News From Our Agency

As Michael stated in the last post... our international adoption agency, CHSFS, has provided us with some pretty neat resources. We have a list created by a forum they host, that shows where we generally fall in our "wait" compared to other families, and we also will be traveling to Minnesota soon for a "culture conference" that will educate us more on Ethiopian lifestyle and traditions. We are very happy with our decision to use CHSFS for our adoption.

It is also neat to see what our money is going towards. I was excited to see all the humanitarian aid projects for Ethiopia they have recently put into place. In the last newsletter from our agency, they stated that they have (and I quote) a new facility called "Bethzatha" which will provide housing, medical care and education for children with a variety of developmental and medical conditions including HIV/AIDS. Bethzatha will care for approximately 70 children, both eligible and non-eligible for adoption. Also, the "Ottoro School Project" has the intent of providing services to support the Ottoro community in hopes of keeping families together, provide education and clean water. In addition "Hope for Hossana" project is currently in development. It is aimed at helping the people of Hossana and surrounding communities by providing essentials such as healthcare and education. The first phase of this project will be the construction of an elementary school for 300-400 children. Finally, the "Family Development Center" is designed to support vulnerable families who are transitioning to self-sufficiency. Children in the Ethiopia sponsorship program will be eligible for this program as well as many others from the Hossana community and surrounding areas; including but not limited to birth family and birth siblings.

Something else fun for us to see was pictures of the new Family Guest House, which is pictured at the top right corner. This is a new space which was rented for the adoptive parents (us!) and their families to stay at. It looks beautiful... and I hear an added benefit is that it has more "private bathrooms". Sounds like a good perk to me!