CEO Update
Hi, I need your help with our upcoming Gala event in Nashville on August, 8th. As most of you know, this event is designed as a fundraiser for Orphan’s Ticket Home – a campaign to find permanent homes for orphans. We would love for you and your friends to join us! please help us get the news about this event spread amongst those you know in the Nashville area. There will be a silent auction as part of this event, which will include a weeklong vacation to Mexico, autographed collector items, Titans tickets & Titans collector items, one of a kind necklaces, photography packages, framed art, spa visits, and more. More information about this event can be found here. I have asked our staff here in Virginia to join me this Sunday to fast and pray that this would be a successful event that highlights and supports orphans finding permanent families. Other galas are being planned in different cities – please see Orphan’s Ticket Home’s website for more information.
We are privileged to have three Directors of Social Service here this week for training. These three joined us for two days so that they can meet some of our Virginia Staff and participate in a training scheduled this week. In addition, many of our staff here participated in a training titled Assessing and Preparing Foster and Adoptive Parents. From talking to some staff that participated, this training was beneficial in addressing ways prospective adoptive parents can be prepared for their adoptions.
Two families received referrals this week as part of the Rwanda Program – congratulations to these two families. As one of our newer programs, we’re thrilled to see these referrals go out and look forward to seeing more children find permanent families.
Those who read my blog post last week saw that I was supportive of the drafted legislation Families for Orphans Act (H.R. 3070 and S. 1458) and the Foreign Adopted Children Equality Act (S. 1359 and H.R. 3110). Here is a link to information about this legislation. I encourage you to contact your three members of Congress and let them know you want to see them support this legislation. I met with a Virginia Congressman’s Office on Tuesday to express my support. For contact information on your House Representative go to www.house.gov; for contact information on your state’s two Senators please go to www.senate.gov.
It is with sadness that we say goodbye to our co-worker, Kristen Dillow. Kristen has been with us for two and a half years and has worked hard on behalf of E. European Programs/families. Although we’re very sad to see Kristen leave, I know God has great plans for her and for Johnna Wilson, a new employee taking Kristen’s position.
Finally, I thought I’d include a picture showing my family and our family friends. We made the newspaper in El Salvador! We feel honored to be a “face of adoption†in this daily local newspaper. My hope and prayer is that we can continue to influence society to have a positive view of adoption.
— Brian Luwis, CEO