May Update!!

Hello IAN families! We have had a very exciting last few months filled with a few changes in Ethiopia, new orphanages, new staff members and very exciting referrals. Check out our referral numbers so far for 2010!!

January: 4 babies
February: 5 Children (2 babies)
March: 8 Children (2 babies)
April: 6 (3 babies,triplets)

As you know, we have started work with two new orphanages in Addis Ababa. We are very excited to be working with these orphanages and are expecting new referrals soon! We have three and four year old boys looking for families so please let your coordinator know if you would like to get more information. We hope to place these children and avoid placing them on the waiting child site!

POLICY UPDATE: There are new policies regarding independent travel and meeting birth families while in Ethiopia. IAN has put a temporary new policy in place, starting now regarding meeting birth families. IAN has implemented this temporary policy to protect the families, children and all future Ethiopian adoptions. We would like to remind families to respect the policy regarding giving money or gifts to birth families as this is not allowed and could potentially change Ethiopia’s policy on international adoption. IAN’s temporary policy will be enforced until we update our current policy. Adoptive parents who are interested in meeting birth families can do so only if:

1. The birth family travels to Addis.
2. The meeting must take place in the IAN office.
3. Our IAN facilitator must supervise the meeting.

We have a wonderful volunteer donation coordinator who is helping with needed donations for our care center in Addis. If you are interested in donating, please contact Charisa Knight at gcknight@verizon.net or 540.294.4849.

We look forward to a very exciting new month! If you have any questions about the new policy or are interested in the boys looking for homes, please contact your coordinator!