Agency News
New Waiting Children Programs in Russia and Ukraine
New Waiting Children programs in Russia and Ukraine offer boys and girls of all ages with diagnosed medical conditions as well as healthy children over the age of six an opportunity to be adopted. Children with missing digits, cleft palates, heart murmurs, congenital heart diseases, Hepatitis B, and other medical challenges are available through these programs.
If you are willing to open your homes and hearts to one of these children, please contact AAI at 616.667.0921 for more information.
Families Needed for Hosts of Hope 2008
Believe it or not, summer is just around the corner! That means we’re busy getting ready for the 2008 Hosts of Hope program. This summer, Russian children (approximately 7 to 12 years old) will travel to the U.S. and stay with host families for two weeks. The participating children get to experience life in another culture and learn what it means to be part of a family. Participating families discover the joy of opening a new world to a child. If you’re interested in becoming host parents, please complete and submit a Preliminary Host Program Application for consideration. After reviewing your application, a member of the Hosts of Hope Committee will contact you.
Please contact AAI at 616.667.0921 for more information on this program.
A Destiny Delivered DVD
AAI is excited to announce that our new birth mom DVD is completed! A Destiny Delivered features support group scenes with real birth parents and the story of Brenda, a young woman experiencing an unplanned pregnancy who discovers that adoption can be a wonderful and loving choice.
A Destiny Delivered is offered free to crisis pregnancy centers and school counselors in Michigan and will soon be available for purchase on our Adoption Accents web site. To view an abbreviated version of this DVD, you can visit AOL Video, YouTube, or Google Video.
New Attachment/Post-Adoption Blog Coming Soon!
Bringing children home is only the beginning of the parenting journey for adoptive families. To help families face some common challenges, AAI will soon launch a blog dealing specifically with attachment issues and post-adoption adjustment issues. The blog will also help sort through normal childhood development vs. attachment-related issues. The blog will be facilitated by Kurt Ellis, AAI’s on-staff psychologist who is also an adoptive father.
Watch our web site for more information, and visit http://www.adoptassoc.com/resources/parent_prep/ for other sessions and resources Kurt offers to adoptive families.
Blessings in Bundles
AAI has partnered with International Aid, Jack and Jill Consignment Shop, and the Holland Rescue Mission Thrift Store to collect “blessings” for children in AAI-sponsored orphanages in Ethiopia, Haiti, and Nepal. Donated clothing and medical supplies are bundled and either sent with families who are traveling to these orphanages, or shipped directly. Since the needs of the children are constant and year-round, our goal is to be able to fund shipping on a consistent basis.
If you’d like to help us reach that goal, please contact Annise or Stephanie at AAI at 616.667.0921 to make a donation. Your generosity will significantly improve the quality of life for these little ones!
International Adoption Cards Now Available!
Did your adoption impact you profoundly or perhaps inspire you to help others decide to adopt? Now you can share your own personal story and AAI’s international adoption cards with others who would like more information. International adoption cards are so small you can conveniently have them on hand in a wallet, purse, or diaper bag! With 143 million orphans waiting in hope, you could be instrumental in uniting these children with their forever families.
Contact Jamie Huizen at 1.800.677.2367 or e-mail jhuizen@adoptionassociates.net today for a packet of ten cards.
