away hope.

I am tremendously concerned about possible abuses in the Ethiopian adoption. It is incredibly important that children have an adoption process that follows the law and ethics. I encourage Ethiopia to find a way to safeguard the adoption process while still allowing children to have the right to permanent, loving families.

Please reconsider. Thank you.

Too many kids could miss out on a good home and future

There are so many people that would give all their love to these children. Please reconsider allowing them to be adopted.

Every child has a right to be part of a family and the thought that a child would have to live in institution their whole life because of this possible new regulation makes me ill and very sad. We adopted our daughter 3 years ago and she is the light of our life. We also have 2 biological children and we feel the same excitement and joy in all 3 of our children. Please continue to allow these children to be adopted through intercountry adoption.

Our Son and Daughter are in the process of adopting a child from Ethioipa. We are so excited to have this young person join our family. He will be brought up in a loving Christian family. He will be given every opportunity for a great education and a family that will love and take care of him. Please don't stop the adoptions for these families.

Please allow the adoption of these children. Give them families and love! Every child deseerves this!

Please reconsider, we have aloving home and are anxious to invite an Ethiopian child into it. This will extend our wait so dramatically that we will have to reconsider our country of choice, as we do not want 5+ years between our youngest 2 children.

Please allow these children to be adopted by loving parents in the USA.

Please consider the impact on the orphanages -- not only the impact on the children but the stress it will place on the orphanage workers and employees.

Please reconsider reducing the number of children being adopted. If this does indeed go into effect, it will be devastating to the over 5 million orphaned children of Ethiopia. There are so many people wanting to help these children, please let the help continue.

We are waiting for our court date for 2 special needs kids who will need medical attention here that they can't get in Ethiopia. I am all for stopping fraud in adoption, but don't make everyone, especially the special needs kids suffer!

There are so many families that are not able to have children and would cherish adopting a child - I know Ethiopia is very poor and many are hungry - I pray your heart would be filled with compassion to allow the adoptions to continue for the benefit of all concerned

Please keep adoptions in Ethiopia going!!

I hope these beautiful children will be allowed to be adopted by families in other countries.

Adoption is the best solution for children who have lost their parents! Please don't take this from them!

Please - allow the children to go to a home with loving parents waiting for their special child!

Please give these children a chance to be adopted by a loving family!

I urge the Minister to work with all agencies to help provide ethical and legal intercountry adoption services to the children of Ethiopia

I have spent the last 3 years trying to adopt an older child (age 4) from Ethiopia. It is heartbreaking to know that our journey to add a child to our family, a child who would be so loved and cherished, may be ending. My 2 sons have cried for the sister they wait for. We respect the MOWA's need to ensure adoptions are ethical, but we beg them to reconsider such drastic measures. Our hearts are breaking for the children who may never get the opportunity to be part of a family.

Any unwanted or abandoned or orphaned child deserves a loving family in any country!

Children deserve real homes.

Please consider using resources to aid in working with countries with strict adoption guidelines instead of abandoning the relationships and opportunities with theses countries, potential parents and the children of Ethiopia. This should not be a "All or Nothing" situation!

Please consider all the children who will be left in orphanages when there are many honest and loving parents who are willing and able to adopt them. Please find some way to correct problems where needed without cutting back on the number of adoptions being allowed. Thank you for your consideration.

Please allow the US and other countries to adopt as many babies as they want. We can only save the lives & future of the ones that you allow us to. All children deserve a chance in life!

I urge the Minister to work with all agencies to help provide ethical and legal intercountry adoption services to the children of Ethiopia

Please do what is in the best interest of the children of Ethiopia - continue processing ethical, legal international adoptions.

Please keep the ministry working for the most vulnerable ethopians, and continue to allow international adoptions at their current level.

Please do something about this. I am in tears thinking of the ones I love who will be affected by this.

While there are children and or Ethiopian families that have been subject to abuse, please do not forget about the huge number of children who have been blessed with a loving and forever family. Unfortunately with any good service there are individuals that cause harm; however should we let the evil one win by preventing loving families from welcoming Ethiopian children into their homes? No, God will take care of those individuals, we must stand firm and continue to serve our loving God.

Adoptions around the world can and are performed ethically transparantly and in the best interest of the children involved. The rare tragic cases in adoption are far outweighed by the children who are helped by International adoption. My son was adopted last year from Russia, despite rare problems hundreds of thousands of children are thriving in families around the world. Please do not sentence children of Ethiopia to wait in orphanages while loving families are waiting to give them love

I am an adoptive parent of 4.
I love my children more than life.
They are loved and cared for well no less than if they were my birth children.
I know many many families like mine.
All children deserve to be a part of a family that is dedicated to their care and well being - where they can find unconditional love. Please promote the adoption of these children into loving families - at home or abroad.

Please reconsider such a drastic reduction. It would be terrible for so many innocent children to lose the opportunity to have a family.

My husband and I plan to adopt from Ethiopia within a year. Please do not turn us away. We feel very strongy that this is where our little girl will be waiting for us, so we can bring her home.

My brother and sister-in-law adopted a boy from Ethiopia within the last 2 years. They are two of the most devoted and loving parents I've had the pleasure of being around. Their son has been a blessing to our whole family.

Please consider this petition in light of parents like them.

Please consider the risks to children involved with significant time in institutional care.

Dear Prime Minister Meles Zenawi,

Please hear our plea that you reconsider your decision to limit intercountry adoption.
We ask that you continue to offer Ethiopian orphans a chance at life in an adoptive family.

If there have been abuses of this right to adoption, these cases have been the minority, and should not be a reason to deprive other orphans from finding families.

Thank you for taking our petition into consideration.

Please consider the children here. They need good homes to live in and you are taking that blessing away from them.

I have adopted from Ethiopia once and hope to again! I love my son with all my heart, and can't imagine life without him! He is a blessing to me personally, and I also firmly believe there is nothing better for a child than 2 loving parents! The best financially funded and well staffed orphanage while good will always be at best a poor substitute for loving family environment! For the sake of your own children do not make this drastic reduction!

Please do not reduce adoptions. Our family and our adopted Ethiopian son have been so blessed by adoption! Please let there continue to be this blessing and opportunity for other Ethiopian children.

Please send a child for our friends to love and care for. Help them and help a child.

We are adoptive parents and grandparents including a girl from Ethiopia. She will be given love and attention for the rest of her life by great parents and relatives.

My dear friend has adopted twin infants from Ethiopia. These little girls are healthy, thriving and certainly loved and given the best of care. We adore them and cannot imagine them not having had the chance to have their own forever family. Please reconsider and continue to help more orphaned children have a family of their own. Thank you!

Children need love and loving families. Do not keep the many who would benefit from those who are longing for them to be part of their families.

The longer children stay, the more children you'll have to turn away.

Please continue to allow these children to have wonderful forever families of their own!

I and three sibblings are all products of adoption. All of us are greatful for the chance to be raised in a loving familys.
Please give these babies the chance to have a new home and a new chance for happiness.

Please allow adoptions to continue!

I think that the adoption requests already in progress should be honored. Future requests could be limited.

Please continue adoptions of ethiopian children to the U.S. Loving families are waiting to love these children.

I think that the adoption requests already in progress should be honored. Future requests could be limited.

My niece Gracie was adopted from Ethiopa 3 years ago and we are so happy to have her in our family here in California!

There are many good people who would like to share their lives with a child. All children deserve to have a loving home. Please allow that to happen.

We know of families who have adopted children who have thrived in their loving homes. Please allow the children the right to a loving home.

To reconsider the plan will help the children to give them an opportunity to have a better future!

There is so many wonderful families that are waiting for children.

Please let the families who have begun the adoption process to continue until a child is placed with them.

Children deserve to be in homes not orphanges!

Please consider the positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry adoption. Please help continue the good that comes from loving families providing a home to these precious children. Betty Southerland

These children deserve a chance to live, please give it to them.

Please consider the children

THINK OF WHAT IS BEST FOR THE MAJORITY OF THE CHILDREN

I have witnessed first hand commitment of a wonderful parent with a beautiful child. Please allow that to continue. Give these innocent children a chance at a love, life, and opportunity.

As a grandmother of two Ethiopian children I urge the Minstry consider the ethical services through intercountry adoption

Adoption saves lives.

Please keep the your doors open to adoption.
Thank you so much.

Brad Novacek

My grandson was adopted from Ethiopia last year. What a joy it has been to see him grow physically, mentally and spiritually. His laughter rings throughout the house. He has blessed our lives in ways no one could imagine. He has a brother and sisters that adore him and parents and grandparents that marvel at his wit and wisdom. I pray that many other children will have the opportunity to experience the love, security and family commitment that our grandchild now has.

Please allow us to help your hurting families.

Please let us help the children.

I believe any child that can be put into a loving home should be able to have a loving family no matter what country they live in because they will have a better quality of life and have the tools to succeed as adults

Children throughout the world depend upon the adults in charge to ensure their safety and protection.

When their birth families and birth country cannot provide the loving, stable, permanent family that every child needs and deserves, intercountry adoption should be an option.

Children throughout the world depend upon the adults in charge to ensure their safety and protection.

When their birth families and birth country cannot provide the loving, stable, permanent family that every child needs and deserves, intercountry adoption should be an option.

Please continue to permit adoptions in a timely fashion

Longing for these lil' ones to be placed in families - regardless where the family resides! Please reconsider.

Please allow children from Ethiopia to be adopted by loving parents from other countries.

We adopted our daughter from Ethiopia in July of 2010. We absolutely cant imagine our lives without her. The orphans of Ethiopia deserve forever familes who will care and love them unconditionally. I commend the birth mothers who so unselfishly give their children up so they can have better lives/futures. These women are amazing and beautiful. Please reconsider the option of reducing adoptions by 90%.

Please consider other less drastic measures to improve the adoption process!

There are wonderful families waiting to adopt from Ethiopia. We have a grandson who we all love and treasure. Please continue to let other children have this opportunity.

We are adoptive parents of three girls from China and know so many other adoptive families with children from around the globe. International adoption provides hope and a future for children whose futures are otherwise bleak. Please keep it open for the children's sake!

New friends to our family are adopting from Ethiopia. I see the love that they are willing to freely share with these beautiful children and it would be shame for all involved if it wasn't allowed to take place.

We specifically picked the Ethiopian program because there was NOT rampant corruption. We found everyone we dealt with to be dedicated and genuinely concerned for the children's welfare. It would be tragic for the program to be restricted in the ways that are being discussed.

There are so many families who want to give love to children. Please allow them.

Help the children.

Please allow people who have already been approved to be a blessing to those children.

Please allow the adoptions to continue for as many babies/children as possible to loving families in the U.S. Many aren't able to have their own children but can provide a loving family/home for them. Reducing the number of adoptions will only hurt the children!! They deserve a loving family!

Any chance for a loving family and provision for physical needs of children is all we are interested in, not only in Ethiopia, but all over the earth. I know of several families that would love nothing more than to provide just that. Thank you for your consideration.

Please allow all children a chance of a family and the worth of finding their value as a person inside that family life.

A loving family is waiting to love and care for one of your orphans- they have been waiting months. Please do not slow down the process. Give one your least ones the best chance for a normal, productive life and give this family a gift that they will be grateful for forever.

please allow the children to be adopted into loving and permanent homes to parents who truly want the child and his or her best.

While we completely support and urge Ethiopia to practice ethical adoption practices, we cannot be silent for the millions of orphans in this beautiful country. We pray Ethiopia will continue to put the needs of these orphans as a high priority when considering implementing new policies.

Please lets not let the poor judgement and inexcusable behavior of a set of individuals involved with fraudulent adoption practices spoil the chances for the eager, loving, law-abiding future parents who wish to welcome an Ethiopian child into their family and home.

We love our Ethiopian grandchild. And we look forward to another joining our family. Actions of the Ethiopian government will make that extremely difficult.

If the interest of the Ministry's aim is to place orphaned children in loving families, then ALL possibilities should be developed and expanded, and none that can demonstrate a high degree of ethics should be limited.

Our family has been extremely blessed through the adoption of our precious Ethiopian daughter. Oh what a loss for so many it will be if this decision is not reconsidered!

Please remember that every orphan deserves a family- do not make them pay for wrongs that they did not commit.

Urge against banning adoption....what a gift these wonderful families have given to these children who may not have had a chance at any type of normal life/family!

These children need homes, please don't drastically reduce their chance at a family!

Please continue to allow God's children to be embraced by His people!

Don't punish the kids for being homeless. Give them a chance in life and let me be adopted by loving and caring people with hope and a future.

Although the concern for the safety and well being of children and integrity of the adoption process are vital, such a drastic measure to avoid unethical adoptions is unnecessary and ultimately prevents deserved families and children the opportunities to forge, nurture and maintain healthy, strong, loving and safe families -- all legal and ethical.

Please do not do this.

We are glad you seek to protect children, but denying them a real home with people who will genuinely care for them, falls short. We urge you to find safe, ethical ways to allow orphans to be adopted into real, caring families.

Sincerely, ECC

Please continue to allow internationals to adopt your precious children

Please allow adoptions to continue to allow loved and happy lives for the helpless of your country.

Adoptions should not be limited when their are suitable families willing to adopt!

Our children already love the child they are waiting to adopt into their family. Please reconsider.

While the world continue to engage poverty, marginalization of people and those less fortunate in this world. I commend your approach in shining a light to this ever pressing challenge to those who may not otherwise have a voice in this new world market.

We should not reduce the amount of adoptions and children helped just because of a few people who make poor choices. Why limit the amount of goodness that comes through this program because of the cruelty of the few?

Let the children live in the best environment possible , wherever on the planet that may be !!

MOWA please reconsider and help place orphans in families.

Our family is eagerly anticipating welcoming a child into our family. My son and daughter-in-law are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia.

Keep adoptions going!!! People want children that can not have them themselves and who will love these children as their own.

To reduce the number of intercountry adoptions for ethiopian children would be nothing short of a humantarian disaster. Please reconsider and revoke this bill to limit intercountry adoptions.

Please reconsider this change. We are currently working through the adoption process and really want to be able to adopt from Eithiopia.

There many people that would love to raise a child please keep hope alive for the child as well as these parents.

These children who may have no hope of adoption in their own country have the right to live a happy life with an adoptive loving family. Keeping them in an orphan setting does nothing to improve their quality of life. I believe that the government will find that adopted children will go on to support their home country once they have grown up.

My husband was adopted 36 years ago. I pray all children can grow up in a loving family as he did.

I have adopted a wonderful child from Ethiopia. He is happy and healthy and has brought my whole family great joy, as we have to him. i would love to give him the opportunity to have a sibling as he would very much love a brother or sister. Please reconsider this policy, so that other children in his position can also have an opportunity to have a loving family, and not spend years in an orphanage.

Please let's find a way to stop corruption by other means, NOT decreasing adoption processing like this! So many children will be less likely to find a forever home. Thank you for your consideration.
For the Ethiopian children, T

Please reconsider. These beautiful children deserve a chance for a better life.

Please allow international adoptions to continue AS you figure out how to care for the children IN Ethiopia. Thank you!

Please do not further restrict your adoption numbers. Economically, it will cost you more to keep these children in your care than to allow them to be adopted out-of-country. Morally you should allow each child the very best potential they could possibly get. Please allow those who are willing to adopt to do so, without undo restrictions or encomberances.
Please allow loving families here in America to open their hearts and homes to these lonely children.

I pray that the grown ups deal with their issues so that children can have loving homes.

Please continue to allow Ethiopian children to be placed in caring families where they can experience a life of tender love and care. Do whatever it takes to approve as many famlies as possible each day and do not let a few isolated cases of harm bring more harm to the many, many children that continue to wait.

Please keep adoptions going while looking into the system. There are so many happy children adopted, so many who do need homes and families, and they cannot wait for political or system change.

Please allow the children to be adopted to the loving homes. Certainly crack down on corruption but please don't allow this to impede adoption to families that will love and care for these orphans.

I have a friend that is in the process of adopting and this will effect her life. These children need homes. Im hoping the ministry will reconsider their plan.

All children need homes and parents. Nothing should hinder these orphans from having parents in any country.

We love the 2 little girls you have given us in our extended family.

Three years ago, our daughter anf son-in-law adopted a beautiful baby boy from Ethiopia. He came from the arms of a very poor, lovely single parent whose husband had died of Typhoid. Little Binyam was somewhat undernourished, although being well cared for, in an orphanage. He is now a healthy, very intelligen,three-year old that has a wonderful, loving home. Because of the adoption, he will have a great future supported by loving parents, grandparents, and a large extended family.

I believe these children need a second chance to succeed in life. A loving family who will nurture them and guide them and just love with with all they have. No matter where you are from- all children deserve the right to feel loved and wanted- and we should be allowed to provide that for them if given the chance.

My sister in law adopted a beautiful son from Ethiopia and she is such a loving, caring mom. He has blessed them in such a great way.

Having been born in another country myself
I profess the suportive nature of Canada as a country and the caring nature of Canadian People.
As a people we are a multi-cultural integrated people , rich in ethnic and cultural diversity.We welcome children from around the world , especially those who would have to grow up in orphaniges .

As an adoption professional, I am committed to sound, safe homes for children. I work to prepare families to provide a good home to children who are placed for adoption, with respect for their cultural heritage. Please support intercountry adoption.

PLEASE, please allow the children of Ethiopia to be placed in the loving families that they deserve. Please do not hinder the efforts of so many that are reaching out to these children and doing so much to help the country of Ethiopia. Thank-you!

My sister and her husband have been working hard to complete all of the necessary requirements to adopt a baby and have been waiting for a long time to have a little one join their family. They are in the final stages of having their adoption papers complete and are devestated by this recent news. Please reconsider so that families like theirs can continue to have hope in adopting a child.

These children need homes. There are too many children gong to goo homes to decrease the number of adoptions. I could understand increasing the strictness of the adoption process but I don't understand decreasing the number of adoptions. There are people that want to reach out to these children and I don't think that these children should be denied that opportunity to be in a loving home. Please do not lower the number of adoptions... these children's lives are important to God.

We all have a common goal - the best home for each child. This means adoption for some children, not for others. Rather than slow down processes, organizations should work together to improve what is in place, resolve existing problems, and make adoption accessible in a timely manner for those children who otherwise will not have a healthy and nurturing environment to grow in. Time not spent in such an environment has a long-term harmful effect on waiting children.

I wholeheartedly support Ethiopia's efforts to remove corruption from the adoption system, but there are numerous ethical agencies who have children's best interest at heart. Stop corruption and only work with agencies that can prove their ethical standards. Please continue to allow children to move into loving families who love Ethiopia and instill pride in their child's birth country. Becoming a parent byadoption was the best decision of my life. Learning about Ethiopia has enriched my family.

The Ministry’s plan to reduce intercountry adoption by 90% is a tragic, unnecessary and a disproportionate reaction to concerns of isolated abuses in the intercountry adoption process.

We support the Ministry’s goal of ensuring ethical adoptions that serve the best interest of children and serve all vulnerable children & families.

We respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry adopti

Please reinstate the adoptions in Ethiopia. We are waiting for our children. We can't wait to adopt ! Our whole family is excited to welcome a child.

We are waiting now on our adoption. Please do not rob orphans of a good and loving home with our family. Please reconsider.

We know so many families waiting to love Ethiopian adopted children. Please reconsider this action and focus efforts on the positive aspects of international adoption.
The love waiting to be received by so many should not be denied due to the inappropriate actions of a few.

We beg you to not stop adoptions or cut down the precentage. I have one friend who has adopted a wonderful little girl.She is loved and being
given such new opportunity for a wonderful life.
Another family in my church is in the process of getting paper work submitted for their daughter to-be. Don't dissapoint this loving and God loving family. Please reconsider.View this petition and let us help the children of Ethiopia. Thank you for your review.

All children deserve a family to love and cherish them.
Thank you,

Please allow these orphan children to be raised and loved by families who can afford to do so. Please choose life for them.

The children are the ones that suffer. They are the ones that need homes.

for lucy.

Please do not limit legal adoptions of orphans out of Ethiopia. All children need a forever family.

Why would you try to deny children of a loving home with the means to give them a full life with advantages that would not be available to them in their current situation/country. Why stand in the way of God's work?

The welfare of the children is what should be considered first and foremost

Please allow all children the chance to find a loving home.

Please do not cut funding to this cause. Adoption is a wonderful opportunity for these children to have a safe and happy home.

We have one adopted child from Ethiopia and would like to adopt another. We value the Ethiopian culture and are raising our Ethiopian daughter to value the culture of her birthplace as well. We respectfully ask that you do not make it more difficult to adopt children from Ethiopia.

My children are loving parents to an Ethiopian girl whose birth mother was HIV positive. Their Ethiopian daughter is being raised knowing about her heritage and the birth mother who loved her enough to give her up for adoption. I hope this mother knows that her selfless act has placed her daughter in a wonderful, loving home. There are many such homes for Ethiopian children, and I encourage you to continue to partner with good agencies to find these homes where your children will be cherished.

My Brother and Sister in law would very much like to adopt a child from Ethiopia. They are kind and loving people who would be wonderful parents. Please reconsider this decision to cut adoptions from Ethiopia.

Support Life

It's as simple as this: Children need parents to love them and care for them. As much as the air they breathe and the food they eat. Give these children the chance to thrive and grow and be loved.

Praying for these children.

Please don't keep these children from loving homes.

Please reconsider this decision. My wife and I are in the process of adopting a child from Ethiopia. We adopted our 11 year old son from Vietnam 3 years ago, and we have seen first hand the benefits of adoption.

My husband and I adopted two beautiful girls from Kembata region. The 8 year old whose parents were deceased had to work in the fields and the 6 year old was left alone for days at a time with two babies to care for while her widowed mother was gone "looking for food". Both girls are excelling in school, music, sports and enjoying home life. Because the area they were from was so poor and without services to help them, adoption was the best option for the girls.

Please continue to allow international adoptions as many good people who can provide a good, loving, home are in other countries and want and desire the children of Ethiopia.

I personally know of a family who is in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. They are really looking forward to providing a child with a happy and healthy home. If adoption is cut by 90%, there will be no way to care for all those orphans properly, and the consequences will be devastating.

Your hard work to provide these children with love and families does not go unnoticed by our country. We support you in this and know that it takes so much work for you. Please continue to process as many adoptions as possible so that the children will be able to continue to receive love and a family. Thank you.

Please allow the adoption process to continue with Ethiopia. Friends of mine recently adopted from Ethiopia and are truly blessed to have their son. Please reconsider changing this.

Have a heart and do not delay orphans getting to their loving families!

While I agree that a child's best interest is to be raised by family, I have seen so many successful adoptions. I hope one day, I will be able to support a child who has lost his or her family. Children deserve the best chance at a positive life.

I am very concerned, foremost for children in orphanages who will be without families to grow up in. Please reconsider this decision to halt the majority of adoptions.

I do applaud the effort to ensure adoptions are done ethically, however I think there may be a ways to ensure this other than halting the vast majority of adoptions.

Please help give these children a chance at finding parents to love them.

we want to love orphans. not hurt them!

I strongly believe in keeping children with their biological family BUT I also believe that God called us to take care of the Widow and the Orphan and if these children can not be cared for in their own areas for whatever reason, they should not be denied a permanant & loving home. My husband and I have no problem w/conception as we are pregnant with our 4th child but we do intend on adopting within the next 2 years. It does not fill a need for us as some have claimed..it fills a need for them!

Please reconsider the decision to reduce the number of intercountry adoptions that will happen in Ethiopia. If even one orphaned child can receive his forever parents it will be worth it.

this is tragic.

OBVIOUSLY ... THEY ARE "NOT" THINKING OF THE CHILDREN!!!! SHAME!

Children need families to grow. All of us have a duty to the children of the world. Any failures of the children can be addressed without eliminating the adoption option. Please reconsider.

Every child has the right to be loved, taken care of, educated, and nurtured from the time they are born until the time they reach adulthood.

My concern is that the fear of harm is preventing the opportunity for good. I know amazing adoptive parents in the US, and find it upsetting that such loving people would be prevented from impacting the lives of children in need.

It breaks my heart to hear that other families may not be able to feel the joy we have had since bringing home our daughter in April, 2010. I pray that the ministry is able to quickly resolve any issues and allow adoptions to continue. We were truely given a miracle when we brought our daughter home and will be forever grateful.

Please realize the plight of these children. They need homes with parents. Do not deny these unheard voices a right to a family.

There are many good people out in the world that would like to help these children, please give them the chance to adopt them--and offer them love.

lets not forget those who need a home, wherever that may be

These people deserve their children that they have been waiting for.

I have adopted three children from Ethiopia and they are doing so wonderfully. It would break my heart to know that children would be waiting and waiting in orphanages when they instead could be with a loving family. Please consider targeting the few organizations that have been unethical and work with reputable agencies to help find homes for the children that truly need it.

My future nephew is supposed to be coming from Ethiopia. We already have so much love and passion for Elijah that the thought of not having him here sooner rather than later is devastating. I am coming to Ethiopia for a mission trip in May and it break my heart to know that at the orphanages there will be children that could have a loving home in the States then rather than years from now.

If a birth parent has chosen to give their child up for adoption due to circumstances beyond their control, they should not have to suffer the additional burden of knowing their child could languish in the orphanage for years. The children I have met in the United States are loved and cared for by dedicated loving parents. The children are thriving. Shame on the Ministry for denying future children the opportunities of those already adopted.

Please allow these sweet children to go home to their Forever Families.

We have the children of Ethiopia in our hearts and want to help your country. Please do not implicate the reduction of adoptions.

Please reconsider the limitation of international adoption of Ethiopian children. Our beautiful son is being lovingly raised to honor himself and his new family and the beautiful country and people of Ethiopia.
Respectfully,
Drs. Jill and Ben Battino

We have intentions of starting adoption in a few months and are very upset to hear this news. There are many families willing to open their hearts and homes to these children, please let us do so!

Everyone, needs to get off the Butts and Start to Do Something, not just saying their going to.
Lets start seeing actual results.

My prayers and wishes for strong intercountry adoption to continue!

Please reconsider this policy that would severely limit the number of Ethiopian children who could be adopted by loving parents in other countries.

Please allow these children to be loved and cared for. There are families just waiting to love these children the way Jesus has loved us! Please continue to let these children find homes.

Please allow this petetion to be the change for the Ethiopian Gov't. We are praying for the country but more importantly for the children and orphans!

These children deserve a stable home where they will be loved.

Please allow these precious children to find homes quickly that will help nurture and take care of them.

We recently adopted two sons from Ethiopia. I cannot say enough about the integrity with which our agency handled our case. Our children deserve a family and future that they would have never received in an orphanage.

Please allow these children to have a family. That is the greated gift any birth parent and government can give a child.

I support the ministry in wanting to ensure the ethical adoptions of precious Ethiopian children, however, I am pleading with you to keep adoption open so these children can find forever families. Our amazing daughter is from Ethiopia and I could not imagine life without her in it! Thank you!

Please do not do this. The most important thing is the children here and we can make a real difference in their lives.

We are desperately wanting to love and love our grandson. Please allow my children to bring home their baby boy.

Please reconsider this plan to decrease Ethiopian adoptions. I know as an adoptive parent of an Ethiopian child, how blessed and lucky I am to be Mihret's mother. She is loved by everyone who meets her. She is thriving in her environment. Being her mother is the greatest gift I could have ever received.

I am a volunteer with a group called CASA that
works through the courts and am assigned to
a children or children to keep up with their lives
and treatment. I know how our adoptees are
treated in the U.S. and also know that there is
not any corruption within our court system.
We do everything possible to take care of these little souls and make sure that they are
not mistreated and are adopted as soon as
possible. Adoption in the U.S. is looked at as
a celebration.

Please reconsider your decision to limit adoptions out of the country. There are so many wonderful families who want to give great homes to the children of Ethiopia.

We recently adopted 2 amazing children from Ethiopia. They are siblings ages 5 and 3. Adopting them has not only blessed them but it has blessed us! The slow down in Ethiopia would cause so many children and families to suffer. So many children are waiting for families, more staff needs to be hired to keep up with the families that are wanting to adopt. I pray we can return one day and adopt again. I feel anyone who is considering cut backs needs to personally look into the childrens eyes.

I know of no one who would be a better parent for one of these lovely children than my son and his family. Please reconsider your actions.

Please consider other options to tighten the security of international adoptions. In the end, it will save money AND lives to find homes & families for the orphans of Ethiopia.

Please continue international adoptions and process them as quickly as is ethically possible so that these childen move into forever families as soon as possible.

Please hear the voices of the children waiting for a home!

We have one adopted son from Ethiopia, now 4 years old. He is intelligent, energetic a wonderful blessing to our family. We are raising him in a Christian home with Christian values. We wish to adopt another boy from Ethiopia, and maybe lastly a girl.

Disporportionate seems to be the best term for such a wild reaction to isolated problems in the international adoption system. This policy may have good intentions at it's roots but is definitely not child friendly in sum.

Stop the reduction of adoption in Ethiopia!

WHILE CORUPTINON AT ANY LEVEL IS NOT ACCEPTABLE NOR IS THE LACK OF LOVE AND CARE OF FUTURE GENERATIONS SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY ARE WEAK AND DEPENDENT ON OTHERS FOR THEIR CARE. THEY ARE NOT OUR FUTURE CHILDREN ARE OUR PROVIDERS FOR OUR FUTURE IT IS OUR DUTY TO ENCOURAGE CHILDREN TO GROW TO BE A BETTER SOCIETY THAN WE LIVE IN,

Allowing legitamate international adoption will surely free up funds to help other children remain in their own country and become valued citizens. The adopted children will also have the chance of a good future.

Please do not punish the children for the mistakes of a select few who have abused the system.

Please give these children a chance for a positive future with loving families who want them!

The actions of the powers governing adoption to Ethiopia will have an incredible impact on many around the world. Couples wanting to adopt are able to speak, but children that need love aren't. We must stand for those that cannot. We must speak for those that are bound in a system of silence. Millions of children deserve homes that will love them, but it seems that their need means little to this country.

PLEASE CONSIDER THE MANY AGENCIES THAT HAVE NOT DEFAULTED ON THE RESPONSIBILITY TO THE CHILDREN. THANK YOU.

We have adopted from Ethiopia & would love to give our son a sibling. We are grateful to have Ethiopian culture in our home & want to continue to grow our family in this way. Please allow us to do so by increasing the resources allocated to adoptions. We believe in adoption and its small role in helping orphans. We know the problem is not solved by adoption, but we also know that it mattered to Sato & he would not be thriving like he is in an orphanage environment. Please help adoptions continue

Please allow the placement of Ethiopian children to continue for the sake of the children.

I have two sets of friends waiting for a referral to adopt sibling sets from Ethiopia. They are both responsible, loving couples that would be wonderful parents to children in your country who need a family. Please reconsider this decision; there are many empty arms waiting to embrace and care for your orphaned children.

Our infant son required a feeding tube when he came into care. Family reunification was not an option. He would have died without the benefit of inter-country adoption. He is now healthy, happy, smart and strong. He goes to weekly Ethiopian culture classes in the US. And, most importantly, he is the light of our lives. What will happen to the children who have no other options? Please think of them, and of the remarkable possibility of their lives.

Our 11 year old son and 1 year old were adopted from Ethiopia. Our agency is extremely ethical with the children's interests at the forefront. We met with the birth families and had all of our questions answered. There was nothing even slightly unethical about the process. Please do not punish the children by taking these drastic and unnecessary steps. So many will die and have long term affect from institutionalization. A 90% reduction is extreme and will create more poverty and need.

Abuses may exist but the innocent should have a fair chance without being penalized because of the abuses that might occur. Run with faith, not fear.

Please do not disallow the tremendous impact this can have on the childrens' lives.

We were all children at one time. Where would you have been without your caring parents. Don't take away these children's hope and opportunity.

Every child should have the opportunity to grow up with loving parents no matter the political boundaries that have been drawn throughout the centuries.

Please reconsider this action that would result in so many children not finding forever families because of the actions of a few adults. There are other solutions!

In limiting adoptions, we are denying the good Samaritan from coming alongside the needy. We are a global community, and need to be responsible to those in need, and to give out of our excess. This ruling limits God's hand working through his servants.

My sister and brother in law are more than qualified/able/willing/ready to facilitate the successful developement of a child that would otherwise be cast aside to the dusty, famished unknown...

My nephew was adopted from Ethiopia. We had to wait 6 months for him to come to his new home here in the United States. This was an eternity!! These children who need medical, emotional, and physical help need to be let go to their adoptive families much quicker than they have in the past. If healthcare is not provided in a timely manner these children of God will die. PLEASE...Let's think of what is best for the children.

We are in the process of adopting an orphaned child from Ethiopia. It is our desire to provide a home to a child that doesn't have a loving family to support him in all that he does. It is an emotional process and additional delays just make it difficult on all involved. We support measures and policies that prevent abuse in this process, but lobby against these policies creating additional delays in an already long process.

We are in the process of adopting an orphaned child from Ethiopia. It is our desire to provide a home to a child that doesn't have a loving family to support him in all that he does. It is an emotional process and additional delays just make it difficult on all involved. We support measures and policies that prevent abuse in this process, but lobby against these policies creating additional delays in an already long process.

I respectfully ask you to please reconsider this dramatic step. Please consider the great good that comes as an outcome of many successful international adoptions.

We have adopted from Ethiopia and feel privileged to get to raise such a wonderful child who will know and be proud of his heritage. Please let other children have the chance at life with a permanent family and spread the word about Ethiopia's wonderful heritage.

My husband and I just adopted a beautiful little girl from Ethiopia. She truly is a joy and blessing. I want other families to have the wonderful opportunity of adopting children from your beautiful country.

There are many families in foreign countries who would welcome the chance to provide a loving home and family to your orphaned children. Please don't take this opportunity away from your children.

Children need to have homes where they are loved and cared by parents who love them. They also need proper food, clothing and shelter!!

my nephew was adopted from Ethopia 3 years ago and he is a joy to our life. His brother is currently in an orphanage and we pray that we can see him soon.

Trying to answer a calling to adopt from Ethiopia.

I have seen many of these children adopted to loving happy homes in our area, please allow that to continue

There are many loving families all over the world who would be excellent supports and providers for these children. Don't limit these childrens' chances for a better future by cutting adoptions. Invest money into safer procedures/home studies to ensure appropriate placements!

SAVE THESE KIDS!!!!!!

We have adopted from Ethiopia and feel privileged to get to raise such a wonderful child who will know and be proud of his heritage. Please let other children have the chance at life with a permanent family and spread the word about Ethiopia's wonderful heritage.

We are currently on the wait-list to adopt from Ethiopia, please do not make us wait to bring our child to his forever home.

I wholeheartedly agree with this letter and urge your consideration.

Do what is best for the children! Allow them to live with loving families!

Asking that this law be not passed!
we just want to find a forever family for the many orphans in Ethiopia!

Isaiah 1:17 says "Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow." We are all called to make a stand for injustice!

Good Luck!

Why should the children suffer because of a corrupt government, let the adoptions continue while you work with the government to improve the process

please give the children a chance....

Please allow adoptions to continue, their are so many families who would love the children from your country and could give them a better way of life.

Please rethink this new plan to slow down adoptions from Ethiopia. I applaud your efforts to make sure each child is truly orphaned and needs a family and thankful you are taking the corruption seriously but think of the many children needing homes and families. Please try to come up with an alternative plan that will protect the children and the process and still allow these kids to find forever families. Thank you!

Please do not cut this plan. Many families want to help these children, inlcuding two of the most amazing people I have ever known. These kids deserve good families. Do not cut this plan.

Please do not do this. We are building such great connections to Ethiopia through our adopted children. The US and Ethiopia are coming closer together. Do not drive this wedge beteween us.

Please help give these young children a chance for a life.

Please help give these young children a chance for a life.

Please don't allow the orphans of Ethiopia to endure what the orphans of Guatemala have had to deal with for more than 3 years. Allow these beautiful, innocent children to be adopted by the loving families who are waiting to bring them home.

My daughter and so- in-law would make the most loving parents any child could wish for. Adoption is something they have been planning and praying for even before they were married. Please let them bring home a baby to love and nurture. Thank you

Adoption is a blessing, let's bless Ethiopia.

I have friends who adopted two Ethiopian children, and I can attest to what a mutually positive and beneficial situation it is for all involved.

Please let these children have a good home!

Please reconsider your decision, on behalf of children who need parents, and parents who with all their hearts want to adopt, nurture, and love children.

An adoption that creates a multi-ethnic and/or multi-racial family can also be one where the child's individual background is honored and nurtured. I have two adopted children with backgrounds different from my own and make sure to keep their heritage alive. I am not alone. I know many adoptive parents in the US who do the same. Children should be given the chance to be cared for. It is love that makes a family and most people looking for children understand that. Please understand.

Punish the system, not the orphans!

We have adopted an ethiopian baby 5 years ago & have been very blessed! Our lives would not be the same without him in our family! Please reconsider & provide other families the same opportunity!

Most of the aoption is very beneficial to the children who gets adopted as well as the people who wants to adopt. These children I believe otherwise will miss out a lot in their life.

We adopted a 4 yr old little girl in 2009 with CWA and our daughter is one of the greatest blessings we could ever receive!!!

My Ethiopian son Elias Ashenafi is SUCH a blessing to me!! Upon arrival in USA I was able to provide 2 surgeries here that completely cured impending (previously undiagnosed) deafness and sterility. I love Ethiopia and plead that other international parents can be so blessed. It has connected me to our local ET community too.

Please allow the Ethiopian children to continue to be adopted by loving families outside of their country.

Dear Prime Minister,

There are many families in the United States that are willing to abide by international laws in order to provide a loving home for Ethiopian children.

Please do not do such a dramatic cut in international adoptions. This will hurt many prospective parents when they are willing to abide by laws.

Thank you,
Carrie Meshginpoosh

Too many children will be neglected with loving homes waiting for them.

We want to keep children safe and adoption ethical but keeping waiting children out of loving homes does not seem like the best way to achieve this goal. Please consider the waiting children and waiting families. Thank you.

Children of all countries and backgrounds deserve a loving family. Please do not stop or slow down on placing these children with families.

Children of all countries and backgrounds deserve a loving family. Please do not stop or slow down on placing these children with families.

please allow adoptions to continue

My heart goes out to all of these children that their own country isn't doing anything and everything to find them loving homes. Sad.

Decreasing the number of adoptions is by no way a solution to those issues being raised by the Ethiopian Government. The only people being hurt are those children waiting to be placed with a loving family. There is enough injustice in the world already, let's not add to it!!!

Our family exists because of Ethiopian intercountry adoption, and I can't imagine our lives without our daughters, or their lives without us. Please continue to make families like ours a possibility for other children in Ethiopia who need homes.

Thank you for considering this petition. I understand the need to eliminate unethical practices, and nothing could be more serious than child trafficking. But please do your best to help the children who genuinely need loving parents, and the parents who need the children. Thank you again.

my daughter is adopted from china. The life she has with us and we with her is beyond wonderful. what would her life or ours have been had we not been allowed to adopt her? these orphans need families - please do not take this away from them

I am aware of excellent families who have or are planning to adopt a child from Ethiopia and personally know that they would be excellent homes and loving parents to care for these children.

I respectfully request that you not reduce the number of adoptions allowed. There are many, many loving families willing to sacrifice for and love new additions into their families. To reduce the adoptions by 90% would be a huge disservice to your nation and the children. Thank you for your consideration.

Please do not prolong the delay of these children being adopted into loving homes!

Please allow these kids to get to their forever homes!

We adopted our Son Eli in 2005. He is now 5 years old and such a joy to us, his parents, and to his other 4 siblings. We have started the process again and would love to adopt another beautiful Ethiopian Child in need.

I hope this change doesn't go through. Children need homes!

We adopted our Son Eli in 2005. He is now 5 years old and such a joy to us, his parents, and to his other 4 siblings. We have started the process again and would love to adopt another beautiful Ethiopian Child in need.

My good friend is in Ethiopia trying to bring her baby home; a baby she and her husband have been trying to bring home for over 2 years. Please allow loving families to bring their children home with them.

Please let adoptions go through; children need loving parents.

I know several families who have adopted children from Ethiopia. It has been a very loving and positive experience for all concerned.

Working in the adoption industry, I know of many many families that have adopted from Ethiopia. They all have been extremely succesful. The orphaned children of Ethiopia deserve the chance to be adopted by a loving family.

every help , your voice matters

Please don't take this away from the children and families waiting to be united. This grossly unnecessary reduction in adoptions will cause much more harm than good. You are putting the lives of these children at risk everyday they sit in a shelter without proper care.

I am an adoptive mother of three and I urge the government of Ethiopia to please reconsider slowing down adoptions. Orphans NEED parents - they deserve the right to be adopted through the current system as quickly as possible. All children deserve a loving, caring nurturing home. Slowing down the process only will hinder a childs ability to locate a family and cause further delays from living in an institutional environment.

Thank you for considering our request

There are so many wonderful families wanting to love and care for Ethiopian children. Please don't slow down the process and let these precious little ones wait in institutions for years. The adoption process was such a positive experience for our 2 Ethiopian adopted children.
Nicola Andersen

Please continue to let these children find loving homes!

Please give these childern a chance to have a great home in The United States.

The adoption of a child from Ethiopia has enriched our lives tremendously. More adoptive families should be allowed to share this fantastic experience

A world without the option of International Adoption is a world in which countless children will be without hope for a bright and loved future. How can an enlightened world take away this right? We will all pay dearly for this when this abandoned international generation grows up, if in fact they ever do.

We hope that a reasonable alternative will be reached regarding this. We all know it is better for a child be in a family than in an institution. The longer a child is in an institution the harder it is for that child to recover his or her ability to give and receive love. Please, ensure the quality of adoption, the honesty and integrity of agents and the government, help families keep their children. But, for those who can not stay in their families, please place them into families quickly.

These children need a loving home.

please let these adoptions keep happening! there are so many loving families who want to take care of the beautiful Ethopian children!

My Children are interested in adopting from Ethiopia, Please keep the option open

These children are being offered a real chance in life through loving adoption. Please let it continue.

please don't slow down the process of adoption to the children that truly are orphans, who are waiting to be united with their forever families.

I have 2 small children of my own and find it deplorable that someone would adopt a child and then abuse or neglect them in any way. I strongly believe in follow up for this children in other countries to ensure their safety- even if it somehow has to be grass roots volunteers. There are so many wonderful parents waiting to love, cherish, feed, protect, and treat as though they had birthed the child. Please don't punish the kids and the good parents for those few really bad people. Please!

As an adoptive mother of a child that is thriving, I urge the Ministry to reconsider closing adoptions.

We are so eager to bring our children home! We plan to give them a very loving home!

Please reconsider this decision that limits the number of Ethiopian orphans that can be welcomed into loving forever families. My wife and I are working with a reputable agency and patiently waiting to meet our beautiful Ethiopian child. We recognize there are serious problems to solve, and support your goal of ensuring only ethical adoptions. We also believe that adoption is the best option for the many children and loving families waiting to be united. Respectfully, Rich A

We have a beautiful adopted Ethophia Grandson who is a joy and blessing to our family. To stop ethical adoptions would only hurt the beautiful children waiting for a loving home and the parents and their families waiting to love them.

Please allow Ethiopian adoptions to continue. There are so many families who would love to care for and love the orphans who need it! I know my heart wants to adopt. Just waiting for the finances!!

Please consider the repeal of this decision.

Please do not keep these precious kiddos from loving families!!!

Children need families, not institutions!

Over the years we have many opportunities to work with adoption agencies in the U.S. We know that the waiting adoptive families are vetted carefully and thoroughly before approving them to adopt a child waiting for a forever family.

We have 7 children, only one being biological and have had 32 foster children in our home over the years. A forever family is the most important thing that could possibly happen to a child living in an orphanage with no family.

Please consider the need for all children to have a loving Mother and father

Please keep adoptions moving smoothly and quickly so that more children can come home to their families!

The adoption of our Ethiopian daughter, Mimi, has been the single greatest joy our family has ever experienced.

Thank you.

It is imperative that prospective parents be thoroughly vetted to avoid even one instance of abuse. However,it is also imperative that the adoption process be expedious for the health and long term well-being of the adopted children.

As an adoptive mother, I hope and pray that ET finds another way to stop the corruption that is taking place. It is sad that a few bad apples can spoil the whole bunch. Maybe just have prospective adoptive parents only choose from a "waiting children's" list. So many true orphans are going to suffer because of this. So many matched children will too. This is not fair for anyone. There's got to be another way. Please don't let this happen.

I have 2 amazing children that joined our family through adoption in Ethiopia. They are excelling here in our home and our community. They were 10 and 12 years of age when they joined us. They are such happy kids and have inspired so many people to now think that adoption is a real possibility to grow their familiy.

Why not let these kids in an orphanage get adopted by loving families even if they are out of the country?

Our little girl, Leah Delbo, was adopted from Ethiopia in 2008. She has brought more joy, laughter, and wisdom to our lives than you will ever know. We were hoping to adopt again from Ethiopia because our first experience was so amazing the first time around. Please don't prevent these beautiful, smart, warm, funny, and deserving children from finding families. Any family that can provide these children with love and a forever home should be welcomed.

My daughter and family have adopted five children from Ethiopia, and are in the process of adopting two more. They are honest, hard-working Christians, and provide a very loving home for all their children. We love our international grandchildren just as our biological ones. We know of many other good families with adopted children from Ethiopia, and know your need is great. Please let the children continue to come to good homes here.

My dear friends are planning to bring their son home this year! The best hope for these children is to brought home to their homes, not raised in a waiting house.

Please do not deny children a right to a solid, happing family life.

Thousands of children in Ethiopia will die and there is an option for them to be adopted into loving families in a country where they will grow and thrive. Why turn this down??? I am fighting for my daughter and son in law as they approach the final stages of their long (4 yrs) awaited child. Please help!!!

We pray adoptions can be open in Ethiopia!

I feel badly for the couples waiting to adopt and for the children waiting for a family. In America we call this overreaction "Throwing the baby out with the bathwater!"

I hope you will reconsider this legislation, as there are many loving homes that would be happy to provide support for children in your country who may not otherwise have the opportunity to grow up with a family who looks after their needs and education.

As the mother of two adopted children from Ethiopia, I beg you consider other options. If this had been in place at the time of our adoptions, our son may not have survived (due to health concerns in his infancy) and our daughter may not have been eligible (as she was an older child at the time of adoption.) Moreover, our daughter has voiced her desire to return to Ethiopia as an adult and to form her own family through adoption. For her sake and the sake of her children, please reconsider.

Please continue to allow adoptions to take place!

Praying that these sweet children will be placed in homes where they can be loved as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Having been a child of abandonment myself, I have a strong desire to see the orphaned placed in loving, nurturing homes. I pray that we do not make them suffer more for the sin of mankind. They are the innocent ones.

Please continue to provide ethical and legal intercountry adoptions for the sake of the children.

There are many children in need of a loving home. I understand the need for honest and transparent adoption procedures, but children should not suffer for a few agencies mistakes.

We have adopted from Africa. It has enriched our lives, our children's, but most of all our communities. Please give orphaned children hope to have a family.

I have friends who have adopted two beautiful children from Ethiopia and are in the process of adopting more. Please don't limit the chances these children could have to find a good home and become part of a permanent, loving family.

My sweet little boy from Ethiopia has brought so much added love to our family :)

Please reconsider this proposal and in doing so, please think about all of the children who deserve a loving and supportive family. There are families in this world who welcome these children with open and loving arms.

Are you kidding me? This is Vietnam all over again. Yes, get rid of the unethical agencies...but don't bring the whole program to a hault!!! There are so many Ethiopian children that need families - why are you punishing them? Punish the unethical aoption agencies!!! What is wrong with our government?

Please reconsider your decision about adoptions from your country. The need is too great. Thank you for your time.

These orphans need loving families who can take care of them their entire lives. Please don't stop or reduce that from happening

Please help these children find a loving and carig home.

Please allow these children to be adopted.

Praying for reconsideration. My family and I want to help your country and these orphans. God Bless you in this tough decision.

These children NEED good families in America to adopt them and give them safe and healthy lives! Please stop the boycott of adoptions!

When these children are given the chance to live with a loving family, they have the opportunity to grow up and make a difference in their world. I know one family with an Ethiopian child who loves talking about Ethiopia and will go back to visit one day when she grows up. Who knows what good she might be able to do for Ethiopia?

Please allow these children the opportunity to be adopted by the many many loving families who so desire to bless these children with loving family life.

We had a successful ethical adoption. Our son is thriving and loved. Adoption with Ethiopia was a wonderful experience. We would love the opportunity to adopt again. our son is the biggest blessing in our families lives

Please re-consider the extreme action and effect this will have on those of us who are simply waiting and wanting to be parents. With love in my heart, please consider the children.

Please don't make the children suffer for the mistakes of a few. Find another way with help from adoption agencies in other countries.

Please don't reduce the options available to the children for being placed with loving parents.

Please help bring my friend's child home from Ethiopia.

Please allow the adoption process to continue; it is a wonderful thing for couples desiring children and especially for the children who will not have the chance for a loving family without this adoption process. Don't take away their only chance!! Do the right thing.

Please reconsider these drastic cutbacks. There are so many loving families in the United States that would provide the best homes for these little ones. There are also families in the process of adopting and waiting patiently and anxiously for their new family members they have fallen in love with and this could drastically slow the process or even end it!
Please find other ways to protect these children.
Blessings

Let the Kids come Home!

these children should have the oppurtunity of loving homes and families that are able to give children loving homes should be allowed to adopt them.

Thanks for making a difference and continuing to raise the bar.
Be well and God bless.

Do not want to see eligible, needy kids pay the price for mistakes or judgements of others. I support strong verification of eligibility, but for those determined "orphaned" this should not delay or remove the opportunity for a better life be it in Ethiopia or another country.

Please don't take the opportunities away from these poor children. I have one as a granddaughter, and she is thriving beautifully. We encourage her background and heritage. What a wonderful story she has.

There are some wonderful parents that have gone through the entire process to adopt a child in Ethiopia. They have a heart to open their homes to these children. The adoptions should not be shut down. These parents could give the orphans a wonderful, loving home. Please open back up the adoptions!! The children deserve it!

My heart aches at the prospect of children who would be born into this world, only to wait in line for several years before being placed with a loving permanent family. The percentage of amazing, wonderful families waiting for these beautiful children, by far, out weighs the the percentage of those who have abused the system for their own gain. Please pull your resources and partner with other agencies to ensure the safety and well being of each child and their new families.
~ Respectfully ~

PLEASE think of the children and the loving homes and families that await them!

Please do not put roadblocks in the way of childrens happiness. Adoption into loving, caring families is their opportunity for a good life and happy future. Do not take that away from them.

People need parents. The world is changed by committed persons who care.

Please recisider your plan to reduce international adoptions by 90%. Let those who have no parents find parents and let those who desire to help those children be able to adopt them

Please help children find loving families! Don't limit a child's potential of finding a proper home with a loving family due to a political overreaction!

So many people benefit from Ethiopian adoption. Please don't prevent loving families from adopting.

I have many friends who have adopted precious children from Ethiopia and one couple who has been waiting 9 months to receive a call that their children are waiting. Please do not put this new law into effect.

Please do not limit these adoptions. Allow these children to be adopted into forever loving American homes!

LET MY FRIEND'S BABY COME HOME!

We have been patiently awaiting a child to join our family from Ethiopia and this is heartbreaking news to hear that the MoWCY might be reducing intercountry adoptions by 90%. Please reconsider this decision!

There are no borders to the love we are given and share.

Mr. Zenawi -

Your concern about the welfare of Ethiopian children adopted by families outside your country is understood, but I hope you will listen to your heart and know that there are families in the United States who want nothing more than to provide a loving, caring, nuturing home to these children. Put regulations in place to ensure the children are protected from abuse, but please don't deprive these children of a 2nd chance to have a family to support and love them.

Tammy Feist is a loving and deserving mother and has a loving family. This has the potential to be an adoption success story to use as a baseline for all future adoptions from your country, beginning with her ability to meet your petition requirements - due to the amount of people that love her and her family.

We ask that you would please let the children come home! We are praying that God will show you what to do and direct your paths. So many precious children who are voiceless orphans need us to be their voice now. We thank you for all of your work and please let the door remain open to get thousands and thousands more children home to their families who love them so very much. Thank you! We are asking for you to reconsider and to please let these beautiful children come home. Thank you!

Please consider the plight of children in Ethiopia.

The life that comes from Ethiopia is as beautiful as it gets. Please don't take away to opportunity to be parents to the fatherless in Ethiopia!

I think a child would lose out on a lot of love if this happens

Please allow the adoptions to continue!

Please allow families to adopt children to give them a loving, secure home.

We adopted siblings from Ethiopia and are so thankful for them. We are honored to have them as our family and they are so happy. We hope that children like them will continue to be placed in good homes instead of remaining in orphanages.

ALLOW INTERCOUNTRY ADOPTIONS TO FAMILIES WHO WILL GIVE THESE CHILDREN SAFE HOMES!

I think a child would lose out on a lot of love if this happens

I agree with the statements in this petition 100% . Review and prosecute the people that are going around the rules , but why put millions of children on hold from getting care and a possible familyu.

Please don't hinder these precious children from receiving loving homes.

Please think of the kids first.

Please reconsider this action which will drastically affect so many orphaned children.

I am an American citizen and anthropologist living and working in India. My wife and I are in process of adopting one of Ethiopia's precious daughters who is in need of a family to love her, nurture her and invest in her life. Please do not allow the children who truly need families to live out their lives in an institution. We will not only teach our Ethiopian daughter to be proud of her heritage, but also to be a responsible citizen of the world.

Please regulate this process better, do not stop it altogether, the children are the ones who will suffer.

Please reconsider this decision! There are so many people that want to shower these children with love here.

Good Luck!!!

I want to help abuse of the system, but to make ALL the other children suffer is just not a good plan. I pray that there will be another way to keep ALL the children safe, and give them families too!

We have some great parents and kids who need great parents. Please don't keep these families apart!

Please do not institutionalize the children of Ethiopia by restricting international adoptions.

I want to help abuse of the system, but to make ALL the other children suffer is just not a good plan. I pray that there will be another way to keep ALL the children safe, and give them families too!

Please do not eliminate the right for Ethiopian children to gain permanent families. Please accept the partnerships offered by NGO's, governments and foundations in order to ensure ethical adoptions.

Please don't reduce the number of children that are able to be adopted from this beautiful country.

Our church has started Bright Hope school in Ethiopia and a number of our church family have adopted children from Ethiopia. I sincerely hope intercountry adoptions are not halted. I do believe there is corruption but that it is not as rampant as believed. Please allow these children to be adopted out. Thank you.

Please continue to allow adoption of orphaned Ethiopian children to families that are desiring to bring them into loving and caring homes.

I am writing this on behalf of thousands of couples that are hoping to adopt a beautiful orphan child in desperate need.

Thank you,
Dwight Yoder
Kirkland, WA USA

I see many of the Ethiopian children in our area. They are beloved by their parents, happy and healthy. Please allow the children to have families who love them.

I THINK THE REDUCTION OF ADOPTIONS WILL BE TOO MUCH.

Please reconsider your decision for the many lives of these precious children and the loving families that God has called upon to open their hearts and homes to.

We are in the process of adopting a 3 year old little boy Fetene that has autism and other medical needs. He still can not walk and has never talked. We have the medical resources to help him and want to give him a family and help him live a full and healthy life. Where he is now he will never get that.

Please reconsider the decision to reduce adoptions, please.

Thank you :)
Ruthie Just

As an Ethiopian now living in the US the ability to adopt from my homeland was so important to me. We are now the proud parents of healthy, happy 3 year old twins. We urge a reconsideration of the proposal and instead urge tighter control and oversight of the agencies involved with appropriate measures taken to address corruption.

Please do not punish the millions of children in need of loving families for the corrupt actions of adults.

Please allow the many children who need loving parents to be adopted to other countries.

Every child deserves a family. Please don't limit the possibilities of this due to international issues. Put the childs needs before political needs.

Please let these children go to all the waiting families that are more then willing to open their hearts and homes.

I know culture is important to children, but they won't survive in Ethiopia. Let these children have loving homes and a chance to live and not die of unnecessary causes such as hunger, diarrhea, and aids.

Give the kids a chance!

We are in the process of adopting two children who were abandoned on the streets in Ethiopia. All adoptions must be legit and completely legal, but don't punish the children by halting the process or slowing it down so they must spend more time away from loving families!

God bless the children.

think of the children who need families!

God Bless You All !!

Tara and Jon are great. They will really love and care for their child.

Prayers that all children find loving supportative homes to reach their full potential

Adoption gives a chance at a new life for children without parents. Please allow NGO's to continue choosing qualified and positive homes for these children so that they have a chance at a new life with a loving family.

Please allow these children to find the homes they need. Do not cut back on adoptions!

My Nephew and Niece our wonderful parents.

My heart is hurting for the children who so desperately need a family and for the families who so desperately are wanting these children.

Please lift this restriction so these beautiful children can find loving homes.

Children need families to love, educate, nurture, and teach them to grow up to be working adults.

Why make it more difficult for orphans to find homes? Please reconsider this action. Praying for God's will to be done.

Thank you for your consideration in this matter!

As an adoptive mother of a dear little girl who was abandoned in Ethiopia, please reconsider this policy. Our adoption opened our eyes to the crisis of orphans and we have since returned twice to help those in need in Ethiopia. Bringing home our daughter has been brought o much awareness and therre are many families waiting to help the helpless children of Ethiopia. We beg you not to reduce intercountry adoption as this is the only hope for many waiting children1

It would be a shame to deny children a loving, secure, and stable home!

Please do not curtail the adoption of the children who need to be placed in homes that are able to love and care for them. We are especially concerned about the girls that the Tim Barn's family are preparing for. May you be helpful in providing these girls a happy and good home.

Thank you for your consideration in this matter!

For the Lamz who want their little girl home.

Lets keep helping the children.

It is hard to understand why you would not want the best for your precious little ones. Someone who could feed , cloth and love them every day.

Please allow the children parents to raise them, please!! Please!!

I think all children have a right to have loving parents no matter where they from.

Let the children leave so they can have a good home in the USA.

Please reconsider!

Please allow these children to be adopted by a family that will give and show them so much love. I roof over their heads, food in their stomaches and medical supplies and bills to be paid. A good school and to learn other cultures. Please give these children an opporunity to live a full and wonderful life with people who will give them so much love and care for them.

I think it is great that you are trying to stop the illegal trafficking of children, but hope that you will work to find a way to let the orphans that DO need families, to be allowed to be adopted.

As an adopted child myself, I realize the importance of having a family. Please consider and respond to our petitions.

It is a shame that the best interests of the children are being neglected for the sake of the best interests of the country. Do the Ethiopian politicians not know that that their beautiful country is thought of more highly as a result of earnestly seeking the aid of others. And that most people in the world want to help children in need. Such a move as this makes people think less of countries because they are not allowing people to meet the needs of the most vulnerable in that country.

Meles ,
We are asking for a reconsideration of the proposed change of MOWA procedures.. Thanks so much and may god bless your hearts.
Blessings,
Amber Peck Collier

Please allow the adoptions of these children in need. Thank you.

These kids have a chance for loving families. Please don't take that away.

Tell me how these children are going to be adopted in their own country????

We acknowledge that when abuses happen, it is a tragedy. These abuses must be addressed in an effective and lasting way. However, it is also tragic for orphans to grow up without family, when so many loving families are seeking to adopt. Let's not swap one tragedy for another, but work to find solutions to the abuses.

I personally know a couple who are in the process of trying to adopt an Ethiopian child from an orphanage. They are excellent, honorable people who just want to give this child a good home.

Please continue to allow adopttions to proceed!

Please allow these children to be helped. Let them grow up in a good place. I know several children who came to America from Ethiopia who are living fine here and their families love them. Please protect the children.

Please reconsider your recent decision on adoptions. I have visited your country as a tourist and loved your people and your children. Your country and its' history is wonderful. Children who are adopted are ambassadors for Ethiopia.

Innocent children should not be abandoned especially when there are families here that truly want take them in and give them a good home and future.

Fixing a system that so intimately involves the lives of many children and high-quality parents should be done gradually and carefully, not all at once with little consideration.

Please, take a year, have someone study the actual problems and the effective solutions. Making a quick 90% change for ill-considered reasons is unlikely to do anything but cause pain.

Please reconsider

Please, please, please reconsider this decision. There are very sincere people who want to love and raise your very needy children!

PLEASE continue to allow easy adoptions thru ethiopia to the greater US. Blessings

Please reconsider this - I know so many are waiting and it would be sad to see them wait so much longer!

We believe every child deserves the chance to have a loving family.

Please allow adoptions to help save the Children.

Please reconsider this slow down in the adoption paperwork. We had to wait 3 1/2 long years to adopt our little girl from China. We would have loved to be able to share our home and family life with her sooner. There are hundreds of good families waiting to share their love with these precious children.

I ask on behalf of children to give them a chance to live a life of happiness, of love, and a life of fulfillment. Being raised in abused isn't any of these things. I too was adopted and it changed my life forever! I have seen for myself how I am different than my own siblings because of adoption. They live and raise their own kids the same as they were. I however have not taken that path! Please learn from those that know first hand, make a difference while you can. Thank you so much!!

My friend is on the waiting list to adopt a baby girl and there could not be a more loving home waiting for her. Please don't stop these children from having the opportunity to find loving families and change their lives forever.

In November 2009, my husband and I proudly brought 6 month old Ethiopian twins into our home and family. As it was, we waited 3 years for this to occur. We love them and cannot immagine our lives without them. Knowing how long our process took, our family implores you to reconsider your staffing at the MOWA. There are so many families like ours who eagerly await bringing home their children. Reduction in staff will slow that to a very painful pace. Please help the thousands of families.

My wife and I are approximately 2/3rds through the adoption process with Ethiopia, and have been anxiously waiting for a child match. This is very somber news, and will be prayerful during this decision making that God's will prevails.

Please reconsider your plan.

May God give you His wisdom as you lead your country and make such critical decisions on behalf of Ethiopian children and families. God bless you and your beautiful country.

Please reconsider this action!

These children need homes, doesn't matter what countries the homes may be. Limiting adoption only makes it harder for the children. Think about all the homes that will be taken away from these kids that deserve them. Make the right choice.

For the Reiner family & all the other families who are desperately waiting to make the world "ONE LESS"! We love you Tim & Erika!

My husband and I are just beginning the process to adopt from Ethiopia. God has worked on our hearts to provide a family for a child in Ethiopia through our close relationships with those that have gone before us! We pray that God would soften the hearts of those making decisions. That they would see His hand in this work!

I think this is unjust to the children of Ethiopia and the good loving families waiting to adopt them.

Many more Ethiopian children will die from starvation and disease, which is cruel and inhumane treatment of a human being, especially when there are families willing to take them in and save them from the life of pain and suffering, they are doomed to have.

Please reconsider your decision to cutback on adoptions.

Please also allow anyone that is in the process of adopting to continue.

I know and love several Ethiopian children who have been adopted and given a second chance at life thanks to international adoption. Many of these children would not be alive if it weren't for international adoption. Please don't take life away from these sweet, helpless children.

Please don't implement restrictions.

We understand that you must protect your nation's children against frauds and criminals. Our hearts ache for these violations of trust and welfare, and support your reforms. We also pray that these problems may quickly be resolved, and that relations between these orphans and adopting parents may soon be restored.

Thank you for your goal to ensure ethical adoptions. But please reconsider your plan to reduce intercountry adoption and consider a partnership with governments, NGO's and foundations.

Please reconsider the new restrictions being placed on international adoptions. There are so many parents in other countries that can provide a warm, loving environment for your beautiful children and we would feel blessed to be able to do so.

Please do not take this hasty action! There are so many children that will be left without loving permanent families for a longer time. This is an inappropriate response to isolated cases of misuse. This will hinder ethical adoptions and ultimately hurts the children of Ethiopia. Our daughter, born in Ethiopia, is a joy and blessing to our family. We love Ethiopia and it's people! Please don't prevent other kids from joining families waiting to care for them and the country of their birth.

I have close friends who are very sincere in their love of Ethopia and their desre to adopt a child from your country. Please do not take this honor and privilage from them. They would be most grateful.

We have two adopted children from Ethiopia. They are amazing and would have suffered life on the streets without adoption.

Please, please reconsider. So many children need a home. The victims in this decision are the children who want and need a family.

We adopted our beautiful daughter Shewaye, 4 years ago from Ethiopia, at the age of 3. She has been the most blessed gift of our lives, along with our biological son. She is healthy, smart, beautiful, kind, loving. and happy!
Please give other families like ours a chance to love a child who needs a family!

Please allow willing parents to adopt. Why hurt the children?

Children in Ehtiopia do not have a future without this.

We adopted three pre-teen kids last year. It would be tragedy if 3 million children who are wanted are not available for adoption.

Having been through an adoption before, we know that it is vital to have that child with their forever family as soon as possible. It affects everything from their attachment to all aspects of their development. Please do what is best for children and keep the process moving as quicky as possible so that these precious children can be united with their forever families and begin their lifelong journey of growth. Thank you for your consideration.

I know two Ethiopian boys who were adopted and created a wonderful family here in the United States. Their adoption was completed thoroughly and will great integrity.

How sad that a country would rather reduce the number of intercountry adoptions than have their children loved and nurtured by caring parents.

Dear Sirs and Madams,

Please carefully consider your actions at this time and leave your mind and hearts open to adoption. As an adoptive mother myself, I can tell you I love my child with all my heart and soul. It pains me to think of other children who could have a home and don't. Please allow good families to love your children. Keep adoption open. It won't be a decision you regret when one day children return to their homes full of thanks for the sacrificial love you showed them.

Please consider all of the children that are waiting to be matched with families. Many of them will die from infection and disease that could be prevented if they are taken out of the orphanage and into a loving family.

Adopting our son Zelalem from Ethiopia has been a true blessing. His family was unable to provide food for him on a daily basis, nor were they able to send him to school. All living relatives declined to take care of Zelalem, which meant he would have ended up on the streets and alone and hungry. It is a privilege for us to care for and call Zelalem our son. We thank the Ethioipian Ministry of Women's, Children's, and Youth Affairs for allowing this adoption to take place.

All children should be granted the right to a good life, to a bright and healthy future, and the right to be loved.

The Ministry’s plan to reduce intercountry adoption by 90% is a tragic, unnecessary and a disproportionate reaction to concerns of isolated abuses in the intercountry adoption process.

We support the Ministry’s goal of ensuring ethical adoptions that serve the best interest of children and serve all vulnerable children & families.

We respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry ad

Please don't deny the many Ethiopian children in need the opportunity for better lives.

There are many families in the US that welcome the opportunity to love and care for these children.

We have been waiting for a court date for our two sons for over 3 months. Please don't delay this process even further. We have been trying to start our Family for 5 years now.

Please allow inter-country adoptions. Give all these children a chance to have life.

Give these kids a chance.

.

Let these children go to loving forever homes.

We are in the process of adopting an infant girl from Ethiopia and thought of those waiting children having to sit for years before having a family to love them breaks our hearts!!

While I think it is great to stop corruption! They need to weed out the problem areas and not punish the good!

many great families are wanting to love your children and many children are in need of families. please continue to help the two groups to come together for the benefit of all.

These children need loving families.

There are a lot of families waiting to be able to hold their children they are adopting. Please make that happen quickly!

To Whom It May Concern:

We have been waiting to adopt a child from Ethiopia for over two years precisely because we believe that the process is well run and organized in Ethiopia.

We ask that you reconsider your position regarding decreasing international adoption.

We support those who are trying to legally adopt from Ethiopa. Please think of the families who are trying to adopt children legitimately, this is devastating to them!

Children deserve to move quickly to families who love and care for them.

Please help these babies. Give them freedom to be adopted and go to homes with people who want to love them!

Pleas Do NOT limit the number of intercountry adoptions. Those children, and the adoptive parents need each other. The children will have a future by being adopted. Personally, I don't believe the children in orphanages have an opportunity to thrive and grow to their full potential.

Pleas Do NOT limit the number of intercountry adoptions. Those children, and the adoptive parents need each other. The children will have a future by being adopted. Personally, I don't believe the children in orphanages have an opportunity to thrive and grow to their full potential.

My brother and sister-in-law have been waiting for a child to bring into their home for over 2.5 years. They began their journey to a child in Nepal, but the Nepalese government took dramatic action as well. The effect of that action, as well as the proposed action in Ethiopia, is keeping loving parents from offering a stable loving home to a child who may not have such opportunities. Please consider the harm such action will have on kids who could have a wonderful loving family to go to.

Aoption is such a great tool to advance God's Kindom, and it is so wrong not to do so. Why let children be orphans, when there are family all over the world that could care for them? Do not let them suffer no more!

tammy is a great mother & any child she adopt5swill be fortunate.

Please Lord Jesus, let these orphans go to the families that will love them forever wherever they are. You are the God of the orphan, help us pray and work on behalf of them.

God has loaned us His children and we are responsible for their love and care on this earth. It does not matter whether they are our biological children or adopted - they still are a gift given to us to handle with much love and care.

Please don't hurt the children by denying them the loving homes waiting for them!

Why let a child suffer if there are options?

To cut off adoptions in a country where there are so many people living in poverty and confronting famine, seems a cruel and inhumane policy for the babies and young children needing adoption.

People are willing to care for unwanted children all over the world. Children are a blessing from the LORD. Bless these children by allowing them a home with a family who wants them, please.

Your desire to protect the Ethiopian children is very important! However, there are so many wholesome, wonderful families that I know personally with a deep desire and calling to adopt these orphans. Please reconsider your decision and let these children be adopted into forever families!

We are waiting to adopt a special needs child from Ethiopia. We want our and every adoption to be ethical. We hope this is just a temporary change to improve the process.

Praying for Ministry to achieve balance to benefit the many Ethiopian children who need a wholesome family...

Please find other ways to bring ethics to the adoption process. Punish the agencies and families who are breaking the law, not the poor innocent children who so desperately need a home and a family.

I hope we can get this program to stay open the way it is, it helps so many children and parents so they can get their forever families. I am someone who gave a child to a forever family and know the feeling that it gives to the family. My cousin also adopted 2 children from out of the country and gave them a forever family and this is something that needs to be continued.

Please do not slow down adoptions in Ethiopia.

Do the best thing for the kids.

Please give these children a chance at life.

We have to fight for those who cannot speak for themselves.

As a parent waiting for our adoption referral from Ethiopia - please do not reduce the number of International Adoptions. Please let us give an orphan a forever home.

To God be the Glory!

As an adoption professional, I fully support your country's desire to protect children from being exploited. However, by dramatically limiting the number of children who are adopted, I fear so many children will be hurt by this. I hate to see any child have to stay in an orphanage longer than necessary. Please consider other ways of accomplishing the same goal of protecting your kids.

We support efforts to eliminate any corruption for the sake of the children, but believe this should be done while continuing to process applications. We are greatly blessed with 2 Ethiopian girls in our family and have no further plans to adopt. The true orphans of Ethiopia need families.

Please don't shut off adoptions!

Please take into account the welfare of the many kids that suffer from broken homes.

Homes come in many shapes and sizes. But the children can fill any home with love, laughter and tears when embraced by a loving parent. Many parents are willing, let the children come to the warmth of these new homes.

Shuting down this program would be a horrible disaster for the members of families who just want a child to love and care for and for the child who would benefit not only from the love of these families but also to be able to live. It is so heartbreaking to know that these innocent children have to suffer and some will even die at the hands of immorally corupt individuals. Please give the children and families a chance to give love to a children...they are so deserving.

Please allow intercountry adoptions to continue. Children need families.

My Ethiopian twins were waiting children. They are thriving in our family and have access to medical care that has made a difference in their lives. We have every reason to believe their adoption was ethical. We are honored to be their parents and they are a blessing to our family.

We have amazing friends that are in the midst of their adoption right now. Limiting the number of adoptions so drastically would be tragic. There are wonderful families waiting to bring these children home and provide them with love and securtiy.

Please continue to work with other governments and countries to find homes for the children who have been orphaned. Don't limit their opportunities to have permanant homes and families!!

I respectfully request that you reconsider this extreme measure. I gratefully appreciate the efforts to restructure the intercountry adoption process in Ethiopia, but stress that the impact of this measure is an unnecessary, negative step. Many WONDERFUL families who are waiting to love a child would be unnecessarily stripped of their dream to parent a child in need. Please do NOT pass this. Thank you.

Many children need families and many people in the USA are waiting to begin theirs. Most families have spent years filling out paper work and waiting, please help these children find homes with the families that want them and have been longing to complete their family! The opportunites in the USA are fantastic, and the children will thrive!

There are many wonderful families who take the very best care of their adopted children waiting to bring one of these children into their homes. I know a handful personally and urge you to not keep them or the wonderful children in need of a home waiting too long.

Children are a gift from God. There are so many families in the US who long meet, hold, nurture and protect this gift. Please do everything in your power to make this possible for the children's sake!

Please allow the adoption of the precious children who need a home filled with love.

These children need a loving home!

Prime Minister of Ethiopia,
I respectfully beg you to reconsider this position to reduce intercountry adoption by 90%.

Please allow the adoption process to go forward so these children may have a family here to love them and provide for them. Families are waiting to love these children so I pray adoptions will open up and move quickly.

Feel the love received and given by the warmth of the child's cheek pressed against that of the new parents. Please consider making that moment possible sooner rather then later as the childs positive development depends upon it.
Thanks for listening. Joe Gottbrath

I have seen first hand the love that these children are receiving and it is amazing. Please continue to allow these children to be adopted by people who only want to love a child and give them a better life.

For your children, our hearts truly desire to be a family and love the children who desperately need a home.

Please continue to allow intercountry adoption to continue. Lives are being saved.

These poor kids who have nobody- should have a family that loves them and can better care for them. Please do not reduce these adoptions, It hurts the kids and the families so willing to take care of them.

Dear Sirs: Please reconsider the intercountry adoption of children from Ethiopia. Our son & daughter-in-law are already in the process and we are so looking forward to bringing our precious little granddaughter to the United States to love and help nuture her. Their court date is set for March 18th

Please don't do this.

Please allow these orphans a chance at being loved and well taken care of.

Please allow these children without homes, the protection and love, a family can give to take care of them and love them as every child desires and needs .

This decision MUST be reversed - this is a terrible tragedy for couples waiting to get a child and even moreso for children hoping for a loving family.

Please do not limit adoptions to the International community

Let's protect those who can't protect themselves. A loving home with a mom and a dad is crucial to the development of children. Adoption and orphan care is good for everyone, especially the children.

Please reconsider your actions on adption!

We urge MoWCY to reconsider there decision. The effects of this decision spread far beyond just adoptions. Our hearts are for the people and children of your beautiful country.

Our Ethiopian born children are a blessing to us and were able to receive needed medical care upon their homecoming. I pray other children and families will experience the life and joy we have.

We urge thoughtful, incremental response that appreciates the impact of any changes upon all the children it will affect.

By all means, focus attention on the kids that are not eligible for inter-country adoption. But at the same time please do not neglect the one who are eligible!! Please allow those children to be received into their "forever families!"

May God bless you and keep you!

Every child deserves the opportunity to be loved and cared for!

I respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry adoption. My children would like to adopt a child from Ethiopia and provide this child a safe, loving and nurturing home and family.

My daughter and son-in-law have anticipated their adoption from Ethopia for close to a year. This is devastating news and they are positive that someone in this country will realize that this is closing the door for loving homes to those most in need.

We believe all children should have an opportunity for good family life and care when there are people who are happy to care for them.

Orphans need a forever family!

Please do not sacrifice the millions of Ethiopian children who need and deserve families. There are so... many loving, willing, ethical families and agencies. It doesn't take a village ... it takes the world. Please do not close or reduce inter-country adoption for Ethiopia.

Eliminating adoption via this legislation would be a travesty. I know several adopted children from Ethiopia, and I'd hate to think of them back in the orphanage without a home, parents or siblings.

Please reconsider this policy.

We have adopted twice from Ethiopia (3 children) and we personally know of the desperate need of children to find families.

These children deserve a chance

The thought of kids going to unsuitable, even dangerous homes is unthinkable and must be avoided but the thought of stopping all the wonderful families in other countries that are willing to give these lonely children a loving home where they can belong in also tragic. You don't have to forfeit one for the other, just do your homework on the prospective families properly with diligence and sincerity.

Please reconsider reversing the decision to reduce the number of international adoptions approved on a daily basis.

My bestfriend is waiting on her daughter. This is an amazing family. This Ethiopian child would be BLESSED beyond measure to raise this girl. PLEASE do not slow the rate of adoptions in Ethiopia.

I believe that ALL children deserve a chance to have a family who loves them. If that doesn't come from the country they were born in then let open adoption be that chance.

Our very good friends are such lovely people and adopted from Ethiopia three years ago. They would love to adopt again. They have made a beautiful home for their son.

I completely understand the concerns but urge the country to work with other countries' authorities to put measures in place while overseeing what's best for all children.

i am a dance teacher and have 3 sisters in one class who were adopted from Ethiopia. they are some of the happiest, well-rounded young ladies i know

Please don't reduce the amount of cases tou see our children are still there! Please let us bring them home!

Please do not stop persons in other parts of the world form adopting orphans...there really are lots of Christian brothers and sisters that I personally know that only want the best for these children. They want to give them the love that they will never experience otherwise.

We personally know kind, ethical parents who are unable to have children of their own and dream of adopting from your beautiful country. We also know parents who are in the process of adoption from Ethiopia and have spread wonderful words about your country and its people. Please reconsider these limits on adoptions.

Madam Director,

I understand and applaud your desire to protect the children of Ethiopia from abuses of the adoption process your Ministry has established. Please know, however, that decreasing the number of adoptions allowed from your country will have the opposite effect of your good intentions. Slowing adoptions by 90% will force many orphans, against their will, from ever being part of a loving family and will likely condemn them to a life of institutional living.

Please do not do this.

Please reconsider this huge reduction in adoptions. There must be another way to improve the process. Children need families.

The Ministry’s plan to reduce intercountry adoption by 90% is a tragic, unnecessary and a disproportionate reaction to concerns of isolated abuses in the intercountry adoption process.

We support the Ministry’s goal of ensuring ethical adoptions that serve the best interest of children and serve all vulnerable children & families.

We respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry ad

I think the few cases that have received negative attention does not properly reflect the true heart behind the majority of adoptions. Many families want to adopt and love children, especially if they can't have any on their own. These kids need a loving family to care for them, not a system/government.

Please do not sacrifice the millions of children who need and deserve families. There are so many loving, willing, ethical families and agencies. It doesn't take a village ... it takes the world. Please do not close or reduce inter-country adoption for Ethiopia. Respectfully from ... An Adoptive Mother with an Ethiopian child.

For the children of Ethiopia, please consider working with others to help these little ones to have a home. Thank you.

I support the Ministry’s goal of ensuring ethical adoptions that serve the best interest of children and serve all vulnerable children & families, however, the cases of abuse are rare compared to the joy filled homes the children enter and are loved and cherished by their families.


We respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive state of adoption.

The Ministry’s plan to reduce intercountry adoption by 90% is a tragic, unnecessary and a disproportionate reaction to concerns of isolated abuses in the intercountry adoption process.

We support the Ministry’s goal of ensuring ethical adoptions that serve the best interest of children and serve all vulnerable children & families.

We respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry ad

There are many loving families in America waiting for children to love and care for. Please let adoptions continue.

Every child deserves a family.

please support adoption for all children who need families!

It is good to ensure the safety, happiness and health of your children. However, by partnering with current adoption agencies, you can still do that without decreasing the number of children who are placed in healthy, happy families. Please consider doing this.

International adoption is a wonderful alternative for children without homes. Our 3 adopted children are now adults with their own families and are happy, health, well adjusted adults who grew up in a loving home. Please allow other children to have this same experience. Thank You.

Please help these children find forever homes.

There are many children who need loving parents and many loving parents who can offer these children a warm, caring home.
If this action is taken many children will never know what it is like to live with a parent who will love them and help them throughout life. Do not let the few abusive people destroy the lives of all the needy children. Please reconsider your actions.

I am the mother to 4 beautiful older children all born in Ethiopia whose fate would have been very bleak if not for the lifeline of intercountry adoption. We love Ethiopia and its beautiful people!

We personally know a very loving couple who are eagerly awaiting to bring their two babies home. Please allow them to bring them home quickly!

Please allow these children to be adopted by parents who can love and support them and their needs.

I know a wonderful family who wants to adopt. Please seek to find other ways to ensure ethical adoptions other than shutting down the adoption process for thousands.

God is in control. Please give these babies the life they deserve. Will be praying

every child should have a chance to have a loving family.

We personally know a very loving couple who are eagerly awaiting to bring their two babies home. Please allow them to bring them home quickly!

There are so many children in need of good families. Please do not hurt so many because of the wrong doings of so few.

Please don't reduce the number of adoptions for the sake of the children. These children are precious and should be given every opportunity to have a home and family. Thanks!

My wife and I adopted our son Kato in 2007 from Ethiopia. What he has done for our family is nothing short of amazing. He is truely a God send. There is not one day that goes by that I don't thank the country of Ethiopia for allowing him to bless our family and friends.

I adopted from China in 2005 and my life long dream of becoming a mother was fulfilled. Our daughter is blossoming into a beautiful human being and we feel blessed that we are able to bring her up.

As an adoptive mother of an Ethiopian child I strongly plead with you to reconsider the proposal to reduce the adoptions from Ethiopia. My child was severely burned in an Ethiopian orphanage and we were able to give him excellent medical care in the USA for his burns. He is now a happy and healthy child and we are so pleased to have him.

Please don't deny your most fragile citizens the opportunity of a loving family.

So many orphans are waiting on good homes, why put a hold on the amount of homes available? Two of the most loving, caring, compasionate people I know (Stacy & David Peters) are trying to make a difference in the lives of a child, which will ultimately make a difference in their lives as well. I strongly support their decision to adopt and believe that nothing should stand in their way.

If good people in America would like to adopt Ethiopian children who are in need of a family, why not let them? Many American families are not fertile and cannot make their own children, so they then turn to adoption. The families will care for these adopted children as their own and provide them with a warm and loving place to live with higher educational opportunities that they may otherwise receive if they remain in an orphanage in their home country.

We have 5 children adopted from Ethiopia, ranginng in age from 7-13. These children were true orphans, 4 of them residing in an orphanage for 2 years before we brought them home. Their lives were tragic in Ethiopia but they are now flourishing. They are all kind, compassionate children who really needed the love of a family. Please do not limit the number of adoptions out of ET. We realize that adoption is not the only answer but it is one answer for the children there.

Dear Prime Minister Zenawi,
Many Christian families in the United States are ready to welcome orphans into safe and loving homes. We believe these children are precious to you and to God, and we want to give them parents and brothers and sisters who love them. We humbly ask you to continue allowing us to adopt children from Ethiopia into our families. We trust God to guide you as you seek to do what is best. Thank you for hearing our requests.

We are in the process of adopting siblings from Ethiopia are scared about what this may mean for our wait and also for the future of adoption in Ethiopia.

Please allow these orphans to be adopted by people who love them and who will provide for their individual needs! Thank you for doing everything you can to make Ethiopia strong again!

Please do not limit the adoptions. We are willing to give loving, caring homes for the orphans fo the world.

Please allow all current adoptions that have started the process to be completed. The affects many kids and families here in U.S that love their future kids.

Please do not punish thousands of children deserving a loving home of their own. There are other ways to improve the adoption system rather than systematically ruining the futures of children by reducing adoption numbers. Be courageous and find a better solution that doesn't increase the suffering of children.

I think the corruption should be looked into and they should allow as many adoptions as possible to help the country and the children.

We adopted an abandoned baby from Ethiopia. We would love to adopt again from Ethiopia and hope the option would remain open.

It is ashame that people would try to prohibit the things that good come out of!

I have personally seen the huge blessing and benefit to an Ethiopian child being adopted into an American family. I can't imagine the need to keep these children from their forever families, no matter where that family lives. Please reconsider and change this mandate. Don't make the children suffer for that a few unethical people have gotten away with.

We are glad to report that our grandson Masamo is thriving and growing here. All who meet him are impressed by his good cheer and quick learning. He is a great ambassador for Ethiopia. We thank you all for enabling him to become a part of our family in Ohio. We encourage Ethiopia to keep the doors open to loving adoptive families.

There are children who are suffering in hunger, malnutrition, feeling abandoned, and will not be able to be adopted into a loving family if this petition is ignored. Want to do what is best for the orphans? Punish those who have abused the adoption process but allow orphaned children to continue to be adopted.

Please let these children have homes.

Knowing you are loved by your family is the greatest gift one can give to a child. Let these children have the opportunity to grow and flourish in homes filled with love.

Help save kids lives!

My brothers are Ethiopian, and there are so many other children who need homes! Please continue to allow families to bring children into their homes.

For the sake of the children, please help!

There are children in need in Ethiopia and families in need in the world. Let's help to bring them together. One world, one family.

I could not imagine our lives without our Ethiopian children in them. And, I could not imagine what their lives would have been if they had to stay there. Our son that came to us at age 6 grew 6 in. and 3 shoe sizes the first year. He was mal-nourished. What kind of life do they have if they have to stay and live like that. Today is a sad day hearing about this.

Thank-you for considering.

Please stop.

My friend Chrissy adopted a 3 year old from Ethiopia last year and it has been WONDERFUL for everyone involved! He is such a blessing, and Chrissy is a great mom to him. They BOTH are benefitting! How sad to take this chance away from so many people!

Please put the politics aside and think of the children who need a forever family.

My friends are called to adopt a child from Ethiopia. I want to help them bring her home.

Please keep adoption open.

Our family has been so blessed to adopt six children from Ethiopia. Our experience with our children and this gracious country has been so beneficial to our extended family as well as our community. I wish for others this wonderful experience to interact with Ethiopia and the Ethiopian children. It would be so sad to have so many miss out on this incredible blessing. I implore the ministry to consider the joys that occur with intercountry adoption.

Please reconsider your decision to limit foreign adoptions from Ethiopia. I love my son and cannot imagine living without him. Consider the well being of the children, especially the children whose Ethiopian parents cannot be located, the true orphans. My son was found abandoned under a tree and now has a wonderful family. We love Ethiopia and strive to teach our son to love his birth country as well.

Children deserve a home...a family... and to be loved. Sadly orphanages cannot fulfill the void left by parents...They deserve a home whether in country or out!
I have 3 adopted children (from the states). My husband has been to Haiti 3 times in a year and seen the devastation...the orphanages... the starving children and wonders how in the world can anyone deny them a home???? Sad! Very Sad!!!!

Please reconsider these dramatic changes...We were blessed to adopt our daughter from EThiopia in 2010 and it is with joy and love that we embrace Ethiopia and our daughter's culture. We know that the millions of children in Ethiopia who need a family will benefit from ethical adoption laws, but please consider the changes you are proposing and allow for more than just five cases to be heard per day. The children who are waiting and referred to families need to have your support.

I fully support all efforts to reduce corruption in adoption, which is a crime. However, I sincerely hope that these efforts won`t reduce a child's right to a loving family. As the proud parents of an Ethiopian child, we feel a profound attachment to Ethiopia - her people, history and culture.

Please reconsider the Ministry's plan and do not reduce intercountry adoption by 90%. Thank you.

I have a wonderful friend waiting for her children and I hope this petition will help her adoption continue on schedule. She is a wonderful parent of three of her own children who is counting the days to meet her next two babies.

Please work to support those adoption programs which have the children's best interests in mind -- as well as the interests of Ethiopian families. Adoption can continue to help build strong families in Ethiopia and in other countries. There is much love to give and receive.

Why reduce when there are so many people willing and able to give a child a loving home?

I am a social worker who has partnered with families and legitimate international agencies to find families for Ethiopian children who really do not have a family to nurture them through adulthood and beyond. It saddens me to think so many children who desperately need families will be left in orphanages because of the terrible actions of a few. Let us focus on fixing the system, not abolishing it...for the best interest of a child is to grow up in a loving family!

We have adopted two wonderful children from Ethiopia. We are fully behind ensuring ethical adoption pratices but are saddened to hear that intercountry adoption is being reduced so drastically. There are vulnerable children needing families and not all adoptions are unethical. Please reconsider this decision.

A wonderful couple I know well is hoping to - and working hard to - bring home an orphaned child from Ethiopia, and making that child part of their loving family. Please don't block their efforts; please help them provide a secure. loving family for a needy child.

The Ministry’s plan to reduce intercountry adoption by 90% is a tragic, unnecessary and a disproportionate reaction to concerns of isolated abuses in the intercountry adoption process.

We support the Ministry’s goal of ensuring ethical adoptions that serve the best interest of children and serve all vulnerable children & families.

We respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry adopti

PLEASE DO NOT REDUCE THE ADOPTION RATE. LOVING FAMILIES WANT AND NEED CHILDREN AND THE CHILDREN OF ETHIOPIA NEED LOVING FAMILIES. TAKE A HARD LOOK AT THE OTHER WAYS TO STOP THE "BAD" ADOPTIONS!

so many families waiting to love on these kids, please help provide loving homes for these orphans.....

I have a friend who has recently adopted a child from Ghana. The child and my friend are equally blessed to have each other. Do not make the adoption process more difficult than it is -- make it easy to unite children with families who will love them, take care of them and give them a wonderful future!

I have seen many children from Ethiopia come home to loving, caring homes and would hate to think that other children in need of a family might be denied this opportunity. Each of the families with whom I have worked are providing wonderful opportunities for their Ethiopian children to be invloved in activities and groups to help them preserve their heritage and learn to appreciate their native culture.

I personally know two families with Ethiopian born children and two families who are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. All four families are WONDERFUL and SOLID. These children have a LOVING home and family. The children in these families are SO HAPPY and HEALTHY. You would smile and be so pleased if you could meet these families and see the LOVE and JOY these children are blessed with.

There are wonderful, healthy, caring families ready to take care of children who need them.

I respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry adoption. Rather than eliminate the right of Ethiopian children to a permanent family, we encourage the Ministry to accept the partnerships offered by governments, NGOs, and foundations.

There are many wonderful families looking to help children who would otherwise continue to live lives of quiet desperation. This isn't about whether poverty or riches should decide a child's fate but the chances for a child to obtain happiness and quality of life, including food, shelter, clothing, medical care, permanency, and love.

I know several wonderful people who are currently trying to adopt. It would be a tragdy to deny a child a loving home.

I am a parent of two adopted girls from China.

We adopted a sibling group of 5 Ethiopian children a little over four years ago (ages 13, 10, 8, 7 & 5 in 2006) and their lives and our lives have been forever changed for the better because they are part of our family.

Please do not prevent other Ethiopian orphans from becoming part of a permanent family.

these children need loving homes, do not let this go by, these are gods children.

My best friend has already adopted from Ethiopia and they are trying to adopt a second child (this week!) They are loving, honest, stable and the little girl (their daughter) is happier than ever. I'd love to see them have the opportunity to adopt from Ethiopia again. Please don't take this away from them. They are good people and have been doing "everything right" to comply with the process. Everyone will benefit from their ability to adopte from Ethiopia. Please reconsider your position.

Praying for these babies who desperately need homes. Praying for our baby cousin Josiah. Praying he comes home soon.

I think international adoption is a clear choice when it comes to children living without parents in their home country. Adoptive parents can provide financial, emotional and lifelong support for kids who otherwise would be in an institution.

Please do not slow down the adoption process. These children need families, and the longer the process takes, the longer it takes for these children to find a forever family.

I believe in responsible government action, but this restriction goes too far. My family is waiting on a court hearing. Keep praying for a change of heart.

I have adopted three Children from Ethiopia. My children have been a blessing beyond measure. Every day I spend with them more precious than gold. Please consider other ways to put an end to the tragedy of child trafficking.

I strongly support this petition. The care of the children is of utmost importance.

Please allow these children a future in a TIMELY manner.

I know many beautiful families (including my own) who have been forever blessed by adoption. Please don't take from a child the hope and love of adoption.

On behalf of the children of Ethiopia who can have a better life through adoption and the families who have given up time, money, and most of all their heart, we ask that you reconsider this reduction of intercountry adoptions and research other venues in correcting the corruption in this process.

On behalf of the Ethiopian children like my own and adoptive parents like myself, I ask that the Ministry not impede the hundreds of ethical adoptions that are in progress at this moment.

We have adopted a wonderful boy from Ethiopia this past year and he is doing wonderfully. His family could not take care of him and he now has a better chance for a good life. Please support continuing to allow as many adoptions as possible from your country so these wonderful children will continue to have chances at better lives.

Freedom to adopt children and provide needed children a loving home

Please reconsider your decision to reduce adoptions of the Ethiopian children to the United States. Their (The Ethiopian Children) Hope for a bright future has been diminished by 90%. The effects of your decisions may be long term or irreversible. I will be praying for you to choose for a better life, more opportunity, and the love of family for children without parents in Ethiopia.

My heart breaks that there are allegations of unethical practices of adoption agencies, but I hope that you can find a way to fix that while also keeping the process open for the children who are ready for their families and new homes. We love our Ethiopian daughter with all our heart and wouldn't be the same without her.

I have family going through the adoption process now to bring home 2 girls; I hope this proposed change will not negatively them. I am anxious to meet my 2 new cousins!

Please reconsider your plan to reduce intercountry adoption! This would be a terrible tragedy for the children who need and deserve loving homes that are available in other countries! It's also a tragedy for Ethiopian mothers/families who place their child in an orphanage to literally save that child's life and/or to give that child a future.

Our now 4 year old son Bedelu would have died had he not been taken to a transition home and been made available for adoption by our family. Our happy, healthy boy would not have even existed if adoption was not an option for him. Life and the opportunity to thrive will not be an option for hundreds of thousands of orphans if adoptions are severely limited or even stopped altogether in Ethiopia. Please work to allow adoptions to continue and give these beloved children a chance at life.

Please do not limit adoptions. There are so many families waiting to give each child the individualized love and care that they need.

Our now 4 year old son Bedelu would have died had he not been taken to a transition home and been made available for adoption by our family. Our happy, healthy boy would not have even existed if adoption was not an option for him. Life and the opportunity to thrive will not be an option for hundreds of thousands of orphans if adoptions are severely limited or even stopped altogether in Ethiopia. Please work to allow adoptions to continue and give these beloved children a chance at life.

I am a proud adoptive parent to Simon, aged 14 months, from Harar.

All of these children need homes so why reduce adoption from other countries where people can love them, provide for them & give them the happiness they deserve.

Hope. Adoption is the only hope those children have. What life will they have without adoption?

Please let us help save your little children!

Every child should have a chance at loving parents who are willing to do what it takes for a chance to love a child unconditionally. To paraphrase, there is no greater love then those who are willing to sacrifice all to love another.

This would be very tragic for the orphans of Ethiopia.

Please let adoptions continue. These children need families!

I respectfully hope the Ministry will reconsider its position. Our experience in Ethiopia was amazing and our daughter Terefech is a blessing from heaven. Her adoption created a better life for her birth family, for her and for us. There were no loosers in this action and I believe it shows just how much Ethiopia loves their childeren. We now feel we are a part of Ethiopia and would not trade that for anything. We love your country and your people and thank you for our daughter.

Colin Snook

This is tragic. I have friends who have been on the waiting list for quite some time longing for their promised children. Please reconsider this decision!

Please consider those children that are too sick to survive a delay like this. There are lives at stake here.

Our family has been blessed with a son from Uganda. Every child deserves a family. Please do not keep them from having one!

I think that adoption is beautiful.

For the children, a chance at life, love, and a future.

To continue the adoption process as it was before.

PLEASE do not reduce intercountry adoption by 90%! All children deserve homes and families where they will be loved, cherished, protected and cared for.

PLEASE do not let the abuses of a few ruin the future of thousands of children and families.

If MOWA needs expanded resources to better manage intercountry adoption, they could charge adoptive parents a fee to help pay for those resources. I'm sure most prospective adoptive parents would gladly pay the fee and avoid what will likely become lengthy waits.

Please, I urge you for the sake of children who need homes and loving parents, do whatever you can to help facilitate timely adoptions from Ethiopia. So many children need your help and are depending on you and your actions. I urge you to take seriously God's desire for the care of His children.

All children deserve the right to be cared for in healthy, loving homes and to be a part of a family.

These children have many homes waiting for them here!

Please do not deprive needy children and ligitmate families from this privilage. Where possible spend more resourses on sifting out the abusers.

Please reconsider the decision to cut back on adoptions. I respectfully understand the concerns but there are so many people that would like to give children a forever home. As a christian we are instructed to take care of the orphans, and I ask that you continue to give us that chance.

We are waiting to bring our two children home from Ethiopia. In the correspondence we've had with them, they've confirmed how much they want a forever family. We, too, dream of the day when our family is complete and we are blessed to have our children with us. Please help facilitate this dream for other children and their parents by ongoing support of intercountry adoption and the processes that most quickly make adoption a reality.

Please reconsider.

Please don't reduce adoptions from ethiopia. there are so many mommies and daddies that would love to adopt and share their love with children in need of a family.

Praying God's protection on my future grandchild.

Please continue adoptions. I have several friends who have or are adopting children from Africa. They are excellent people who also want & will only use ethical processes for their adoptions, will take good care of the children, making sure they are loved, educated and safe. Please continue for the sake of the children.

These children need homes where they are loved and fed and adoption will give them that.

There are so many people I know that have such a huge heart for adoption and genuinely LOVE the children of Ethiopia. They want to help care for those who can't care for themselves!

All children deserve a good home. Please help your children find one!

We implore you to please save the lives of these innocent children, and to not reduce the number of adoptions. PLEASE do not allow this atrocity to occur.

My friends have adopted two Ethiopian children and are thinking of beginning the process again. I am heartbroken to think of how much more difficult this would make the process.

Please don't do this, many good people are trying to adopt and help. Allow them to do this.

As the parent of 9 internationally adopted children, I urge you to reconsider your position. ALL children deserve the love, nurturing & opportunities only a family can provide. I am confident my children will go on to make a difference in this world & in their native country. Please, do not allow a few to dictate how thousands of children will end up spending their lives--most without the love, nurturing of a family.

Please allow adoptions! Don't slow the help that these orphans need!!

We have recently adopted two Ethiopian girls and our family is so blessed to have them. We saw the tremendous need for adoption when we were in Ethiopia and feel that God is calling us to help the children wherever possible. It would be a shame to limit adoptions and only be punishing the innocent children. Our girls are thriving and getting the medical care that they couldn't' have attained in their own country. Please let us continue to help those who can't help themselves.

I understand you are considering passing a law to reduce international adoptions by 90%. I beg you to not mandate this law. There are many loving and caring families outside of Ethiopia who are waiting to welcome a girl and/boy from Ethiopia into their home and hearts. A child deserves a loving family, no matter where that family is located. I pray God gives you wisdom to make the right decision.

Please allow the adoption program to continue!!

Let's not make it so hard for those who want to help, to actually help.

Every child deserves a home, please release these children into families.

please allow these children to be adopted into loving and safe homes!

Please allow great parents in the US to adopt the Ethiopian children in need.

As a grandmother-in-waiting, I implore you not to lengthen the time in orphanages for children up for adoption.

I want to see children have the best opportunity possible in life, and constraining adoptions limits the opportunities we afford them.

Please work for the children.....

Stopping adoption will not solve a problem with corruption, it will only hurt children. Please find a way to research the corruption while still allowing children to join their new families!

Thank you for working together to care for all children.

We have seen first hand chidlren who have been adopted and are thriving with thier new families.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi:

Please reconsider your decision to drastically lower the number of adoptions from your country. While there may have been abuses to children who were adopted, also consider the abuse that the children left homeless and in orphanages suffer. There are many loving parents who can provide a great home for these children and put them in a safe environment. For the good of the majority of these kids, please re-consider this decision.

Thank You!

Please do not stop or slow the addoption of children into great familys. By allowing them to be adopted by worthy familys you will change there lives forever for the better.

Michael Bower

Children are a gift from God and as a mother who just adopted a baby girl, I know what joys children bring to their parents. I am pleading to let other families share in the joys of parenthood.

We are so thankful to the Ethopian government for allowing us to adopt our son. He is a joy and a blessing to our family. We call him our little ambassador because his charm, charisma and bright smile helps bridge the gap between people of all races, ages and social status. He has easily enabled us be an advocate for adoption. We love him so much. Thank you.

We have been waiting so long to add to our family through adoption and we very much want to adopt from Ethiopia. Please reconsider your decision so that more children can have families.

We are a family waiting to meet our little boy from Ethiopia. God has called us to this and we want nothing more than to follow his call and bless our home with a beautiful child who needs to be cared for and loved by two parents and three sisters. PLEASE reconsider this decision.

Please reconsider your stance on this issue so that legitimate adoptions can continue.

Please don't hurt all the children waiting for adoption into a loving home by reducing adoption.

I know of two childless couples longing for a child and would be wonderful parents for these children. Give these children a chance at a good home. Let these parents adopt a child from your country. Both child and these couples will win.

PLEASE CONTINUE TO ALLOW THE ADOPTIONS OF "PARENTLESS" CHILDREN. PLEASE ALLOW THE CHILDREN A CHANCE AT LIFE AS GOD HAS INTENTED.

Please reconsider the amount of cases you are willing to see daily - the children are the ones that will pay the price of not having a good home.

Learn to do good;
Seek justice,
Reprove the ruthless,
Defend the orphan,
Plead for the widow.
~Isaiah 1:17

Please allow children to be placed in loving, forever homes. I appreciate the ethical concerns, and believe that all adoptions should be done legally and ethically, but let's clear this up very quickly so that children can experience a loving and committed family.

Please do all you can to help children who need homes get to families that are waiting and love them .

It would be a tragedy to stop or slow down the process for these children in need. Please keep these adoptions going fast and strong. Thank you!

We are waiting to bring our daughter home.

I wish you the best!

I fully support this petition and the effort to reverse this decision!

Please allow intercountry adoption to go on!

A

Please allow adoptions to go on

I support the campaign - no limit to the number of adoptions per day!

Please allow these children to be placed in homes that will care for them and love them fully.

So many families are ready and beyond willing to adopt children and provide for a life they so richly deserve. Please allow the families and children that opportunity to love one another.

Allow those with the ability to love and care for these children!

We have just started our adoption process. We are already so in love with this unknown child. Please do not deny him a family who is so anxious to pour out our love on him.

Please allow us to love these children! We long to give them forever families! It would be a travesty for orphans in Ethiopia or any other country to grow up deprived of a family when so many families are wanting to adopt these precious little people! If your plan to slow down the number is implemented, the plight of the orphan there will escalate to numbers even greater than the present crisis. Please hear our cries and our desire to quiet the cries of these sweet children.

We have directly seen the benefits of adoption in our friends two children. They are loved, treasured, and take every step to ensure their Ethiopian heritage and history is preserved.

These kids need homes and loving families desperately. Each day is critical for them.

Please do not cut a program that is life changing to these children. My husband and I would like an opportunity to add Ethiopian children to our family some day!

For the sake of the children I pray politics and hard-headedness with give way to compasssion

To whom it may conern:
Ethiopia is a beautiful country with beautiful people. We have just begun the process of adoption and would be honored to have a child from there. We pray that restrictions would not close the opportunity for us to do this. We are believing and trusting God.

We strongly encourage you to let intercountry adoptions from Ethiopia continue. There are many wonderful, loving families waiting to bring a child(ren) home from Ethiopia and provide a forever family.

My adopted granddaughter from Ethiopia is so precious to our family I can't imagine not having her. We have been praying for another sibling of her heritage to join our family. Please make this possible as we have so much love to give another child.

To the Governments of the world.
Please put the needs of the children first and what would help them achieve security, health and the nurturing and love of a family.

please keep open the adoption process at a hihger level not loweing it..thats hurts childrens' chances at survival and having a quality life with loving new parents

My daughter is in the process of adopting a child. I feel the Ethiopian government should allow for these children to be adopted so they can be in loving caring families that are able to give them a better life.

Let the little children come...

Ethiopian children make America a better place! Please allow them to come join their American families soon!

Global children benefit from legal and transparent adoptions that are non-profit.
All humanity is interconnected and must care for, respect and honor each other.

Thank you for carefully considering all the options and for holding the best interest of children as primary.

Please do not limit the daily number of children who can be given a permenant, loving home. Any limit is a crime against these children who need homes and families.

We adoptedour son last year in April. What a blessing he is to our family. We are greatful to Ethiopia for their support of adoption.

find this child happiness...

Please consider the negative impact on the children. Those that were abandoned, would not even fall into the categories of concern, yet they are being painted with the same brush. PLEASE. Thank you.

It is good to know that we all are united in seeking what is best for these wonderful children. I pray that you will have wisdom in this difficult matter.

Every child deserves a loving family who can provide and care for them. The adoption of our son from Ethiopia has been an incredible blessing to our family and has made us passionate about giving back to his birthcountry. We urge the officials in Ethiopia to reconsider cutting international adoptions from Ethiopia. The Ethiopian children deserve hope and a future.

I feel it is outright discouraging to be able to have to wait to be able to adopt and then have the time frame put back 1 year, i myself know what it is like to have to wait because i have had to wait almost 11 years in order to get our son. i wish you luck that this will work and will be thinking and praying for you.

You'll not find two better people to love, support, and provide opportunities for a child's development. There's nothing else to say.

Children are our most important commodity

Please let these children have a chance

A friend said it well: "This is warfare on Ethiopian orphans."

Please reconsider. So many babies need mommys and daddys that are waiting with empty arms for them!

Please allow these children to be adopted by people who will love them as their own, and give them the life God intends for them to have.

My daughter, Son-in-Law, and grandson are in the process of adopting and their intention are golden, as is most that are in the same process.

My niece was adopted from Ethiopia and we couldn't be happier to have her in our family. She was placed in a loving, supportive, caring home. My sister, brother-in-law and niece are currently waiting for another addition to their family and this would make it very hard for another child to be placed into a loving home. Please do not make these children wait longer than necessary when there are many families who want and love them so much.

Please reconsider your decision to cut adoptions in your country. It would be a great tragedy for each family and child waiting for each other. Please give these children their best life.

The attempt to be diligent about processing legal and ethical adoptions is to be applauded. I am hoping it will be balanced with an effort to continue processing cases in a timely manner for the best interest of the children who deserve families.

There are many loving families across the world that Ethiopian children deserve the opportunity to be adopted into.

While we certainly don't advocate corruption, coersion or any other immoral procedure in adoption proceedings and we understand the need to weed that out, we also understand that this way of doing it slows down the process so much for children in the pipeline. In an ideal world, we can prevent the need for adoption, but we are a long way from that world. So, until then, children will pay the price.

Please do not limit/decrease the number of adoptions from Ethiopia to other countries. We have a grandson adopted from Ethiopia two years ago and he is the joy of our hearts. He is well loved and taken care of. We would love to be able to adopt again from Ethiopia. The children need to be thought about. Their lives can be changed for the good by continuing to allow the adoptions to go forth in full capacity.

Your Excellency, I applaud the gaovernment's efforts to protect the children of Ethiopia, and I agree that every child deserves deserves a permanent, loving home and family; whether with birth parents, extended family or through adoption. My plea is that the government work closely with friends, partners, NGO's etc. to accomplish all three as quickly and safely as possible. We all only want what is best for the children. Thank you for your kind attention.

Please do not hurt all of these children more than they are already hurting. I have a nephew from Ethiopia and I have seen so much good come from adoption. Do not put an end to this.

Please do not limit the adoptions! There are many loving families just waiting to be parents to these beautiful children!

Dear sir, please reconsider this action to limit adoptions in your country. There are so many children who can benefit from a family who loves and cares for them and they derserve the opportunity to be loved, nurtured and cared for by people who are eager to adopt the orphaned and make a home for them.

Every child deserves loving parents at as early an age as possible. Please help bring these babies to those parents loving arms as soon as possible. Please.

Is there a limit on the happiness and goodwill to find these children a home with loving parents and opportunities for a godly life? Please do not deny God this way!

The Ministry’s plan to reduce intercountry adoption by 90% is a tragic, unnecessary and a disproportionate reaction to concerns of isolated abuses in the intercountry adoption process.

We support the Ministry’s goal of ensuring ethical adoptions that serve the best interest of children and serve all vulnerable children & families.

We respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry adoption

Please continue to allow adoptions to the USA Thank you

The children in Ethiopia deserve a chance to have a life with parents who love them and can provide for them. Please reconsider stopping the adoptions of ethiopian children.

Please increase the number of Ethiopian adoptions. So many families are waiting to love a beautiful Ethiopian child!

Adoption of children that are in need is important to the whole world. Let us that can love and care for the needs of a child be there for them as their families. It is our duty of Christians to reach out to others in need. It is what God would want us to do.

There are many many loving people who adore your country & children and want nothing more than to give a child a home. Please reconsider this ruling! Thank You!

Our son was 3.5 when he was adopted by us. We have made contact with his birth mother and she is excited for his opportunites in America. He had some slight medical conditions and also parasites. He may have died if not in our care at the time of the medical issues. AGCI, his birth mother, and we are all excited for his future. Please reconsider limiting adoptions. The childrens' wait will be so long and a strain on the orphanages!

I have many friends and family members who are adopting currently along with my prayer and dream of adopting from Ethiopia VERY soon. The decrease in adoptions by 90% makes my heart VERY sad as there are 163 million orphans around the world waiting for loving families to call their own. Please reconsider!

Adoption is a wonderful way to give a child a home, our granddaughter was adopted from Ethiopia.

We would eagerly welcome Ethiopian orphans into our family to love as our own and petition for the opportunity to do so.

Please don't limit the number of families allowed to adopt from Ethiopia. We adopted internationally and would have again if not for the time consuming process. Think of the children first. They deserve a forever home with loving parents!

Please allow these children to become a part of a loving family who can provide for their physical and emotional needs.

Please reconsider this action. We do not want the children of Ethiopia to suffer.

My son is from the most beautiful country I've ever see, Ethiopia! He is still Ethiopian and we fight each day for orphans who are languishing as he was. 5 pounds at 3 months old, starving, he was saved by our adoption agency and his brave birth mother and nursed back to help. Please do not sacrifice the lives of so many children in desperate need! Adoption is redemption and shows the amazing love that Ethiopia has for its children.

We brought our son home from Ethiopia last month. He is a wonderful addition to our loving family. Please allow all the other children like him in Ethiopia who need homes to be united with families who want to love and provide for them.

It is great that the ministry wants to protect these children but do not halt adoption processes. There are families that want to adopt them. It will allow resources for the children in your protection to go further and provide some of the children with safe good homes.

My wife and I have adopted 2 beautiful children from Ethiopia. I can't imagine a day spent without them. I spoke directly with a member of their birth family. We were told that there wasn't enough food to feed these 2 children. This opportunity to adopt has allowed Ethiopia's children to grow and show other parts of the world just how beautiful it's country and her people are.

Thank you for your consideration of this petition. As an adoptive mom of 4, I know firsthand the wonderful family that can be started when a child and loving parents are united.

Please shut down the agencies that are acting without the best interests of children in mind and allow the ethical agencies to continue their good work! Thank you.

It is my firm belief that God has called us to care for these vulnerable children. As an adoptive parent of two children myself, my heart is for these precious children and their families who long for a hope and a future for them. My husband and I plead with you to truly consider the vast devastation that your decision would leave. Many prayers are going up for all involved in this process.

All children should be allowed be given a home with loving parents. Their location in the world should not matter.

We were just about to begin our adoption process from Ethiopia. Please allow us to go through with this process and give a child a loving home.

We adopted our daughter from Ethiopia in January 2009. She spent the first six months of her life in an orphanage. She weighed 12.5 pounds at six months, which is very small and malnourished. I have no doubt in my mind that if she were to stay longer in the orphanage she would have suffered permanent damage and developmental delays.
I want adoptions to be ethical in Ethiopia. I also want to know that children aren't languishing in institutions there. Please reconsider your new policy.

I prayfully request that you reverse this decision. There are so many Christian families waiting to adopt these children.

Respectfully, we request that orphaned children be given the opportunity for a loving family. Thank you!!

Please don't stop adoptions, There are familys here that are great homes for these children.

There are so many families just waiting to help these children and bring them "home" to a new life and a loving family, can't imagine that anyone would want to prevent that from happening!

For the sake of the children in Ethiopia that need help, please reconsider this decision and continue to allow adoptions to take place.

Please give these children a chance!

I strongly urge re-opening adoptions

I have friends who are going to be adopting a little girl from your country... and they will make wonderful parents and be able to give lots of love to a little person in need.

The welfare of the children is of the highest importance. Arbitrarily reducing the use of one potential means of placing them in permanent families would only increase the likelihood that they would never find such a permanent home.

These children need GOOD homes and there are so many incredible families waiting to adopt them-including a wonderful friend and her family who have been waiting tirelessly for years now only to have this happen? Ethiopia must listen.

We have a son adopted from Ethiopia. He came home in March 2009 and is 2.5 years old. He is a delight to our family, including his older brother and sister, grandparents, great-grandparents, and many more. We are already teaching him about Ethiopia, and we hope to visit there as a family someday. His opportunities are limitless here in America. It is our hope that these opportunities will be given to many more children from Ethiopia who need families. Please reconsider the proposed changes

Adopting our son from Ethiopia in the fall of 2010 has been the greatest gift my wife and I ever received. We also believe it was the best thing for our son as his birth mother could not care for him. He is now a happy and healthy boy who is thriving with our love. That same opportunity should be available for other Ethiopian orphans and other American parents wanting children.

The most generous and sweet family I've known. They will change these kids' lives in ways they could have never dreamed!!!

These children deserve good homes and there are so many great families looking to adopt. Don't take that away.

Please do not reduce the number of adoptions.

help the chi;ldren ,please

Please re-consider reducing adoptions.

There are so many babies caught in the middle of this, waiting for homes, and new parents waiting for them. Give each child a chance and dont let them become a pawn in a political game

We've adopted two children from Ethiopia. Please continue your adoption program. Our children are very healthy and happy and the whole experience has been positive for our family.

Please continue to allow these precious children to be adopted by loving families.

every child needs and deserve a happy healthy home.

We have friends awaiting the adoption of a beautiful little girl. They are anxious to provide a stable, loving home for her and we wish this for them as soon as possible. Why prolong the wait and lengthen this little girls needless suffering and lack of a loving family?

Please allow children the opportunity to grow up with a loving family through a liberal and open adoption program.

The Ministry’s plan to reduce intercountry adoption by 90% is a tragic, unnecessary and a disproportionate reaction to concerns of isolated abuses in the intercountry adoption process.We support the Ministry’s goal of ensuring ethical adoptions that serve the best interest of children and serve all vulnerable children & families.We respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry adoption.

Reducing the number of adoptions is wrong. These children need good families to take care of them and love them unconditionally. Please don't change your policies.

Please keep in mind that the lives of children are at stake. Please look within your hearts to make them a priority.

Thank you for reading this.
Adoption is not fast or easy. The decision to adopt is thought out. An orphanage no matter how safe or nice, is not the same as
being apart of a loving family. This policy change means children will have to wait to be apart of their new families. This is not easy for you or the adoptive parents, know that these children have been prayed for, and are wanted by parents that already have a place in their heart for them.

thank you again for listening

We adopted our wonderful daughter from Ethiopia, she is loved and happy and will have all the chances in life we can offer her. We are deeply glad that we got the chance to become a family by adoption and we will one day all together travel to Ethiopia to show her the wonderful country of her origin and we try to teach her respect for her culture and traditions.

This policy is unfair to both adoptive parents and children already within the adoption process. I know an American family with an Ethiopian son who are waiting to bring home an Ethiopian daughter. Consider what a positive experience it will be for these two children to have a sibling as soon as possible.

I know a family trying to adopt, they are good people, and these children deserve a good home!

Our son was an AIDS orphan and has thrived with us. We are so thankful for our son.

Please reconsider this. Children who are legitimately in need of adoption will likely suffer by being institutionalized for prolonged periods of time.

Please help my daughter and son in law provide a safe, stable and loving home for a child in need.

With the highest respect for both the Ethiopian government and the children who are without families, I plead to you this day for your reconsideration to drastically reduce U.S. adoptions. My husband and I have been eagerly anticipating the uniting of an Ethiopian child with our family. We long to give a little boy a home, love, attention, opportunity, and family. We are relying on your decisions to guide us to this child. Please, don't revoke these children from what they deserve most.

Praying for the children of Ethiopia!

Please help put an end to the global orphan crisis by allowing intercountry adoptions to continue so that the children of Ethiopia find homes as soon as possible.

Praying that the orphans of Ethiopia will still have the door open to be adopted by families in other areas of the world. There is such a need, and so many families willing to adopt children into their loving homes. We are so blessed with our son, and have no doubt that he is in the best situation possible, as he likely would not have lived if he remained in ET with no access to healthcare or clean water. God Bless

My niece and her husband have adopted 3 beautiful boys and are providing them with love and nurturing they may never have gotten otherwise. The boys have thrived in their new home and will grow to be healthy, happy adults, in the arms of their parents, family and God. Thank you.

Please consider other ways of providing safeguards for children being adopted. Decreasing the amount of adoptions is not the answer in my opinion and I pray you will be able to find a better solution.

Respectfully,
Tom Lightvoet

I have met a number of the wonderful, happy, children that have been allowed to be adopted by loving families outside of Ethiopia. Please do not discontinue your current program and deny so many children the opportunity and advantages that such an adoption.

We love Ethiopia and its people and we have been so blessed to minister there and to care for two children who fill our heats with such joy!

Please allow more adoptions with children and parents to obtan the necessary documentation to home to their homes!

Everyday you delay intercountry adoption babies and kids die from lack of care/nutrition/ immunizations etc. You are only hurting and killing your own people. Those who are adopting these babies have prayed countlessly for them, paid for them and of course WANT to love and care for them.

DO not let this happen. Many great people are wanting to adopt.

The Ministry’s plan, which calls for the processing of only five adoption cases per work day, will result not only in systemic and lasting damage to a large sector of social services, but will have an immediate impact on the lives and futures of children. Joint Council respectfully urges the Ministry of Women’s, Children’s and Youth Affairs to reconsider their plan and to partner with governments, NGOs and foundations to achieve their goals and avoid the coming tragedy for children and families.

Please don't let personal pride take the place of the compassion children and families need.

Please reconsider reversing this prohibitive decision. Thank you!

Please do not limit the amount of adoptions you allow. These children need parents - and it shouldn't matter where these parents come from.

Please let loving homes be provided for ALL children that are in need of love / care

I have adopted 6 children from Ethiopia. 3 are older teen boys. They would never be able to come home if they were still in Ethiopia now! Think of the homeless teens that will be on the streets!

My husband and I adopted twin boys through CHSFS about 2 years ago. They would have died of starvation had they not gone to CHSFS orphanage. They are amazing, happy children, and we love them dearly. In their name, we send thousands of dollars every year to support the CHSFS school in Hossana. As our family earns more funds, we plan to send increasing amounts to support the multitude of CHSFS community development projects.

This news is so devastating for so many families waiting to go pick up their babies. I pray signing this petition helps bring all these precious babies home.

Please reconsider the decision to reduce adoptions by 90%! There are well respected adoption agencies who do the correct background checks. It is such a shame that those few corrupt adoption agencies have caused the Ministry to make this decision.

We would love to grow our family with the addition of a nice little girl who we already know by picture. His older brother is all excited to have her with us soon. Life is good and always can get better. Please help us to provide her with all the love we have already for her, and she will bring more joy to our family. We are close to the final phase on the adoption. Reconsider the reduction to be applied. It may affect many kids and families. Please!

Please keep the number of adoptions at the current or higher level.

We support your fight against child trafficking, and fully support your desire to find homes for your children without one. Please reconsider.

To Whom It May Concern:

I urge you to continue allowing adoptions of children in urgent need of families. I, personally, have two very good friends who have adopted, individually, from Ethiopia, and they are, along with their individual spouses, loving and kind, nurturing parents to their adopted children. Please make sure whatever decisions you make are in the best interest of these children and make sure that every child is free to be adopted if they need support and love.

Thanks,

Rodney

There are many loving American families that would like to raise an adopted child and give them a chance for a secure, healthy and loving life.

I am the brother of Andrea Steffensen who is currently in the process of adopting a child of Ethiopia. I think the court of adoptions should hear more than 5 cases per day.

I am the sister-in-law of Skyleur and Andrea Steffensen who are in the process of adopting a child from Ethiopia. I am petitioning for the Ethiopian Adoption court to hear more than 5 cases per day. I feel that the reduction in cases heard is both damaging to the children waiting to be adopted as well as the families waiting to adopt.

As the grandparent of an Ethiopian-born child and the hopeful grandparent of another, I urge you continue international adoptions at their current level. If there is corruption, go after it. Corrupt systems hurt all the people of good will. But curtailing adoptions so severely is devastating to all the waiting families, but most devastating to the children who have been promised these loving homes.

Whilst it is important to ensure that corruption doesn't occur in adoption cases - if there are strict laws in place & government officials follow those laws, then adoption is the best chance of survival that many of these children have. Please don't take away their chance at a happy life!

There are many wonderful families that are waiting to offer a wonderful life to these Dear Children. Please allow them to give this gift to the babies. One day, those babies will grow up and bring back prosperity to Ethiopia and other nations in Africa.

We have an adopted Ethiopian son and we believe that others need adoption.

Category: Children's Rights
Region: GLOBAL
Target: Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi
Web site: http://jointcouncil.org

A wonderful family I know in Colorado adopted the most beautiful, loving little girl from AHope. She is truly a blessing in their lives and all those around her. Her family loves her, spoils her, takes care of her medical needs, and provides an amazing home for her. Please do not limit adoptions of these children to loving families that will cherish them and not make them grow up in orphanages. Please allow these children to bless the lives of others and experience the love of a family.

You have safe guards in place to protect the children. Caring and loving families are willing to cross the ocean to share their love with a child, who is need of a family. These families need each other. Why would you hinder that?

To prevent children from being allowed the opportunity of being adopted would be a grave injustice. Please consider the plight of these most vulnerable citizens. The testimonies of successful adoptions are proof positive that adoption works and that happy futures can await Ethiopia's orphans if allowed the opportunity.

My husband and I are in the process of adopting a 6 yr boy. Please help us bring him home. The need is so great there and the children are in desperate need. orphanages are crowded and over capacity.

We are in the process of bringing our little boy home from Ethiopia and have ben there and met him. The cutting back of the letters from MOWCY will only end up hurting the ones that need it the most the children. Please help us bring our child home not lengthen the process. We are adopting and older child.

Ethiopian orphans need the love of a family and deserve a joyful life!

Please reconsider for the sake of the children. Thank you

Regarding orphans, the interest of children should always be given priority over any other consideration. Corruption is terrible, but there should be other means to fight it than cutting down international adoption by 90%.

I strongly value ensuring that all adoptions are processed with the utmost integrity. However, I would urge you to consider other means to accomplish our common goal. Please do not hinder the proper processing.

Please turn this around so these children will be adopted by loving parents without all the interventions hindering progress. They so deserve to be loved and cared for by a real family...

After spending 4 months in Addis last year and coming home as an uncle to two Ethiopian boys, I came to realize the beauty of adoption, and fully support endeavors to make it an easier and safer practice, with well-rounded and efficient procedures.

Adoption is a viable option for the orphan problem in Ethiopia. My 2 wonderful, adopted children are a testimony to this truth.

Please weigh the costs of cutting adoptions, these children have been through enough so let's give them hope for the future.

My friend from the US met her second daughter in Ethiopia while picking up her first at the end of their adoption saga. Her story of unconditional love for these children is so inspiring. Every child deserves a mother like her. Her second daughter is not yet "hers", please don't make an already complicated process even more difficult. Their first adoption didn't go through till their baby was 4 months old, when at 5 weeks they'd been promised it was close. Don't let this 12yo wait longer.

I have adopted two older children and have begun the process to adopt one more from Ethiopia. We work with an agency that honors the laws of Ethiopia and takes care to ensure that each adoption is handled well. These children are teenagers who will have little hope for the future if they cannot be adopted soon. We beg you to allow allow the beautiful children of Ethiopia to be adopted by loving families. My children love Ethiopia with all their hearts and will return to help other children.

It was disheartening to hear that you are planning to reduce adoptions. It is tragic that so many children will not be allowed the opportunity to join loving families. I hope that you will reconsider your decision and choose instead to partner with reputable agencies that have proven to be honest and without corruption.

Please reconsider! These children deserve wonderful christian forever families like ours.

As someone who struggles with infertility, my heart goes out to those who are exploring adoption. Please don't make their chances any less by passing this.

Do not punish those who are without reproach---the children who are as deserving as any child on earth to have loving homes and families be they birth families or adopted families.

I hope this new policy get's reversed and a different aporoach is found so that children will not die needlessly in Ethiopia. Adoption by loving families, no matter what country they are living should never be dismissed as an option. We are all one people on the planet earth, relying on each other for our existance. May we all be a blessing to one another in whatever way we can.

These children need homes, please don't deny these children good loving homes .

Please do not punish the many for the corruption of a few.

There are so many wonderful people who are waiting for their precious children to come home to their new homes where they will be loved and cherished. Please allow these children to come home to their new families. As one adoptive mom to another we ask for your help.

Please reconsider your decision to reduce the amount of children who can be adopted.
We have so many families who want to adopt children and give them a wonderful home.

Let the people of God help these children!!

The best interests of the children--bottom line!

Please don't make it harder for families to give homes to these kids who so desperately need them.

It is for the sake of the orphans. What is their future if the they can't have a home?

I have an adopted son and have a friend who has one child adopted and is trying to adopt a second from Ethiopia. She is a great mother and would cherish another child.

I support hastening the adoption process for these children and deserving families.

Please consider using the resources offered to continue ethical, safe adoptions for families and children in need.
Thank you and I will pray for you in this decision process.

Please don't punish the children!

Please reconsider for the childrens sake... Thank You

Please allow Ethiopian adoptions to move forward.

We are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. We are part of a support network of families who have adopted children from Ethiopia and are so blessed by having these beautiful and vibrant little ones in our community. We desire so much to be a part of giving a child from Ethiopia a home here. Reducing the number of intercountry adoptions would be a devastating setback in providing hope to these deserving and precious kids.

Please don't allow a few problems outweigh the enormous benefits to children that international adoption has provided. Why should the children suffer and languish without parents?

Please do not impose undeserved regulations on loving, deserving families who have the hope of raising a wonderful child based on the abuses of others who are not reflective of the hearts of those who seek the joy of raising an Ethiopian child.

partnerships with the ethical organizations affords children solid, loving homes, proper care, family and education that they wouldn't have if adoption is closed. Please think what is best for the children now and long term, I know many beautiful inter-country families that love these special children and provide great care.

I pray that Jesus will bring enough people to sign this! I know he will!

Please do not reduce the number of orphans available for adoption when so many young couples are just now aware of the amazing need & applying to adopt & provide these precious children with loving homes!!!

I'm so very sorry that Ethiopia has had such negative experiences with adoption that it has caused this severe disruption in the process. Our daughter is an Ethiopian adoptee. Given the tragic circumstances for our daughter's placement for adoption, we feel very honored and lucky to be able to provide a loving and stable home for her. She is truly our treasure. Please consider all the positive adoption stories and the hundreds of families made whole by adoption.

Please help answer the prayers of these parents that have been waiting for a beautiful child from Ethiopia!

All children deserve a loving home.

I also support the Ministry’s goal of ensuring ethical adoptions. All children deserve a safe and healthy home, clothing, education and love. This is one world we live in, and adoption provides at-risk children the opportunity to enjoy a long and successful life. I respectfully request that the Ministry along with willing partners, ensure ethical adoptions and expand services to more families and children. In this way, we can "be the change".

My husband and I have been discussing adopting from Ethiopia for the last six to eight months. While I completely understand and agree with doing everything possible to protect all children from harm. It saddens me to think that so many children will be denied a loving home because of the abuse of the system by the dishonest.

Although the Ethiopian government is right to be wary of corruption in the adoption process, it is wrong to limit adoptions from all agencies. This is tragic for the adoptive children and prospective parents and it is also unnecessary.

My son and his wife are desperately trying to adopt a child from Ethiopia. They have a son from Ethiopia and would like to complete their family by having a sibling from the same country as their son. They started the adoption process two years ago.

Please, do not slow the care given to these children who so badly need it.

Ethiopia has a proud history and long-standing reputation as a country that loves its children, and wants the best for them. Please do not change that by cutting them off from adoptive families that want them and who promise to do God's will by caring for them.

children wanting a family, and a family hoping for children to fulfill a home..lets hope somehow they can continue to find and complete one another.

My sisters son died in Ethiopia a few days before they were supposed to bring him home. That is under the current 2 trip process that is already awfully slow. Please don't slow down legitimate cases and make children wait to be placed with a family. Children die while they are waiting and it is unacceptable.

We adopted 2 beautiful children from Ethiopia. They have a wonderful home and are VERY loved. We are so glad that we were able to bless one another through adoption. PLEASE consider another way to keep adoptions moving forward. PLEASE explore ALL the avenues possible before preventing one more child from coming to FOREVER home. Blessings to you.

The people of your country are loved by many. It is our hope that we can be a blessing to the people of Ethiopia through adoption.

Please support this petition for the good of families waiting to adopt from Ethiopia and most of all for the love of Ethiopian orphans.

My brother and his wife have been on the adoption list for Ethiopian children and have been waiting patiently. Please make their dream of becoming parents come true and make the life of a child improve drastically with a loving family and home. Thank you

Please, so many lives are blessed through adoption, don't leave the children behind!

Don't take away any chance an orphan could have with a family!

Please reconsider!

We have a beautiful new granddaughter from Ethiopia and I know that there are MANY more children who need good homes. Please do not stop them from having a Mom & Dad who love them.

We respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry adoption. Rather than eliminate the right of Ethiopian children to a permanent family, we encourage the Ministry to accept the partnerships offered by governments, NGOs, and foundations.

its not fair what you are doing to the families that want to adopt the children. and to the children themselves. This is a selfish thing to do.

Dear Sir,
Please do not close the international adoption program. My husband, 5 yearl old son, and I have been waiting to adopt a child from Ethiopia for 2 years. I am unable to have any more children and we want so much to give a child a loving home and good education. Thank you.

Please reverse this policy. Help the children who need parents.

Please do not make a law that will limit the ability of an orphaned child to be welcomed into a safe,loving family.

my sister adopted her son from ethiopia. we love him and couldn't imagine life without him. he has enhanced our lives immeasurably. we hope we will enhance his.

My sister Abby adopted her daughter Maggie from Ethiopia and Maggie now has a beautiful, fulfilling life in Tennessee. Please don't take away another parent's ability to give one of Ethiopia's orphaned children a new life.

we know people who have adopted from Ethiopia and have brought them into a loving and amazing home and who are committed to teaching those children about the amazing Ethiopian people and culture. Please let us and others do the same.

We adopted our daughter from Ethiopia two years ago .She is such a blessing to our family that we are now sending in our dossier for two more children from Ethiopia.We believe adoption is orchestrated by the heart and the very hand of God.We will be praying for you to have the wisdom of Solomon ."Trust in the LORD with all your heart and don't lean on your own understanding.In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths."-Proverbs 3:5-6 Tammy Noel Smith

God Bless this cause.

Families are desperately waiting to bring these babies to loving homes. Please don't deprive the children of a forever family!

God works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. Please join Him in fighting fervently for the fatherless.

Let us help and adpot. Give a child a future for God's sake.

Take the lives of these children into consideration and do the right thing. No cutbacks on adaptions.

This decision will tragically impact the lives of Ethiopian children. It's heartbreaking. Please reconsider this plan.

As a Social Worker and an adoptive parent I look at this from both sides. It would be nice if ALL parents or families of orphans could afford to keep them in their family. This is a dream that may be possible "when" it is set up with a plan and money to assist with that. In the US we have a family foster program that gives cash & medical assistance to family members who wish to take in relatives so they can stay with family members. Until then, adoption to good families anywhere is imperative!

Please reconsider your plan carefully as it will not only impact your country economically, but will prohibit your countries orphans from finding loving homes.

Please support this petition for the good of families waiting to adopt from Ethiopia and most of all for the love of Ethiopian orphans.

Please allow the precious orphaned children of Ethiopia to find loving permanent homes.

I am a prospective grandma anxiously awaiting the arrival of my first grandchild from Ethiopia. My kids feel lead to help the thousands of orphaned children in that country. They have spent much time and money working diligently through the process to bring their baby home to a loving and caring extended family. I am praying that the evil deeds of some, do not jepordize the promising future for many of the orphans in Ethiopia and the loving familes that are waiting with a loving and caring home

My brother and sister in law are large advocates of adoption and adopted my nephew from there 21 months ago with hopes to adopt again. I am hoping their wish comes true but if these restrictions are put into place there plans of adopting in 4-5 months is changed into 4-5 years.

Lord I give this to You according to Your Will and Your Glory!

The only people who truly suffer when adoption is no longer an option are the children who continue to languish with no hope of ever having a forever family. Governments decide what to do and forever change the children's possibilities. Those children caught in the changes rarely get a second chance. Please reconsider and find a way to eliminate corruption while still serving the children by providing them a chance for a family.

My husband and I have an Ethiopian adopted son. We believe in ethical, legal and fair adopion practices. It is tragic when we hear stories of abuse to the adoption system. However, so many wonderful stories of loving forever families are never told. We meet Ethiopians all the time and we are always overwhelmed by the love and pride they have in their home country that they extend to us for adopting and raising our son. They know the plight of so many orphans and are proud of adopting families!

Every child deserves a chance for a good
life and home with love.

These children need homes. If there are qualified parents willing to accept them, that is better than them remaining orphans. If you really believe there is corruption, address this issue, don't make the children suffer.

Please change your decision, we would like to give a child a loving home.

Not only has my daughter brought great joy to my life, but she brings joy to many places and people. People on the street comment over and over what a happy and cute child she is. It happens many times a day from so many people. She has a spark that is undeniable. She is an ambassador for Ethiopia in the greatest sense of the word. I am sure other adoptive children are as well.

With so many loving families longing to provide a safe, loving, and nurturing home to a child, I urge you to reconsider. These children deserve a second chance!

Please allow these adoptions to remain legal, it is a vital part of a system, and firsthand I have seen the good it brings to children's lives. We must keep the adoption system active.

Allowing these precious children to have a chance at a wonderful, better life is the chance of a lifetime. Taking that away from them is a horrific and selfish thing to do. My husband and I were considering adopting, so please don't take our hopes away!

These children need great Christian parents who love them. Please do not stop adoptive parents from giving these wonderful children a "forever home". Keep the doors of adoption open for the good of the children who need hope.

It is important for the children to have the opportunity to be a part of a loving family as soon as possible. Please make them your first priority by not decreasing the numbers that are being processed. Thank you.

A child needs a loving, safe home, regardless of where it is located. We are one world.

Why remove such an important opportunity for both child and adoptive parent?

Please let don't reduce the number of adoptions.
There are many loving families that are waiting for their children to come home here.
To put so much time, Love and money into these adoptions and then to have them restricted is a tragedy for the families and the children.
Praying for this to not go through and MANY MANY children will be able to come home to their new families..Quickly...

Please, be merciful and compassionate toward children.

Please keep the intercountry adoption process open. We strongly believe that the adoption of our son from Ethiopia was the single greatest blessing that has ever happened in our life. We cannot imagine our life without him.

Please keep the intercountry adoption process open. We strongly believe that the adoption of our son from Ethiopia was the single greatest blessing that has ever happened in our life. We cannot imagine our life without him.

Please do the right thing and give these children to loving families.

We urge you to reconsider since My son & daughter-in-law adopted a little boy from Ethiopia and he has brought so much joy to our lives. Without him we would not have the happiness he has brought. I am sure other American families would have the same feelings. Please reconsider.

As an adoptive mother i feel we are partenering with you to fullfill a need, and to fullfill my Ehtiopian daughter's future.
Adoption is only one way we feel connected to Ethiopia ,we will always have a heart for her birth country and find ways to give back.

From someone who is not in a place to adopt now, but dreams of doing so in the future.

Please allow the orphan children of Ethiopia to find loving homes.

Please, please don't let these innocent, beautiful children live their lives in orphanages when there are many, many people who will lovingly raise them as their own!!!!

Please reconsider your decision to limit adoptions out of Ethiopia

Please consider the lives of the children that you are effecting. They can benefit so greatly by being placed in a loving family.

There are so many children in dire need of help and there are many couples that are willing and able to help. Please press forward the expedited adoption and bring home the children that deserve to be in safe families in the USA and other parts of the globe that are safer for these children

God blessed us with a son from Ethiopia. He is prospering and has a loving home. We are trying to adopt another son from your wonderful country. I hope you would reconsider this policy to limit adoption for sake of the children. May God bless you!

Please maintain the goal of ensuring ethical adoptions that serve the best interest of children and serve all vulnerable children & families.

Praying for our friends! Please bring their baby "home" soon!

Please reconsider such a drastic plan.

Do not deny children an opportunity to have a real family. Too many wish they had one and never will.

This would be devastating to many wonderful families wanting to adopt & help children that otherwise would never have hope growing up in such conditions. I hope & pray this is not carried through & this petition fails for the love of the children & whats right!

I volunteered in Ethiopia and was able to see daily the countless children there in need of a home. How unfair to them that you would deny that chance.

Limiting the number of adoptions would negatively impact on not only the children but the potential parents who are willing to love them and provide them with a loving home in a land of great opportunity.

please do not dash the hopes of the non-corrupt hoping to open their hearts to a child. Can we find a way to reform the program instead of severely restrict it?

This is very sad for these children that need homes and are sick and do not get to live a full long life. People all over the world want to adopt these children. People that may not be able to have their own children and know these children need homes and will love them and give them the life they deserve. Please think of these children.

We have adopted six international children and know of many others. All are in good homes that love and care for them. To stop this would be a great disservice to the children who need it so much.

It would be an absolute tragedy and disservice to children and families to reduce international adoption. The government needs to regulate the current adoption agencies and provide more assistance to families to enable them to stay together. However, for many children adoption is the only option. These children would be hurt by these changes.

There are many able and willing families to parent children from the region, in the USA...lovely, thoughful, families. The Oswalds come to mind.

Do not let the children loose the chance to have forever families.

Our 2 sons were adopted from Ethiopia at ages12 & 15 after waiting in an orphanage for 7 years for a family. They are so happy to be a part of our family. Each day they experience the love and security that comes from having a mom and dad. Please don't take that hope away from their friends who are waiting for families of their own.

Legitimate agencies that have met all of Ethiopia's requirements, legitimate parents requesting to take care of a child in need of love and care, and children without parents nor known relatives, should not be punished by the misconduct of a few. There are so many wonderful stories of successful adoptions of Ethiopian children and hopefully there will be the opportunity in the future to create these amazing relationships and stories between parents and adopted children in years to come! Please.

Please allow the children who need care to be placed in forever families instead of having to live in orphanages in Ethiopia.

Please consider continuing to allow Ethiopian children to find the love of a forever family to nurture them and support them in growing into the amazing people they are meant to be. Certainly all adoptive parents want only honest, ethical adoptions, and completely support the same. But for those for whom this is a positive option, please continue to look to the child's best interests. Every child deserves the love of a permanent family, wherever that might be. Respectfully.

Please do not limit these adoptions. This would keep so many of these precious children from knowing the love and stability of permanent homes.

WE LOVE OUR SON! Our son was adopted from Ethiopia because his biological mother could not afford to take care of him, and it is hard to have to imagine him hungry, or even starving, without shelter, etc. He is a very loved, healthy and happy boy, and we know there are other children who have his same story and many people who are ready to love them and meet their needs. Please reconsider your policy on intercountry adoption in the interest of Ethiopian children who need that chance.

We are an adoptive family of a nearly 8 year old boy from Ethiopia. His mother had disappeared and his father was unknown. He was belittled and targeted by local children because of this. His grandparents decided to place him for adoption so he could have a better life. We feel so fortunate to have him in our family and hope children in need of families will continue to have that chance through intercountry adoption.

Please, for the sake of these children, keep the adoptions going and give them a chance that they otherwise would not have.

There are millions of needy orphans in Ethiopia and around the world. If these children do not find a home, they will be destitute to a life of poverty, sickness, crime and an early death. We have so many families(around our world) that would be willing to give a child a good, loving home. Please continue to provide the resources to keep Ethiopian adoptions thriving.

We are currently waiting for a court date for our sweet little Birtukan. Although we have never met her she has been such a blessing to us all. She needs us and we need her to be home with us. We promise to instill as much of her culture as we possibly can so she will never forget her beautiful birth country.

Please continue Adoptions to approved United States Families.

Please continue Adoptions to approved United States Families.

We , our children and us, have been greatly blessed by the adoption of Ethiopian children. Please consider the children in this decision.

I am the adoptive mother of a beautiful, intelligent, amazing little girl, born in Awassa, Ethiopia. Not a day goes by that I do not thank God and the powers that be for the countless ways she has brightened my life and all the lives of those she touches.

I was adopted, and it is such a blessing to all. The best interest of the children and family should always be considered, and prayed about. May God's Will be done.

We , our children and us, have been greatly blessed by the adoption of Ethiopian children. Please consider the children in this decision.

My cousin has received a beautiful gift of a baby boy from Ethiopia and I can truly see the love she has for him. It is my hope that you will not stop other families from being united with a child to love and cherish.

Please let loving American families provide a home for Ethiopian children

We are waiting for a new grandchild that our daughter and son-in-law are adopting. Please keep the adoption process as quick as possible. It is so hard already for adopting families and children need to be with their adoptive families as quickly as possible. Thank you.

Please do not deprive these children of families who love them.

I respectfully urge the Ministry of Women’s, Children's and Youth Affairs to reconsider its plan and to partner with governments, NGOs and foundations to achieve their goals and avoid the coming tragedy for children and families.

Please do not deprive these children of families who love them.

The Ministry's goal to ensure ethical adoptions is one that I commend, but I urge you to please take into consideration what reducing adoptions by 90% means to these children.
Please reconsider your plan and partner with agencies that will help you achieve your intended goal in a way that will not keep the most vulnerable from being placed into a loving healthy environment

These children need homes!

Please do not limit intercountry adoptions. Please ccept the partnerships offered by governments, NGOs, and foundations.

Please allow us to bring these precious children into a home where they will be loved and provided a good life.

We beg you to let US families adopt Ethopian Children. I know of unbelievable families who have waited and hoped and prayed for a child from your country. It would be a travesty to decrease adoptions to the US by 90%. These orphans are in desperate need of parents who will love them well. It will be detrimental to these children to live in orphananges for years.

Please don't do this to all the children that are desperate for a home!!!

Millions of adoptions are successful and to deny a forever & loving family to a child in need over a few horrible people would be the tragedy.

Please act in the best interests of all your waiting children!

We have two older children who lost both parents and were in orphanages. Neither was taken from a living birth parent. Why not put a halt to the large numbers of infants and toddlers taken from living birthmothers and use resources to help them keep parenting their chlldren while at the same time allow HIV+ and medically needy children and older chldren or full orphans to be adopted into permanent homes? Wouldn't this get your 90% reduction?

Our Ethiopian son, Adoniyas, was adopted two years ago, and is thriving. His development is advanced, and he is an extremely healthy and happy little boy. We have been planning to start a second adoption so that he will have an Ethiopian sibling, so this news is very disappointing. Please re-consider this decision.

Children Matter. The opportunity for a greater percentage of available adopted children needs to be increased. If these children cannot be provided for in Ethopia, the please give others the opportunity to adopt and to provide for both their spiritual and academic development here in this lifetime. Warmly, Director of Stay n'Play Family Daycare, California

continue to the adoptions happen. There are loving families waiting

There are too many children who need love and safe, happy homes in Ethiopia to pass this ridiculous law that has no premise. There are also plently of fit families outside of the country that need and want to give that love and affection for this law to pass.

Please allow these children the opportunity to be taken care of by people who desparately want to help and share their lives and love.

It is so important that the orphans can be adopted and loved by familes across the Globe. Life is precious, give the children this chance for a better life. Thank you.

There are so many loving families waiting to adopt children from Ethiopia.

My son & his wife adopted a 6mos old beautiful baby girl; they are all fortunate to be able to give her an excellent home, love and hopes for her future she could not receive in Ethiopia.

Unbelievably irresponsible toward waiting children and Parents. Unnecessary.

Please do not Allow adoptions to change, there are too many children needing homes.

Please reconsider your decision to decrease intercountry adoptions. Our life would not be the same without our two precious Ethiopian princesses. They deserve to have a loving, caring, family, just as do all the other orphans in Ethiopia. Please don't give up on the children.

My son and wife have been trying to adopt 2 Ethiopian children for a year and a half. After spending a huge amount of money, it would be devastating to them emotionally as well as financially to not be able to adopt the children. They would provide a wonderful home for any child.

WE CARE ABOUT THESE CHILDREN AND DO NOT WANT YOU TO BLOCK FORIEGN ADOPTIONS. THEINCOME THESE ADOPTIVE FAMILES BRING THE AGENCIES WILL DEVISTATE THESE CHILDREN. I KNOW A BABY BOY ADOPTED FROM ETHOPIA, TO A LOVING FAMILY, JUNE 2010, I BELIEVE THEY WILL ADOPT ANOTHER CHILD IF YOUR LAWS ALLOW THEM.

Respectfully, please reconsider and allow appropriate, integrity filled adoptions. So many children need permanent, loving families.

Bring Lily Home!

Please do not punish the children of Ethiopia for the poor choices of a few adults.

There are many families that would love to give a loving home to these children and making the process harder decreases that number.

I respectfully urge you to reconsider your position on reducing the amount of intercountry adoptions and strive to find other ways of remediating the ethical issues you are facing.

This is important

There are many fine families in developed countries that can help countries such as Ethiopia with the surplus of children that need homes. These families should be allowed to adopt.

Please allow these children forever homes. Homes where they will be loved and cared for!!

Our youngest daughter is from Ethiopia and I don't know what we would do with out her. Please don't take that opportunity away from other families. We love her and Ethiopia so much. We are eternally greatful to your country!

I want to thank the country of Ethiopia for the privelage of adopting my daughter one and a half years ago. She is the light of my life. I am trying to raise her to be a proud Ethiopian woman. Through our wonderful adoption process, I was given the tools to provide her with her biological and birth history. It saddens me to think other parent's lives may not be brightened by the ability to adopt eligible Ethiopian orphans.

Every child deserves the right to a loving home with parents that can care for them. There are systems in place to make this happen - nothing should stand in the way of this ultimate goal.

My family is in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. We chose this country because we heard that they (the government and people) truly valued their children and desired the best for them. I wish the best thing was for them to remain with their birth families, but unfortunately, current situations in the country are not favorable for that for all children. Children need a family to love, care for and accept them. We are willing to do that, if we can just have the chance.

There are so many that want children to adopt and love. Please dont close this door for them.

Children are a gift from God. There are parents in the United States that God is wishing to bless with a gift. Please continue to allow the adoptions to take place. God bless.

I know two amazing families that are in process and have gotten referrals. They have waited so long for their forever children that I really don't want to see them go through the pain of waiting even longer.
Thank-you for your consideration!

Please think of the children that are in need of loving families - families that are able to adopt them and love them as they deserve to be loved.

Please don't deny children who would otherwise have to wait much longer, or may not even find a home with a family the chance to do so by reducing the intercountry adoptions, as with any process that involves children, there with inevitably be a few bad seeds that slip through the crack, however most of those seeking to adopt are strong, loving homes that either want to help a child who is without a loving home or cannot have children themselves

Please sign to help the orphans of Ethiopia.

There are approximately 4.8 million orphans in Ethiopia -- the same as the entire population of Alabama. By all means, clean up any corruption. But restricting international adoption to only five per day is quite literally a death sentence for thousands of children.

I respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry adoption. Rather than eliminate the right of Ethiopian children to a permanent family, I encourage the Ministry to accept the partnerships offered by governments, NGOs, and foundations.

Just brought our son, Tadios home 2 weeks ago from Ethiopia, and are waiting for a referral for a little girl. I can't tell you how much Ethiopia's culture the country has changed our lives forever. We don't go through out a day with out the influence of the Ethiopian culture in our lives. It has bettered our family and made us appreciate how beautiful the Ethiopian people are. We want to join in support of International Ethiopian Adoptions done in an ethical and proper way.

I have seen what international adoption can do in a child's life. A child who without being adopted would be stuck laying in a crib because of his disabilities but instead is learning to sit up and move his legs.

we are hoping a praying to add to our family through adopting from your country. Please keep doors open for people to beable to help those children in need of a family

Please allow families to continue to adopt children without homes from the beautiful country of Ethiopia. There are many American families that would love to open their homes and hearts to a child.

Please reconsider. Please do not deny these children a forever family. There has to be a better solution. Thank you for your consideration.

I think this is a great idea.

My heart goes out to the orphaned children of Ethiopia. My heart and my home is open and filled with love to adopt. I pray that the doors will stay open so we can bring our daughter home.

As someone who wants to adopt from your country in the near future, please re think your decision in cutting international adoption. Especially from agencies who follow all the required laws and are ethically sound. This news is so heartbreaking to so many people, me included but most of all, for these precious children who just need families to love and care for them.

Prime Minister,
I and my wife are among the many Americans whose hearts are leading us to adopt one or more of the orphans of your country. Our family would provide a loving home and always respect the Ethiopian heritage of our child. Please help ease this overreaction for those of us who sincerely want to help.
Thank you

I support the request of this petition.

There are loving parents waiting for their babies to come home... While I agree that measures should be taken to protect orphans, I think that an effort should be made to SPEED up intercountry adoptions for children truly neglected and without any other option. I believe that reducing adoptions by 90% is NOT in the best interest of the children or the Ministry.

Thank you for considering the petition, I know you are seeking the best for the children.

Please reconsider this change. I strongly feel that this move would be devastating to thousands of orphans who would be stuck in orphanages for years waiting for families to love them. Thank you for your dedication to protect the children! I love seeing changes happening to ensure ethical adoptions, but let's not be so drastic that the children are made to suffer in this way.

Please do not cut the adoption cases down.

Please allow adoption to other countries.

Please don't do this! It would be a sad day for adopting parents and the precious children awaiting a new family.

We have adopted 3 older children (ages 7, 8, and 9) from Ethiopia. They have been both a delight and a tremendous blessing. Please consider your decisions carefully; many children have been helped in Ethiopia who have never been available for adoption. Like us, many people who end up doing extensive ministry in your beautiful country started out by adopting. We are concerned that if you stop all adoptions, many groups will stop caring for orphans and widows completely.

Please consider all the children who will be effected by this decision. Allow those at least who are in process to complete their adoptions. Consider where the corruption is coming from and aleviate that without risking forever families for so many children.

Children need a family.

Here's hoping all children will be cared for in the best possible way.

Please do what is BEST for the children!

Please consider accepting the international assistance that is available to address any corruption issues you may have witnessed. The US has a long and positive history of going to great lengths to care for orphans. My husband and I have adopted twice, and love our children deeply. Please don't deny homes to young children who need them!

I know a godly couple in the already long process of trying to adopt a baby boy. I agree that the Ministry needs to take care of their children, but I hope that they will see the benefit of loving families who have the same convictions that happen to live outside of Ethiopia. Please give my friends the chance to prove the stereotype false.

Please do what is BEST for the children!

Please reverse your decision to reduce inter country adoption. There are so many beautiful children in Africa that just need a family that loves them.

Please do what is BEST for the children!

Please allow your beautiful children to find a forever family

The thought that my adopted son, found along the side of the road, and my other adopted son, who's family could not afford to feed him let alone care for him would still be in Ethiopia had this been in place, sickens me. Please do what's best for the children of Ethiopia!

Please know that many, many families desire to provide a loving and nurturing home to these sweet children. Please do not slow this process down, please...

The benefits of adoption far exceed the current concerns. For the sake of the children, please reconsider.

I truly want what is in the best interest for each child in this country and agree with taking some different measures to end bad practices withing adoption BUT I think this is very drastic and am so concerned for the way this action will leave Ethiopia with so many more orphans that could be saved and be living with loving families. I know there are so many respected people and groups willing to help in any way, can't we help MOWA to make better practices for adoptions? We are praying hard!

Every child deserves the chance to have the love and support of a family.

please let children find good homes. You make children and wonderful prospective parents suffer. But mainly the children suffer.

Every child deserve to have a loving home with a loving family. Please continue to allow adoptions.

Thank you.

Instead of keeping children from the arms of loving parents wanting a child more than their next breath, everything should be done to place these children in loving homes.

There are so many waiting homes for so many needy children. Please don't limit the children, or the families waiting for them.

Please reconsider the policy to allow the previously supported number of adoptions.

Best,

Jim

Their are good, reputable agencies working hard to care for these children. Please don't stop their work. Don't halt the entire process for everyone. Please allow proven, ethical organizations to continue to find homes for these orphaned children. Every child deserves a loving home.

Please help all children find loving homes!

When I head this I wept, knowing that this could stop our adoption to Ethiopia. We desperately want our daughter to in our home and in our arms. Please know that there are legitimate, honest and loving people that want to help. Please, I am begging you.

The Ministry’s plan to reduce intercountry adoption by 90% is a tragic, unnecessary and a disproportionate reaction to concerns of isolated abuses in the intercountry adoption process.

We support the Ministry’s goal of ensuring ethical adoptions that serve the best interest of children and serve all vulnerable children & families.

We respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry adopti

The orphans of Ethiopia need homes! It is not fair to them to cut them off from the opportunity to have a loving family. And there are so many loving families waiting patiently for their children to come home form Ethiopia. It isn't fair to them to take away the children that they have been waiting so long and so patiently for. Have mercy on these dear orphans and continue to allow inter-country adoptions!

My husband and I are in process to adopt a 14-15 year old boy from Ethiopia. Our dossier has been submitted and we are waiting for our court date. He knows that there is a family waiting for him. He has seen our picture as we have seen his. Delays caused by MOWA's decision could result in our son "aging-out" and being put out on the street. This would be tragic when there is a loving family excited to have him join us. Please don't let this happen.

PLease do ont allow the unethical practices of a few immoral agencies ruin the opportunity for a healthy and happy life for thousands of Ethiopian children and the parents who hope to open their homes to them forever!

Please keep Ethiopia open to intercountry adoptions for the sake of the children in orphanages.

We are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. We believe God has given a great partnership between America and Ethiopia to bring children in need of a family into loving forever families. A few people doing things illegally or not in the best interest of the children of Ethiopia is the minority. There are so many agencies and families that greatly anticipate the addition to their family through Ethiopian adoption. This is a huge mistake and we pray God will shed His light and will into it

We are on the waiting list for our son and are heartbroken for what is happening. We are in constant prayer for all the children and everyone that will be making decisions that will affect so many people. God is love.

Please don"t take the opportunity away from the many loving people the want to provide loving homes for children who might never have one.

Please do not reduce intercountry adoptions.

If indeed reduced, what will happen then with the hundreds of children that do not have a home and whoms family cannot support them, give them the rightfull education and love. Every child has the right to be loved and taken care off. Reducing will end up in children having to wait very long on a loving warm family.

Please allow needy children the ability to have good, nurturing families by allowing legal, ethical intercountry adoption.

As an adoptive parent who understands the circumstances in which these children find themselves, I urge you to understand how adoption changes the lives of all involved - the parents and the child. Just about a month ago, my 8 yr old internationally adopted child told me if I had stopped praying about adoption and given up, he (in tears) KNEW he would have ended up homeless. NOW that's how the face of adoption changes lives!

Good parents are waiting!

With 4 children adopted from Ethiopia and the intentions of adopting from there again in the near future, it is our prayer this limitation on adoptions is lifted and not put into effect so the Ethiopian orphans will be united with their forever families.

I have wonderful friends, with excellent families, who are so excited about the children they are waiting to adopt from your country! Many of them already consider these children family. Please help them unite with the children they have been planning and waiting to love face-to-face, and not just through care packages.

Please don"t take the opportunity away from the many loving people the want to provide loving homes for children who might never have one.

The simala's will make terrific parents

So many of us try to do the right thing and follow the rules. Put all the rules you want into the process just don't punish the kids who need the help.

Dear Prime Minister,

I had the pleasure of visiting Ethiopia to work with orphans 3 years ago; it is a visit I will not easily forget. The children were so beautiful. Please listen to their cries for loving families, whether domestic or international. Please encourage the Minister of Women's Affairs to cancel this draconian policy to limit international adoption.

Many thanks for hearing my concern and request.

Thank you for your consideration of our appeal.

I am an adoptive parent and know the immense need of pairing needy children in loving homes. I hope and pray that the Ethiopian government will reconsider it's stance on reducing adoptions. These children deserve a chance at proper nutrition, love, caring families. God has left many families unable to have children but they have loving hearts and the ability to provide food, clothing, shelter and love to these children. I pray you will allow that connection to continue!

Our very close friends were anticipating a match with a child, and this news has devastated them. We urge you to reconsider other options than the drastic measures now being taken. For the children.

Your children of Ethiopia are so special. As a mother to one beautiful 3 year old from Ethiopia, I can only pray that you reconsider limiting adoptions from your country until every beautiful Ethiopian child has a home, either in Ethiopia or wherever God places them.

Our daughter has been home for four years now and is the light of our life. She is growing into a beautiful, strong, and bright young lady. I am saddened to think that other little ones like her may not have the same opportunities she has had, and that many other families will not get to experience the joys of bringing a child home and loving them to a bright future. Please reconsider these changes.

keep the adoptions open for wonderful future of these great kids and great families that want to adopt

Please reconsider making such a drastic step. This would severely limit the chances for many children to find a family.

We brought home our beautiful daughter 18 months ago from Ethiopia. We celebrate her wonderful heritage, please continue your kind heritage as you give the priviledge to the global community to come along side our Ethiopian brothers and sisters.

I believe that taking away intercountry adoption t try and help the children will, over the majority end up hurting them. The cases that children are taken home to loving families far outweigh any crimes that are committed, which may not be able to be stopped by taking away the intercountry adoption anyway. So it seems we are punishing the children who could have homes to save children that need to be helped in another way. thank you.

These precious children need all the parents we can find.

We urge ongoing active adoptions to assist all families and children the best. We have adopted internationally and know many who have adopted recently from Ethiopia. Gods prayer that the process stay active and not hinder care.

Please reconsider reducing adoptions. We have a wonderful little boy we adopted from Ethiopia and feel that it was done extremely ethically. We are currently hopefully waiting to adopt again from Ethiopia. Thank you for your consideration of this matter.

We adopted two kids from Ethiopia last year. They are a joy to our lives. However, they have serious emotional and physical issues that require our constant time, energy and finances. We needed them and they need us. We were amazed at the governments commitment to the children of Ethiopia, and have spoken out about what a great experience our adoption was, please don't take away an opportunity for these kids to have access to the resources that they need. Thanks

My sister and her family are on the wait list. Please consider this family, with willing arms open ready to accept a child from Ethiopia.

It is important to the waiting children and families that we keep the adoption process in place to ensure that children continue to be united with their forever families.

I hope minds are changed in this decision since there are so many great homes around the world for those precious children to be living in, and their lives would be filled with love.

Before implementing this change, please contact other countries which have made similar changes to their child welfare system to see if children are, in fact, better off with these changes. This change will trap more children in orphanages and leave them without the support they need for a healthy happy life.

Please do not do this. My niece and her husband have been waiting for a long time.

The many beautiful children in Ethiopia in need of loving homes are wanted by many families. Please make the process move faster in order to get these wonderful children into safe, healthy, nurturing families.

In 2008 we brought home 4 yr old Hana and 1 yr old Bereket. Their Father had died, their Mother is sick. They have been an amazing blessing to our family and we feel privileged to give them a chance at life. Please reconsider your decision to severely limit the number of children who would have the same opportunity! There are many children who are depending you to do the right thing for their welfare and well being. Please give them a chance at life in a stable family.

Heard about this on MWOP

Please consider returning the policy to it's previous state. The children deserve to be in loving homes!

There are so many loving families who want to open their arms to love and care for your beautiful children. Please do not limit adoptions. Let us help those who need the most help! Give your children a second chance at life! Prayerfully consider this petition!

We are in the process of adopting a child from your country and want nothing more to give him a loving home. We have developed a love for your country and people---PLEASE don't do this to your children and those wanting to adopt them.

end this new law

My husband and I adopted our daughter from Ethiopia in November of 2010. She is such a blessing to us and we love her completely. We hope to adopt again from Ethiopia as we fell in love with the country and it's culture.

Our son is so precious to us! He is living a wonderful life. He is attending school, participating in sports, developing his singing talents and sharing his Ethiopian heritage with his family and friends. He is growing up strong, healthy and beautiful! Had his adoption been prohibited, he most likely would not have survived. His biggest dream is to someday return to Ethiopia and share his education with his friends and family there.

Please give children every possible chance for a fulfilled life.

There are many good homes here that want to love and care for children. Please get as many children in these homes as possible.

PLEASE save the children and allow orphans to be placed in families for adoption. I support ethical adoptions and Ethiopia getting more help to handle the processing of the cases. I also support children being able to be raised in families and not orphanages.

We are so grateful for our precious Ethiopian children. They both had medical needs when we got them, but especially our son. We are so thankful to be able to give them the love and medical care needed, and are seeing so happy and adjusting so well. For the sake of the many children waiting in orphanages, please reconsider. Although the orphanages do the best they can, there is no comparison to having the care of a family.
Don't make the children miss out on loving homes... every day matters.

a child deserves a loving home and every opportunity to becoome all that he/she can be

Please for the sake of the thousands of needy children, reconsider this decision. Our friends are in the process and have been waiting for two boys.
Thank you.

My family is eager to become a permanent family to an Ethiopian child who would thrive with the love and opportunities we could provide. Also, we are friends with several families who have adopted Ethiopian children within the last two years the children are happy, well cared for, and loved!

Our little cousin Silas is the most adorable child and this ministry helped bring him to our family.

If children need homes, then why deny them international hope?

Please don't limit the opportunity for these precious children to have hope and a future through adoption. So many loving families are ready and waiting to welcome them.

Please continue to allow these wonderful orphan children to become part of a loving home.

let kerry reilly adopt! she is very compasionate and will definietly do all that she can for these boys and Ethiopia!

I Highly comend Shane and Summer Somers for their integrety and morals.I have know them of a considerable number of years and highly recommend them.

Please allow for adoption to continue as unemcumbered as possible. If there is a family willing and able to welcome a one or more children into their home, it should be done as quickly as possible to limit the negative impact on all those involved.

Our children have lost so much of their childhood already. Please don't take away an opportunity for a childhood for the many because of the unethical actions of the few.

As the father of an adopted child i would hate to see a few bad people ruin this gift of a child for both the adopting parents and the child needing a family.

place children in loving homes!

We know five different families who have adopted from Ethiopia and all of the children are such a blessing to their family. All of the children are doing so well and have just flourished in their homes. Please do not restrict other children in Ethiopia from experiencing a family that loves and treasures them.

Please reconsider as we have developed a love for the Ethiopia people and have a desire to adopt and care for them as we would care for our own children.

adoption is the best answer for the relief of poverty and orphans in the world.

Please consider what this means for the children involved and consider their well being vs being selfish

please allow this precious children who are already suffering the hurt of being an orphan experience the joy of joining a family and have the love of parents!

I am praying!

It is foolish to punish the children for the actions of cruel people. This will only result in producing more cruel people.

Our family and our adopted son from Ethiopia have been so mutually blessed. We are so appreciative that we have been given the opportunity to have him in our family.

Can't imagine our family without our Ethiopian-born son.

Please do not reduce adoptions!

Dear Mr Prime Minister,
PLEASE reconsider the decision to reduce the number of intercountry adoptions. My wife and I traveled to Ethiopia in February 2011 to attend our court hearing for a beautiful little girl we are adopting. We had the opportunity to meet her and bond with her on our trip. We are longing to bring her home to be with our family. With the new regulations, we fear it could delay bringing her home by months. We are urging you to please reconsider your decision. Thank You.

We have a precious granddaughter from Ethopia. So many children have no families and deserve the chance for loving homes.

Thank you for taking time to consider the damaging effect this decision to reduce intercountry adoption will have on children already in care. Case studies show that children in care suffer from instability in their expectations for what tomorrow holds. Please reconsider your decision to reduce adoptions while working with other agencies to produce stronger and highly monitored regulations that will assist in reducing corruption and trafficking.

We are in the process of adopting a 8 month old boy from ET. We have been through court and are awaiting our Embassy date. We are pleading with you to continue to allow all the loving parents who want to help your children and your country continue to do so. Thanks.

We are awaiting the adoption of two orphan sisters from your country. We have been praying for them for over a year now and our case is just about to go before the courts. Please allow our case to proceed.

Please help these wonderful children obtain homes with forever families through adoption.
As a result, you will become a hero to these children and to the world.

We are awaiting the adoption of two orphan sisters from your country. We have been praying for them for over a year now and our case is just about to go before the courts. Please allow our case to proceed.

I respectfully request the Ministry to reconsider the decision to cut intercountry adoption and to consider instead, the lives of the children who desperately need and deserve to be part of a family, to have the opportunity to grow to become people who can then help others. Thank you for your consideration of the desires of the hearts of many, many people who are willing and able to make these children their own.

I support ethical adoption but a lot of good families have been waiting for a baby! So unfair to punish everyone because of a few unethical ones. There has to be a middle ground.

This is terrible. My heart goes out to the orphans of that country and orphans in every country. This act is completely wrong and it makes absolutely no sense. It saddens me more than anything to know that too many of those helpless children won't have a chance. I pray this does not happen and hope one day i will be able to rescue atleast 1 if not more of those precious children.

So many children are in great need and there are so many wonderful families that can give these children a loving, nurturing home. please dont take that away. Lets find ways to deal with the problems to make them a thing of the past, but dont take an oppurtunity some of these children have.

Thank you so much for all your work on behalf of orphans in Ethiopia.

I'm hoping for the very best.

Good people are looking to love and care for Ethopian children in need. With the international help being offered, it would be a win win situation for everyone.

I do this on behalf of my dear friends Cara & Brian who are hoping with all of their heart that their adoption of an Ethiopian child goes through as soon as possible. They will provide the healthiest and most wonderful homes for a child and will the the best parents in the world.

I understand the reasoning behind the Ministry's plan to reduce intercountry adoptions, however, the consequences of such a drastic change are far too great. So many children are in need of loving families and homes. I know one such family who have been praying and planning for their beautiful son to come home since June. It is heartbreaking to think that this child may not go home. Please, reconsider this decision.

MY WIFE AND I WOULD LOVE TO HELP OUT IN ANY WAY. WE HAVE BEGUN AN ADOPTION PROCESS AND WOULD LOVE TO HELP IN ANY WAY THAT WOULD BE ALLOWED.

For the sake of the children!

There are so many wonderful children we have met through adoptive parents here in the US and the children are growing spiritually, physically and mentally. Everyone wins, especially if they eventually return home to help their mother country.

Dreaming of adopting an Ethiopian child someday...

please put children's needs first by placing them in families that will provide their needs. Please partner with NGO's and reputable organizations that offer assistance to expedite referrals. Thank you!

Please allow adoptions of children from Ethiopia.
Please do not enforce the reduction on March 10th. Parents planning to adopt will be heartbroken and many children will be deprived of a family. Perspective parents will always instill a respect for their children concerning their country of origin.

It breaks my heart to hear this action is being considered given the wonderful children who have been adopted by loving families.

God has blessed us. Proud Nana to Grace, Ella & Faith, Three of my Five Awesome Grandchildren.

I am in favor of all children being in a family home where they receive all of the necessities of life and just as important if not more so, the love and safety it can provide each of them.

This would be a bad decision for children and international relations.

Please help us help the children who need permanent homes, permanent love, education, medical care and most of all, love.

My husband and I are currently in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. Our dossier has been sent and are waiting for a referral of a child. We have been doing this for over 2 years and are ready for our child. We are extremely concerned about the delay this would cause. We don't want any children that need a forever family to have to wait any longer than necessary. Please reconsider this proposal to see only 5 cases a day.....for the sake of the children!

Please reconsider the proposed decrease to intercountry adoptions. Please continue to advocate for these precious children and allow them to be placed with families who will cherish them. My wife and I recently adopted our son from Ethiopia and the thought of him growing up in an ophange breaks my heart.

Please let others helps the beautiful children of Ethiopia - we love them!

Please let us make orphans no more. Let them be a part of a family.

Please allow adoptions to continue at the current rate. Thank you.

being able to bring these children home to their american homes.

From my experience, I would trust those I personally know seeking to adopt an Ethiopian child with my own children without question. I do not know how to convey my sentiments more strongly than that. Best regards.

PLEASE! These babies need loving families and these parents need their babies. Please don't make these parents wait another minute to bring their babies home.

God is great and he is in total control. Have faith and Just believe!

Please don't punish the children for the offenses of a few by not allowing them the chance of a happy, healthy family.

please don't reduce the number of adoptions!

Hoping to adopt a child in need of a family from Ethiopia.

There are so many wonderful families waiting on precious children. And there are so many children who need those families. Please consider.

Please be accepting of adoptions of Ethiopian children by suitable foreigners. I know that the families I am aware of that are looking to adopt Ethiopian children will do a great job AND take an active role in educating their children, adopted or by birth, about their cultural heritage.

Why would you ever want to stop any child from having a home??? May God Bless them all!!!

Hoping to adopt a child in need of a family from Ethiopia.

Please continue to allow adoptions to those families who love and care about the orphans of
Ethiopia.

Our granddaughter came home from Ethiopia in 2008. We are anxiously awaiting the homecoming of our second grandchild. The joy that this little girl has brought to our lives is immeasurable, she is our only grandchild. Please don't make any children wait any longer than necessary for a loving family that is waiting so patiently for them.

Please think of the children who may never find their forever families, who will love them unconditionally and who will care for them.

I support the above statements

My husband and I feel so grateful and honored to be the parents of our two Ethiopian children. We are currently in the process of adopting two more children with special needs and hope that they will be able to come home to our family in a timely manner since spending additional time in an orphange is not in their best interest. Please consider what is best for the children when making new policies. Stranding children without families in institutional care is not a good solution.

Please allow the ability for Americans to continue to adopt at the rate they have been doing so. Thank you.

I understand the desire to reduce the corrupt issues that unfortunately find their way into the adoption process; however, I do not feel that reducing the number of adoptions is the proper solution. Reducing the number of adoptions would take away the hope and future for those little ones that are looking for a loving family to raise them, no matter what country that might be in.

We pray that the decisions made are what is best for all of the children and people of Ethiopia. International adoption agencies and adoption fees help not only the adopted children, but the most vulnerable population by assisting in orphan care, health care, and education for those who are not adopted. Our prayers are with the Ethiopian government and the Ethiopian people.

Tim and Rita Barnes will be great parents! Please concider them for adoption.

For Bobi B.

Please consider the lives of the children and their prospective families. These are families that will love and care for these children. My Son and his wife adopted a son several years ago and we all love him so much.It would be so sad for other families and children not to be able to experience the love they will share.

I would say if you have families in Ethiopia willing to take these children and educate them and care for them, then fine. But if there is not the means to do this, please don't stop these adoptions. These kids are loved and taken care of and there is a great respect we have for their Ethiopian heritage and culture here in the USA.

Please reconsider your position. Lots of people are good people and will love these children!

I understand your passionate loyalty to your children and your reluctance to see them adopted. It is our desire to partner with you in giving these children hope they might not have otherwise. So many hearts will be broken on both sides if you follow through with this new adoption requirement. We beg you to please reconsider. Thank you so much.

Please don't do this. focus on other ways to research the trafficking to make sure it isn't taking place, don't shut this down!

I worked with a highly ethical adoption agency, Children's Home Society and Family Services (CHSFS) to adopt a boy who was ligitimately relinquished by his family. His mother asked me, via an interpreter, to please provide him with a good education. I am granting her wish and offering him a loving, secure, permanent home and family.

We adopted our son apporximately 2 years ago and he is thriving here in America. We are dilgent with keeping the Ethiopian culture alive in his life. He says goodnight every evening before bed to his ehMYay and smiles everytime he does. We can not wait to bring him back to his homeland when he is older. It is a tragedy that 90% of the children who need loving and supportive homes will be denied this ability with a quick sweep of a unwieldy pen. If only for the love of a child please reconsider.

PLEASE do not restrict the adoption of the children to loving and trusted home's.

We are asking that you reconsider your approach to prevent unethical groups coming into your country. There are several wonderful agencies who have been providing homes to children for years that the Ethiopian government trusts. Please do not punish hundreds of children for the horrible acts of a few agencies. This will affect your economy, your children and the future of adoption in Ethiopia. Your intentions are good, so please come to a reasonable compromise that will benefit all parties.

Please reconsider!

Please do not make this step, in making it harder for your orphans to find homes. Have mercy on them, please.

Exactly one year ago, I brought home my new son. He was adopted at 4 years old, from Ethiopia. He joined our family easly, and is a gift to all who know him.

Please allow these adoptions!!

My husband and I are looking forward to adopting orphaned children from Ethiopia and becoming a forever family. Thank you for the opportunity to love and cherish these precious children who otherwise would not have a family. Please reconsider slowing the adoption process in Ethiopia so that more orphaned children can be placed with families instead of growing up alone. Thank you for your willingness to care for and find families for these children through intercountry adoption. God bless you.

Please do not allow children to suffer and not have permanent, loving families in reaction to a few abuses. Please find a way to stop the abuses without stopping the legitimate and needed adoptions occurring now and in the future. Thank you.

Our Ethiopian child has changed our world for the better.

Please find a different solution to this problem. Slowing adoptions down will only hurt the children who will have to stay in orphanages longer than necessary. These children deserve to be in permanent, loving families as soon as possible.

Our beautiful Ethiopian daughters are deeply loved, always cared for and part of our family forever. Because of the political issues causing this reform, how many young Ethiopian children will not be able to have a permanent family through adoption to give them the same? Every child deserves to be loved and part of a forever family.

Please consider partnerships to boost ethical adoptions so that children can have forever families.

Please reconsider such a drastic reduction in the number of adoptions.

Please, please, please reconsider! I'm begging you!

Please allow these orphans to have homes and families with love.

What about the children who wouldn't survive without right medical care??? They have the right to live too.

As an adoptive mother of a son from Haiti, I know first hand how desperately children in orphanages thrive once they are in their forever families! Please allow the children in Ethiopian orphanages to find theirs. We all want the same thing- to have an ethical process- but leaving children to suffer alone is NOT ETHICAL!

I will be very saddened if the changes are made to limit adoptions. Each child I have met that has been adopted from Ethiopia is delightful, and their families are so happy to be able to be called Mom and Dad because of the adoption.

We have not adopted from here yet, but we desperately want to. I believe everyone has value and those that don't have the same oppertunities that I have should be able to expirence them. I believe I have been adopted by God, through Jesus Christ my Lord and want to share that love with others.

Our life is forever changed for adopting our child from Ethiopia. It has been an amazing privilege to provide care to this child that may not have survived otherwise.

Please allow these children in need to find homes!

I have friends who are waiting to adopt an Ethiopian child, and they would be wonderful parents!

Hague compliant adoptions should remain to be seen no matter how many

I know 2 loving families in the process of adopting. It would be a huge mistake to keep children from coming home to the open arms of such wonderful loving families. Please help them and the children.

Please do not make worse what these precious children have already gone through.

I hope you will prayerfully reconsider this change. I desire what is best for the children of Ethiopia and realize that there are many ways that people can help children and families in your beautiful country. I hope that you don't eliminate intercountry adoption as a means of helping orphans find a loving home.

Please reconsider this action. My sister and her husband, wonderful and dedicated parents, will be directly effected by this act. They have completed the majority of the process to adopt a baby boy from Ethiopia. Their daughters are so looking forward to meeting their baby brother. I have had many friends adopt internationally, and provide such loving homes to children that may otherwise remain in orphanages. Love knows no borders.

Please reconsider your plan to reduce the number of intercountry adoptions.

Please do not throw the baby out with the bathwater here. Do what it takes to ensure both that corruption is eliminated and that children can still be united through adoption with loving families!

We have been blessed with the addition of our Ethiopian daughter to our family. She will have an education, healthcare and family she never would have had if she had stayed an orphan in Ethiopia. Please reconsider your decision.

The children are the ones who will suffer greatly from this!

Please do not hurt these children in the process of trying to help the system. Please allow them to get to loving families sooner not later.

Please allow these children to live with these loving families!!!

Please reconsider this decision. We brought our daughter home five months ago and she is doing extremely well. Her older siblings adore her and she has flourished in our home. She is full of joy and everywhere we go, she interacts with other people. We are considering adopting from Ethiopia again and hope that adoptions do not slow down. For those children who truly need families, adoption is a wonderful gift. If you could see her happiness, you would know that adoptions need to continue.

We are hoping to adopt an Ethiopian orphan. We know that Ethiopia has more orphans than any country and would like to provide a loving hope with many opportunities for a child in need.

We just started our adoption process in November. We are looking forward to adopting from Ethiopia. I hope the process continues. Praying that adopiton will not be cut because there are many loving famlies wanting to adopt from Ethiopia.

Our son came home to his forever family on Nov. 18, 2010. Our lives will never be the same. He is an amazing, happy little 8month old, that brings so much light into our lives. We are truly blessed to have him. We are hopeful that this change in ET adoption will not occur, so other families can experience the same joy we feel every single day.

We adopted from Ethiopia in 2008 and have been waiting 20+ months for our second adoption from Ethiopia. I want nothing but the best for each child in Ethiopia, but also do not want to see any child waiting for an unnessesary amount of time for a family that is ready to love them and welcome them into their family. Each child needs and deserves a loving family and each moment they wait for one causes undue hardship on that child. Do what is best for each child, but do not make them wait. Thanks!

Please reconsider this decision. We brought our daughter home five months ago and she is doing extremely well. Her older siblings adore her and she has flourished in our home. She is full of joy and everywhere we go, she interacts with other people. We are considering adopting from Ethiopia again and hope that adoptions do not slow down. For those children who truly need families, adoption is a wonderful gift. If you could see her happiness, you would know that adoptions need to continue.

Praying for Ethiopian orphans

The gift of adoption transcends national borders, and connects children and parents in a way that creates lifelong families.

Our famiy was completed by the adoption of a baby girl from Ethiopia. She has brought such joy to our lives, and we have also been able to provide opportunity to her that she would not have had in her birth family. Please do not leave children waiting for famililes in an orphanage.

I know several loving families that are looking at Ethiopia as a country they would like to adopt from. This new down grade of adopts per year would probably cause them to look at other countries instead of waiting.

My dear friends are in the process of adopting a baby from Ethiopia. The love and joy they will bring to a child's life, and the love and joy that a child will bring to their lives is so great.

Our family has been home with our Ethiopian daughter for just 2 weeks now. We were touched during our time in country by the obvious love that the Ethiopian people have for their children. We petition the Ministry to continue to put the children first , ensuring that as many as possible have the opportunity to thrive in a loving home environment.

Our daughters ages 16 and 5 were adopted from Ethiopia and we adore them and are so thankful to have them in our family. They are truly flourishing in our home and becoming wonderful young ladies. We are very connected to the Ethiopian community in our area. Our girls are very much in touch with their first culture and heritage. We are thankful we had the opportunity to adopt them and wish that the other orphans will be given a chance to have a family and bright future.

Please do not let these children die unloved and unwanted. Please allow them to go to loving, caring, responsible homes.

We are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia and we are so thankful for all the advocacy work that is being done on the behalf of these children.

Please don't reduce the number of orphans adopted internationally. Many very qualified parents-to-be have spent months and years waiting to nurture one of these children. It would be a horrible shame for both the adoptive parents and the children to be denied a loving family.

My sister was given the opportunity to adopt the most amazing baby from Ethiopia. That baby is loved and well taken care of and thriving. We are so grateful to have her. There are so many families who deserve the same opportunity she got.

It is crucial to give these children a "forever family." They can be loved and accepted into these families if we allow them to be adopted. Please do not let these children stay without families, let people who desire to love, cherish and care for these children to adopt them into their "Forever family."

Please continue to allow those who are willing and able to adopt Gods children to do so. Many are called by God to do this heroic act to enable your children to live in a world of love. Be merciful for the childrens sake.

I know a famiy that has been blessed in adopting three children from Ethiopia. This has given these children a chance in life they would never had as well as a loving caring family to be raised in and a future with endless potentials.

Please reconsider the proposed decrease to intercountry adoptions. There are so many loving, wonderful families who have a heart for Ethiopia and its orphans. Please continue to advocate for these precious children and allow them to be placed with families who will cherish them.

Please do not do this. I am a witness to beautiful families who have adopted. Not all is corrupt. Do not let Unicef and other organizations ruin children's lives!

I think it is reprehensible what is happening with Ethiopian adoptions. Really, really?? As a mom of an international adoptee, and a domestic adoption. Children come to us from everywhere..Please, reconsider to let those kids have a loving, nurturing home.

There are many loving couples waiting to adopt children whose hopes of having a family to belong surely must be taken into account.

please continue adoptions

My dearest friends have an adopted son from Ethopia. No child could ask for better, more loving parents. Please reconsider this plan and allow so many children to have stable, safe, forever families.

Please allow more orphans to be adopted. They need a family and their families are waiting for them!! Please

With such a disproportionate of orphaned children in Ethiopia, this would seem to be a bad move on the part of the country to scale down on adoptions. As a parent of a daughter who is well into this process of adopting an Ethiopian child already, this comes as a crushing blow.

Please give these children a fighting chance to be placed in a loving home with parents who will love them and cherish them and keep them from harm. No child deserves to feel worthless and unloved. So many families want to help please let them have the chance.

There are so many wonderful couples hoping to provide a loving home to a child. It would be very sad for the children that could be adopted into a loving family to be left possibly alone. I hope you will find it in your heart to be open to organizations that provide a safe and loving family environment to grow up in.

Please stop this proposal - for those precious children who need loving parents so badly. There are so many parents who have so much love to give - the adoptive Ethiopian children will be loved beyond measure. We have a 4 year old daughter who was adopted from Guatemala. She is a beautiful & smart little girl who has the world at her fingertips. We are so very blessed to be the parents to this little girl & we feel she is blessed to have parents that love her beyond measure.

Please allow ethical agencies to continue helping children in Ethiopia.

My best friend's daughter was a blessing from Ethiopia and has just blossomed these past few months with her new family. She is full of joy and I can't imagine her life had she not found the love of this family. Please don't take the promising futures of so many precious orphans away. They each deserve to find their own forever families.

Please help our dear friends complete their adoption of an Ethiopian son. They will be an amazing family for this boy and it would be a shame to delay this adoption any further!

Please do not cut down on the adoptions! These precious children need loving, secure homes and many are waiting to bring their babies and children home!!

please do not reduce the amount of adoptions
from your country Ethopia.

Thank you,

Danny & Maureen Shakeshaft.

These Children only go to families who desperately want them. The families are thoroughly vetted for their appropriateness and ability to properly raise a child. Comparing this to a life in an orphanage in a third world country comes off as a no contest

Please do not stop adoptions in Ethiopia. I cannot imagine our lives without our beautiful Ethiopian baby girl and my heart breaks for the children who will be left as orphans.

So many families in the United States and other countries have large hearts and open arms to the children waiting for adoption. Children will suffer for want of a family if they are not allowed to be adopted out as have been in the past. Please do not allow for hundreds of children to be hindered and unloved by a family waiting to love and nuture a child in Ethiopia. Please, all who read this, encourage others to sign this petition.

Please do not do this to these children.

One of my neighbors has adopted a child from this country and they have a beautiful and healthy loving family. More children need this opportunity.

Give them a forever home!!

Hague compliant adoptions should remain to be seen no matter how many

It would be a tragedy if wonderful children like my niece were denied the opportunity for a loving family and bright future. She has brought such joy to us. Don't allow a few unethical cases to dictate policy. Put safeguards in place, but keep adoption open.

I believe that caring, resourceful human beings can come up with an effective solution to both identify and deter unethical practices while continuing to find loving homes for the true orphans as quickly as possible. The shear number of orphans in Ethiopia makes it an overwhelming task for the country to adequately care for these kids without placing them in loving homes as soon as possible.

I pray Ethiopia will reconsider such a drastic reduction in cases. I think it's great that the country is concerned with the best interest of the children, but viewing only 5 cases a day is swinging too far in the other direction...hopefully there can be a happier middle ground.

There are so many loving families waiting to adopt a precious child, who would give them love, and possibly expose them to things they would never get to experience in Ethiopia.
I would hope that rather than decrease the number of adoptions that the numbers would increase.

There are so many Ethiopian children waiting for homes and families. Please do not close your doors to families that want to welcome these precious children so that they can experience parental affection and care!

My wife and I have submitted our dossier to Ethiopia to adopt a child or sibling pair that have HIV. As a family we have invested much time, prayer and money into this process and are connected with a very reputable agency (All God's Children International). We are concerned this new policy will leave thousands of orphans with out homes. We do desire to see
agencies/orphanages that lack integrity be shut down. We also desire to see the ones legitimately doing great work remain supported.

We have been forever blessed by our son born in Ethiopia!

Please let these children have the chance to have a permanent family!

Dear Sirs/Madams,

My husband & I pray every day for a perfect world, with no need for adoption, but until this happens we will continue to help orphans worldwide. The fact that kids die daily from simple, preventable issues (ex.: starvation, parasites, diarrhea, etc) breaks our hearts. This, along with our love of children & having fallen in love with Ethiopia, it's culture & people are just a few reasons we are currently trying to adopt from your country. We pray for your help in this matter.

For Bella and the rest of the precious children that need a home!

I consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry adoption. Rather than eliminate the right of Ethiopian children to a permanent family, we encourage the Ministry to accept the partnerships offered by governments, NGOs, and foundations.

Please continue to allow 100% of intercountry adoption. If the bottom line is your main concern, it would be much cheaper to allow adoption than it would be to maintain many children in your orphanages. Please reconsider your decision.
Respectfully, Nikki

Please do not limit the possibilities of these children finding a loving family and a chance to be the most they can be.

Please don't let children be the innocent ones who will suffer under the decision to halt adoptions. Babies need homes and mommies and daddies to love them, hold them, kiss them and to let them know how very special they are. Please don't halt any adoptions.

We do not want children to stay in orphanages without a family any longer than they have to do so.

Please don't let the children be without families that want them.

I have seen first hand very good adoptions. I believe adoptions need to be monitored, but closing them sharply is not what Ethiopia's 5 million orphans need.

As an mother of 4 adopted children, I can attest to the change a forever family can make in a child's future. My children were deeply troubled youth at placement and are now ready to move off into the world as fully functioning citizens. The love of a family and therapy caused this change.

My friends Anne and Terry Stone have hearts of gold and are financially and personally very stable and loving people. To hear that they may not be able to give an Ethiopian child the chance at a healthy and happy life brings me great sadness. Please consider allowing such adoptions to continue, if for nothing else, the sake of the children.

Please do not reduce the numbers of children who are welcomed into loving families.

Praying you will reconsider this decision. There are so many children who would benefit from a new chance at life in a home that wants to love them. I know one such family who has been in the process for a while and are now nervous that what they have been praying and planning for may not come to fruition. I am praying for them, the children, and the decision to be made in accordance with what would be best for these innocents.

We are the parents of a child, adopted from Ethiopia as an infant. We were very careful to work with a respected, experienced and ethical agency to complete our adoption. We agree that the corruption must be addressed, but please do not hurt the thousands of children who have been relinquished by their birth families and need a permanent and loving home. Adoption cannot help all children, but it can help some and ethical adoption agencies provide humanitarian aid to help keep families intact.

There are so many families internationally who would love to adopt a child from your country. It seems a tragedy to deprive so many children of loving homes. If it is possible to carry out your international adoptions safely with no harm to the children, please reconsider continuing the practice.

My niece and her husband have been waiting so long for their child. Please don't have them wait any longer. Please honor the adoptions that are in progress. Thank you

Please consider intercountry adoptions as a way for these children to have permanent families and not just caretakers. There are ample families all over the world who would care, protect and accept these children as their own.

AS an adoptive parent, I would be saddened to learn that so many are being denied families due to this legislation.

Babies need families and families need baby's. Don't stop a good thing!

Having adopted four beautiful teenagers four years ago, who are succeeding in every way possible, I can only encourage you not to reduce your intercountry adoptions. Left orphans and in poverty, these children never would have the opportunity for a private high school education and preparation to attend college. Nothing in their present lives would suggest anything but a future brimming with happiness and succes.

Please do not let these children suffer. The hearts of these potential parents are breaking. Please do what is right.

I was number 49 on the list for a baby girl when this happened, our hearts are in Ethiopia waiting for our beautiful baby girl.

I was number 49 on the list for a baby girl when this happened, our hearts are in Ethiopia waiting for our beautiful baby girl.

Saving children is what matters. Give them a chance at a better life.

We are in process of adopting from Ethiopia. We are with a reputable agency. Please don't limit the amount of children brought to the US. They need us as much as we need them!

We recently adopted a 5 month old daughter and appreciated the wonderful Ethiopian professionals who helped make our dream come true. We hope and pray that these professionals and leaders will allow the intercountry adoption process to proceed forward in a way that protects the children both from corruption in the system and from being without a permanent home solution.

Do what is best for these children and let them go into homes where they will be loved and nurtured into healthy God-fearing adults. Families are ordained for the raising up of humanity to best teach love, faith, trust, self-control , joy, patience, kindness, goodness.

We are so happy to have been able to adopt from Ethiopia in 2006. We chose Ethiopia because of the excellent way that adoptions were being handled by both the government and the agencies operating there. To this day we recommend Ethiopia to parents considering adoption because of the lack of corruption and the transparency of the process. Please do reconsider this as there are so many good agencies and loving families who can provide homes for children who are in need.

Please continue to allow adoptions to loving families. I can't imagine what our lives would be like if we hadn't adopted our children (Ethiopia and Russia).

Please help the children!

I have friends who have been VERY blessed by 3 Ethiopian boys. Please do not limit adoption!!

We respectfully entreat the Ministry to consider partnering with other organizations so they can continue the great task of finding homes for the sweet children of Ethiopia!

We are currently in the adoption process for a baby from Ethiopia. This decision would shatter so many families and futures.

Please help the children!

Please reinstate the adoptions in Ethiopia. We are waiting for our children. We can't wait to adopt ! Our whole family is excited to welcome a child.

Our son died waiting almost seven months from referal to come home, I am worried about the length of time these sweet children must wait for a forever family and how it will impact them both mentally waiting and also physically. CHSFS did a great job documenting that our adoption was a proper adoption and we met the birth parent and heard the adoption plan from him and he spoke with the Court in Ethiopia. The future of waiting orphans should not be decided based on the criminal intent of some.

I am the proud mother of two adopted Ethiopian sons. I support wholeheartedly ethical transparent adoptions. But basically shutting down the option for some children is very short sighted and will cause children to suffer needlessly.

We brought our daughter home from Ethiopia 6 months ago. We were able to meet one living relative and are absolutely positive that her adoption took place in an extremely ethical manner. We were impressed with how concerned our agency was for the children and know they did everything they could to promote family preservation before adoption became her plan.

Don't punish ethical practitioners for the faults of the unscrupulous!

Please consider this, sir. We are longing to bring our child home, and we have been waiting a long time to see his/her precious face. We promise to love this child well! We love Ethiopia and respect your desire to protect children. We want them protected, too- more than anything. And there are many families here, such as ours, that will love these children and protect them in our family.

Let's do what is BEST for the children!

We have had an amazing adoption experience from Ethiopia with a 5 year old girl who was unable to be supported by her single and starving mother. we are blessed and honored to call her our daughter, and our agency, CHSFS, was by the letter of the law. We pray for this experience for other families to continue.

this would be an unimaginable tragedy. Praying that the Ethiopian government will not let this happen to their children.

One of the most incredible treasures of our life is our son who was adopted from Ethiopia. There are no words to express how precious and deeply loved he is by our family. Please reconsider your decision to limit the numbers of adoptions from your country. I understand and agree that that every child MUST be protected. Please work to find a solution that does not include closing your doors to adoption. I ask respectfully and thank you.

What an honor to be a part of this group to encourage ethical adoptions that will provide loving homes to children who, without it would never have this opportunity to live in peace and to be loved.

Please don't deny these children forever families!!

Our family hopes and prays that international adoptions are not cut off in Ethiopia. We care and love the children of Ethiopia.

I can't imagine our lives without our two wonderful grandchildren from Ethiopia.

I support efforts that are continually being made to protect children and improve ethics in the adoption system. However, I'm particularly concerned how the latest news from MOWA will effect waiting special needs children who not only need homes but desperately need access to more medical care. I would like to see increased emphasis on family preservation and support in Ethiopia, but am very concerned of the effects of long term institutionalization of children who will now wait even longer.

The Ministry’s plan to reduce intercountry adoption by 90% is a tragic, unnecessary and a disproportionate reaction to concerns of isolated abuses in the intercountry adoption process.

We support the Ministry’s goal of ensuring ethical adoptions that serve the best interest of children and serve all vulnerable children & families.

Please, for the sake of the children.

please help us and the children. We are the PAP fro 2 older children that are close to aging out of the system. Pleasw help us get them home with us before that happens

Please considering acting in the best interests of these children and their future families. Thank you!

As an adoptive parent of a beautiful Ethiopian child, it breaks my heart to think about other orphaned children throughout Ethiopia who may not have access to an adoptive family full of love, hope, and opportunity.

As a father of two Ethiopian adopted children, I pray that you continue to allow adoptions for the orphaned children of your country.

This family is a very good family with the utmost in love for their neighbor and full of integrity.

Please do not let politics get in the way of wonderful families waiting to adopt these beautiful children.

We are awaiting the referral of a baby brother! Please let him have what he might not otherwise have by those who love him but aren't able to provide for him.

Please work with adoption advocates to make forever homes available quickly to all orphans in Ethiopia. We have been blessed everyday since we brought our daughter home from Addis Abba. She is now thriving and we will teach her to love and respect her native country and culture. Protect the lives of these precious children by allowing adoptions to move forward at a reasonable, speedy pace. Thank you.

We are awaiting the referral of a baby brother! Please let him have what he might not otherwise have by those who love him but aren't able to provide for him.

I feel that orphan care should be a focus both in-country and inter-country, not one or the other so that more may be helped.

I'm saddened by isolated cases of abuse but I am inspired as I hear my friend's heart and excitement to give to a child from your country a loving family... I would be sad to see children remain orphans while there are families who would love them

Please reconsider your decision to reduce the daily amount of approved adoptions to outside countries. We appreciate the efforts you are taking to make sure there is no corruption within the system. We are in the beginning stages of adopting from your beautiful country and ask that you would reconsider the new reduction in adoption approvals. Thank you.

We recently brought home a six year old girl from Tigray Ethiopia. Her dad passed away when she was three months old and her mother is HIV and can not care for her. She has been such a joy and our family of seven absolutely love her. We look forward to keeping her Ethiopian heritage an important part of her life and look forward to returning to ET soon.

Please take this petition into consideration. Thank you!

I heartily support this petition.

Please help these kids!!

Please allow American adoptions.

Please continue to allow children to have the opportunity to be adopted into loving families.

please let theses families adopt these precious kids and give them a home that's what is so important

Don't prevent children the opportunity of having a loving family environment instead of only knowing the inside of an orphanage

Please don't punish the children for some unscrupulous people. These children need good homes soon

Please don't punish the children for some unscrupulous people. These children need good homes soon

PLEASE DON'T SLOW THE ADOPTION PROCESS.

Please allow caring compassionate loving people like Krist Kopf the opportunity toadopt.

Please reconsider the action recently taken that purges the good with the bad. Certainly, if there is a need to discontunie actions with certain disreputable agencies or entities that have abused the system, then please proceed to do so.

We are proud parents to our wonderful daughter Sofia. We are also professionals with two decades of experience working with African governments (e.g., Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health) and communities (e.g., Amhara, Afar and SNNPR) to strengthen food security and health. We were impressed with CHSFS’s professionalism, transparency, respect for children’s rights and commitment to development. Please allow adoption to continue to be one tool to help every Ethiopian child reach her full potential.

Please reconsider the reduction of adoptions. Loving families are cherishing the Ethiopian countries gift in order to love and be a family with these precious children. As an adoptive parent, two sons born in Ethiopia, we look forward to the day they can return to Ethiopia and learn about and be a blessing to their country of birth.

Our family loves Ethiopia and the beautiful and sweet children there. We are so saddened by this decision. Please reconsider!!

Please do not slow down the adoptions in Ethiopia. There are millions of orphans in Ethiopia who need families and homes.

Please they need to Adopt Henry!

Having just returned from Russia with our two little girls, our hearts bleed for all those children waiting in Ethiopia for their forever families.

Please reconsider your decision to reduce the daily amount of approved adoptions to outside countries. We appreciate the efforts you are taking to make sure there is no corruption within the system. We are in the beginning stages of adopting from your beautiful country and ask that you would reconsider the new reduction in adoption approvals. Thank you.

Our best friends are in the process of adopting from your country and would make the greatest parents to one of your children while ensuring he/she knows their culture. Please help them!!

Please do not do this. It would hurt so many children that have families waiting to love them and hold them and raise them.

My son was born in Ethiopia and has lived in the US for over 2 years now. He is flourishing and is the happiest little boy. He is very aware of his heritage and proudly tells anyone that he is from Ethiopia. He has been a true blessing to my life.

I have three beautiful, happy healthy children all adopted from Ethiopia. They now have a permanent home and family that loves them dearly. There are countless other children who are desperately in need of forever homes as well, please don't take that opportunity away from them.

Please continue to let those of us in the US who feel called by God to provide a good and loving home for a child from your country.

I support international adoptions, and feel it is only penalizing your own orphans to create such a decline in possible adoptions. I personally know loving couples waiting and longing to adopt from your Country.

I also know a couple that already did adopt a son from Ethiopia. He is such a joy to them, and he is so happy and loved, beyond measure.

Therefore, I ask that you please reconsider your action.
Thank you,
Debra Andrews

Please reconsider this measure which will ultimately harm those whom the Ministry is set up to protect: the children in Ethiopia who need loving, stable, nurturing homes.

Please think about the long term effects that this decision will have on orphans in Ethiopia. There are loving families in the US and around the world that love ET and it's people and want to share their love with your children in need. Please give these children a chance ... what will happen to these children when they grow out of the orphanges? PLEASE think about the long term effects!

Please reconsider this drastic reduction in offered adoptions, as I am confident that the vast majority of potential parents will do their best to provide great homes and lives for their new children. Thank you!

Please reconsider. Children's lives are stake and not allowing them to be adopted is not in their best interest.

Please consider the children who wait for families and do not lower the numbers for daily case review.

Please continue to allow children and families be served by ethical, safe, loving adoptions! Your action on behalf of these people can make life-long, wonderful differences around the globe. Please serve both children and families in this very practical, tangible way!

Our son Zek has an amazing heart and a laugh that can brighten anyone's day. Please don't prevent more "Zek's" from joining their forever families, wherever that family may be.

Please let these children find happiness with a family who wants them to love and care for.

I am an adoptive mother who adopted from a different country in 1985. My daughter is 25 years old now. She is beautiful and successful not to mention we love her as if she were our own birth daughter and she loves us the same. She will be married in May. Where would she be if she were left as an orphan? I beg you to continue adoptions to trusted countries. The USA is a great place to be adopted to. Please keep the door open.

I am the mother of two children by international adoption. Please give the children of Ethiopia a chance.

Do not destroy the opportunity of many children to find loving, caring families and homes around the world.

Please do not shut down the entire adoption process due to the inevitable few bad cases. Please have grace for the innumerable families who have a good heart towards serving the Ethiopian children.

As potential adopting parents and concerned Christians, we feel that this change could result in major devastation to the children of Ethiopia. With significant delays that this change would impose, resources will be lost, children could die, and orphanages become full.

We adopted older children who were orphaned ,and they are growing in all areas of their lives. People say all the time, "They seem so happy." They are a blessing to our lives and the lives they touch. Thank you Ethiopia for sharing your children with us.

We adopted our eight year old daughter in April 2010. She is thriving at home and school. She informed us recently that she is going to be a doctor and return to Ethiopia to help the people there. This will happen because she was given a chance to be adopted. Please let ethical adoptions continue.

We commend your efforts in being thorough and cautious in placing these children. We hope that every effort is made to best serve them. Adoption has been a blessed option for many of these children. Please, in the interest and needs of these children, do not limit their opportunities while creating new and much needed solutions.

Adoption is very sad but the whole issue is sad, a life of neglect, and abandonment, terrible poverty and abuse is sad, adoption is often the lesser evil especially as the people who come here are good and very carefully checked. Please help these children by increasing staff and do not slow the process for many abandoned children in need of homes quickly.

Please allow these valuable children the opportunity to be adopted by families that will cherish and care for them.

Please do not shut down the entire adoption process due to the inevitable few bad cases. Please have grace for the innumerable families who have a good heart towards serving the Ethiopian children.

I am a PAP waiting for a court date for two older children. They are two girls that had been on the waiting list for a year. This disruption would gravely affect their life even more.

Please consider giving these precious children a loving family situation. Thank you and may God bless you efforts.

Please do not let abuses to the system rob children of the opportunity to have a forever family. There must be a way that safeguards can be put in place to ensure the legitimacy of intercountry adoptions while allowing a maximum number of children to be adopted. Please work to that end.

Please allow the continued adoption of Ethiopian orphans in cooperation with the international community.

I couldn't agree more that to move forward in restricting adoptions would rob so many children of loving families. Problems are the complete exception. Please do not punish thousands of children to concentrate resources elsewhere. There are many groups of people willing to donate time and money to help you continue the intercountry adoption process. We have adopted 2 children from Ethiopia and our family is wonderful with them.

Please reconsider. There is no need for these children to wait any longer to know the love of their family. Please punish the corrupt agencies and not the children and families who love them so much!

Please reconsider cutting the number if adoptions. There are good, loving families that would love to provide a warm and caring home for these children.

We are looking forward to the opportunity to become parents to Ethiopian children. Please allow us the opportunity to bring them into our loving home. We assure you that we will give them every opportunity to maintain their Ethiopian culture and heritage. Thank you so much for giving us this gift.

Please allow this adoption to a wonderful family.

PLEASE, allow these children in need of a home, to be given one and allow them to grow up in a healthy, loving home.

We have received a referral for 2 beautiful children and are waiting for the MOWA letter to pass court. We would respectfully ask MOWA to reconsider their stance so that we can bring our children home.

Please give these children the fastest opportunity possible to be loved as God desires. These children could be the next doctors,scientists, cancer researchers,senators if given the chance for a stable loved home.

We are hoping to adopt from Ethiopia next year. This has been a long time dream for us.

My brother adopted an Ethiopian girl, Tarike, 3 years ago from a very well established and respectable agency established over 50 years in the region. Tarike is a bright, lively child thriving in school, attends Ethiopian culture classes, swimming and dancing lessons, plays with other Ethiopian children in adoptive families here. She has made my brother and sister-in-law joyful along with our whole extended family.My brother wants to adopt a second child, a sibling for Tarike.Make it possible!

We are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia...we want the children that are Orphaned to have a forever family. We believe that as adoptive parents we are the last resort...but please don't take that option away...children need families!

Please, families need to have their children come home soon!

There are loving, committed, and dedicated couples just waiting to take in a child who needs a home and parents. Please don't deny that child a chance to have a family. Every child deserves to be loved and cared for. May God bless you and guide you as you reconsider.

My wife and I had hopes of adopting from Ethiopia. We were planning to start our application in 2012 so this news is devastating for us.

Blessings and prayers to you!

Please allowed adoptions in your country. We pray for an open and end case. This would be the country we would love to hold and treasure a special child whom needs love and hugs, and compasion for the rest of there life.

Please reconsider. So many children need homes, so many families are waiting to love....

Ethiopian adoption has changed our life as 2 former orphans are now in our loving family. Please reverse this decision!

On behalf of 2 former Ethiopian orphans, we beg you to change your petition. Our children are now in a loving home thanks to Ethiopian adoption!!

We believe that intercountry adoptions are a blessing to the children and the families who adopt.

I am planning to adopt 2 children from Ethiopia in the future. Please do not limit processing of international adoptions to 5 per day. To do so would not be fair to the children, as it would make them wait much longer to finally have the benefit of a permenant stable home, and a loving parent or parents to call their own.

Please do not shut down the entire adoption process due to the inevitable few bad cases. Please have grace for the innumerable families who have a good heart towards serving the Ethiopian children.

I have dear friends that are seeking to adopt from Ethiopia. This change would make their wait for a child drastically longer than it has already been. They are looking forward to providing a loving family for a child! Please do not extend their wait this much longer.

This change by MOWA is a tragedy to the children who are waiting for a family.

I have friends who were unable to have children, waited several years trying to adopt from China, and have adopted three wonderful boys from Ethiopia in the past couple years. The parents are working hard to ensure their boys know and celebrate their heritage.

It breaks my heart to think of the people whose lives could be enriched by coming together, being denied the opportunity altogether simply because of geography.

We were prospective adoptive parents for an Ethiopian child for 2 years. Without any knowledge of this change in policy we withdrew from the program on March 7, 2011 as a result of the unbearably long wait and changes in our personal situation. I am hopeful that the Ethiopian government reconsiders. This new policy will ruin the dreams of thousands of families who are still in the process and of the millions of children waiting for a permanent home. This is terribly sad news.

Please let those orphans get a good home. It will cost you a lot of money to feed and clothe them. We want to give them homes with lots of love.

Our two Ethiopian grandchildren are such a blessing to our family! I hope other families have the opportunity to welcome precious children such as these to their loving homes.

Please allow for ethical adoptions to continue in your country. Orphans need families.
With respect,

I would like to urge the Prime Minister of Uganda to continue to accept adoption parents from the United States. I believe it will be in the best interest of the children who are in need of great parents and families. Thank you for your consideration.

International adoption is not the answer to a country's problems but neither is it the villian. Children deserve families. I implore you to look at other options. International adoption can be done ethically.

Our boy is healthy and happy and has a permanent mother and father and brother and sisters now. We love him and want Ethiopian culture to always be a part of his life. Please reconsider your decision. Thank you!

Please allow these precious children who have been orphaned to go to loving, stable, homes. It will be a blessing to the child and the couple adopting. thanks. Terry

Please do continue to allow as many children as possible to be placed with loving families!

Please consider what is in the best interest of the children. That is the only thing that really matters. The children need to be safe, healthy, loved and educated and cared for.

We will be praying about this decision.

Please reconsider this drastic decision to decrease the number of adoptions from your country. We have been working tirelessly for the past six months to be able to be on the waiting list to adopt from Ethiopia and be united with a child whom we will love and care for as another addition to our family. We are on the verge of receiving our favorable determination letter from the U.S. and be put on the waiting list with our adoption agency. Please reconsider your decision.

Please do not decrease the number of adoptions allowed. These children need to be with the Loving families ready to care for them.

Good luck you guys.

I cannot imagine, my 2 new grandbabies from Ethopia being hungry. Please allo these adoptions to continue.

Please reconsider for the sake of these precious children and the families who want to give them love and a home.

Many families are waiting to pour out their love.

PLease allow your children to find wonderful homes in other countries.

We have a wonderful Ethiopian grandson with a loving permanent family. It is difficult for me to imagine our life without him, or the alternative he might have had living his entire life in an orphanage or on the streets. Please reconsider your plan and continue to allow loving adoptive parents to provide care and love to children who need a permanent home.

There are so many good organizations doing adoptions who thoroughly and thoughtfully care for the children first.

Please find a way to continue your work with them.

Good luck and I hope this helps.

Please reconsider this reduction. Please do not stop the beautiful and life changing act of adoption.

We live in a fallen, broken world. This side of heaven, there will be many a tragedy - thus the orphan crisis. While international adoption is not the only solution, it is a solution for some. The thought of two of my children in an orphanage that lacked enough food and the supplies to even meet their basic needs breaks my heart. Thankfully, for a year now, they have been in their forever home with parents, a brother, and an extended family who meet their needs and love them beyond belief.

Whilst supporting your goal of ensuring ethical adoptions that serve the best interest of children and serve all vulnerable children & families, I do respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive impact of facilitating the provision of a loving home for an orphaned child.

As a potential adoptive parent, my only goal is to help someone who is truly helpless. Please do not deny the children a chance to have a loving family.

please reconsider this decision! We have a child identified and every day our children ask where thier brother and sister is! We have prayed for our Ethiopian-born children and deserately want to bring them home. Would you consider the vulnerable and how to best serve them by giving them a loving family to begin to heal thier wounds.

We believe Adopting is a last result and we are not only wanting to adopt but also do other Orphan care. We are sponsoring a child and looking at short term and long term missions to aid orphans. Please know we just want to open our home so we may love another child.

all Kids need a home no matter how many families are our there for them there never should be a limit on how Many parents can and can't adopt

I have family & friends that have adopted from Ethiopia, and am so glad that these children have loving families, rather than living in an orphanage without parents.

Please reconsider this drastic measure. Not every adoption is corrupt, and you'll be hurting many children who have already been relinquished or abandoned.

Why would you want to prevent loving families giving a better life for these children over an orphanage? This is so wrong. Please recconsider your decesion

Please don't make the process longer than it already is. These are children who have the opportunity to live a blessed life and by making the process longer, the children are the ones suffering in the situation. There are many great parents who can give these children wonderful homes. My wife and I are in the middle of this process and are looking forward to having a beautiful baby join our family. Please reconsider this decision!

As an adoptive parent who is in the process right now, waiting for our court case to be finalized to adopt two boys 9 and over, I respectfully urge the MOWA to reconsider their decision.

please reconsider this decision! We have a child identified and every day our children ask where thier brother and sister is! We have prayed for our Ethiopian-born children and deserately want to bring them home. Would you consider the vulnerable and how to best serve them by giving them a loving family to begin to heal thier wounds.

Let's do what we can to help all these wonderful children and open up all the opportunities to them we can.

Plese help us be fair and share our love for the children.

While our family works to help families stay together, it is not always possible.

Please help children who have no one to care for them, join families who will love them for the rest of their lives.

I implore you, on behalf of the many loving families waiting to adopt orphaned Ethiopian children, to reconsider the plan to significantly reduce inter-country adoptions! Please know that our motivation to adopt a child from your country is one of love. The love of a child who needs a daddy and a mommy. Were this plan to go through, thousands of orphaned children would miss out on that love as well as the comfort and security that only a forever family could provide. Please reconsider!

We have been waiting for two years to complete our legal and ethical adoption. Please advocate for our child and do not make him wait any longer. At the very least let those already in the court process continue without further delay so these children with forever families are not "abandoned" once again.

I have a daughter who I adopted 4 years ago from Guatemala and I am hoping to adopt from Ethiopia in the next year. I have provided my daughter with a loving, stable home with supportive and loving extended family and would love an opportunity to provide the same to an Ethiopian child instead of that child growing up in an orphanage.

Stopping adoption will not eliminate corruption. It will just hide abuse from public view. Children without families cannot be adequately protected by an institution. They become victims of other abandoned children, overwhelmed caregivers, and eventually predators if they flee the conditions or age out. Government resources need to be focused on preventing children from losing their families not caring for them after.

I know a loving couple in Indiana who have been waiting for 9 months to adopt a little girl or girls from Ethiopia. They are wonderful parents to their 2 boys and will give a child a safe, loving environment to thrive in. Please reconsider your policy on intercountry adoptions. Make screenings more strict, better background checks, etc. but please don't deny these parents and children the chance to love one another and be a FAMILY.

We can help! Let the love we can share flourish!

The adoption of our son has been the biggest blessing in our life. He would have certainly been subjected to a life without a family which pains my heart. I pray that all children in Ethiopia are provided the right to be loved by a permanent family when it is possible. Please consider working with all organizations to ensure that adoptions are legal and away from corrupt but please continue to process adoptions.

My husband and I had hoped to adopt from Ethiopia in the future and it saddens me that restraints are being put on Ethiopian adoptions.

Please let these children come home to loving families.

A piece of my heart is in Ethiopia and I have just started the adoption process. If this changes....I will never have the missing link to my family and a child in Ethiopia will not have a family. Im devastated at the thought of the changes. Please reconsider. There are so many families willing and wanting to adopt, its a god given calling to many.We have so much to offer. thanks and our prayers are with you

These babies need a home. Please discipline the agencies that are offending the rules, not the babies who need a forever home.

While I sincerely appreciate the Ministry's concern to protect the safety of Ethiopia's children, I hope that the Ministry will reassess its current position and consider alternate solutions to strengthen the process for safe and ethical adoptions without limiting the opportunities for Ethiopian orphans to find loving homes.

Our best friends are in the process of adopting from your country and would make the greatest parents to one of your children while ensuring he/she knows their culture. Please help them!!

The dramatic reduction in adoption cases being considered by MOWA will be devastating to the children of Ethiopia and the Ethiopia economy. It makes no sense for the children to suffer when loving homes are available for them and loving parents await their arrival.

We are hoping to start our adoption through Ethiopia and hearing this news is devastating!!!!

Please honor this petition. Thank you!

For the benefit of the children, please do not stop or slow adoptions. If there is corruption in the adoption process, work to clean it up, but don't stop children from finding their forever families.

We can not allow these children to languish in orphanages for one second longer then necessary.This reduction will cause needless suffering for children that have already suffered enough in their short lives.Please allow these children to come home to the forever families that will love and provide for them.Most birthparents relinquish because they just want a better life for their children.Please honor these BP request and give the children of Ethiopia a chance!!!

This would be very detrimental to many children who could otherwise have loving families!

My fiancee and I are looking into adoption from Ethiopia when we are married, and very much want to provide a loving and permanent home to a child that needs it, we feel that reducing intercountry adoptions is a decision that will hurt children who need families. I respectfully beg you to reconsider this decision and allow families who truly care about these children and desire to give them a loving home, to continue to adopt. Thank you.

Please reconsider this proposal. Our family is waiting to lovingly embrace an Ethiopian child. These beautiful children deserve a government that helps them to begin a bright future in loving homes as quickly as possible, wherever that home may be.

This is unfortunate for these children who would have the opportunity to have loving parents and a wonderful life awaiting them.
I strongly hope they reconsider this decision.

To reduce the amount of adoption applications will result in many children spending more time waiting for a permanent home and be damaging to these wonderful childrens waiting to come home.

The Ministry’s plan to reduce intercountry adoption by 90% is a tragic, unnecessary and a disproportionate reaction to concerns of isolated abuses in the intercountry adoption process.

We support the Ministry’s goal of ensuring ethical adoptions that serve the best interest of children and serve all vulnerable children & families.

We respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry adopti

Please DO NOT cut adoptions from Ethiopia.

P

Ethiopian Adoptions need to stay open. Please do not punish the children for the very few that have broken the law. Only punish those breaking the law. Please keep up the fight for getting the orphans in Ethiopia a Permanent Home!

The children will be loved here. Please let them have the grace of God that they deserve.

There are many waiting children who are in need of family, while there are waiting families ready and able to bring love, hope, and security into a child's life. Please reconsider and explore another means for adding integrity to this very important process, for the sake of the children.

This would be a tragic and extreme measure to take. Not only would it prevent children from joining a loving and permanent home that need one...but doing so may force some agencies that support local orphanages and offer other inter-country support efforts to focus their efforts elsewhere - creating even more need in your beautiful country. I respectfully urge you to reconsider.

It is my deepest prayer that you and your government can quickly work out a fast and ethical process to help the families, children and the adoptive families find a best solution.

I pray for you, your family, your countrymen and your country every day.

Our prayer is for the safety, health, and well being for the precious children of Ethiopia. May they quickly be united with forever families that will treasure the heritage of their birth country!

This is tragis news for orphans and families waiting for families! Please consider the longterm damage to the children!

Please reconsider all your changes. Help support MOWA and all the ethical agencies. It seems like the bad ones are already being found and treated properly. You need to help these beautiful children find a forever home, food, clothing and medical attention.

Please allow these adoptions to continue for the sake of the children and the families in the US who very much want children to love and to be part of a win-win solution.

God has placed in our hearts a love for the children of Ethiopia. It is our prayer that these orphaned children will be placed in forever families in a timely manner.

I want to see Ethical Adoptions, but please do not slow down the process of children finding homes. I don't wish to see the children suffer. Please reconsider your decision to reduce inter-country adoption. Thank-you.

My wife and I are in the process of adopting a child from Ethiopia and feel its sad this program is slowing down or closing. There seems to be so many children that are in need of food and a medical care that we can provide. Please reconsider

I am 100% for making sure all adoptions are ethical but please use all available resources so that children are not having prolonged stays in institutions when there are permanent families ready for them. Thank you.

Please rethink the suggested policy of significantly reducing the number of cases reviewed each day by MOWA. We are worried the children will ultimately be affected by this new decision, and are concerned that many loving families across the world will suffer. I pray that God will provide you the support and direction that is his plan and you will provide MOWA with the resources they need to keep these case reviews open.

This is devastating to the children who need these adoptions! I just understand the meaning behind this. What a travesty!

My son & daughter-in -law adopted a baby girl from Ethiopia in 2009. I can't imagine our lives without her. I often think how different her life would be without them. Please do not take this away from children who are being loved and adored by their adoptive parents.

All children deserve to grow up in a loving, nurturing home.

To whom it may concern,

My husband and I have been unable to conceive a child on our own, but we would love nothing more than to have a family. We urge you to reconsider your plan of reducing adoptions by 90 percent, simply because there are so many wonderful couples out there with nothing but kindness in their hearts, who would love to have a family and offer permanent and healthy homes to these orphaned children in your country.

Sincerely,
Erin Robinson

A great tragedy to the lives of those, who otherwise have a hope and opportunity to be loved and nurtured and given a new start in life otherwise not an option.

My Sister and Brother in law have been waiting for a match from Ethiopia for over two years - please don't make this process even more restricted. There are so many kids that need a home - they would provide a wonderful, loving environment. Please give them that opportunity!

Please continue to allow adoptions from your country.

We have two grandchildren from Ethiopia and they have a wonderful loving family. We are happy to have Luke & Jay in our family and so glad they were spared the many problems in Ethiopia that they would have been faced with if they had not been adopted by our daughter and son-in-law.

Our family is in the process to bring home a precious Ethiopian child into our family. We plead with you to please reconsider your decision to reduce the amount of adoptions your review each day. We are waiting with open arms to provide a loving home for one of Ethiopia's orphaned children. We do not feel that this decision is in the best interest of the children. We have prayed to God that He would intervene on behalf of all of the children in Ethiopia waiting for a family.

We fully support the ethical adoption practices in Ethiopia. We realize that Ethiopia is trying to manage a program that has grown exponentially over the past few years. However, there has to be some way to manage the adoption process while at the same time allowing orphaned children to spend minimal time in care facilities and therefore endure more time away from loving and caring adopting families. Please find some way to help the children.

Good Luck !

Please don't scale back 90%. These children all need a forever home, not an orphanage. Most of the adoptions have been positive and there are people who are doing Gods will by adopting internationally.

So many families in the United States want to adopt a child of their own. Please reconsider the proposal to limit the number of adoption approvals per day.

Please allow honest, hard working families to provide good solid homes to Ethiopian children! There are so many children who need homes and so many American families who are anxious to open their hearts to them. Please allow it to be so!

My family is adopting a 5 year old boy from Ethiopia and please think again about stopping the adoptions in Ethiopia.

Please reconsider. There are so many loving parents who want to take in children who otherwise have to family. Your policy will cause unnecessary delay.

As a mother of four Ethiopian girls and am currently in the process for one to two more Ethiopian children, I beg you to please allow these children to join families where they are wanted and loved. My girls have flourished since they have joined our family and we entrench them in the local Ethiopian community so they don't lose their identity. Please allow as many ethical adoptions to go through as quickly as possible. Thank you!

We must accept the good with the bad in this life; it is our lot, so long as the bad remains the exception.

We are in the process of starting to adopt our baby girl from Ethiopia...this would be devastating to us and our unmet daughter.

I have a wonderful home to provide for a needy child. I'm in the process of adopting through Wide Horizons for children. This is devestating news!

Allow American parents to adopt your children.

Ethiopia is home to nearly 5 million orphans, limiting the number of their adoptions would be a tragedy.

Please reconsider taking action that could leave so many deserving children without a home.

There are so many children that need homes & so many families that want to provide a loving home for them. Please reconsider this decision!

Please allow these children find their forever families!!

Please do not reduce adoptions so dramatically! This will affect the lives of 1000's of orphans who so desperately need families to love them.

I understand the need to have more file review. However, the significant decrease in intercountry adoptions will have a negative effect on the children in Ethiopia as they will have to wait longer for families. The length of orphanage stays will increase and further affect the children.
Please consider this carefully!

We must advocate for these children. There are not enough resources to go around for all of them in their birth country.

Please hear the cries of families wanting to give loving homes to your children who do not have an opportunity to be adopted quickly in your own country.

We have adopted a little boy from Ethiopia, and he has become the joy of our lives. We are in the process of going back to Ethiopia to adopt again. We want to continue to see children find homes.

We have been working for a year to get our son home. There are many, many new documents and regulations that have recently been put into place already that many people who are not currently in the process of adopting a child do not know about, all put in place to address the concerns. These changes alone have already slowed the process a great deal.

P

I pray that this not happen.

Signed

please consider those who live within the law and desire to have a share in Ethiopia's family and history through adoption. We look forward to sharing as grandparents of one of Ethiopia's precious daughters.

Please consider opening up adoptions to past levels. Please give us the timely opertunity to adopt the children of Ethiopia. We want to give them a home, a family, and love.

Please do not decrease the rate at which intercountry adoptions are processed. We have friends who have adopted children from Ethiopia and other friends who are awaiting adoption. These are wonderful families who will be loving, permanent homes for the children they are waiting and praying for!

There are thousands of Ethiopian children who no longer have parents. Please do not curtail the number of adoptions being done in Ethiopia! There are many good and reputable agencies there who are making a difference. Thank you.

This is very disturbing and sad, please think of the children that need families in your beautiful country!

My wife and I are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia, please do not do this to those children that need a loving home, and those families yearning to provide them.

Please do what's right for the children!

I pray for the day when adoptions from Ethiopia are no longer necessary. That day is not yet here. In order to raise the next generation of Ethiopians to be able to reach their full potential is human beings, please allow legal and ethical adoptions to loving and supportive families to continue.

I am so impressed with Ethiopia's strong desire to protect their children. I would, however, be heartbroken if in an effort to prevent one kind of wrong, a disservice is done to the hopeful orphans of Ethiopia. I hope you are able institute more ethical adoptions without decreasing the amount of adoptions per month.

Please allow these beautiful children to come home to their forever families in as timely manner as possible,

We adopted our son Mitku in Ethiopia last year and he is a tremendous blessing to our family. Thank you for considering this position concerning the future for so many Ethiopian orphans.

My newly adopted granddaughter is such a joy and enjoying a wonderful life, I cannot imagine not wanting this for other families that yearn for children, and children that need parents.

Thank you for listening to us....and I am praying for your wise and thoughtful decision.

Blessings

Please keep helping these orphans find homes as quickly as possible!

This seems like a drastic measure. There must be a way continue adoption but only work through ethical agencies.

These children need loving homes. Don't let corruption by a few prevent them from reaching their forever homes.

My daughter is looking forward so eagerly to adopting a child from Ethiopia and has been going through the process so diligently. Please allow her and her husband to adopt a child from Ethiopia. They will be great parents and take very good care of the child.

I believe that adpotion can bring hope to many of these young orphans.

Respectively ask that the Ministry reconsider and think of the overwhelming good that is done for the children that are adopted by excellent, loving families.

We are planning to adopt children internationally and Ethiopia has been at the top of our list. It would be a loss for us as future parents and for a child in need of a loving home to reduce these adoptions. Please help us still become parents!

This decision can only harm the children waiting for a forever home. Please don't do this.

Please allow children to be adopted by the loving families that want them so badly.

Please reconsider your proposal to cut back the adoptions. We personally know those who want desparetly to love and adopt a child.

This is TRAGIC! Research shows that institutions are NOT the best places for children. Give these children a chance to be in a family...to be loved...to have life!

We are awaiting the referral of a baby boy! Please don't deny these children what they can be offered that their families are tragically unable to provide.

My 9 year old daughter is HIV + and thriving in the US, where she has access to medicine and LOVE. Please keep adoption as a loving option for Ethiopian orphans, especially those who need medical care. I am proud to be the mother of Ethiopian children.

I believe the proposed changes to adoption policies will adversely affect the very children it is supposed to be helping. Reducing the number of intercountry adoptions will mean that fewer children will be placed in the loving homes they want and need and deserve to have.

Please do not reduce the number of inter-country adoptions. Your orphaned children need homes and America stands ready to help as many as possible.

Please let the orphans be cared for by adoptive loving parents and not a staff.

Please allow us to adopt your beautiful children and give them loving homes to grow up in!!

Please keep adoptions open! We will be so devastated to lose our chance to adopt from Ethiopia.

While is strongly support guarding against corruption, I feel as though the decrease to only 5 reviewed cases a day is not the best option to help the children of Ethiopia.

I have had a desire to adopt and was looking forward to this opportunity to do so in your wonderful country. Please, please reconsider your decision and allow these precious children to have a family with those who long to have one.

There are plenty of loving families who want these children. Do not make this change. You are only hurting the children.

PLEASE consider the children and the arms of the mothers and fathers that are waiting for them.

As an adoptive parent of an Ethiopian child, I urge you to continue to allow ethical and morally responsible intercountry adoptions. My daughter weighed 10 lbs at 9 months old and was sick and malnourished--what would have become of her? Our lives are so blessed by her presence in our family.

The Ministry’s plan to reduce intercountry adoption by 90% is a tragic, unnecessary and a disproportionate reaction to concerns of isolated abuses in the intercountry adoption process.

We support the Ministry’s goal of ensuring ethical adoptions that serve the best interest of children and serve all vulnerable children & families.

We respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry ad

I pray that all the AMAZING children awaiting to meet and start their lives with their forever families will happen very soon.

The best interest of the children should be first and for most. To be raised in an orphange with out a loving family is not. Ethical agencies like Gladney do their very best to be certian there are not unethical circumstances. Crack down instead on the unethical agencies or orphanages.

Do it for the children!

Prime Minister-
I understand your desire to see to the ethical considerations of intercountry adoption. I respectfully petition that you consider another way. Create tougher sanctions and vetting processes for agencies.

What will happen to the children who are malnurished, diseased, and hopeless in the orphanages of Ethiopia?

The orphanages will not be able to accept as many children. The overcrowding will produce disease. More children will remain and be forced to the streets.

Please

I believe that all children deserve a loving family. A family that is loving and willing to open their hearts to a child is truly ones calling. In effect taking away the adoptions from other counties you will limit the chances for thousands (maybe more) of children to have a loving caring family. Please do what is best for children.

please reconsider the possible reductions of intercountry adoptions. maybe some other measure could be taken or considered. there are so many ethical agencies & honest workers doing what it right for all involved with adoption, especially making sure that it is the best interest of the children.

I applaud the Ministry's concern for the welfare of children adopted from Ethiopia and encourage continued vigilance in screening potential placement families. I respectfully request, however, that the Ministry refrain from drastic reductions or elimination of international adoptions. Please give the children the chance to grow up as part of a loving family, rather than as nothing more than an occupant of an orphanage.

Our beautiful granddaughter from Ethiopia has been with us 2 years now and is healthy, happy and thriving! Please make this option available for other children so they can have a home.

We urge you to consider other remedies that allow for ethical adoptions to continue.

We are grateful for our daughter from Ethiopia, she has changed our world. We look forward to being a part of Ethiopian culture for the rest of our lives!

Please reconsider and allow the adoptions! There are families that want to make a home for these children!!

As a family law attorney with a background in international law, I strongly encourage the Ethiopian government to take advantage of all available resources before taking this drastic step. May God bless you in your decision.

I truly believe the orphans would be better off and better served with families who can take them in rather than sitting and waiting in the orphanages. I urge you to reconsider this drastic change and continue to place the children in loving homes as you are doing now... For them.

Please reconsider your decision. Think of how this will affect children waiting for homes.

Please consider better and more efficient ways to ensure the ethics of the adoption process while helping adoptive families bring their children home.

Please do not limit the number of adoptions. Every child deserves love and a family.

Please consider the children that will just be sitting in orphanages longer instead of with a family as the letters are delayed.

I have friends trying to adopt from Ethiopia that will make wonderful parents. I hope that this won't prevent them from doing so.

These kids need loving homes!

We are an infertile couple who have been matched with a brother and sister living in an orphanage in Ethiopia. We are desperate to bring them home, to raise them with all the love and support their birth parents would have given them if they were able to. We will always keep their Ethiopian family first in our hearts and alive in our home.

We, respectfully urge the Ministry of Women’s, Children's and Youth Affairs to reconsider its plan and to partner with governments, NGOs and foundations to achieve their goals and avoid the coming tragedy for children and families.

Please give us the timely opertunity to adopt the children of Ethiopia. We want to give them a home, a family, and love. Please reconsider current actions.

In honor of my son Samuel Ephrem Durham from Ethiopia adopted 08/29/2007

Please allow the orphaned children of Ethiopia to have forever families. Putting these resources allows families that deeply want to love Ethiopias children to do so in a way that those children would not receive otherwise.

Please help these children have a better life in the U.S. with loving families. Thank you.

Please keep international adoptions open for the sake of the children!

Children need familys !!!!!!!

Please allow the children to find loving homes with parents who long to have a child to love and nurture.

Please do not deny these children loving homes with families who will care for them.

The Ministry’s plan to reduce intercountry adoption by 90% is a tragic, unnecessary and a disproportionate reaction to concerns of isolated abuses in the intercountry adoption process.

I support the Ministry’s goal of ensuring ethical adoptions that serve the best interest of children and serve all vulnerable children & families.

I respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry ado

Think before you act and destroy 1000's of childrens futures

I hope the Ethiopian government will accept offers from foreign governments and NGOs, of resources and staffing assistance, to help MOWA continue its work in the area of international adoption. Certainly, international adoption is not the first or best solution for all endangered children in Ethiopia -- but it is still an alternative avenue that can help many children find a loving family and a safe home.

Please allow these children he best possible quality of life.

We are exceedingly grateful to the Ethiopian nation and the extraordinary, dedicated professionals who provided our child with such excellent care until we, through a highly scrupulous process, were able to adopt him and bring him to our family and home in the United States. I know he will be especially proud to have come from a place that cares so much for its children, and recognizes the paramount importance of permanent, loving homes for all children, wherever they may be found.

Dear Ethiopia

Please continue allowing adoptions.

I know two people who will give one of your children the most happy home here in the U.S.

Thank you very much.

Please continue allowing adoptions from your great country.

Please allow loving families to adopt and give life, hope, and a future to the orphans of Ethiopia. We have had the privilege of adopting our sweet daughter from Ethiopia 2 years ago. She was born to an HIV+ 18 year old unwed woman who could not care for her. I shudder to think what would have happened to her if we were not allowed to adopt her. She is thriving in our family and is a precious gift to us as we are to her.

The Ministry’s plan to reduce intercountry adoption by 90% is a tragic, unnecessary and a disproportionate reaction to concerns of isolated abuses in the intercountry adoption process.

We support the Ministry’s goal of ensuring ethical adoptions that serve the best interest of children and serve all vulnerable children & families.

We respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children

Please do whatever it takes to give children their forever families. Remove unethical agencies and do not penalize the children, families and the many, many adoptive agencies doing such good work in Ethiopia.

Please block adoptions, lets find a solution that will help this process without hurting children and their waiting families.

stop this campaign

I know personally a couple who are very dear friends and are currently on the waiting list to adopt from Ethiopia. It has been a lengthy and expensive process for them, but they have felt so right about it and are desperately awaiting the day when they will finally have their Ethiopian daughter in their arms. These people are good and kind and will love and adore this baby all their lives. Please reconsider cutting this program. Please don't turn away help for those little ones suffering most.

Please reconsider the decision to decrease adoptions. Orphans need families, not to grow up in an orphanage. One adoption fraud is too much, I agree. However, for every one trafficked child, there are thousands more that are not. Please choose the best interest of the children and give them the chance to be loved and cherished.

It is about the kids not the adults. Children deserve to be in care of loving families that for years look forward to be with them.
I beg the Ethiopian Ministry of Women's, Children's and Youth Affairs to reconsider their plan on stopping intercountry adoptions. Thank you.

Please reconsider the tighter regulations you are about to implement on outgoing adoptions from Ethiopia. There are so many good homes waiting for those children. Please do what is in their best interest & allow them to be welcomed into loving families. Thank you.

As an adoptive parent of two beautiful Ethiopian children I strongly support the continuation of regulated adoptions from Ethiopia. Both adoptive family and adopted children benefit through these actions. I urge MOWA to reconsider this drastic action, I can't imagine life without my two wonderful children.

Children's needs should be first and foremost, however a right to a permanent family is one of their greatest needs. Please focus on making adoptions legal and not on eliminating 90% of adoptions.

Children's needs should be first and foremost, however a right to a permanent family is one of their greatest needs. Please focus on making adoptions legal and not on eliminating 90% of adoptions.

We are a family begining the process of adoption and we want to give a child a family and raise it with the love and respect ad teach it of its culture. If you reduce the number of children, then the children left behind may not ever know the Love of a family.

Please, for the sake of all these children, who through no fault of their own are caught in difficult situations, please reconsider this decision. The need for ethical adoptions is great. But the need for these children to have homes is great as well.

We know there are many children that need help and we would love to help them. Please reconsider this change.

PLEASE ALLOW THESE CHILDREN GO HOME TO THEIR FOREVER FAMILIES.

I strongly support ethical adoptions & safe, permanent homes for children. I would hate to see children suffer because of logistics. Please use resources offered to insure ethical adoptions but please keep the children as the priority.

Everyone deserves to be loved and making adoption harder on those who desire to add to their families by adopting should be allowed to. It is a blessing to everyone involved!

Mom to an amazing Ethiopian girl (Age 2.5)

My family is adopting an adorable girl from haiti, and I am a huge advocate for adoption. I think adoption in general as a beautiful thing. It provides opportunities for children in poverty and connects cultures. Perhaps to make it safer, homestudies should be required to be more thorough.

I believe it is critical that we do everything possible to place children with families who can love and support them - no matter where they live.

We recently adopted a 6 month baby girl from Ethiopia in April 2010. We have nothing but GREAT things to say about the organization we went through and would not hesitate to encourage others to adopt a child from Ethiopia. The process was quick, professional and followed every moral and ethical guideline possible. The Ministry’s plan to reduce intercountry adoption by 90% would be a tragic thing and would be very detrimental to the children in Ethiopia who are waiting for loving families.

We brought our son home in June, 2010. We met with our son's birth father and believe, without a shadow of doubt, that our adoption was ethical and that our agency works in the best interest of the child and birth family.

Please allow children who need a family in your country to be adopted into loving families abroad who will give them a home and the love and attention that they deserve. Thank you.

My husband and I adopted our son Caleb from Ethiopia over two years ago. It has been a wonderful experience and we can't imagine our family without our son. Please, for the sake the children, consider other ways to ensure adoptions that benefit the children, adoptive families and birth parents. Thank youl

Please don't close these adoptions by such a dramatic number! There are children who are in need of forever homes and families who are ready to give unconditional love to those who have never had it!

This breaks my heart. I hope the government will reconsider this decision for the good of all the children involved.

We support keeping families intact as the best option. If in country or kinship care can be found, this is also desired. However when this cannot be found, intercountry adoption builds families. Please allow children to continue to become part of a family.

Please allow these children to have stable, loving homes.

Every child deserves a chance in life, please consider the opportunity that could be denied to Ethiopian children.

PLEASE!!!!!! Keep adoption open

May orphans be orphans no more. With loving homes. One less everyday for the rest of this life!

I would plead with MOWA to please lift the new ruling to reduce international adoptions. We are so happy to have adopted and would love to have our daughter go back to Ethiopia someday and contribute to the Ethiopian society.

Thank you for your consideration.

Regards,

Tate Lundy

Please reconsider this decision so those children who need a healthy, loving family and those families who want to provide such love to an Ethiopian child can be quickly united, for the well-being on the child.

The children deserve the best.

We have been waiting for so long for a child to love. We have been studying Ethiopian culture and tradition so that we can help our child maintain his or her Ethiopian identity. We have a loving and caring home to offer!

Please don't take away hope from the millions of Ethiopian orphans who are praying for a forever family of their own.

Please hire more people to investigate cases and don't slow down the process. It's for the children.

We would not have the blessing of my two nephews and one niece if this had been in place 2 years ago. Please let children go to loving homes!

We adopted our 5-year daughter Sitota from Ethiopia in 2009. Her mother was desperately poor, a widow, and cried with relief when we showed her pictures of the school where Sitota would begin kindergarten in a few weeks. She could not afford school or medical care for Sitota. Sitota still loves Ethiopia and her Ethiopian mother but she also loves her American family and friends. She is excelling in all subjects at school and says she wants to help Ethiopians when she grows up.

Please don't eliminate the solution while trying to solve the problem.

Please don't close down this valuable lifeline for children who need loving homes. I am adopted myself, and I can only imagine that my life would not have been as fulfilling and safe as it has been for these last 50 years without my adoptive family.

Reform may be needed, but not at the expense of the children who are in govenment run orphanages by no choice of their own. We adopted a sibling group of 3 older children from Ethiopia and they are amazning and wonderful children who would have been lost in the govenmental system. Please reconsider. Thank you.

There are so many families who are ready to bring their children home and show them the love they deserve and need. We appreciate the measure to make sure the children are safe, but there are so many families ready to be parents to Ethiopian children who don't have any parents. Please reconsider making them wait even longer for that privilege.

We adopted our son Tegegn 4 years ago this month and he has been a wonderful addition to our family. He is #1 in his class and has won Student of the month twice and excels in basketball. He has grown into a health , bright boy and will be a leader. We are all so happy. Please reconsider.

Please reconsider your position to limit the number of adoptions. Think of the children and the ramifications of leaving children in an orphan without a family. And there are families; families that have made room in their life, home and heart for these children. I have faith that the system can be corrected while still allowing children to find their forever home as quickly as possible. This is my prayer and plea for you.

Please do not reduce inter-country adoption! There are children in need, and families who want to help. Please think of the children who have loving families who desperately want to help. Thank you.

We are waiting for a court date for 2 children (ages 5 yr & 18 mo.). We hate to think of how this change could keep our children and many other children in orphanages much, much longer, instead of being places in their forever homes, where they have a loving family to call their own!!

Please think of the many children and waiting families who will be affected!!!

I believe the children of Ethiopia should be given a chance for life and education, I belive that allowing UNCEF to be involved in Ethiopia will cause more harm than good for the people opf Ethiopia.
UNCEF staff, as a nonprofit agency are really very much overpaid and I believe their intentions are not altruistic. I beleive their intent is to line their pockets!

My husband and I are in the process of growing our family through adoption. We are partnering with Children's Home Society & Family Services in St. Paul, Minnesota to ensure the adoption is ethical and transparent for all parties involved. CHSFS is a model agency that supports its values through action. The CHSFS Ethiopia program includes multiple checks & balances and should be rewarded by being able to continue adoptions in full stride. Families that CHSFS works with now wait 2+ years to adopt

Lots of orphans in Ethiopia. Lots of families wanting to bring those kids into their families. Sounds like a win, win situation.

My family adopted our daughter Sara from Ethiopia in 2005 through the Children's Home Society and Family Services adoption agency. The adoption process was wonderful and we are very proud of our lovely daughter Sara. We hope other families will be blessed as much as we have been by adoption from Ethiopia.

I humbly ask the ministry to reconsider it's recent decision regarding processing of adoptions. My wife and I are nearing the end of the process and very much looking forward to visiting your beautiful country. We hope to soon bring home our son.

Three of our children were adopted from Ethiopia. We cannot imagine our family without them and feel extremely blessed to be their parents. We have enjoyed family trips to Ethiopia twice. On our trips we were most impressed by the love, generosity and work ethic of Ethipians we ecountered. We have great respect for the people of Ethiopia and their culture.

Work like it all depends on you;
PRAY like it all depends on GOD!!

Please re-evaluate your choices regarding intercountry adoptions and limiting them . Children are being given opportunities for love, growth, and hope.

The Ministry’s plan to reduce intercountry adoption by 90% is a tragic, unnecessary and a disproportionate reaction to concerns of isolated abuses in the intercountry adoption process.

We support the Ministry’s goal of ensuring ethical adoptions that serve the best interest of children and serve all vulnerable children & families.

We respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry ad

Please don't reduce the amount of adoptions each year in Ethiopia. Too many precious children need loving, forever families.

We support ethical adoptions of children who have need of parents. We brought home 2 sisters in 2007 who were 5 and 6 yrs old at the time. They have thrived here in America and have been a huge blessing to our family. I do believe there needs to be more oversight to make sure the children available for adoption are truly in need.

I would pray that MOWA can work with other agencies to continue to process adoptions in Ethiopia. These children need families and there are hundreds of families around the world who would love to adopt these children. For the sake of the children, please find ways to work together and continue to process these very much needed MOWA letters.

Please do not limit your number of adoptions! Amazing, loving families are waiting to bring their adopted children home. Those children need a loving, warm, caring home and there are thousands of familes waiting to do just that. Please reconsider. Thank you.

Do not slow down the process of adoption. Adding time adds unnecessary stress to the lives of the children and parents!

I support continued adoption opportunities.

Urging the Ministry to change its mind on the new policy of reducing intercountry adoptions by 90%! What a devastating effect this would have on the many beautiful and deserving Ethiopian orphans who are awaiting forever-families, and the wonderful, responsible, and loving families who are waiting to receive them with forever-love! Please please keep the country's adoption open without these drastic new limitations! For the sake of the children!

Our daughter was adopted from Haiti. We can not imagine our lives without her

We have a wonderful daughter whom we adopted from Ethiopia 5 years ago and we have recently applied to adopt again from there.

This petition is signed with sincere hope that the necessary changes can be made without singnificantly delaying the process. Please do all that you possibly can to ensure that the children are placed into their loving homes as soon as possible.

My baby daughter, who is turning 5 this May, is the most precious, healthy, happy little girl in the whole world. I can not bear to think that other potentially adoptable ethiopian children would not have similar opportunites to develop and grow! Please consider the lives of all those children sitting and waiting in orphanges. Please figure out a way to allow them to have similar, loving experiences. Please.

As a social worker who labors for the safe permenance of orphans in South Africa, I urge the government of Ethopia to reconsider what this decision will do to prevent it's children from finding love, stability, and belonging. As a leader in African adoptions, this decision has the potential to negatively impact the future of other African country programs, by creating an unnecessary scare regarding the over all ethics of inter country adoption. I respectfully as that you reconsider.

God bless the children of Ethiopia.

Please allow loving families to help these children to have a bright future. I agree the process needs to be done correctly but please do not let the children suffer because of those that have caused the existing problems.

Please, why should the children suffer?

I have been aware that nations around the world are limiting the number of adoptions to qualified parents in the United States. While those nations may feel there is a sound reason for this, I think the bottom line here is that the quality of the lives of these adoptable children are at risk. As a teacher of young children, I know how important it is for them to have a highly supportive family environment in order to succeed in life. Please give your orphaned/needy children this opportunity.

I do support expediting children with special needs, but this seemed to be the case with agencies already. I understand the need to investigate and move resources to correct any flaws. The number of adoptions is too drastic, I would hope they would promise to go back to previous international numbers once errors corrected.

We are one of the families who brought home our only child (our son Gabriel) from Ethiopia. We love Ethiopia, the people, the culture and hope to give Gabriel a sister and a brother. Please, know the pure joy and love adoption brings to families like ours. We are a family thanks to the adoption blessing. Please, please open the doorway once again for us and for many families like us.

As the mother of an adopted child, I would ask that you reconsider your decision to slow the adoption process. There are so many parents who could provide love and homes to the children of Ethiopia and slowing the process would keep the children from new families longer. Thank you for considering our petition.

PLEASE reconsider. There are so many loving families waiting to hold their children in their arms and would WELCOME one from Ethiopia. We are so blessed with our daughter and I would hate for others to not be able to feel the same.

I myself have a daughter adopted from China and have met and know families that have adopted children from Ethiopia. These children are blessings to many waiting families and this would be a tragic setback indeed to deprive any of these children a loving family.

This is disgraceful!!! We CANNOT let this happen!

Please reconsider your plan to reduce intercountry adoption. We have been waiting to provide an Ethiopian child a home for so long and will be heart-sick to be unable to do so.

Children who need a good home which can be provided by caring people in countries outside of Ethopia should be allowed to be adopted.

Please reconsider the 90% of ET adoptions. Try closing down the program for a few months, having more Hague involvement with agencies, and re open adoptions full force so kids do not die or end up in the streets. USA birth parents have a right to put their child up for adoption no matter what, even when they are alive. Please reconsider so ET children can have forever, loving families. I have adopted China, Ethiopia and Haiti children.

This would be such a disservice to these children and their birth families who want a safe and better life. They are trying to save their lives not wait until they get a disease and have no means to treat it. God have mercy on those deciding.

We are in full support of ethical intercountry adoptions of Ethiopian children. Please consider a plan that would still allow ethical adoptions and reduce the number of children in orphanages long term. Our prayer is that each child in need of a family might be given the chance to be placed in a family. Thank you.

Please don't let this stand in the way of some very good parents making a difference in a child's life.

As a family who is waiting for a daughter from Ethiopia, we are very concerned about the potential delay in bringing her home. We understand the need to make sure that everything is on the up and up, but limiting the number of adoptions a day seems extreme.

Please make decisions which allow children who have already lost so much to be loved in a family that is able and willing to care for them. We hope support will be given to MOWA to allow them to continue processing adoptions and advocate for Ethiopian children.

We have already started the process to adopt from Ethiopia and consider this change a tragedy for the 4 million orphans in that country who are waiting for a forever family through the precious gift of adoption.

This is not the way of making sure adoptions are legal you are taking away the chance for these children to be going home with their families in a timely manner.

I strongly value ensuring that all adoptions are processed with the utmost integrity. However, I would urge you to consider other means to accomplish our common goal. Please do not hinder the proper processing.

This decision is heartbreaking for the children whose lives would benefit and change dramatically through intercountry adoption. There is so much opportunity for successful, positive intercountry adoption. Please do not let the negative problems of the few outweigh the positive potential of the many. Thank you.

I understand the Ministry's heart behind these measure and the Ministry's goal to bring about justice. I can only hope that those who have acted with integrity will not be punished along with those who have not acted with integrity. And I pray that the Ministry will find another solution, one that allows for intercountry adoption to provide loving homes for these children and, in a practical sense, ease any provisional strain on Ethiopia

Thank you for the work that you do for the children in Ethiopia. I don't doubt your care for them, but I question whether reducing the number of international adoptions by such as large amount is the most effective way to help the children that are in need. Please be open to working with the Adoption Network and take advantage of the aid that will be offered. There must be a compromise that weeds out ALL corruption, but still allows adoptions to take place in an efficient manner.

Please reconsider your plan to cut back on adoption reviews in Ethiopia. These children need to be placed in families to know the love other children are privileged to receive. Please give these children a chance to be loved and cared for by an adoptive family.
Thank you and bless you.

Please reconsider your decision to decrease intercountry adoption. So many children will be left without the possibility of having a family to call their own, and many who have illnesses with available treatments could be left without help. Please consider the many positive outcomes that intercountry adoption has brought for Ethiopian children, and how these outcomes could be better supported, not reduced.
Respectfully,
Laurie Duncan

Our daughter was adopted from Ethiopia in 2009 and are currently in process to adopt a child with disabilities, I fully support the need to ensure ethical practice in every adoption and to protect all children from child trafficking. But reducing the number of international adoptions in this way will have devastating consequences for those children who are true orphans. I plead with you to reform adoption practice in Ethiopia without sacrificing those who need the love and care of a family.

Please reconsider the far reaching consequences of the changes your are contemplating. Protect our future by protecting the children's future.

Please allow the freedom of internationals adopting children who need forever families.

We urge you to keep Ethiopian Adoption open. There are many families around the world who are willing to open their homes to Orphan Children who need a family. Please don't make the children suffer any longer than they have to, by making them wait, or taking away the opportunity of a family.

We have lived in Ethiopia and we are in the process of adopting a boy (4 years old) and a girl (6 years old). This is an extreme response to the issue of unethical adoption practices. There are other options and I hope that President Zenawi and MOWA officials will work with the international community to explore these options. Thousands of children will suffer if MOWA reduces adoptions by 90%. This should not happen.

I think that this petition is threatening and is assuming that you (the Ethiopian government) can not take care of your own business without American intervention. I support the rights of Ethiopia to make sure that their children are not being trafficked to rich westerners who feel they have the right to raise your countries children. They have no respect for the country of Ethiopia. They view it as a place children must be saved from. As a plave that is worth less then the USA. God Bless

Please allow international adoption to continue in your country. We adopted one daughter from Ethiopia. We have learned so much about your country and fell in love with the people of Ethiopia. We are raising our daughter to be proud of her heritage and can't wait to bring her back to Ethiopia.

I am writing in hopes that you will reconsider the changes you are planning for the adoption process in Etheopia. The children will be the ones who suffer. Not to mention the families who were willing to give them a warm and loving home.

children should be enjoying @least the basic right to proper health, schooling, and nutrition in 2011. 'put our children first and foremost. too much is spent on the 'expired' ond not on our 'inspired'.8KMZ

Our daughter & son-law just adopted, and what a blessing for them, us & the little girl that needed a home , there are so many more that need that a home too, don't shut the doors are these children.

We brought our son home from Ethiopia six months ago. He is our greatest joy. I met his Ethiopian mother and I know that she had no other options for his care. I worry about children like my son. I also worry about the women who have no other options.

We are in full support of ethical intercountry adoptions of Ethiopian children. Please consider a plan that would still allow ethical adoptions and reduce the number of children in orphanages long term. Our prayer is that each child in need of a family might be given the chance to be placed in a family. Thank you.

Please allow the adoption of your orphans to enable them to have a wonderful life with a loving American family. This is for the sake of children!

Please, in the best interest of these helpless children, grant them the chance to live their lives in loving homes.

As an adoptive parent myself of a son from Rwanda, I urge you, to consider the needs of these helpless children that westerners and Europeans are eagerly anticipating as their adoptive children from Ethiopia.

Please don't let the poor choices of the few, affect the opportunities of the many. Give these kids a chance.

Please reconsider this action. We must protect and provide for those who ate voiceless in the world today. Please allow those who are willing to provide a fair chance to those who would never have that chance without adoption.

My husband and I are in process to adopt 2 children from Ethiopia. We have been waiting almost 13.5 months to matched. While we aren't naive to the problems associated with intercountry adoption, we believe it is the best solution for many children in Ethiopia right now. Please reconsider this decision, as it will have lasting and devastating effects on many children who need a family.

Please reconsider cutting adoptions. I completely understand the concern that some adoptions are not in the best interest of the child and if that is the case then tighten the screening process for potential parents. I live in Arizona and I know 3 families personally that have adopted children from Ethiopia. Those kids are loved and cared for beyond measure and those kids are a blessing to everyone around them including me! I hope to adopt too someday from your amazing country!

We know several wonderful families who are waiting to adopt children from Ethiopia and provide warm, loving and supportive homes.

Children need homes. Please don't discourage good families from helping these orphans.

I am Tanna Robins father. She is part of very big and supportive family that have lot of love to share. Steve Parmley

We have referrals for two beautiful girls and want to bring them home so badly to join our family. We love the country of Ethiopia and will be so proud to have such beautiful children. Please keep this program operating quickly and smoothly for the sake of all the families and the children that benefit from Ethiopia's wonderful adoption program.

Please let these families help your orphans by allowing them to adopt them.

Please reconsider this decision. It will have long and lasting impact on the lives of these children with extended chance of institutionalization.

As prospective adoption parents, this news is very disappointing to me. The children of Ethiopia deserve to be cared for and kept safe so they can give back to their country in the years to come.

I am all for an ethical adoption process and think it is an absolute priority. However, I do not believe this level of cutback is necessary and hope that the government will work with MOWA to provide what is necessary so they don't have to cutback their workload so drastically.

I urge you to reconsider.

Our precious daughter was adopted from Ethiopia in 2008. While she received wonderful care in her orphanage, she still has health challenges from not being placed in a family at a younger age. Please recognize the cost to children who wait for families and reconsider the move to curtail international adoption.

Please continue intercountry adoptions of orphans in Ethiopia. They will greatly benefit from a loving family who can clothe, educate, feed, shelter and love them as their own child.

Thank you,
Gale

Please consider the many loving families eagerly waiting to give forever homes to these beautiful children. Your support is greatly appreciated in this endeavor.

"whatever you do to the least of these you do to me."

Please do not punish the children or their parents by moving forward with these drastic cutbacks.

I have adopted a child from Ethiopia. The adoption agency I used, Holt International, is top notch and I have no worries that anything unethical transpired. If some agencies are prone to unethical practices, they should be shut down until further investigated. Please do not stop the agencies who are doing wonderful, completely ethical work in Ethiopia. I cannot bear to think of the impact this will have on the millions of children in Ethiopia who have been orphaned or abandoned.

So what happens to the 90% that don't get a chance? Guessing this isn't going to slow down reproduction, so then what?

Thank you for this opportunity.

The Ministry’s plan to reduce intercountry adoption by 90% is a tragic, unnecessary and a disproportionate reaction to concerns of isolated abuses in the intercountry adoption process.

Please do not reduce intercountry adoptions. Many wonderful families wait with open arms for an orphan child to become part of their family, longing to give them love and hope.

I want to help children who don't have parents, have parents!

We brought home our beautiful daughter 18 months ago from Ethiopia. We celebrate her wonderful heritage, please continue your kind heritage as you give the priviledge to the global community to come along side our Ethiopian brothers and sisters.

We know that you have a large responsibility to these children. We pray that you can find a way to continue the wonderful work you all are doing but not slow down in the number of letters you all can write everyday. We know so many families wanting to adopt these precious children and are ready to move forward in this process. We are one of these families so we will keep you in our prayers.

I agree with the petition to reconsider the MOWA recommendation for reduction of inter-country adoptions. The effect to the Ethiopian children in services and support, as well as in adoption processes, will be tremendous negative if reputable NGOs, foundations and governments will not be allowed to successfully partner with Ethiopia and MOWA.

There are so many loving, great families that are willing and eager to adopt this children who need good homes!

There are loving families waiting for their new sons and daughters.

Our nephew was adopted from Ethiopia just last year. We cannot imagine our family without this wonderful little boy! Our good friends have been waiting so desperately for their baby girl from Ethiopia. Please allow other families to experience the same joy by completing their families!

Please don't do this. My daughter and son-in-law are so close to bringing their sweet little girl home. They have waited so long, as I'm sure many others have too.

With much respect, please reconsider the intercountry adoption plan. There are so many children that would benefit from the love, care and hope that a family from ANY country would bring to them!! And there are many families that would benefit from the unconditional love these children could bring to them!!!

We are currently on the waiting list with Gladney Center for Adoption, a very reputable agency. We take very seriously the recent abuses that have been committed and do not support them. Gladney is reputable and ethical; please consider keeping their adoption program in place to assist children with being placed in loving homes. Please do not take out the good with the bad. (And I truly agree that there is bad, that must cease.) Respectfully, Sharon Goldey

There are hundreds of children that have already been matched to families and this new policy could cause them to sit in orphanages for years. Please, please think of these children and do not further delay their adoptions.

I just want you to insure that children will be in homes with families that love them and want them. There are millions of waiting orphans, and families want to bring them home! Please do not reduce the intercountry adoption funds. Who will care for the children if their families cannot have them?

Please don't make those sweet children wait for families to love them!

As an mother to three internationally adopted children, and as an individual immersed in daily lives of adoptive families...I have NO doubt that the majority, a HUGE majority, of internationally adopted children are truly loved.

I know of NO instance, personally, of abuse.

Please reconsider! There are so many families that want to open their heart and homes to children to make their family complete.

Don’t make it harder for people who are trying to help out. On the other hand make it easier, so we can share the responsibility.

Praying for these children.

If there are orphans that need adopted in Ethiopia, allow them the chance to be adopted.

As the mother of 7 adopted children from Asia and Latin America I have seen what the miracle of adoption can do for a child. We also financially support at risk children in various countries. We are friends with a little 7 year old girl who was adopted last year from Ethiopia and she is thriving and happy.

Please weigh carefully the needs of the children who are very much wanted by loving families. Will the majority of these children truly be served best by more restrictions? It is a difficult and tangled situation, but at the end of each day, there are still powerless little individuals whose precious lives are being wasted sitting in orphanages when they could already be in wonderful homes - all because of misguided or poorly-implemented regulations.

Please keep the focus on the Ethiopian children who need a loving & caring home. Slowing down the adoption process will only prevent these precious children from joining families who want to provide them with love and an opportunity to succeed. We would love to adopt three or four more children from Ethiopia, but will not be able to if the process takes many years to complete. Please reconsider the MOWA change & do what is in the the best interest of these 5 million orphans.

Please let us bring our baby home and allow others who need a family to find one.

Please don't reduce the adoptions. Many children will suffer and many families will be heartsick if their adoptions are disallowed.

Free these children for a better life!

it would also take away the opportunity for many of these children to get adopted at all

There is an overwhelming amount of loving families that would be devistated as well as the lives of these sweet children put on hold if this happens. Please reconsider the benefits and positive outcome of previous adoptions and allow the intercountry adoptions to continue.

Please dont make these children wait for the families who are waiting to love and care for them... an even greater tragedy than what they've already experienced!

My hearts desire is to see that every child in Ethiopia is loved and cared for. In some circumstances, this means adoption is the best option for them. As a family anxiously awaiting a referral of a son, we pray that you would hear our prayers and support as we petition you to continue your work through international adoptions in Ethiopia.

We are waiting on 2 precious children currently in an orphanage in Addis. We are in love with them and very much look forward to the day we will have them home. Furthermore, this process has made our hearts fall in love with Ethiopia, the people and the culture. I believe this would be a grave mistake that would have a lasting negative impact. Adoption helps children in need and brings people into Ethiopia who want to love and care for many people there. Please don't forget all that are in need.

Our small Montessori preschool has, over the years, welcomed many many children from all over the world who have been adopted into loving families in New England. What a privilege, blessing, and joy for all concerned—the children, the families, and finally the communities lucky enough to share their stories, their growth, and their love.

Please keep intercountry adoptions open. I love Ethiopia, and I will continue to visit orphans there, but what they need are families...either in their own country or in another where they will be loved as sons and daughters.

Please don't penalize families that want to give these orphaned children a loving home!! Fix the corruption but not at the expense of delaying the union of these children and the families wanting them!! This is just heartbreaking for all involved!

Why would this be allowed? Help these children

Children need to be part of loving families. Every child deserves to be a part of an ethical system, but there are ways to encourage this without harming the children stuck in this system.

On behalf of my son and daughter-in-law, who have prayed diligently to be blessed with an Ethiopian child that they can love and cherish as their own and provide a loving home in which the child can be raised, I ask that this action be stayed and reconsideration be given to grant the request of my son and daughter-in-law to be allowed to adopt an Ethiopian child.

The children of Ethiopia deserve the chance to be permanently adopted into a safe, secure, loving family. The chances of them having this opportunity drastically drops if intercountry adoption is not permitted.

I have friends that have been in the process of adopting from Ethiopia for two years. I respectfully ask you to allow them to bring their daughter home.

We are on the list to make an Ethiopian child part of our forever family through adoption. Please help us help him!

Allow these precious children to have loving parents who can provide for them.

These children need a home!!

My daughter has been home from Ethiopia just over a year. Please help these children be connected with their forever families quickly.

Best wishes and prayers!

We are a family hoping to adopt from Ethiopia. Please do not cut adoptions by 90% as that means our soon-to-be daughter will be separated from us for an unnessessarily long time. We can't wait to meet her and make her part of our family.

My sincere hope is that any abuses that are occurring in intercountry adoption can be identified and addressed without preventing children from having the opportunity to become a part of permanent, stable and loving families. I would like to see MOWA continue to work with agencies committed to ethical practice and also to providing assistance to improve the lives of Ethiopian children who remain in their home land.

All God's children deserve a good home.

Please keep adoption open! These Children deserve loving permanent homes

What would be better for the children, Limiting their access to a great life immediately or waiting too long to be adopted?

I am hopeful that older children and children with special needs will be given special consideration as Ethiopia works toward making adoption all that it can be for the mutual benefit of children, adoptive families, and the citizens of Ethiopia.

Those babies need homes and there are people willing to take them in, why would you want to stop them? or delay them?

Please allow adoptions to continue as are.

Please reconsider this and allow those that have been waiting so long to bring these little ones home...

There are so many loving parents awaiting new family members outside of Ethiopia - why limit their giving love and the child's receiving it?

Please allow the orphan children of Ethiopia to be adopted.

We believe that the children of Ethiopia without family to take care of them deserve to be part of a loving family. Please do not lengthen the adoption process for those agencies that are ethical and placing children with forever families.

As one who has adopted from a different African country I ask you to please consider the good of the children in need of loving families. I agree that something needs to change to prevent harm from coming to children by those who have ill intentions. However, please do reconsider the severity of the planned action, which will cause many children to suffer and remain orphans instead of becoming sons and daughters in loving families.

My wife and I are on the wait list with All God's Children to adopt from Ethiopia. Our heart is with Ethiopia and Africa. We are praying that you will not go through with such a drastic measure that will greatly and tragically impact the lives of Ethiopian children, who will wait an unnecessarily long time for a Mom and Dad. We pray that you will reconsider these measures.

For the sake of the children, please keep the doors of adoption open.

every child deserves a loving family.

Please, for the sake of all these children, who through no fault of their own are caught in difficult situations, please reconsider this decision. The need for ethical adoptions is great. But the need for these children to have homes is great as well.

We have seen several families adopt young children from Ethiopia into their family. They are beautiful additions to the families.

It is in the best interest of the children if you can move the process forward more efficiently. Thank you.

I agree fully with this petition. Please do not slow down or shut down the Ethiopia Adoption program. My daughter, Gracie, was adopted from Ethiopia. I cannot imagine our lives without her. And because of her we support many efforts in ET.

Please consider the children who will languish in orphanages as a result of cutting back adoptions by 90%.

We are just one of many families who are waiting to welcome a child into a loving family. We urge you to respecfully reconsider the recent changes in the process to adoption in Ethiopia. You have been palced in your position for such a time as this, we Pray for great wisdom as you advocate the best for the children of Ethiopia. God loves these children and wants to see them in families with hope and a future.

Please reconsider this proposal the children of Ethiopia will be the ones suffering.

Our family has adopted 4 children from Ethiopia in the last 3 years. Our 1st adoption was of siblings aged 5 and 6 at the time. Our 2nd adoption was for a 6yr old HIV+ boy and a visually impaired infant. We urge you to reconsider and fight for ethical adoption while continuing to especially allow older and medically needy children to come to adoptive families. Thank you.

Please consider the families (like mine) who are waiting to adopt a child from your beautiful country, Ethiopia. We already love them so and desire to bring them into our homes as soon as possible. Please allow us to move forward with our adoptions. Our hearts are breaking over a possible delay and we respectfully ask for you to allow honorable agencies and families to continue with adoptions. Please understand that we respect your country and only want the best for the orphans of Ethiopia.

Please do not reduce the number of international adoptions that occur through ethical agencies.

Please allow me the honor and privilidge to bring a beautiful orphan into my home. I'd adopt them all if I could, I love Ethiopia. I promise to advocate for orphans, love them and care for them. Please reconsider cutting back, every child deserves a home and a family.

We are currently on the waitlist to bring a child home to provide him a permanent family. We have been called to Ethipia to provide this child with love and a family. It saddens me a great deal to know that the child waiting to join our family may be left in need of a family because of this tragic plan. Children will be delayed the love of their forever families that are ready willing and able to give them what they need! I pray that this plan will be reconsidered.

This is not a true solution to give children the basic human right - a family!

We are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. We have a love for the children of Ethiopia. We are broken hearted and hope and pray that this reduction of intercountry adoptions will not happen.

This is terrible and you would be punishing the
innocent children who have loving families waiting for them... the children could be permanently damaged by remaining in the orphanages - even one extra day is too long! Please reconsider for the sake of the innocent children waiting to be loved!

A better idea would be to reduce it proportionately to the % of abusers to legitimate family adoptions. Perhaps I am naive, but I can't imagine that it is 90%!

I accompanied my daughter to your beautiful country 3 years ago for the purpose of adopting my grandson. We met wonderful adoptive families who all provided good homes for the children. We left behind 4.5 million orphans desperately in need of homes & opportunities. I believe there is a responsibility to ensure safety but please do not respond by closing the doors to international adoption. The children will suffer.

Please help my nephew and niece adopt their little boy that they have been waiting so long for.

Please reconsider this action. There are many families who have so much love to give and although it is great to make sure all children are protected, there has to be a better way than reducing the amount of adoptions by this many.

Please allow the orphaned children of Ethiopia to have an opportunity to have a "forever family" where they will be cherished always. Please don't allow a small percentage of abusers to destroy the hopes and dreams of thousands of children. Give them a chance to be educated and loved, so they will be an asset to society and make Ethiopia proud. Please reconsider your position!

Please don't cause prolonged waiting for these children who need to be united with their families!

My wife and I are in the process of adopting a beautiful little orphan in Addis Ababa right now. Rather than having her adoption delayed because of the new rules, and having her languish in an orphanage, we greatly desire that these new rules will be lifted so that she can be brought home to a loving family. Our story is not unique. Please lift these rules for all families that just want to provide love and a home for a child. Morgan Cowle Brentwood, TN. All Gods Children Interrnatioal

Please, please reconsider this decision. We are praying and hoping to bring our daughter home from Ethiopia within the next year, and we don't want her or any other orphans to have to wait without homes and families to love them. We want to help give life to these children! Thank you.

The children's welfare has to be the priority!

I have many friends who are in the process of bringing home their Ethiopian children... PLEASE allow them to continue in the process and give homes, families, love and safety to these precious ones. They are SO loved!

Please reconsider. There are many people outside of the Ethiopia who are willing and able to adopt these children and give them good, loving homes. These children are such a blessing to their adoptive families.

There are so many adoption agencies that are operating ethically and responsibly in Ethiopia. Please do not punish the parents and agencies who are following the rules, and please do not sentence these vulnerable children to years of neglect because of the wrongdoings in a few isolated situations. We love the children and people of Ethiopia and desperately want what's best for them.

Please let us be parents for one with no parents.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress ...
James 1:27

We've been looking forward to bringing a little boy home from Ethiopia. We know many families who have grown through Ethiopian adoption and who were thrilled to have met the birth families and been reassured that adoption was the best option for their child. This decision saddens us deeply. Please, let us bring home a child who is waiting for family.

Please think about the children! Accept the help being offered to you to ensure ethical adoptions, but please do not put your plan of limiting intercountry adoptions into action. We all want what is best for the precious children of Ethiopia!

My husband and I are currently on the waiting list to adopt our sweet baby girl from the beautiful country of Ethiopia. We have been waiting for four months, preparing for this child in our hearts and in our home. We love her so much already and feel as though she is already a part of our lives. Please reconsider and help our daughter, and thousands others like her, to come home to a loving family as quickly as possible. Every child deserves to be loved and treasured by a family.

Please reconsider limiting the number of adoptions. My agency (WHFC) is incredibly careful and ethical, as are (I am sure) the majority of agencies working in Ethiopia. They also do wonderful work in-county - through one of their programs I am sponsoring an orphan living with her extended family. What will happen to the estimated 5 million Ethiopian orphans once this change takes place????

We have 2 children from Ethiopia, and neither one would be alive today without adoption. We lived in Ethiopia over this past summer as a family, and fully understand the need for a better and more reliable, trustworthy system. We also support means to keep children living in Ethiopia, with family; however this drop in #'s is SO drastic and would sadly equate to many children dying before they ever found a family, love, and protection. There must be better ways to go about bettering the system.

My husband and I are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. We beg of you, from the bottom of our hearts, to reconsider this tragic course of action, for the sake of the children of Ethiopia. Our arms are open and waiting.

Please consider the families in the US that are wanting and longing to love and care for your beautiful children.

Please keep adoptions going strong! These children need your help...

While they are waiting because of paper work these babies are dying.

Our family adopted two beautiful girls a year and a half ago, and we love them so much. Both are smart, independent, talented, Godly young ladies who will live out God's purpose for their lives. Both want to be teachers when they grow up, and we are going to do everything we can to help them reach their goals. As Americans go, we are not wealthy, but we are rich in love and faith. We make Ethiopian foods and listen to Ethiopian music. We want them to be so proud of their heritage. Peace.

I am hoping that cutting Ethiopian adoptions by 90% will be re-considered. As my husband and I have been praying for a child from there for over 7 years now. This is heartbreaking.

Children need loving homes to grow up in. And so many caring people can offer this. Why make it so difficult? So much valuable time wasted!

Please reconsider your cut back of 90% in International Adoption cases. Our family is looking forward to having a wonderful young child in our family and our hearts are fully open to loving and caring for an Ethiopian orphaned child. I strongly feel that these children would strongly benefit in being placed in a good, safe home.

We are a wonderful family of educators that are full of love and opportunity that desperately want to give an Ethiopian child in need an amazing life. Please, don't delay in having these children come to families like ours. I work with a 15 year old girl from Ethiopia. She plans on becoming a doctor so that she can return to Ethiopia. Would you rather not have your orphaned children that are sick and on the streets have opportunities like these? Please reconsider this new mandate.

The children who have to wait up to seven years to find a forever home are the victims of such a policy. Please change this policy.

While respecting your country's need to protect your children, I hope that more can be done about reviewing the legitimacy of the adoption agencies versus restricting the actual number of children adopted thus making the unwanted children suffer more.

There are many people here waiting to have a child at home to love. There are many children in Ethiopia that would love a mother and father. Please do not slow this process; help bring families together!

Please allow these children to have permanent, loving homes!

I completely support the Ministry’s goal of ensuring ethical adoptions that serve the best interest of children and serve all vulnerable children & families. However, I strongly believe that this can still be accomplished with out the reduction in the number of cases that you process/approve. It would allow loving families to provide homes and families for children you need them.

Please do not reduce inter-country adoption! The lives of many children are depending on it!

I am concerned about the children of Ethiopia, and hope that they will be able to find permanent, loving homes.

There are too many children not being loved & cared for properly to make this drastic of a decision. There has to be a middle ground.

I'd love to give a loving home to one of your children.

Every child deserves to have a mother and father who loves them instead of growing up in an orphanage. Please allow international adoptions to continue. Thank-you.

We hope for speedy reform of the adoption process so that the lives of children may be positively impacted by families who love them dearly. My husband and I are in the process of being approved for adoption and we truly and wholeheartedly want the best for the children and hope to one day raise an Ethiopian child as our son.

This is not a good change for the orphans of Ethiopia. It is best for them to be adopted by parents that are willing to do so legally. There must be a better way to accomplish a more legal avenue than shutting down to 10% of previous adoptions. We implore you to reconsider and go to work figuring out a better way to help these needy orphans find homes.

My son spent the first two years of his life in an orphanage in India due to the fact that the country did not process his paperwork in a timely manner. He is now almost 5 yrs old and suffers from many developmental delays which are a result of his time in an institution (where he did receive good care). Please don't let the same thing happen to thousands of Ethiopian children!

My husband and I have been in the adoption process for Ethiopia and were devistated to hear of this possibility.

Please reconsider such a drastic change of policy. We love our adopted daughter so much and it is heart breaking to think of other children who really need loving homes to have to wait so much longer with this new policy. We are in our 50's and adopted a 7 year old girl. We are glad our process was less than a year. Thank you for helping your beautiful Ethiopian children! God bless you!

I have several friends who are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. Two of these families are hoping to adopt more than one child. They are such loving and caring people. It would be a huge shame for them to not be able to provide a healthy, stable home.

We love your country and people. Please reconsider the adoption process. We believe we have so many amazing families that have so much live to share with the orphanes of your country. Thank you for listening.

We have been so blessed to have my nephew join our family. It is my hope and prayer that other parents and children/orphans from Ethiopia might have the opportunity to be family too.

Please help the children of eithiopia continue to find wonderful adoptive parents all over the world.

All children deserve to be loved by a family

We adopted our beautiful daughter Sifan from Ethiopia in 2008 and are currently on the wait list for an older child. We completely support ethical adoptions and feel that something has to be done to eliminate unethical practices, but there are so many children who would suffer if a 90% cut back would occur. Please consider these precious children.

I believe that although there have been isolated issues with intercountry adoption that the successful intercountry adoptions should be taken in consideration. There are so many children that need a good family and to reduce intercountry adoption would decrease the chances of children finding families that will love and take care of them

Prime Minister Zenawi,
With 15 million street children and orphans in your country, why would you stop international adoption for families who are willing to help? Tighten restrictions, yes. But penalize agencies who are honest and parents/children who are waiting, why? May God give you wisdom and discernment, Sir.

Every child needs a family - temporary foster care or orphanages are not enough. This is a very bad decision: To combat abuses, the government will condemn many children to a life without a family. That's wrong.

My wife, children and I have been waiting for nearly two years to provide a family for two Ethiopian siblings. Please let us fulfill our calling to provide a family for these kids!

We are currently waiting for a referral for an Ethiopian child. We are pleading with you to reconsider your drastic decrease in international adoption cases. We fully support the process of making sure that each child is in a loving, non abusive home and have agreed to comply with all required post placement reports. These children NEED families and homes and we need them. Please keep the adoption process moving forward as it is in the best interest for these dear children.

Please let ethical adoptions in Ethiopia continue. Children need to grow up with families who love and cherish them.

Please evaluate your adoption program processes and reinstate an energetic and reasonable system so that Ethiopian infants and children appropriately needing better home environents can be adopted in as expedtious a fashion as possible.

It is far more unethical to reduce adoptions by 90% and allow children to starve from malnourishment, and the love a forever family can provide them.

There ARE ethical agencies out there fighting for the BEST for these children. While I completely support the goal of ethical adoptions, I feel there are much better ways to achieve that goal. I honestly believe that this would cause a negative impact on Ethiopian orphans as a whole and I fear what will happen to children in need of an orphanage or transitional home if these facilities are unable to place them into loving, adoptive families.

Please consider all of the loving homes that are out there waiting for these children!

Children are waiting. Families are waiting. While abuse has happened within the system, it can and is being addressed through legitimate process and procedure. The level of reduction is disproportionate to the problem and only makes a bad situation worse. If it was as simple as not having enough children in need of a parent or a loving home that would be understandable. We are one world with one worlds children that need immediate love and security. Let's find a way to get that done.

I have a friend who is trying to adopt from Ethiopia. She and her husband are wonderful, loving people. Any child would be so lucky to become part of their family.

Please consider partnering with governments, NGOs and foundations to achieve your goals for these beautiful children and avoid the coming tragedy for children and families.

If our two girls, aged 12 and 8, had no joined us from Ethiopia less than one year ago, their future would have been bleak. The would have been separated and uneducated with little hope for the future. Our family would not be who we are today without these girls. Please do not make a decision that affects all on the choices of a few.

We are the adoptive parents of the most beautiful, intelligent and loving little girl from Ethiopia. She was malnourished and dying in Ethiopia after her single mother could no longer feed herself let along her daughter. We did not save her - God did. He also created her to be a part of our family. Our family tree now extends beyond my sight to our daughter's birth mom in Ethiopia for whom we are forever thankful. Her selfless act blessed us with our greatest gift and gave life to her daughter.

These children need loving homes that many around the world are ale to provide. Don't make this tragic mistake that could affect so many young lives!

Please reconsider your decision and begin to establish key partnerships with organizations that are ethical and have the best interests of the children and the country of Ethiopia in mind.

I know of several babies that have been adopted and the babies are loved and cherished.

I've seen some beautiful children come here that are treasured and loved by wonderful families who not only love their children but their heritage as well.

Children just want love they don't care about red tape.

Our daughter, Kalkidan, is 7 years old and has been with us for a year. She enjoys going to school, and loves her new siblings and having a mom and dad. We love her very much and so honored to have her in our family.

we are hoping to adopt two children around the ages of 8 - 11. i beg you to allow us to do this! we promise to provide them many amazing opportunities. we love kids and we love africa. this kids will otherwise live their lives in an orphanage and without hope of a family. please please don't cut back the adoption of older children.

I adopted twin infants from Ethiopia in 2009 in what I consider a very ethical and carefully approached process. I understand that corruption can happen in any adoptive process in any country, but respectfully request that children not become the unfortunate victims in an effort to curb this corruption. Through adoption, two orphans now have a wonderful future. Many, many others can say the same. Please focus your efforts on stopping the corruption itself, not by denying other children a future.

Many beautiful, wonderful Ethiopian children find loving, nurturing forever families through international adoption. For the sake of these precious children, Please do not disrupt international adoptions in any way.

Our family has been blessed to adopt a little boy from Ethiopia. We feel honored to be able to bring him into our family and raise him with the love and care he deserves. We would ask that other families would be given this same chance to love and care for the innocent Ethiopian children who are in need of a family. PLEASE make this beautiful option available and streamlined for the families who have so much love to give to the precious children of Ethiopia who are in need.

Our family has been blessed to adopt a little boy from Ethiopia. We feel honored to be able to bring him into our family and raise him with the love and care he deserves. We would ask that other families would be given this same chance to love and care for the innocent Ethiopian children who are in need of a family. PLEASE make this beautiful option available and streamlined for the families who have so much love to give to the precious children of Ethiopia who are in need.

It would be tragic to reduce intercountry adoption. Please do not partner with groups based on isolated cases. Clearly the vast majority of adoptions are to loving families that care deeply for the well being of the children.

Please don't punish the children and waiting adoptive parents because of the actions of a few unscrupulous individuals.

These kids need to be adopted!! Please speed the process up. The kids need to go to good homes :(

We adopted our wonderful 2 year old daughter from Ethiopia in 2010 and are waiting to bring home our 5 year old son from Ethiopia this year. He is in Mekele, Ethiopia and we certainly hope he does not need to stay in that orphanage for the next several years...please help us bring him home to his family as quickly as possible...and work with our government and the agency network to find some resolution that will not make the waiting children suffer.

I feel that the slow down on court hearings per day could be very detremental to these children. I just came home with two boys with hiv I don't feel that their options in ethiopia if they were to have to wait months or years would of been in the best interest of the child.

We are asking you to please reconsider limiting the number of adoptions from Ethiopia. We recently adopted a little girl and what a blessing she is to our family! We know of many other wonderful families who are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia and can't wait to be parents to the children who have been referred to them. A slowdown in adoptions will only hurt the children who need families.

We have a beautiful 2 year old we adopted from Ethiopis when she was an infant. She is happy, healthy, and developmentally ahead of other kids her age! We would love to adopt again from Ethiopia and encourage others to as well. We had a positive experience there.

As a family we have been blessed beyond belief through adoption programs in Ethiopia. We will stand and shout for these precious little ones.

please help resolve this issue for the sake of the children that do not have parents to love.

I think a 90% cut is dramatic. There are so many sweet children who would benefit so much if adopted by a legally qualified person whether local or international. Your adoption process is quite rigorous to ensure mistakes are not made. I urge you to please reconsider your decision.

I have good friends that went through the adoption process last year and brought home a beautiful girl from Ethiopia.
She now has two brothers and loving parents to support her which she wouldn't have in an orphanage.

Please reconsider this! We want to be able to partner with you to help these children!

Every child should be love and have a permanent family of there own so they can reach there highest potential in life

I know adopted Ethiopian children, and they are happy and healthy in their permanent homes. Every child needs a permanent family. Please fix the things that are wrong without throwing out what is good.

Prayers for the children in need of a family to care for them in a home full of love.

Please reconsider for the sake of all those children who wait for families.

We fully support any measures necessary for making adoptions in Ethiopia more ethical, but hope that those measures can be taken without slowing down the adoption process and keeping children from finding permanent families.

We want nothing more but to give a child a mommy and daddy that will love them unconditionally. Slowing down the courts will drastically change the lives of millions of orphans who need homes. Please reconsider the ammount of court dates you will hear beginning March 10th.

We have a 4 month old daughter waiting for us right now. Please don't make her wait for a loving family any longer than it needs to be. While your motives are admirable, there must be some compromise that can be reached so that children already matched to families don't spend months and months waiting to receive the love and care we want to give them.

Every child deserves the right to a loving permanent family, delays only delay the childrens rights! Please remember the children and the families waiting to hold them and love them and give them the family they deserve!

I believe that a compromise and balance can be struck between the obligation to ensure authenticity of "orphan" status and the obligation to provide a means for so many children to get the care (both physical and emotional) that they need. I am hopeful that MOWA will continue to push hard to come up with a better resolve.

I'm an adoptive mom to two children adopted from Haiti. I recognize the importance of ethical, child centered adoptions and believe setting adoption quotas only limits the process rather than improving it. It is my hope that Ethiopia will continue to look for wholistic soltutions for the needs of their children, including international adoption.

I support the Ethiopian government in its wanting to help its citizens IN Ethiopia. I also am in support of ethical International Adoption. I believe that ethical International Adoption and in- country aid to Ethiopian citizens can exist alongside each other.

Please do not make families wait so long to be with their children, and please allow the beautiful and amazing children of Ethiopia to be united with their families as soon as possible. These children suffer such loss in their short lives (their wonderful country of birth, family, culture, friends, etc.) , and the sooner they can get to their new/forever family and begin healing, the better it is for them. We know you want what is best for the children, so thank you for considering our comment

I am grateful for the efforts to ensure that all Ethiopian adoptions are ethical. I support all efforts to keep children with their birth families and in their country of birth whenever possible. I also recognize that there are still many, many children who need a loving family wherever that family may be located. I urge the Ethiopian government to continue to help these children find loving families through international adoption.

Children should not have to enter a lottery to have their rights met.

My husband and I are in the process of adopting a son from Ethiopia.

Please consider the orphans that have been waiting for years with special needs!!

May your heart be guided to do what is in the best interest of the thousands of children waiting for permanent and loving families.
Thank you.

Please reconsider this step! I don't think that it is in the best interest of the children.

My husband arrived home from Ethiopia with our beautiful daughter three months ago after working through Holt International. She is the joy of our lives and is thriving in her new environment. It breaks my heart to know that children like like her will face years in orphanages and have little hope of a permanent home. Although the children are well cared for and loved, and institution is not a home. Every child deserves a permanent, safe, loving home.

The Children of Guatemala are in the midst of a Humanitarian Crisis after adoptions closed over 3 years ago....Prevent this from happening to the children of Ethiopia! Keep International Adoption Open, Ethical, and Accessible to the children who need and deserve permanent loving families!

Please allow children without permanent parental care in Ethiopia to be adopted anywhere in the world where there is a family to love and nurture them.

I understand wanting ethical adoptions. I do want that! I just would like to see an alternative that doesn't harm children that could be adopted. Please don't close adoptions. I have 2 Ethiopian children and I love them more than words can say.

Children need to be with families, not in institution. While it is very important to root out corruption, it is critical that we do not hurt the children by delaying the process for families who are utilizing legitimate agencies to facilitate their adoptions.

I have worked with many families blessed with children from Ethiopia, whose lives in turn have also been blessed by thier new families. Please allow this to continue.

Please reconsider reducing adoptions from Ethiopia.

Please, do not force children left without parental care to languish unnecessarily in institutions when there are families ready and able to love them. Your solution is not a solution for them.

I would hope that the children are kept at the forefront of everyone's mind. We are waiting for a court date, and if MOWA has it's way, will be waiting for about a year. There are so many other families like us, and I hope you would consider making those cases a priority to get done as soon as possible. I don't want our little girl waiting another year in an orphanage without us. We are aching for her to come home!

We have been on the waiting list for over 6 months, waiting for a referral for a little boy. Please reconsider the 5 cases per day change so that we can all be a part of the solution to the orphan crisis in Ethiopia. Thank you for your consideration.

We are in the process of putting together our dossier for Ethiopia and feel this is devastating. Please help famillies by keeping Ethiopian adoptions moving.

I strongly support the need to target unethical agencies, to stop illegal adoption procedures and to keep children with their birth families whenever possible. However, I am extremely concerned about the consequences this could cause to the children of Ethiopia that need homes and have no family in country that have means to support them. I also worry about the overcrowding this could cause in orphanages that rely on agencies and adoptive families financial and supplies support.

Please consider the children who are in need of a permanent home through adoption and help this process continue for them.

Please continue to allow the United States and other countries to adopt your beautiful children. It is so important to us and them, that they be given loving homes and forever families, with respect to their home land, Ethiopia. They will teach us more than we are able to give to them. This cannot happen if adoptions are cut by 90%.

Please consider eliminating the proposed adoption cut, so that we may continue to bless the lives of orphaned children, and parents who love them. Thank you.

I personally know of two very happy little boys from Ethiopia who were adopted by loving parents in the United States. They were both sick with bowel issues from the orphanage when they arrived to the states. They are now thriving in their new homes and both parents plan to keep their culture a part of their lives. It would be a tragedy to deny more children this opportunity.

I implore you to consider the children who need families, medical care, and stability. They are our highest priority.

I've been dreaming of adopting from Ethiopia since i was in 8th grade, please don't do this

Chrissy and Greg Knight have the most loving, nurturing and encouraging family I know. They will provide this boy with the best home he could imagine, and his happiness should not be delayed. With every passing moment, he's missing a chance to acclimate to his new loving home. Please don't make this family wait any longer for his sake.

Really hoping to see this policy changed for the sake of the children !

Please allow the the children who have been approved for adoption and their families that have been approved by your courts unite!

Please consider all the good that come of allowing children from Ethiopia to be adopted!

There are many families who want to adopt children and provide them with a loving home. Children who are kept in orphanages are denied not only their own family but the many advantages of education, health care, love of extended families. We have two adopted grand children who were adopted at the age of four months. If unadopted, they would likely have died. They had problems with the best formulas the orphanages could provide, as well as other health issues. They are now normal 2 year olds

Help us to help children grow up in loving families

please reconsider. there are so many great families waiting for the opportunity to help children

The children in ophanages deserve to have a home and a family of there own provided there are stable families that are able to adopt them.

I look forward to meeting my precious great grandchild who has been matched with my grandson and his wife.The whole family anxiously awaits the completion of this process. We pray that ehis will not be delayed.

These children deserve to be adopted by loving families as soon as possible. yes there are problems but keeping them in as orphanage for longer than necessary won't help them only hurt them. God Bless

allow adoption

Please put the kids first.

Please help the children.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven......please God.

There are good families & reputable people here that can help the children.

The Osborns are an incredible families, any children would be truly blessed to have them as parents

I agree with this petition as it is stated above.
To ban all international adoptions of Ethiopian
babies will be hurtful to many expectant parents, and devastating to babies ready to be adopted!

This is so very important to the priceless children be given a chance to be adoped...
Jason and Summer have a passion for this
child and will do whatever it takes with
God at the wheel...God is with us always!

Please allow these wonderful families anxiously awaiting the arrival of their children. They are so many answers to so many prayers. Every child deserves love

Please create other methods to precent isolated abuses of asoption processes rather than keep so many children in need from having loving homes.

What is wrong with giving children good homes? nothing is wrong with it.

I was just going to begin an adoption from Ethiopia. My heart and mind races constantly with thoughts of these thousands of children that need loving homes ..a nd then of the many people who are desperate to provide that for them! Let's keep the country OPEN for adoptions!

Dear MOWA, I urge you to reconsider your decision to reduce intercountry adoptions. All children need families, they need homes, not orphanages. Our beautiful Ethiopian daughter is the light of our lives and we are heart broken to think of the many other children left behind without families in her orphanage. There are many ways to rid the system of corruption without closing adoptions. Please reconsider this decision for the children's sakes. Thank you.

I've never understood anyway, WHY the process of adoption has always been so difficult, stressful, lengthy&often ultimately heartbreaking. It is disgusting to say the least, when it's KNOWN how many children need&deserve a happy, stable environment. Yet SO MANY loving, qualified people, so anxious to provide this&give their hearts to these children with such current uncertain futures, now face another challenge?! There is nothing good or intelligent in this! AMEN to the words in the petition!

Lets continue to help the children they need families and people to love them.

Please do not allow this proposal to take effect. There are so many loving families who want nothing more than to provide for these children and give them the happiness they deserve. What's the purpose in taking the opportunity for a happy, fulfilled childhood from these babies?

God said He would care for the orphans through us and will bless you in return for caring & loving them. Do the right thing by these children. They are precious in God's sight.

God is good!

Please give loving families and needy children the opportunity to start lives together!!