International Adoption Guides

Happy Monday everybody. I wanted to take a moment to share with you that we're about 98% sure that we are going to adopt our Ethiopian child through International Adoption Guides. It was a VERY hard decision because I truly believe that there are a bundle of great agencies working in Ethiopia, but for several reasons IAG is the best fit for us. Here's why...

1. The communication has just been unbelievable. Alisa Blevins is the fairly new coordinator for the Ethiopia program and I am just uber impressed with her! She has that special mix that is so great with adoption workers--she is both genuinely friendly as well as professional. She has been honest about everything with the agency, including some changes they have had to make in order to better the program.

2. I wrote to 4 people asking about their experience with IAG and three of them have written back within 8 hours. ALL of them have said that they wouldn't hesitate to use IAG again and that they feel the program is going to strengthen month by month. They were honest with some issues that arose when the program was new, but all agreed that the agency acted appropriately to correct the problems and move to a better place in the program.

3. I really like that IAG isn't one of those agencies that determines what it thinks is best for adoptive families. IAG believes that the family's social worker and the family itself is to be trusted to know what is best. So they don't put restrictions on your financial situation, or how many children are in your house, or if you are working on more than one adoption, or your medical situation, or even if you go out of birth order. They let you make the best choice for yourself. Since Eric and I don't fall into the perfectly formed parameters of some agencies, we really appreciate this agency's openess (and in fact, eagerness) to work with us.

4. They will allow two unrelated children to be adopted at the same time. This probably won't be an issue for us, but if something happens and we don't bring Bright home this policy will quickly become very important to us.

5. They have proven to us that they will help us in every way they can to be able to afford this adoption. We feel like they WANT us and are going to be there to help us through any hurdles we may need to cross.

I mentioned that I did receive one negative reference for IAG. Eric and I are both satisfied that the program has improved since this family's poor experience, and will improve even more by the time we are eligable for a referral. I really appreciate that person sending their experience because it caused me to research things much more closely than I would have otherwise. =-)

In an unrelated matter, please pray for Eric and I as we made a huge decision regarding Bright's adoption, and that I can follow my husband's leadership in this matter.

Love,
Anita