Words from Adoptive Families Magazine

Below are some excerpts from the February Issue of Adoptive Families Magazine. I thought it was interesting to read what AF is saying about adoption support groups.

AF Says:
One of the happy surprises of adoptive parenting is the friendship and camaraderie to be found in adoption support groups. While friends and family don’t always understand the joys and challenges of raising children whose ethnicity, special needs, or personal histories may set them apart, support groups can provide information, companionship, and enrichment that you won’t find elsewhere.

What can a support group do for me?
* Emotional Support and Guidance in person, on line, or on the telephone.
* Newsletter highlighting local issues and activities.
* Adoptchats featuring living-room dialogue with other parents and professionals.
* Educational Workshops on topics for prospective and experienced adoptive parents.
* Information and Referrals regarding agencies, attorneys, one-on-one support, and more.
* Social Activities to promote friendships, connections, and fun.

The Importance of Support
Almost every adult adoptee I have talked to who was not involved in a group with his or her family has mourned this fact. Almost everyone has said, “When I was growing up, I wish I had known other kids who were adopted just like me. I had no one to empathize with what I was going through.

For more follow the link on the blog to AF Magazine.

Hope to see many of you Friday evening at the Olive Garden.
Holly

Celebrating Black History Month

With adoption there is often the combination of your child's culture with the heritage or race of your own. I assume not all families choose to celebrate their child's culture or race but we do. In my opinion I do think it is important to educate yourselves and your children about their heritage. Thus this month our family will recognize and celebrate Black History Month.

I wanted to share a few things I found to share with my family.

The story of Black History Month begins with historian Carter G. Woodson. Woodson was passionate about black history. His passion, however, evolved in the most unlikely place. While working at a coal mine when he was twenty, the daily conversation of the black Civil War veterans often focused on interesting historical facts not recorded in history books. Woodson realized that despite the constantly evolving history of the African American experience, documentation was sparse.


In 1926, Woodson finally came across an idea that would forever associate his name with Black History Month. Negro History Week, as it was called by the black fraternity Omega Psi Phi, was a week in February dedicated to celebrating the achievements of blacks. Their celebration was somewhat stagnant until Woodson offered to put the Association’s name behind the idea in February 1926. Woodson chose the second week in February because it marked the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Through Woodson’s promotion of the celebration in the Journal of Negro History and the creation and distribution of kits for children, Negro History Week gained in popularity. In 1976, it evolved into Black History Month.

•1863: President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring "that all persons held as slaves" within the Confederate states "are, and henceforward shall be free."
•1865, June 19:Slavery in the United States finally ends when 250,000 slaves in Texas are informed that the Civil War had ended two months earlier.
•1865, December 6: The 13th Amendment to the Constitution is ratified,
prohibiting slavery
•1870, February 3: The 15th Amendment was passed, granting blacks the right to vote.
•1964, July 2: President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act, the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. It prohibits discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion, or national origin.
•1968, April 4: Martin Luther King, Jr., is assassinated in Memphis, TN.
•1968, April 11: President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

I hope you too may choose to learn more about your childrens culture and share it with them, your family, and others.

God’s Glory has been revealed

I have wonderful news to share with everyone tonight!!

Last evening God’s glory was once again revealed to us. Our dear friend Kylee Grabill received word last evening that her cancer is GONE! She had a test last week (PET SCAN) and the results came yesterday that her body shows no trace of cancer. Her doctor said he has never seen this before. He expected some shrinkage of the cancer and some improvement but he was not expecting it to be gone.

Of course we all were, but it has still been overwhelming to hear those words!!

I wanted to share this with all of you so that you may not only share in our joy but so that you may also see that God’s healing power is real and it continues. This is a true miracle and you have been a part of it. Thank you for your prayers for Kylee. We will continue to pray for her as she finishes out her chemotherapy and begins to prepare for her wedding and the rest of her life.

4 YEAR OLD’S ARE MUCH SMARTER THAN SOME ADULTS!

Something Griffin said the other day has really been sticking in my mind so I thought I would share it with everyone. Paul was putting lotion on his dry skin and Griffin looked at his arm and said to Paul, “my skin is white and my sisters’ is black.” Paul responded with a “yes it is”. Paul’s not one for a lot of words but I don’t think he could of responded any better than that. There wasn’t anything else to say. That summed it up. Yes her skin is black and yours is white.

That of course is not a bombshell to us or anyone who has seen Araya and Griffin. But I have been thinking how those small words coming out of such a tiny little innocent mouth are so powerful. He had no questions about their skin. He was just making an observation that his skin was one color and hers was another color but in that same comment he was saying she is my sister, we are family, we are the same.

I guess my point is…why is that a 4 year old can understand that, but so many adults can not. I’m certainly no expert on diversity. I was born and raised in the cove. I wasn’t exposed to much diversity but I have just always been a.. well I will call it "a different thinker”. I never had a lot of the same feelings some in my family or perhaps others in the community used to have. I never really understood what different meant. Who wrote this definition of different anyway? Am I the different one? or is an African American different? or is a Canadian different? Who exactly is the different one and who is the normal one. Who set the standard that everyone who isn’t that one person is the different one?? I could never figure that one out. Who was this person then who wasn’t the different one? It never made sense to me that because someone has an accent or a skin color other than mine, or eyes that looks different than mine that they are “different”. Wouldn’t I then be different from them too! If so then doesn’t that actually make us the same?? I guess I just don’t like the word different. The things that make us who we are are exactly that. They are who we are. They shouldn’t be termed different they are just who we are.

Anyway, I could not be prouder of my 4 year old for knowing that he and Araya are not different. They are absolutely the same. They are God’s children and they are brother and sister.

(Oh and I must note I use Canadian as my example because it came first to mind since that is part of Paul's heritage.) That's for you Aunt Mary Ann and Aunt Pauline :)