Adoption News

The Center for Family Connections has the mission of helping children feel safe, seen, and valued. They work to help children adjust to the challenges of being or having been moved from one family to another whether this be in the foster care system, residential treatment, orphanages, or hospitals. The agency has clinical staff that work with complex and blended families to provide them with the skills to build strong and healthy family units.

If you are looking for a way to wear your support for adoption we have an answer for you! Reeces Rainbow Down Syndrome Adoption Ministry has a fun online store where you can purchase T-shirts, teddy bears, coffee mugs, magnets, tote bags, bibs, sweatshirts, and tanks that advertise special needs adoption.
These items are a great way to promote special needs adoptions while supporting Reeces Rainbow as they work to fund adoption grants for families that will open their home to a child with Down syndrome.

The number of Americans that are adopting internationally is continuing to increase. The Department of State provides extensive information for prospective adoptive parents to education them on the adoption processes in various countries and to provide them with the legal requirements of the United States regarding adoption. The Office of Childrens Issues in the Bureau of Consular Affairs even provides informational brochures that describe the adoption process in many countries.

The Russian Ministry of Education and Science announced that it has successfully accredited additional adoption agencies. These agencies may now begin to resume adoptions between Russia and other countries.

A great adoption resource, Adoptive Families Magazine, has announced their second annual photo contest. The contest is searching for the best photographs adoptive parents have snapped of their kids simply being the fun and adorable kids they are! The pictures that win the photo contest will be published in the November/December 2007 issue of the Adoptive Families Magazine or on the Adoptive Families website.

World Vision, a well-known Christian humanitarian organization, has been deeply involved in working with the AIDS crisis since 1990. Their involvement began by creating a program to help children orphaned by AIDS in Rakai, Uganda. Currently, World Vision is in more than 60 countries operating compassionate and effective AIDS prevention and care programs.
AIDS is the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time. Entire generations of children have been orphaned due to AIDS.

Due to concerns about the Guatemalan adoption process the United States government is choosing to apply a high level of scrutiny to intercountry adoption cases between Guatemala and the United States. Currently, the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala requires one DNA match between the prospective adoptive child and the relinquishing parent.

The Center for Disease Control has issued an official CDC Health Advisory regarding reports of hepatitis A in children and adults linked to adoptees in Ethiopia. Traveling families are highly encouraged to consult with their health care provider at least 4-6 weeks prior to travel to determine what immunizations and medications may be in order. The CDC recommends

Congratulations to the adoption agencies that have worked to receive accreditation from Russia! As of last week, Russia granted accreditation to several United States based adoption agencies. These agencies may begin submitting dossiers and continuing with adoptions through Russia.

On July 30, 2007 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will be raising the fee for petitions and applications. The new fee schedule will affect all applications and petitions that are postmarked or otherwise filed on or after July 30, 2007. The new fee schedule was announced last month.
The forms I-600 (Orphan Petition) and 600A(Advanced Processing for Orphan Petition) will be the following: