Agency News
AAI Looking into Re-Establishing Haiti Program:
When the director of a Port au Prince orphanage visited the United States in June, Jane Bareman, AAI Executive Director, and Dick VanDeelen, AAI Board President, met with her to discuss the possibility of facilitating adoptions again from Haiti, a program AAI suspended in 2009.
The orphanage has released 82 children for adoption since Haiti’s catastrophic January earthquake and is beginning to fill up again with children who have been declared orphans when no living relatives have been located. The director of this orphanage is eager to work with agencies, as it is a smoother process for all involved, and AAI is eager to open this program to find homes for every child. However, we want to protect families from red tape, long waits, and heartache, and the best way to assure this is to work out the kinks before inviting families to join this program. We will monitor the situation and hope to have a final decision by December of 2010.
Initial Draft of Bilateral Agreement Approved:
The U.S. and Russia are nearing agreement on a new international adoption accord. Key points of the accord include:
Only vetted international adoption agencies will be allowed to handle Russian adoptions. (AAI is confident that we’ll remain accredited.)
Parents will have to go through a lengthy education process (already standard with AAI), but now families will be certified once education is completed.
These tightened processes will likely not slow down the process significantly but will serve to protect both children and parents. (For more on this story, click here.)
AAI has been facilitating adoptions from Russia since 1994. So far for 2010, we have placed 24 children. In 2009 we placed 62 children and to date, since 1994, we have placed 866 children.
Families Needed for Growing Ethiopia Program:
AAI has been working in Ethiopia since 2006 and is currently working with five orphanages where children continue to come into care. The number of children placed from Ethiopia continues to grow, but soon there will be more children available than there are families with which to match them.
Infant boys and girls are available, as are toddler aged and older children. Parents are also needed for sibling groups and groups of unrelated children. AAI’s Ethiopia program is one of the most affordable of the international programs and families have more flexibility in terms of eligibility. To learn more about adopting children from this fascinating country, visit our Ethiopia Adoption web page, request a free adoption information packet, attend a free adoption information meeting, or call 616.667.0677.
The Schneiders (pictured right) recently adopted Owen from Ethiopia. Travis and Shannon are passionate about adoption and are willing to talk with any prospective families with questions or concerns about the adoption journey. Contact Leslie Baker at lbaker@adoptionassociates.net or 616.667.0677 to be put in contact with this family.
Families Needed for African American and Bi-Racial Program:
Adoptive families are urgently needed for Adoption Associates’ domestic African-American infant program! Families who are open to the adoption of an infant of full and/or mixed African-American heritage are urged to apply. A number of children have been released lately and now our pool of families to adopt these children is low again. To learn more about this program, families can request a free adoption information packet, attend a free adoption information meeting, or call 616.667.0677.
Birth Mother Recruitment:
Adoption requires not only loving families prepared to embrace children but also birth moms willing to trust the raising of their offspring to those stable families. AAI works to bring the two together, which includes the recruitment of birth moms. Until just recently, the majority of birth moms found us through the yellow pages, but as the internet continues to gain momentum, many birth moms now find us online.
The number one way, however, that we can reach out to women facing unplanned pregnancies is through referral sources. We are focusing on building relationships with key contacts at crisis pregnancy centers, Planned Parenthood centers, health clinics, OB/GYN offices, hospitals, and high schools throughout Michigan. It takes time to cultivate these relationships and often requires several contacts to establish a rapport with these offices and agencies.
If you can facilitate a relationship with a potential referring agent by providing us with the name of a person, or if you yourself are connected to a hospital, school, or other agency, please help us to make that contact. Please contact Leslie Baker, Marketing Director, at lbaker@adoptionassociates.net or 616.667.0677 with any suggestions or information! Thank you!
