Hi all!
DW & I adopted Yohanan here in Israel (under the auspices of the Ministry of Social Welfare's Child Welfare Service, which, by law has sole & exclusive jurisdiction over
all domestic adoptions; CWS adoptions are closed & blind; private, USA-style adoption, is very, very illegal here) in May 1997, when he was 4-months-old. We adopted Naor (also under the auspices of the CWS) in November 2000, when he was a wee 2.5-weeks-old. (Yohanan marched into nursery school the next day & proudly announced: "I have a brother!") Both of Da Boyz were born here to (so we've been told) non-Jewish Russian/Ukrainian women who were working here illegally. Since Da Boyz' birthmoms were not Jewish, they were not Jewish & we had to be converted to Judaism. Naor's bmom was told to leave the country after she handed Naor over to the CWS; Yohanan's bmom walked out of the hospital 5 days after giving birth to him (emergency c-section; he was in full breech & 6 weeks premature) & has disappeared without a trace (the police tried to find her & gave it up; all the identifying data she gave upon being admitted to the hospital was either bogus or stolen).
When we received the formal adoption orders (from Jerusalem Family Court, in our cases), we received new birth certificates for Da Boyz, that list us as their parents. Their original birth certificates (which we never saw) were sealed and placed in a special Interior Ministry Population Authority register.
Under Israeli law, when Da Boyz are 18, they may go to the CWS & ask to see their files. The CWS will then do so, minus any details which could identify the birthparents. If the adoptee, wishes to contact his/her birthparents, the CWS will contact the birthparents & ascertain if they agree & on what terms. If they do not agree, there is no contact (and the adoptee has no recourse). The bioparents have no similar right; i.e. a mother who placed her child with the CWS for adoption cannot wait 18 years & then go to the CWS and aske where her biokid is.
In Yohanan's case, the whole thing is moot. His birthfather is a complete mystery (Yohanan's existence proves that he had one but that's all anyone knows about him). The CWS knows who Naor's birthfather is; I doubt that it'll have any current information on his birthmother.
The abortion rate here in Israel is way too high. If 1% of Israeli women who have abortions would agree to place their children for adoption, not only would the kids' lives be saved (duh) but the wait for adopted children could be shrunk drastically.
From when DW & I first approached the CWS until we received Yohanan took just over 4 years. The wait for Naor was less. The wait is (more or less) a simple function of supply-and-demand. That their birthmothers were not Jewish jumped us in the line (a couple that will accept a handicapped child or an older child will also jump ahead in the line). The CWS, by law, gives Jewish children to Jewish couples & Arab children to Arab couples. Before we received Yohanan, we did a CWS workshop on adopting a first child with 7 other couples & 2 CWS social workers; one of the other couples was a Christian Israeli Arab couple. In the Jewish sector, the demand for babies to adopt is far ahead of supply. In the Arab sector, the situation is reversed. There is actually a surplus of Arab babies, which the CWS places with Arab families in other countries; the CWS will
NOT place an Arab child with a Jewish family. Children like Yohanan & Naor fall between the ethnic cracks, they're neither Jewish nor Arab. Since placing them with Arab families is not an option (the latter want Arab babies), they're placed with Jewish families.
DW & I feel that we are the proudest, most blessed parents in the world & thank God every day for blessing us with such wonderful boychiks. Adoption may be second choice (it was for us), but it is certainly not second best!
Howzat?
Be well!
ssv
Open adoptions seem to be very popular here. If you wish to adopt a child through Social Services, in Alberta you will wait about 10 years for a new-born caucasian baby. However, the wait is much shorter if people would take older children or go through an adoption agency that offers open adoptions. 
