Dear Families,

During this unprecedented time, we are writing to express our support as you proceed through your adoption journey. As adoptive parents ourselves, we are very aware that this is already a time filled with uncertainty and great excitement while waiting for news of travel to meet your child or to complete the adoption process — without these additional health and travel concerns.

We ask for your patience, and to know that staff will do their best to ensure that each family’s adoption process is completed as expeditiously as possible, while also respecting the directives being issued from our own government, and our overseas partners and authorities. This means that some family travel dates and/or court dates will be postponed and/or rescheduled, and we ask that you please follow the direction of staff for the well-being of current and future children and families participating in the program.

The Board wishes to thank our staff who work tirelessly every day to support our families, even more in the face of these challenging circumstances. Last year The Children’s Bridge invested in collaboration tools and technologies to allow our staff to better work remotely, and we will make use of those technologies during this time. We ask for your understanding if response times are a little longer than usual while staff also deal with their own disruptions and alternative working situations (working with kids at home!).

In addition to reducing the number of staff in the office, AdopTALK and other events planned for March and April will be rescheduled. Details will follow.

We continue to follow the recommendations of public health officials and government officials to guide our approach. The Board strongly encourages both our staff and families to stay informed and follow the advice of health care officials. As the situation evolves, we will continue to support you to the fullest of our ability, and will keep you informed as new information becomes available. Please visit our Travel Advisories & Restrictions page, as staff will continue to update this page regularly.

Sincerely,

John Sutton
Chair, Board of Directors

Karyn Arnauld-Bakelaar
Executive Director