Friday, February 27, 2009

We wanted to give you an update as February comes to a close and March is beginning.

First, a referral was accepted for a baby girl as of this afternoon. Everyone on the infant girl list moves up one!

One family came home with their new baby girl this week and another is in Ethiopia as we speak. We have one family traveling this coming week and another the week after that. By the middle of March we will have our first five children home. We also have another five families with court dates throughout March.

We encourage you to check back often and soon for more referral information

Thursday, February 19, 2009

FACEBOOK

International Adoption Net now has a Facebook page. If any of you are on Facebook, please look us up and 'become a fan'! This is an easy way for us to get our name out there a little more and for you to remind your Facebook friends what agency you are using.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Happy Friday!

Hi Families;

We just wanted to let you all know that we referred an infant girl yesterday and the referral was accepted today.That means everyone on the infant girl list moves up one spot!

Another piece of good news: two families were assigned court dates this week for late April.

We hope you all have a fabulous weekend and a happy Valentine’s Day.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Some Announcements

We had an exciting week at the office this first week in February and wanted to let you in on the happenings.

Two families found out that they get to travel this month. Both families received embassy dates in less than 5 weeks from passing court. We are excited to have two more children on their way home!

Two other families passed court this week! Both are adopting children from Hope For The Abandoned. Congratulations!

One family was given a court date for April. We have five families with court dates in March.

One of our Ethiopia families has accepted a domestic placement. They were #4 on the baby girl waitlist, which means that everyone below #4 gets to move up one spot.

Our first Nepal dossier has been sent and is making its way to Nepal now! And, just so you know, all of our Nepal slots are filled for 2009.

What a great way to start the month! We will keep you posted with more news as it comes in. Have a fabulous weekend everyone

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Embassy Dates

IAN staff members steer clear of the message boards- that is your space as families to meet, discuss, vent and learn. Occasionally, however, something comes up on the message boards and makes its way to our office via phone calls and emails from concerned clients who saw something on the boards that raised a question. That has been happening for the last week or so with embassy dates and we decided at this point that it would best to address this to all of you at once and hopefully alleviate your worries.

Since IAN started working in Ethiopia we have had a 4-6 week period between court and travel. To be overly cautious, we did tell some families that it might be 4-8 weeks until travel because so many things have slowed down in Ethiopia. We now can see that the slow downs will not affect our embassy dates and 4-6 weeks is an appropriate time frame. Some families from other agencies have been apparently traveling in three and a half weeks (which is not that much different than four) and many of you are asking us why they can get their dates so quickly and ours takes so long.

From what we have heard, the three and a half weeks are the exceptions, not the rule. We have also been told that four weeks is a common wait- but that many of the people who said four weeks were coming from 2 or 3 specific agencies. Essentially, what we are hearing is that there are a few large agencies that are able to get their clients to Ethiopia in 3-4 weeks, but most of the agencies working in Ethiopia are not seeing these times. It is important to realize that we are not in a situation where families from every other agency are traveling quickly and IAN families are left behind. Our wait time from court to embassy is very competitive with most agencies. Some of these agencies with quick travel times had very very long referral waits. When you compare IAN to other agencies from start to finish, we complete adoptions at a very quick pace. Comparing only certain parts of our time frame with other agencies does not give you an accurate picture.

Secondly, our facilitator will not schedule an embassy date until he has received the final adoption decree and birth certificate. As with most things bureaucratic, this can take a bit of time. Not every agency takes the precaution of getting everything in hand before scheduling an embassy appointment. This may seem overly cautious, but we want to ensure that there no hang ups when you travel. If that means waiting a week or two for final paperwork, IAN believes it is well worth it.

It is possible that this will be a moot point after next week. On February 10 our facilitator will be attending a meeting at the US Embassy in Addis Ababa. One main topic of that meeting will be the embassy appointment process. We cannot say exactly what the changes will be at this time, but when we find out how, or if, they will affect IAN’s process we will make sure and update you.

We appreciate your patience and encourage your continued questions. We do not have control over many parts of this process, especially the Ethiopia side. Please know that as your Ethiopia Team we work hard to minimize any delays in your process and to ensure that your process is smooth and enjoyable.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Meet Our Staff: Aneata O'Brien




Aneata O’Brien has been an Ethiopia Program Coordinator with International Adoption Net since June 2007. In that time she has helped families bring home 22 children. Aneata has a huge passion for children and families- especially the children from Ethiopia. Her favorite parts of being an Ethiopian Program Coordinator are getting to know the families and when the families finally travel to Ethiopia and bring their children home. Aneata has worked in non-profits, all serving children and families, for over 15 years. She studied Art and Graphic Design and earned her Bachelors Degree from California State University Northridge. Aneata has two sons, ages 12 and 17.