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

Have you fully explored the new itsaboutlove.org?

As most of you know, LDS Family Services has recently released a new version of itsaboutlove.org. This new website is much different than the previous version and has many additions that will benefit birthparents and adoptive families as well as church leaders and professionals working with them. If you're in the waiting process, you've probably already explored how to browse through profiles as you've searched for your own and others. These new user-friendly search options allow birthparents to be more selective and to quickly find profiles for families who would best fit their needs and interests. In addition, if you haven't had a chance to check out the following, be sure to do so:

Once you've clicked on "Hoping to Adopt," you can view the following:
Adoption facts, myths, and proper adoption language (under "Adoption Basics"). This holds a wealth of information that would be good to send to friends and family who might need a little more education about adoption.
Questions, stories, and other information to help you know if you're ready to adopt (under "Is Adoption Right for Us?").
Stories of adoptive families' experiences with adoption (under "Real Life Stories").
Church talks, web links, and other resources (under "Adoption Resources").

Have you been curious to know what birthparents see as they explore the new website? After you click on "Pregnant," check out some of the following to help you get a better feel for a birth mom's perspective:
Information about pregnancy (under "My Pregnancy").
Advice and information to help birthparents understand the realities of abortion, single parenthood, marriage, and adoption (under "What Are My Options?").
Videos and stories about real birthparents' experiences (under "Real Life Stories"). We found these enlightening and also very emotional to watch, so they are probably our favorite addition to the new website.
Ability to send an email to a birth mother or a counselor in order to get support and guidance (under "Get Support").

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to exploring the new itsaboutlove.org website. It is a valuable resource for birthparents, adoptive families, persons considering adoption, friends and families of those involved in adoption, and for church leaders.

For those of us with online profiles who are waiting to be selected by a birth mom, it can be encouraging to look at your profile statistics. After logging in to your application, click on "Phase 4: Finding Your Child." At the top left of the page, click on "View Profile Statistics" to see that people actually ARE seeing you! (Or maybe you've just been clicking on your own profile a few too many times… J).

The new itsaboutlove.org is also much easier to find online than the previous version. You can, of course, type in www.itsaboutlove.org. Or, access it from www.lds.org by selecting "Home and Family" and either "Adoption Services" or "Pregnancy Counseling." One of our favorite activities to share with others as we educate them about LDSFS is to go to Google and type in "adoption." It's as simple as that. The first non-sponsored link is adoption.com, and from that page you will often (though not always) see a big advertisement about halfway down that when clicked takes you to itsaboutlove.org. You can also google "abortion alternatives" or "pregnancy counselor," and the first link listed for each of those terms will take you to websites sponsored by LDSFS with additional links that take you directly to itsaboutlove.org.

As you can see, the adoption program is important enough to the LDS Church that it has decided to increase the usability of its website and to expand its marketing campaign. Seeing the great effort that has been put into the new itsaboutlove.org website has helped us recognize the important role adoption plays in the Church; it's something that the Lord cares enough about to direct Church leaders and others to help match children and parents together as eternal families.

We have been telling all our friends and family about the new itsaboutlove.org website, and we encourage you all to do the same.

Libby and Ethan Sproat
(FSA Members in West Lafayette, Indiana just waiting to be selected!)

We are the Haymans

Hello FSA members and friends! As co-chair of Indiana/Kentucky FSA chapter, I'd like to introduce myself and my family. My name is Sara Hayman. My husband Jared and I have been married seven years. Our daughter Emerson or "Emmie" is 2 years old. She came to us through the miracle of adoption and has blessed our lives every day since we first met her. My husband and I met as undergrads at Purdue University where I studied elementary education and Jared studied business. We moved to Terre Haute for a few years where I taught second grade and Jared obtained an MBA from ISU. We are back in West Lafayette and are happy to call it home.

We started the adoption process in August of 2006 and finished our paperwork that December. By the middle of February, we were contacted by our daughter's birth parents through Parent Profiles. Her birth mother had only three short weeks before she was due when they chose us to be adoptive parents. We had expected at least a year long wait, so this seemed too good to be true. Emerson was born in Kentucky where state law requires a 30 day waiting period before a hearing is held to relinquish birth parents' rights. It was a trying time for us wondering if at the end of a 30 day bonding period, we would be able to take little Emmie home. But her birth parents were resolute in their decision to place her with us and for that, we will always be grateful. Adoption has changed us for the better. It has increased our faith in the Lord. We know that he has a plan for everyone. He wants us to have joy in our lives; especially that joy that only family can bring. He answers prayers and he cares very much about His children. We admire birth parents' selflessness and bravery and speak of them with reverence. We hope that our story touches others in some way and changes some misconceptions about adoption.

We are excited to be part of FSA. We look forward to meeting you and learning about your journey, experiences, and families. We pray that whatever stage of life you are in, that your families will be blessed.

Please check the FSA blog weekly! We will update it often with upcoming events and activities, great articles, and spotlights/success stories. It is a great way to stay informed and in touch with other adoptive families that have adopted or are hoping to adopt soon. We welcome your feedback and hope to hear what you would like to see on the blog. Feel free to make comments and contact us any time!

Purpose of FSA and this Blog

Families Supporting Adoption (FSA) is a support group for adoptive couples and families, birth mothers, and anyone whose life has been touched by adoption. The fact that you are visiting this blog pretty much means you fit into this category, so FSA is for you!!! FSA is a national organization with a local chapter here in Indiana/Kentucky. We operate by working closely with the Indianapolis LDS family services agency and the dedicated employees there.

At this point our group is very spread out, very diverse, and with varying needs and interests. Our hope in establishing this blog is to increase the communication with and participation of our FSA families. We will use this blog as a tool to share important adoption updates, provide links and access to a wealth of adoption information, and to keep our participants informed about events and activities.

Please take time to check out the resources available here, to provide feedback if you have suggestions or ideas, and to check this blog routinely for updated information. Our lives have all been so profoundly touched by adoption and this is a great place to connect with people who can appreciate in one way or another the journey your family is on!