Ethiopia – Post Placement

FAMILY POST PLACEMENT - reports are EXTREMELY IMPORTANT follow-up to the adoption of your children. They serve several purposes:

• To help AAI meet their legal obligation to stay informed as to the status of your children.
• To provide Ethiopia officials with information about the progress of the children they sent to America and demonstrate the children are well cared for.
• To keep the relationship between AAI and the Ethiopian government in good standing so other children are able to be adopted by parents in the U.S.

***Adoptions in certain countries have halted because parents have neglected to send these reports! ***

FAMILY REPORTS - are written by you and sent to AAI, who forwards them to the Ethiopian government. Pictures are required. You are required to write 3 FAMILY REPORTS during the first year you are home and then one report ANNUALLY until your child/ren reaches 18 years of age. If you adopt siblings you can submit one report for all siblings; just make sure each child is mentioned in the one report.

Your FAMILY reports are due:

• 3 months after child/ren arrive in the United States
• 6 months after child/ren arrive in the United States
• 12 months after child/ren arrive in the United States
• Annually until the child reaches 18 years; most families pick a date that is significant to them, i.e. a birthday or an anniversary. FORMAT - All reports should be typed and now sent via an email attachment. You can write your report as a letter or in outline format; your report should be no more than 1-2 pages long. Don’t be afraid to write about the hard parts as well as the good parts. Your report NEEDS to include the following information:
  • Report Header (Identify which report, 3 month, 6 month, 12 month or annual)
  • Date the report is written
  • Family Name (please do not include personal contact information such as addresses, emails, phone numbers as extended family members in Ethiopia may be reading these reports)
  • Placement date (the date your child first arrived in the United States)
  • Ethiopian Names as well as New Names
  • Birth date of each child
  ***Please Email Your Reports to Amanda@adoptionadvocates.org along with 2-4 photos embedded into the reports. You may be contacted on a case by case basis to send hardcopies of additional photos***
  
  Required Content for Family Reports
  • Health status
  • Travel
  • Adjustment to parents and siblings-challenges and successes
  • Educational plans and milestones
  • Activities-school, church, clubs, sports, etc.
  • Emotional/spiritual state
  • Birth date changes and justification for change
  • Re-adoption, citizenship, etc.
  It is nice to end with a positive statement about the adoption of Ethiopian children. Something to the effect that you believe the Ethiopian Government is making a good plan for kids by allowing them to be adopted abroad and you intend to help your child/ren maintain pride in Ethiopia with the hope that someday in some way they will be able to give back to their birth country.


PHOTO REQUIREMENTS - All reports/letters must be accompanied by 2-4 QUALITY photos of EACH child. Professional photos and hardcopies are no longer needed, but please make sure the photos you send are similar in quality. Please embed your photos in your electronic report. Remember these photos represent your child/ren in their new family to the Ethiopian Government; please use good judgment when selecting your photos to submit!

***We cannot stress enough the importance of these reports. Other international adoption programs have shut down in the past for months or years at a time when the governments became concerned that the families were not fulfilling their obligations to that specific country. We are counting on your commitment to our agency, and to Ethiopia, to ensure this does not happen to any of our programs.***

YOUR HOMESTUDY AGENCY REPORTS - are written by your social worker and sent to AAI for their files. These reports are required to comply with our Washington State Licensing. If you adopt a sibling group or multiple children at the same time, separate reports are not necessary. Only ONE agency report is needed for all children placed together at each of the required visits. YOU NO LONGER NEED TO SEND PHOTOS WITH YOUR HOMESTUDY AGENCY REPORTS!

Your Homestudy Agency Reports Are Due:
• 1 month after child/ren arrive in the United States
• 3 months after child/ren arrive in the United States
• 6 months after child/ren arrive in the United States - this report is generally the one in which your social worker will recommend finalization of the adoption or re-adoption
AAI will notify your homestudy agency when your child/ren has come home, but it’s YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to set up the visits with your social worker.

For more questions please contact Amanda@adoptionadvocates.org