This information is from Sonia Baxter, Executive Director of Reaching Out thru International Adoption and is posted with her permission.

First, the Dept of Social Work which oversees adoptions wants it to go smoothly and predictably. We have decided to say that it will take about 6 months from the time of submission of the dossier to travel. It may take less time, but that is what is currently is taking for some Dutch cases and so it just feels better to go with that estimation.
The process is that you must submit a few documents and we will send them to the country where they will identify a child for you who meets your parameters. We will receive photo(s) and medical/social information. Then the attorney we have will handle the paperwork and get it processed through the court. We hope that the judges begin to feel more comfortable in processing quickly but they have taken several months up till now. Once we hear that the adoption order is in (the adoption is completed by power of attorney to the attorney), we will advise you that you can travel.

Travel is expected by both parents, but in some cases, it may be approved that only one parent travel. This will be approved on a case-by-case basis. You will be expected to stay in Maseru (mah-seer'-rou) for about two weeks and that during that time, you will get to know the country, culture and heritage of the child. You will be able to care for the child as soon as the social worker there feels that you and the child are comfortable together, which could take several days. After Maseru, you must travel to Johannesburg, South Africa for approximately 3 days to obtain the child's immigrant visa. You may then fly back to the US. Travel is probably easiest by flying directly from a US city to Johannesburg as going through other countries and making connections can be very difficult.

As to the statement that you must be a resident for two years, that has been waived in the past and it is expected that it will continue to be waived based on some informal agreements. There have been proposed changes to the laws on adoption in Lesotho and there will be no residency requirement, but those laws are still waiting to be considered in Parliament. However, there
was no concern about the residency in all of our discussions.

As to the children- they are all black and appeared to be in good health and well nourished. There is quite a range of care in the orphanages and I expect to start by placing children from the better orphanages. The officially-approved caregiver ratio is that there is no less than one caregiver for every five children. Children who have been abandoned- they will search for 3 months to try to find their families. Most children are abandoned (90%). Once a child is proposed to an adoptive family, that child will not be proposed to another family- even a local family. Children can be referred to an adoptive family as soon as documents are received on the
family and the child is either determined to be abandoned or has been relinquished. Therefore, some children will be adoptable at 3 months of age. All children will be tested for HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis B & C and Syphilis.

Continued here.