On Sept. 26, about 1,000 people gathered in Vermont's Champlain Valley Expo fairgrounds for the annual Lund Family Center Adoption Picnic. John Briggs of the Burlington Free Press described the event in his Sept. 27 article:

This is the first year Lund Family Center has opened the picnic to the media. They had been concerned about privacy, said Wanda Audette, the center's adoption director, particularly for parents who adopted through the center's partnership with the Vermont Department for Children and Families' Project Family. Those children, she said, have been removed from their birth parents because of abuse or neglect.

But the center decided this year that the event was too big and too cheerful to keep quiet about.

"Adoption isn't focused on in school," said Kitty Bartlett, who handles public relations for the center. "This is pretty joyous. For a child to come to a picnic where everyone is connected through adoption is a pretty powerful thing."

Lund Family Center is well established in the area, Briggs reported, having helped to find homes for about 8,600 children since opening as the "The Home for Friendless Women" in 1890. (And no, that's not a typo -- the organization has been in existence since the final decade of the 19th century.

Labels: celebration

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Brothers John and Joe were just three and four years old, respectively, when they were adopted by a family in San Diego. Today, six years later, the whole family can look back on what was occasionally a difficult transition and celebrate how far they have come together.

"They remember. They can look back reflectively and laugh at themselves and shake their heads, and they can watch kids having problems and say 'oh, I used to do that.'"

Even the children's grandmother agrees that the household is now full of life and laughter. John and Joe told San Diego's KFMB-TV Channel 8 that people who are considering adoption should do it, because "little kids need you." Source: KFMB-TV Channel 8 (San Diego, CA)

Labels: celebration, success

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Telling a child that he or she is adopted has often been portrayed as a difficult, even ominous, task. But Dr. James Dobson believes that celebrating the adoption, even when the child is very young, helps set a different tone.

Celebrate two birthdays with equal gusto each year: the anniversary of her birth, and the anniversary of the day she became your daughter... This is the point: The child's interpretation of the adoptive event is almost totally dependent on the manner in which it is conveyed during the early years.

By celebrating the adoption, you're teaching your child that adoption is a joyous event and a tremendous blessing. It will set the tone not only for the adopted child, but for friends and siblings as well. Source: Sun-Herald (MS)

Labels: celebration, joy, pride

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November is National Adoption Month, and the Gladney Center for Adoption in Texas will be celebrating the many families that have been created through adoption. To date the center has places 27,000 children with loving families.

"It is appropriate for National Adoption Month to be positioned in the month of November celebrating a time of Thanksgiving. Using white ribbons to raise awareness, National Adoption Month celebrates families touched by adoption, honors birth mothers for their courageous choice, and remembers children who still need permanent homes."

The white ribbons are meant to remind people of the lifelong benefits that adoption offers and of the millions of lives that are directly, and positively, impacted by adoption.

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Labels: encouragement, support, celebration

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Nearly a year ago, a baby boy was found along the side of a road in Richmond, Virginia. The infant was taken to a hospital and later placed in foster care. This week, he officially joined his “forever family.”

Eleven-month-old Nehemiah Christopher Allen appeared in court along with his adoptive parents Bridget and Terrence Allen and dozens of supporters… "It has been a journey for him, but it’s been one that we can celebrate because now he’ll have a permanent family for his future," said Shawn Rozier. [Source: WWBT (VA)]

Nehemiah is said to be very healthy and happy.

 

Labels: celebration, abandonment

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