October News!

I haven't been very good at keeping up with the updates lately! SO...The following are the Agency Updates for October! This should fill you in!

Ethiopia - October 5thAmerica World is happy to announce that we received referrals for six children this week; four of the children were males, and two of the children were females. The ages of the children ranged from approximately 1 ½ months to 11 months old. There are five families currently reviewing the referrals for these children. We look forward to receiving their responses within the next week!

As mentioned in the Ethiopia September monthly update, America World signed a lease for a transition home in Addis Ababa last week! Once this home is up and running, the children who are being adopting by America World families, will be transitioned to this home from the orphanage between the time of referral and travel. In addition to this, our in-country staff liaison has recently hired two additional staff to help with adoption processing. Our agency believes that both of these accomplishments will lead to a smoother, more efficient adoption process for Ethiopia families, so we are happy to share this news!

Ethiopia - October 12thSeveral families have asked about referral timings. How often does America World anticipate receiving referrals? In answer to this question, referrals in the Ethiopia program will be more sporadic and less systematic than some of the other America World adoption programs. Occasionally our agency may receive two sets of referrals in a month; other times there may be more than one month between referral batches. In most cases, we will receive multiple referrals at a time rather than individual referrals. This will assist America World in planning group travel for families.

Ethiopia - October 19America World is happy to announce that we received referrals for six children this week; three of the children were males, and three of the children were females. The ages of the children ranged from approximately 2 months to 14 months old. There are five families currently reviewing the referrals for these children. We look forward to receiving acceptances from families within the next week!

October - 26thOur agency continues to wait on court appointments for the families who received referrals on 10/3/07 and 10/19/07. The court in Ethiopia has been overloaded due to re-opening after 2 months of being closed, but we anticipate receiving appointments in the near future.

America World recently hired Rachel (Duckworth) Ward to work with our transitional home services in Addis. Those of you in Tennessee may know Rachel as she has worked in America World’s Tennessee affiliate office as its Director of Social Services since AW-TN was licensed in 2004. She and her husband Barrett plan to depart for Addis Ababa early in 2008.