Overseas orphans

November is National Adoption Month, and since adoption is biblically good and humanly generous, our tendency is to applaud every adoption impulse. But in a fallen world corruption can turn dreams into nightmares, and some Christian parents have to decide: break the law or leave a child in dire circumstances?

Kim and Ben Green adopted two of their children from Liberia in 2006 and were surprised to arrive in the African country and encounter forged documents and bribe payments. Christian adoption agencies that failed to operate ethically left them with a time-sensitive and heavy decision: “Do we leave the kids here or do we take them home?”

The Greens decided to return home with 1-year-old Madisyn and 2-year-old Caleb, but dental X-rays later confirmed Caleb’s age at adoption was closer to 4. Liberia suspended all intercountry adoptions in 2009, citing allegations of mismanagement and corruption.

Fast-forward nine years: The Greens have adopted 14 kids (seven domestically and seven internationally) and their house is bustling with activity. They have also mourned the deaths of two babies with terminal illnesses whom they adopted. Madisyn and Caleb are now 10 and 14, and 2-year-old Jonathon requires the most care: He suffers from schizencephaly, a condition resulting in the loss of half his brain.

But when Kim Green heard about two 4-year-old boys from Tanzania, one with Down syndrome and one with albinism, she says, “God ignited her heart” and eventually the heart of her husband. The Greens made two trips to Tanzania since beginning the adoption process last December, and one boy’s life is at risk: Witch doctors in Tanzania seek the body parts of albino children to use for potions believed to bring good luck.

Tanzania’s stringent laws require adoptive parents to live in the country for three years and be foster parents for six months. According to the Greens’ adoption agency, Joshua Tree Adoptions, those requirements can be waived if the High Court of Tanzania determines that is “in the best interest of the child.” But Tanzania’s 2009 Law of the Child Act states that the “best interest” clause still requires all adoptive parents to live in the country for three years, and Brooke Montgomery, a licensed attorney who lives in Tanzania and facilitates adoptions, backs that understanding.

So, when I inquired, did the U.S. Department of State. Many of the Tanzania adoptions listed on the U.S. Department of State website—only four in 2014 and 14 between 2010 and 2013—are to Americans living in Tanzania who have met the residency requirement. Montgomery believes corruption is a factor in the rest, although she couldn’t comment “as to what level or stage.” Joshua Tree Adoptions declined my interview request but posted the following statement on its website: “We respectfully disagree with any social media posts from persons claiming that Tanzanian adoptions are unlawful.”

What to make of this controversy? Cradle of Love, the orphanage where the two 4-year-olds currently live, opposes the Greens’ adoption. Assistant Director Brendon Church said orphanage managers Ken and Leticia Landers have communicated their concerns to Joshua Tree Adoptions, reminding the agency that while they “as an organization love the idea of adoptions for those in need,” their orphanage wants “only to abide by the laws governing our organization in this country.”

Beth Beyer is a 38-year-old Christian missionary who has lived in Tanzania for 11 years. She and her husband have adopted multiple children from Tanzania and are in the process of adopting one more. (We have changed Beyer’s name because involvement in controversy could jeopardize her pending adoption.) The sudden appearance of Western adoption agencies in Tanzania alarms Beyer: “Adoptions in Tanzania are so incredibly rare that it’s possible that these mothers don’t even understand the implications of adoption. There isn’t even a word in Swahili for adoption. They most likely think that it’s more like a sponsorship program—that the boys will go to America, get rich, and come back and support them.”

And yet, Kim and Ben Green have worked hard and met with the birth mom of the boy with albinism during one of their trips to Tanzania. Kim Green says the woman drove hours to meet with them and thanked the Michigan couple for pursuing the adoption of her son and providing a loving and safe environment. Green says she has read the law, talked to lawyers on both ends, and is “very confident” they are “walking in the Lord’s leading.”

While adoptive parents want to give a needy child a good home, adoption agencies can be sidetracked by the dollars, focusing instead on finding a child for a family. Some agencies are willing to skirt the rules to make money and stay in business.

The Universal Accreditation Act of 2012—implemented in July 2014—holds adoption agencies accountable to ethical guidelines. It requires all agencies to be “Hague Accredited,” even if the country they are working in is not party to the Hague Adoption Convention, a set of international standards designed to reduce child trafficking. But even accredited agencies can get away with unethical methods in countries where corruption is beyond the jurisdiction of the U.S. State Department. Pilot programs in uncharted territory pose a particular risk.

WORLD identified six adoption agencies that have promoted pilot programs in Tanzania, a country that has not ratified the Hague Adoption Convention. At least two of the agencies have put their programs on hold—including Little Miracles International Adoption—and all six either refused to answer questions about their Tanzania program or did not return my calls.

Beyer fears that “illegal adoptions will shut down all adoption in this country, by either the Tanzanian government or the U.S. immigration which issues the visas we need. We’ve seen it happen in so many other countries. We are angry that these agencies would take that risk.”

International adoption often follows a boom-bust cycle: When one country identifies corruption and shuts down its program, another country becomes the next “hot spot.” When Guatemala closed in 2007 after allegations of child trafficking, U.S. adoptions from Ethiopia increased from 732 in 2006 to 2,511 in 2010. Since China began tightening its requirements and Russia shut down all intercountry adoptions in 2010, Africa has become the new frontier for international adoptions.

As agencies and adoptive parents flocked to Africa, many governments did not spend the time or resources to set up a comprehensive system of checks and balances that prevents child trafficking. In Ethiopia, the U.S. embassy in 2010 discovered cases of unscrupulous middlemen offering financial incentives for families willing to relinquish their children for adoption. Ethiopia responded by slowing down international adoptions and increasing oversight the following year, but Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo are also facing allegations of adoption corruption.

The Greens’ adoption quest is unique: Kids with special needs are often marginalized. Some albino children are dismembered and brutally murdered. Tanzania in January criminalized all acts of brutality against albinos, fearing an increase of attacks leading up to October’s general and presidential elections.

According to the United Nations, at least 75 people with albinism have been killed in Tanzania since 2000 and dozens have been severely maimed. Witch doctors pay up to $75,000 for a full set of body parts, according to a 2009 report by the Red Cross. Some orphanages, Beyer says, get creative by taking in and protecting kids with albinism while providing work at the orphanage for the birth moms.

When asked about the controversy surrounding Tanzanian adoptions, Green said God spoke to her about adopting the boys through dreams and through His Word, even before they knew of their existence. She says they will “pursue them as long and hard as He pursues each of us,” until God tells them otherwise: “Whether or not those boys ultimately come home or God is doing an even greater work that we cannot yet see, we know we are being led of God.”

Their efforts will not be without resistance from Americans in Tanzania who say it’s better to promote compassionate alternatives for despondent parents and children, and to wait for Tanzania to create a regulated process for intercountry adoption.

See also “Understanding the real rules of international adoption.”