Those families in which AIAA only did the home study and post adoption reports should go to their placement agency for records or information.

For those families in which AIAA was the placement agency, your records will be transferred to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. To obtain information from your record, you would need to send your request in writing along with a copy of your photo ID to:

Central Adoption Registry
P.O. Box 30037
Suite 514
Lansing, MI 48909

You cannot make requests by email, fax or over the phone. You will need to include as much information as possible in the letter about the adoptee, including date of birth. There is no fee for this service and you should receive a response in about three weeks.

Ties Program at https://www.adoptivefamilytravel.com. Look under Birthland Trips and then at the bottom under “Adopted From Another Country?” for the link to the organizations and websites that run the tours.

For those families that have adopted through Korea, Social Welfare Society (SWS) will also have copies of child studies and any available information on birthparents. You can make a request by emailing swspas@sws.or.kr. PLEASE KEEP YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION UPDATED AT SWS IN CASE A SEARCH IS INITIATED FROM KOREA. No one will give out your personal contact information without your permission first.

Also, the Korean government has a website to facilitate searches. It is called Korean Adoption Services and its website is www.kadoption.or.kr. It is recommended that searchers begin with SWS first.

The Barker Adoption Foundation (another SWS agency), located in the nation’s capital, serves adoptees and adoptive families around the USA. Their services include post-adoption counseling, homeland tours, search and reunion, support and discussion groups, and an annual adoption and foster care conference. Information about Barker’s services and the associated fees is available on their website https://www.barkeradoptionfoundation.org/adoption-services/family-post-adoption-services.

Those families who adopted from other countries can try the following resources. Unfortunately, help with searches in most countries is not available. The following list does not indicate a recommendation or endorsement from AIAA, nor is it exhaustive. These are simply places for our families to start to get help.

For families that adopted from Bulgaria, some have found support and resources through this Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/471630849532176/?ref=share.

International Social Services is an organization that operates in multiple countries. Searchers can go to https://iss-usa.org/assistance-inquiry/ to see if they can help. There is a fee for their services.

Families conducting searches could check out the following websites and list serves as well for help:

• www.groups.yahoo.com/group/birthparentcontact This is a yahoo group for international adoptive parents who are contemplating searching for their child’s international birth family.
• www.adoptivefamilies.com/birthfamilysearch This website provides articles and references about how to contact birth parents as well as links to organizations that may be used to search for your child’s birth family.
• www.adopteeconnect.com This is a website that allows you to post information about the people you are trying to locate as well as search through other posts to try and make connections. Searches are done primarily through surname. On this website you can register to receive notifications anytime another person’s search or posting matches your own.