America World Adoption News

2011 Agency Annual Report

America World's 2011 Agency Annual Report is now available to view and download online!

In our continued effort to be 100% transparent with prospective adoptive parents, our clients and our investors, America World staff members have compiled reviews and updates of this past year's progress and changes for all of our various Country Programs.  A condensed, physical version will also be available in another couple of weeks and can be mailed to you upon request.

Our agency's 2011 Audited Financial Statement will also be posted to the Agency Reports page within the next month, so feel free to check back soon.

Thank you for your support of America World Adoption and our mission to build God's kingdom through His design of adoption!  We covet your continued prayers for a clear understanding of the Lord's sovereign direction of our agency.  We are honored to serve your family and the orphans of the world in 2012!

In Him,

Jason West, Director of Development

Thank you From America World Staff

America World’s staff would like to express their sincere gratitude and appreciation for all of the Christmas cards and holiday wishes that were received throughout the Christmas season. As always, we enjoy receiving cards and seeing photos of our families and hearing how God has blessed your family throughout the past year.  We wanted to thank both those families who are currently in process and those who have completed their adoptions over the years.  We enjoyed all of the Christmas cards and notes received during Christmas and New Year’s, as they were displayed throughout our office.  It is truly a pleasure to serve you and we look forward to an exciting year as we begin 2011.

Welcome Home!

This has been an exciting year of travel at America World as we have welcomed hundreds of families back from their trips overseas to bring their children home.

In 2010 the China program had an exciting 21 separate groups of adoptive families travel to bring their children home. With groups ranging from a few families up to 25 in each group, our adoption guides in China, Lineker, Amy, Maggie, and Rosa have been busy and we are thankful for their continued care and support to our families.  It has been a joy to follow along each family’s adoption journey and rejoice with them as they traveled to bring their children home. Many of the families documented their trips on personal blogs which can be found on the America World website.  Over 100 of the children adopted through America World in 2010 were adopted through the China Waiting Child program. Welcome home, America World China Program families!

Our Ethiopia program also had a busy year with a record 27 groups of families traveling to bring their children home. Our Ethiopia groups traveled from a few families up to 16 families in each group, with some families adopting more than one child. Our Ethiopia travel team has enjoyed welcoming each family to Ethiopia and assisting them with their court and embassy appointments. Many families in the Ethiopia program also documented their adoption journeys on personal blogs which can also be found on the America World website. Each family’s adoption story is special and unique and it has been a joy to walk alongside these families and rejoice with them as they brought their children home. Welcome home, America World Ethiopia Program families!

Our Rwanda program continues to grow as we assisted 16 families with adoptions in 2010. With some families adopting more than one child, we were excited to welcome home over 20 children along with their forever families. We are thankful for continued movement in this program and look forward to seeing all God will do in 2011. Welcome home, America World Rwanda Program families!

In addition to these countries, families have traveled and brought their children home from our Brazil, El Salvador, Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan programs.

Please join us in welcoming home the families who traveled in 2010. It has been a joy to watch each family’s adoption story unfold as they waited, prepared, and traveled to bring their children home. As we enter 2011 we are excited to see God continue to join together forever families and have been blessed to be a part of this process. We are thankful for the privilege of walking alongside each of these adoptive families during this exciting stage of their life and look forward to the coming year.

In His Love,
 
The America World Travel Team

Extension of Adoption Tax Credit

National Council for Adoption (NCFA) has confirmed the extension of the adoption tax credit with the following announcement:

"On December 16, 2010, Congress passed the Middle Class Tax Relief Act of 2010 (HR4853), extending the current tax cuts through the end of 2012.  President Obama is scheduled to sign the bill into law today, December 17.

The Middle Class Tax Relief Act also extends the adoption tax credit.*  The National Council For Adoption (NCFA) celebrates the extension of this credit, which offers a tax credit for adoption-related expenses to families that adopt domestically or internationally. This important tax policy will continue to help make adoption more affordable for American families, benefiting children available for adoption in the U.S. and around the world. 

"Since 1997, the adoption tax credit has helped many families defray the often high cost of adoption, allowing them to provide permanent, loving families for countless children who may otherwise have remained in the U.S. foster care system or a foreign orphanage,” said Chuck Johnson, president and CEO of NCFA.  “We are very pleased that Congress and the President were in agreement that families and the children they adopt should continue to benefit from this specific tax credit, and saw fit to ensure that it continues to be available for another two years.  As a longtime advocate for the adoption tax credit, NCFA hopes to one day see it become a permanent part of the tax code.”

For more information regarding the adoption tax credit, please see NCFA’s Adoption Advocate No. 21: “Tax Benefits for Adoption: The Adoption Tax Credit.”

* The current adoption tax credit is $13,170 for qualifying families.  At this time, it is unclear what the exact amount of the credit will be in 2012, or whether the new legislation will allow for the current tax refund option.

Rwanda Approvals!

The Rwanda staff is excited to announce that two families have received approval letters!  We are excited about this movement and are hopeful this is the beginning of more families receiving approvals. 

Please continue to pray for the Rwanda program and the Ministry in Rwanda.

USCIS To Increase Fees on November 23, 2010

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced a fee increase that will take effect on November 23, 2010. The increase will include fees for both USCIS fingerprints and immigration forms. The filing fee for the I-600a or the I-800a immigration application will be $720 and the fingerprinting fee will be $85.  Families who submit immigration documents or fingerprinting fees prior to November 23, 2010 will continue to pay under the current rate of $670 for filing the I-600a or I-800a and $80 per person for fingerprinting. 

Any family filing for fingerprints or an immigration form on or after November 23, 2010 will pay under the new rates.

CEO Note

I hope everyone is enjoying the last few days of summer before school gets under way again.  I know there are many things going on in your life, but I want to mention our program that helps orphaned children have the opportunity for more than going to school – it gives these orphans an opportunity for a permanent family.  If you have not heard about it, it’s called the Orphan’s Ticket Home Campaign.  This is our agency’s way of raising money to fund many of the projects we’ve taken on to seek permanent families for orphans around the world.  We have a year-end goal of reaching $250,000 for our fundraising and, eight months into the year, we are far from reaching this goal.  I would encourage you to contact our Director of Development, Jason West, if you have any questions or want to learn more about ways you can be involved in our agency’s projects.

Next week I am traveling to Ethiopia to participate in meetings focusing on African adoption.  I’ve been asked to speak to a group of organizations that USAID is putting together and I will also be meeting with other agencies and orphan care organizations.  While I’m there, I’ll of course be meeting with our staff and visiting the America World transition homes. 

I know many families in our Rwanda Program are concerned about how some of the recent changes will affect their family’s adoption timeline.  We are working to help families learn more about what the timeframe will be.  We’re also praying for families and trusting that the LORD’s providence and plans are perfect. 

I want to mention that there are still a lot of children in our China Waiting Child program that I hope families are considering.  In particular this week our staff has discussed the children with the special need of certain heart conditions; often families are intimidated by such special needs – but we hope that families will pray about this, learn more about the conditions and consider if adopting a child with such a special need is what God has in store for their family.  Please contact one of our China Family Coordinators for more information.

Finally,  I want to inform families that we’re on Facebook.  Find us and friend us!  We want to build up a base of our families and friends to use this as another medium to give information and connect to families.

-- Brian Luwis, CEO

Rwanda Program Update

Today the families in the Rwanda Program received news of the Rwandan Government’s decision to place a temporary suspension on accepting new dossiers for adoptive parents.

Please see the this link for more information.

“Beyond Culture”- A Parent’s Guide to Promoting Healthy Identity in Adoption

America World would like to encourage all adoptive families to take part in Adoption Learning Partner’s Training Camp entitled “Beyond Culture”.  This will be a beneficial training course for both parents who have already adopted as well as parents who will be adopting. Although the registration for the live version of this training is already closed, families can sign up to be emailed the recorded version which will be released on June 29th.

Adoptive parents will not want to miss this webinar featuring a first of its kind study, Beyond Culture Camp: Promoting Healthy Identity Formation in Adoption.  More than 450 adult adoptees were surveyed to better understand the complex and inter-related impacts of being adopted and being raised by parents of a different ethnicity.  Respondents reflected back on their childhood, adolescence and adulthood, giving powerful insights as to what helped them gain a positive sense of self and what hindered that development.  
 
Adam Pertman, Executive Director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, will review key findings from the study, ending with practical recommendations for adoptive parents on how to promote a healthy sense of self in their transracially adopted children.  Following this review, webinar participants will get a unique chance to hear from transracially adopted adult adoptees, Tara Leaman and Aaron Stigger.  Tara and Aaron will give their personal perspectives on this topic as well as field as many questions from the audience as time allows.

Families can find complete registration details for this webinar by clicking the following link: http://www.adoptionlearningpartners.org/beyond_culture_camp_webinar_parents.cfm

New I600A Form

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it has published a new version of the Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition, Form I-600A .  The new date on the bottom of both forms is “12/30/09 N.” Due to the changes on the forms, previous versions will no longer be accepted after a 60 day transition period.

Prospective adoptive parents residing in the United States must continue to submit the I 600A, and all supporting documents to the USCIS Dallas Lockbox facility for initial processing, using one of the following addresses:

USCIS
P.O. Box 660088
Dallas, TX 75266

Courier and Express Mail Deliveries:
USCIS
ATTN: Adoption
2501 S. State Hwy. 121 Business
Suite 400
Lewisville, TX 75067

Prospective adoptive parents residing abroad can also file the Form I-600A or Form I-600 through the Dallas Lockbox facility or be filed at the overseas USCIS office having jurisdiction over the overseas place of residence.