The presidential election is just under a year away. I know it feels like it should be closer since the candidates already started campaigning a year ago. This is a great time to make our voices and needs heard.

Start a letter writing campaign to each of the candidates. Tell them what foster and adoptive parents need. It may not make a difference immediately, but you never know, one candidate may make it a campaign issue if enough of us speak up.

You can tell your personal story, but don’t make it all about your story. Use it to make a point as to what... more

Tomorrow is “Black Friday” in the retail world. As you do your holiday shopping, think of a child in foster care who may be in need.

The holidays are a difficult time for foster kids. It is s a reminder that they are separated from their birth family, it could be a reminder of holidays past that didn’t exist for them, or memories that are even worse.

With a tight budget for foster families, gifts can be very minimal for foster children. Meeting the very basic needs of the child can be difficult, much less doing something extra.

Finding out personal... more

There are many adoption themed movies available for you to watch as a family. Some of them are obviously about adoption, others are not but do offer good opportunities to discuss adoption or how it feels to be adopted with you children.

Racing Stripes – This is my favorite movie because the main character is a zebra. Ever since I started working with ATN I have acquired a fairly large zebra collection, so I had to see this movie. It starts with a baby zebra that accidentally... more

There are so many extra services that foster parents and special needs adoptive parents need for their kids. Learning how to help your child or how to help another family can be critical to making an adoption successful.

Child care – This may seem very basic, and a need for all parents, but for foster and adoptive parents the need is different. Many of our kids don’t trust just anybody. They’ve been moved far too many times, and the people that were supposed to protect them are the ones that hurt them. The high school kids that can babysit for... more

If you have not started a scrapbook or life book for your child, now would be a good time or start one. If you’re like me, you’re drastically behind in your updates. I have hundreds of pictures, but they haven’t made their way to the scrapbook yet, and when I think of the bill for getting the pictures printed, I just about faint.

The thought of starting, if you have as many pictures as I do, can be an overwhelming task. Trying to figure out where you start is one of the keys.

Holidays or “firsts” - Put pictures of your child from... more

I have written to judges on several occasions. The first time I ever did was when we were going through the very lengthy wait for Kory and Mackenzie’s termination of parental rights(TPR). Their worker actually advised me to do this so that the judge could see that there was a family who wanted to adopt them.

You can do this as well. If you are a waiting family, write to the judge who will be handling the TPR for your child. The advice I received was to make the letter about the children, and to make them “come to life.” For most kids, they are just names on a court docket... more

Today is one of the biggest days in special needs or foster care adoption. It is National Adoption Day. It is Saturday, but there will be thousands of adoptions taking place today, in every state in the country.

In 2006, more than 3,300 adoptions were finalized on one day. Isn’t that awesome? I don’t have any figures on how many it will be this year, but let’s pray for more.

What can you do to celebrate this day? If you are not among the people who are finalizing an adoption today, you can still celebrate.

Find out where adoptions are being finalized... more

Sadly, adoption is not something that is regularly and objectively addressed in schools. It is barely acknowledged as a way to build a family as is evidenced by some of the homework our kids receive.

Talk to your school administrators, teachers or principals about addressing classes regarding adoption and foster care. Kids should not be ostracized because their classmates find out that they are adopted or have been in foster care. It is not fair to our kids.

If you are given the chance to talk in a school setting, what should you address?

Children... more

You can conduct and adoption education meeting yourself. I’m not talking about a meeting where your profile all the issues that you can deal with in adopting a foster child or special needs child, but rather a meeting that will profile the “types” of children that are available, how to get started, what some of the requirements are, etc.

There are many people who are interested in foster care or foster care adoption, but don’t have any idea how to get started, or even where to call to get information or an application. They don’t know what a home study is or... more

Each year the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute awards people with the Angel in Adoption award.

This award recognizes people who have made a contribution to the adoption “industry” on some level. These can be either high profile people, or just your average citizen. Nominations can come from anywhere or anyone.

It could be someone who has lobbied for post adoption services, someone who has helped get adoption legislation passed through, or simply someone who has increased adoption awareness.

The nominations are closed for 2007, but you can begin to gather... more