National Adoption Awareness Month

The Indiana/Kentucky chapter of Families Supporting Adoption just wrapped up hosting and attending the 2010 adoption conferences. In May and September there was our chapter’s training conferences. Then in July there was the National FSA Conference in Utah and October was the Regional FSA conference. FSA puts a lot of prayer, time, money and effort into these conferences with a hope to fulfill one of FSA’s purposes: to support adoptive couples, adoptive families, adoptees and birth parents and to provide pre-adoption and post-adoption education and services. We hope you were able to take advantage of these conferences and your testimony of adoption was strengthen.

Another purpose of FSA besides supporting adoptive families is to have our adoptive families and others support adoption. As we all know the family is under attack including adoptive families. Recently at the regional conference, Brother Sunday of the National FSA Board, expressed his concern about domestic adoption remaining an option for building families. He stated that in many countries similar to the US (such as Britain and Australia) domestic adoption has become practically nonexistent. This limits the likelihood for many children to be sealed and raised in an eternal family or for a chance at life at all. This limits the choices of the unmarried expecting parents and potentially leads them further away from the straight and narrow path. This also limits the options a couple can choose from to build an eternal family. If the construct of adoption falters and fails, then Satan wins a major battle in the war for the family.

We need our FSA members who understand the truth and doctrine about adoption- that it is a part of Heavenly Father’s plan for building eternal families and it is about love- to support adoption through outreach. November is National Adoption Month which provides a good opportunity to do outreach. There are many ways to outreach and support adoption and many are simple and easy. A few of my personal favorites are:

• Put “Adoption: It’s About Love” window cling/bumper sticker on your car. (There was one provided in all the folders at the May conference and I believe the Sept. conference too).

• Share your testimony about adoption with others.

• Ask your local libraries to create a display of adoption related books in November.

• Blog about your adoption journey or put posts about adoption on Facebook.

• At our chapter’s blog (www.indianafsa.blogspot.com) we have accepted the challenge to try and post daily during the month of Nov. So make sure to stop by to read, comment and share with others what we have there.

I know if we do these things Heavenly Father will bless us and adoption will grow and prosper. As we outreach, our waiting for placements will become shorter; there will be fewer failed and disrupted adoptions and the environments we work, play, go to school and live in will be more supportive of our children, our families, and birth parents; and love will abound.

With great hope and much love,
Esther Edwards
Co-Chair IN/KY FSA

“Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret J. Wheatley