October Update

We're getting closer to our baby girl! There is one family left from March of 2009 waiting for a baby girl. After the March family, we are into May, then June and finally July!

Dear Steven & Michelle,

There is good news to report this week. All 10 cases heard during the first days after the court reopened were approved. New cases were filed this week although we are still waiting for hearing dates for families whose cases were file during the court closure. We have cases that were filed in August and September that are still waiting for court dates. Overall though, adoption processing seems to be going quite smoothly.

New children are arriving at Layla, especially in the kindergarten age range with a few babies as well. There is one long-waiting family with a dossier in Ethiopia and once they get a referral we will be starting on families for girls in May of 2009 and for boys we are in May of 2009 as well. This is the first time that the wait for girls and boys has been about equal, but we expect that the wait for girls will soon be longer than for boys again.

Traveling families will be able to meet Eleni, the new Family Liaison person. She is not new to AAI; she has worked in the office for many years. Her English is good and she is shadowing Gail (daunting task!) to work on learning answers to questions families ask. Please seek her out and chat with her.

On my recent trip I visited six orphanages in Addis Ababa with children they would like us to place. In addition we are nearly ready to begin receiving children at the new reception center in Dire Dawa. There will you will be details on the AAI blog soon. This past weekend, a car traveled south there is to pick up five new children although I believe most of those are HIV positive.

It has been a busy time at Layla House as they have been making the changes discussed in the previous update. For those of you wanting to help by sponsoring the older girls who are now attending boarding school, the Bright Futures Fund has been established to ensure that funding will be available for them to continue in school. You can now designate an online donation to the Ethiopia Bright Futures Fund. Donors to the fund will receive periodic e-newsletters so that they can follow the children’s progress.

We have a number of young children at Layla House who continue to wait for families. Many are boys and there are also sibling sets with two children under school age. A family whose dossier is just being completed was surprised to receive a phone call about such a sibling set this week. We filmed a new video while I was in Ethiopia which has about 65 children on it. This will be available in two to three more weeks and you can order a copy from Amanda@adoptionadvocates.org.

One thing that Temesgen, our lawyer in Ethiopia, told me on my trip is that it appears that MOWA will now be stricter with regard to family history. He mentioned the following specifically as being potential problems--a history of arrest, medical issues, and possibly number of marriages, especially in families who are requesting young babies. They seem to feel that now that they have lots of families wanting to adopt the babies that they can be stricter. So, we may have to adjust our intake procedures but we will advocate for all of the families whose dossiers are already in Ethiopia and if we run into problems with a particular type of case we will let you know.

Selam Richard, the new coordinator of our Uganda program, has just returned from a trip to that country and there are several orphanages who have asked us to place children. We are accepting families for this pilot project and families who have a dossier in Ethiopia but are not expecting a referral soon can retain the place on the Ethiopia list while applying to Uganda if they are interested in that option. Please contact Selam@adoptionadvocates.org or me if you want to discuss this. We are currently in need of famlies for:

Boy approximately 2 years old --Healthy
Girl approximately 18 months--- Healthy
Girl approximately 5 years old--- HIV+
Boy approximately 7 years old--- HIV+
Girl approximately 3.5 years old-- possible mild CP.
Girl approximately 3.5 years old---Healthy