Adoption Blog

CEO Blog

2009-11-13T17:41:00-05:00

I am posting this from San Salvador. I am flying home today after a very successful trip. While I was here I met with new staff at both the Procurador’s Office and OPA. One of the really exciting things that came up in our time together is the desire of these officials to be processing more orphan’s paperwork. They want to work with partners to see this process happen faster and smoother. I am hopeful that with new leadership at ISNA and OPA a more efficient and effective system can be made to help move these children through El Salvador’s child welfare system. Your prayers for the leadership of OPA, the Procurador’s Office and ISNA are greatly appreciated.

America World will be working with a new staff person in El Salvador. We are transitioning from working with Alexis to a new staff person, Jamie Arritea. Mr. Arritea is a lawyer by training and has some experience working with adoption in the past. Not only does he come highly recommended to our agency by child welfare advocates in El Salvador, but he shares our Christian commitment to finding families for orphans. We wish Alexis and his family the very best on their future endeavors.

There is also a change in the staffing at China’s adoption authority, the CCAA. The long-time Director-General, Mr. Lu, is going to be working for China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs. The new Director-General will be Mr. Zhang Shifeng. Mr. Zhang has worked in China’s child welfare system for a long time and is familiar with inter-country adoption. America World expects that this transition will be very smooth, without any complications or changes for our families. We look forward to continuing to partner with the CCAA and wish Mr. Lu the best for his future at the Ministry of Civil Affairs. We found Mr. Lu very support of child welfare in our countries and are glad to know that he is maintaining a role in the child welfare system within China.

I’m leaving beautiful El Salvador for cold, windy, rainy Virginia. Next week some of our staff will be participating strategic planning and budgeting for 2010. Your prayers are coveted as we plan and seek the Lord’s will for our agency.

A man's heart devises his way: but the LORD directs his steps. -Proverbs 16:9

-- Brian Luwis, CEO

Ethiopia Referral Update!

2009-11-13T15:08:23-05:00

November has kept the Ethiopia program busy with a total of 11 referrals so far! Congratulations to these families! Find below the list of these children and the DTE dates of the families. Please keep in mind some of these referrals may be sibling sets as well as children with special needs.

Age and Gender of Child	DTE Date
7 Male Infants	1/16/2009 6/12/2009 6/19/2009 6/26/2009 7/2/2009 7/17/2009 7/24/2009
2 Female Infants	1/9/2009 1/9/2009
1 Male Toddler	8/28/2009
1 Female Toddlers	8/28/2009

Due to the recent trends of received referrals the wait time for an infant male is now currently 4-6 months, while the wait time for a female infant remains 9-11 months. This trend is based on recent history, but is subject to change.
We are excited to watch and see what the Lord has planned for the Ethiopia program for the remainder of 2009. Your prayers are truly appreciated!

Online Chinese Language Course for Parents

2009-11-12T10:41:00-05:00

Chinese For Parents is a “social venture providing parents adopting children from China with a Hague compliant linguistic cultural training. Using the online training, adoptive parents learn how to communicate with their newly adopted children, express gratitude to social welfare workers in China and sing Chinese lullabies.” They are offering reduced fees to AWAA families who are preparing to travel to China through January. Families interested in taking the course can email Grant Pemberton at grant@chineseforparents.com and view the course overview at www.chineseforparents.com

El Salvador Program Update

2009-11-11T17:14:23-05:00

America World’s CEO, Brian Luwis is in El Salvador this week and plans to meet with the acting Procurador. We also have just learned that Geraldine, the Director of OPA has been reassigned and there is a new Director of OPA. Brian will be meeting tomorrow, November 12th with both the Directors of OPA and ISNA. Please pray for these meetings as Brian begins to develop new relationships with these officials and speaks for our families waiting to adopt.

Also, an America World prospective adoptive parent, Jenni Ramsey is leading a Visiting Orphan team to El Salvador this weekend and writes:

“I am leading the team to El Salvador next week with Visiting Orphans! There are 5 of us on the team from California, Nebraska and Kentucky. We are all prospective, adoptive families waiting to adopt in El Salvador. We will be gone from Nov 14-21. Most of our time will be spent at the Ciudad de Los Ninos orphanage. We are bringing gifts, supplies and financial aid to help the orphanage. We just learned that the electricity and water were shut off at the orphanage last week (because they were unable to pay the bill). It just breaks my heart to think that the staff and orphans are living without electricity and water today.

We will also be meeting with some government officials on Monday, November 16 to advocate for the plight of the orphans, and for international
adoption. PLEASE PRAY FOR THESE MEETINGS. Pray for favor as we communicate our hearts, burdens and frustrations in ongoing delays with
referrals. We know that God watches over the fatherless, and these children are in His hands. Please join us as we pray for walls to be broken, and for the necessary resources and decisions to be made so that children can be matched with 'forever families' soon...“

Please also pray for the families/individuals affected by the flooding taking place in El Salvador. You can read more about this at www.news.bbc.co.uk . It looks like the whole country has been hard hit but especially areas around San Salvador and the province of San Vicente. Many people have been forced into shelters and many are without water and electricity.

Thank you for joining us in these prayer requests.

Blessings,

Susan B. Maines, LSW, LCSW
Executive Director of Programs

New Staff at the America World Ethiopia Transition Home

2009-11-10T16:06:55-05:00

We are excited to announce new staff members to our Ethiopia Transition Home Team. Please keep an eye out over the next few weeks as we introduce our new full time Pediatrician, Developmental Psychologist and Teacher.

Dr. Wondwossen Desta

We are excited to have Dr. Wodwossen Desta join our team as a full time Pediatrician at our Transition Home clinic. His past medical experience is broad with extensive experience in pediatric tuberculosis, HIV, and birth trauma. He has also been recognized for his award winning research on Malaria.

Dr. Wondwossen believes in combining his medical skills with his Christian belief and addressing not only a child’s medical problems but also spiritual and psychological. He is working with all departments at the Transitional Home to ensure that children's needs are met in all of these areas.

Dr. Wondwossen will be consulting with all Ethiopia families about their adoptive child on "Gotcha day". Dr. Wondwossen states, " I already care greatly for this these children and eagerly look forward to meeting the adoptive families who love them."

Spirit of Adoption Seminars

2009-11-10T12:01:16-05:00

There are only 14 more “Spirit of Adoption” seminars left in 2009. It is National Adoption Month and as a follow up to Orphan Sunday, now is a great time to invite your family and friends to a seminar near you. Remaining 2009 seminars will take place in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina and Texas. We are already beginning to add seminars for early 2010 as well. For more details on upcoming seminars, visit us at www.awaa.org/events and register to attend today!

Eastern Europe Programs Updates

2009-11-09T11:53:51-05:00

I am pleased to announce that in the past couple of months we have had several families complete their adoptions in Russia and one family complete their adoption in Kazakhstan. We have also seen some movement in Nizhny with referrals coming in and it has certainly been a long-awaited time for the families registered in this region.

We are excited to share with you that our Ukraine program is slowly but surely growing. In the last few months several families have applied and been approved for this program and we are anticipating the good things God has in store!

It is not too soon to be talking Christmas and this year, and so far, we have one family who will officially be parents (their court date is set for December 8 and their ten day wait period will end December 22) only a few short days before December 25th. What an amazing Christmas present they will receive this year! We congratulate and celebrate with this family as they prepare to spend their first Christmas in Russia with their son.

Fax Machine Trouble

2009-11-06T11:51:37-05:00

Dear Families,

Please note that if you tried to send a fax between COB (5 PM EST) on Thursday, November 5th and noon (EST) on Friday, November 6th, America World's main fax machine was experiencing technical difficulties, and these faxes were not received. Our fax machine is now working properly again, and we ask that you resend your faxes to your intended party one more time to ensure that they were received.

Thanks and God Bless!

China Waiting Children Program November Updates

2009-11-05T16:29:18-05:00

Referral Updates

We are excited to announce that over the past month 30 families have accepted their referrals. We praise God that these families will soon be bringing their children home. America World was honored to receive a large group of individually assigned referrals in October, as well as working with the monthly shared group that arrived. China Program staff have been busy working with families reviewing and accepting referrals. Many families are still reviewing referrals so our prayers are with them as they consult with doctors and consider the adoption of the child whose referral they are reviewing.

All families participating in the Waiting Children (WC) program and are not currently reviewing or accepting a referral have received a shared referral announcement earlier today. Families are encouraged to carefully review the FAQ document that was included in this email announcement so they can understand the referral review process. Another referral announcement containing new agency specific referrals that are available for adoption will be sent in the next 1-2 weeks, as soon as possible.

Monthly Prayer Request

We ask for prayers for an agency specific referral “Will” who is an outgoing 13 year old boy who has a repaired cleft lip and repaired palate. He is described by his caretakers as well behaved, sensitive, and a good boy. Will’s favorite subject in school is Social Studies and he like to play with cars. Due to China adoption law, children cannot be adopted when they reach the age of 14 and as Will turns 14 next August, if America World does not find a family for him by December 11th we will be returning his file to the CCAA in hopes that they can find a family for him with a different agency. Please help us advocate for Will and his adoption by praying for him. Please have any families interested in his adoption contact us at waitingchildren@awaa.org. We are hopeful his forever family will come forward within this next month!

Conference Call

The WC program is hosting a conference call with Love Without Boundaries on November 18th. Please see the separate blog post which outlines details regarding this opportunity. The call is open to any AWAA family regardless of the country they are adopting from or stage of adoption. We hope you will join us!

Recruiting New Families

We are privileged to continue to place waiting children into homes each month and encourage any China program family to consider submitting a WC application if they feel led to consider this option for their family. We have many resources available for those considering the program so please contact your Family Coordinator for more details.

Any family is welcome to email waitingchildren@awaa.org if they have questions regarding AWAA’s China Waiting Children Program.

Love Without Boundaries Conference Call

2009-11-05T14:53:20-05:00

America World is excited to announce we will be hosting a conference call with Karen Maunu the Associate Executive Director of the Love Without Boundaries Foundation (LWB). “Love Without Boundaries Foundation is a worldwide group of volunteers dedicated to improving the lives of orphaned and impoverished children in China. They provide humanitarian aid in 5 main programs – medical, education, foster care, healing homes, and orphanage assistance -enabling children to receive a family through adoption or to become self-sustaining members of their communities.”

This conference call opportunity will take place on Wednesday November 18th at 1pm EST and is open to any America World family- whether in the applicant stage, paper-chasing, waiting or post placement phases. While LWB focuses their work with orphans in China, a family in any America World program is invited to learn more about this organization and their education efforts for all adoptive parents, regardless of the country where they have adopted. The conference call will include information regarding the following 1) educational resources adoptive parents can utilize if they are considering adopting a waiting child or are preparing to bring a waiting child home 2) webinars, blogs and other resources families can use when they are home with their children and need support and education 3) learning about the advocacy efforts and programs of LWB

You can view the LWB website here: www.lovewithoutboundaries.com. Those who want to join the conference call are invited to email waitingchildren@awaa.org. An email will be sent on Tuesday November 17th to confirm with those families who registered how they can join the conference call. We look forward to this opportunity to partner with LWB and learn more about their educational and advocacy work on behalf of orphans and adoptive families!