Do EU citizens have an easier time adopting?

The fact is that Western Europe has the same adoption issues as the U.S. Western Europe and the English speaking countries are quite prosperous, compared to the rest of the world. People can generally afford to raise the children they bear and, if they cannot, there are family members, community members, and others, who can afford to adopt "another mouth to feed". There are also strong government safety nets for the poor, so they don't have to abandon or relinquish their children. There is generally a high standard of education and employment, and historically, that correlates with later marriage and smaller family size. In addition, attitudes towards adoption are generally modern, although, as elsewhere, there are some people who believe in the importance of the "blood tie". Overall, therefore, the Western European countries have relatively few healthy infants and toddlers available for adoption --far, far fewer than the number of families wishing to adopt. Just as in the U.S., families may wait for years for a good adoption situation, or may decide to look to countries in the less developed world -- places in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. Being an Italian citizen won't give you any advantage in adopting from Italy or any other Western European country, unless you are open to school aged children, children with significant special needs, sibling groups of three or more, etc. -- most likely, the same types of children that you saw in the U.S. and felt that you could not parent. As far as adopting from Eastern Europe, it really doesn't matter what your citizenship is. There is a good bit of anti-adoption and nationalistic sentiment in many of the Eastern European countries, so even where adoption is possible, the government sometimes makes it tough. In the Republic of Georgia, a politician said that it was better for an orphan to die in Georgia than to be taken overseas for adoption. And while it's true that Russia is particularly hostile towards U.S. adoptive families these days, because of some unfortunate cases where Americans killed Russian adoptees, it really isn't all that comfortable with adoption by people of any nation. If you were a Russian citizen living in Russia, you'd have an easier time adopting from Russia than you would if you had any other nationality. If you were Ukrainian and living in Ukraine, you would be more likely to be allowed to adopt a young and healthy Ukrainian child, but if you were Italian or American, neither situation would give you an advantage. Many Eastern European countries are doing a very good job of placing healthy infants and toddlers domestically. They don't need many foreign families for these children. They are becoming like Western European countries, in that the kids who wait for families are the school aged, the disabled, and the sibling groups. It won't matter whether you are American, Italian, or French. You'll be allowed only to apply for the kids who won't find homes among citizens of their own country. Russia has a lot more parentless children than other Eastern European countries, in part because it is simply a larger country. In part, too, it lacks the tradition of domestic adoption that some countries have. I spoke with a group of Russian judges some years back, and they talked about how much of a big secret it still is, in many parts of Russia, for a family to adopt. Women still put increasing amounts of padding under their clothes, and talk about morning sickness, pretending they are pregnant. Then they go out of town -- "to the hospital" -- and return with an adopted baby who looks like them. They do not tell their child, much less the neighbors, that the child was adopted. As a result, since there is such a stigma about adopting, more children languish in orphanages and are made available to foreigners of all nationalities. Not all of the children, however, are healthy. Russia has an enormous problem with alcohol and drug abuse. Many of the children available for adoption have been subject to abuse and neglect by alcoholics and drug users, and have psychological issues. Others were exposed to alcohol and drugs prenatally, and have varying levels of brain damage related to the exposures; the full impact won't generally be known until the child reaches school age. Some children may have minimal damage; others may have very significant learning and behavioral issues. It should be noted that Russian doctors do not recognize "fetal alcohol spectrum disorders" as a diagnostic category, as American doctors do, and do not include it on medical reports. Right now, it is better to be European than American, when adopting from Russia, because of Russian sentiments concerning the death of some Russian children adopted by Americans. However, the tide could turn at any time. Tomorrow, it could be the Italians who are banned. All in all, I don't think that changing your nationality is going to affect your ability to adopt. I'm sorry that you have had difficulty achieving your goal of parenthood, so far, but you really can adopt, whether you are American or a citizen of another country. You just have to decide on your priorities. As an example, if you want to adopt from Eastern Europe, you can choose a country like Ukraine, but will have to select either a school aged child (especially a boy over age 10), a child with significant special needs, or a sibling group of three or more children. If you want to adopt an infant or toddler, you may do better going with a country like Democratic Republic of Congo or, depending on your age, Colombia or South Korea. You will not find any adoption program that is "easy, cheap, and quick." And it really won't matter whether you are an American citizen or an Italian citizen, though that might come into play if you want to bring the child home to the country in which you are living. As an example, if you adopt as an Italian, and then want to bring your child home to the U.S., you may have difficulty unless you are prepared to live overseas with him/her for two years, first. Sharon