Temple Trip

Two Temples:

One Heart & Mind

Please join the Indiana & Kentucky FSA chapter for their
bi-annual temple trip

on Saturday, February 26th

in either the Chicago or Louisville temples.

Co-Chair Sara Hayman will be presenting this year's FSA theme "Trust in the Lord" at the Chicago temple 

while

Co-Chair Esther Edwards will be presenting this year's FSA theme at the Louisville temple.

Afterwards join us for lunch provided by LDSFS at a nearby restaurant (to be determined).

For this temple trip there will NOT be babysitting provided but your children are welcomed to come to lunch with us if you decide to trade-off with your spouse or bring your own babysitter to the temple.

(Note: The church building across from the Louisville temple is not available for babysitting as usual, due to remodeling).  

Why do we plan FSA chapter temple trips?

When we put our trust in the Lord by attending the temple as a group with one heart and one mind focused on our Heavenly Father's love that shines through adoption-- we are blessed.

Not only are we blessed individually and as a couple/family but our whole chapter, our cities and our states are blessed. 

Specifically and in general love and adoption flourish when we attend the temple as families supporting adoption. 

Please RSVP today either on this blog, by sending an email to indianafsa@gmail.com or responding to the Evite that you hopefully received previously. Thank you!

Outreach On the Go

Don't have a lot of time for adoption advocacy and outreach?

Let these items speak for you or be the conversation starters needed to share your testimony.

Decals, bumper stickers, license plate frames.

Church bags, library bags, reusable shopping bags.

T-shirts for kids, parents, grandparents.

Magazines and books on your end tables.

Go here to get 30 days of celebrating National Adoption Month 2010 from Adoptive Families magazine.

Many of these items were bought at the FSA store at a recent adoption conference which unfortunately does not have an on-line store or website but you could easily make your own t-shirts, bags and more.

No Matter How Much Time You Have.....

YOU CAN BE AN ADOPTION ADVOCATE!

(Click on the picture below to view a larger version)

Government Advocacy

It's election day!
Here are some ideas for adoption outreach with the courts and government.

• Write a letter to one or two of the elected policymakers who represent you. Share a story about how good (or bad) adoption policies have affected your life. Thank the policymaker for working on adoption issues or encourage them to do so.

• Bring stacks of brochures about an adoption agency, an adoption support group or adoption pass along cards to courthouses and leave them in waiting areas or at free literature stands.

• Thank the judge who finalized your child’s adoption by sending a card and recent family photograph.

• Surf the Internet looking for children’s advocacy sites. Add your email address to an action alert listserv so you can get messages about and respond to pressing legislative issues.

• Volunteer to work on the campaign of a pro-child candidate, help with voter registration, or assist at the polls on election day.

 

Government websites:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/  Contact the President, Vice President, or other staff.

http://www.house.gov/  To learn about current legislation and contact

http://www.senate.gov/  To contact Congressional representatives.

thomas.loc.gov  Read text of past and current legislation and view records from committee hearings.

http://www.fec.gov/ Obtain forms to become a registered voter from the Federal Elections Commission.

http://www.dnet.org/ Enter your zip code into the League of Women Voters’ Democracy Net to find out

which candidates and issues will appear on your ballot.

http://www.cdfactioncouncil.org/ See each Congressperson’s voting record on children’s issues by visiting the Children’s Defense Fund.

http://www.cwla.org/ Review action alerts on children’s issues from the Child Welfare League of America.

The Indiana/Kentucky FSA chapter is looking for an indiviudal or a couple who are interested in government outreach and legislation to be on our FSA board. If you are interested in participating and volunteering please contact Sara or Esther at indianafsa@gmail.com 

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

Happy Adoption Awareness Month!!!

November is National Adoption Awareness Month! To spread adoption awareness there are many simple things anyone can do. Here are just a few ideas to get some creative juices flowing:
*Tell your local library about November and ask them if you can create an adoption display or see if they will pull books about adoption (children's books too) for the display. You might be surprised how willing they are to have you create one.

*If you happen to have any adoption agency pass along cards like those that LDS Family Services has, leave them wherever you go: the bulletin at the grocery store, the library, the post office - anywhere! Leave your own pass along cards wherever you go!

*Call your local newspaper and ask them to consider writing an article about adoption to support National Adoption Month.

*Be willing to talk about adoption with others - share your knowledge and experiences.

*If there happens to be an adoption walk in town or an adoption celebration of some kind - do it!
*Attend any adoption support groups

*And here's a really simple one that requires no face to face contact: post something about adoption, link LDSFS or any adoption agency to your blog or website - be creative.

*

We will be doing many of these things in our area and we encourage you to be proactive and make a difference in yours. You never know who might benefit from learning more. There are a lot of sad misconceptions about adoption and we want people to know what it really is - ABOUT LOVE!

P.S. – If you have success of any kind, tell us about it and send pictures so that we can share it with everyone else! Happy Adoption Month!

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!)