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Did you know that NOVEMBER
is "National Adoption Month" in the United States?
The History of
Adoption Month (taken from
"NACAC:" North American Council on Adoptable Children) Formalized,
time-specific adoption awareness campaigns originated more than 20 years
ago. In May 1976, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis issued the first
state Adoption Week proclamation, and President Ford then officially proclaimed
the week in a letter to the North American Council on Adoptable Children
(NACAC) conference held later that year. As years went on, Adoption Week
came to be observed during the week of Thanksgiving in November.
In 1986, NACAC helped coordinate
a national "Calling Out" event based on an idea from Larry Gellerstein,
then president of the Adoptive Parent Committee of New York. That year
groups across North America braved late November weather and simultaneously
assembled on state and provincial capitol steps to read statements about
waiting children, and call out the names of waiting children in their state
or province.
In 1990, NACAC decided to expand
opportunities for raising awareness, and began advertising Adoption Week
as National Adoption Awareness Month (November). The idea has quickly caught
on, and Adoption Month has celebrated ever since.
In 2005, a Presidential Proclamation
of November 19 marked "National Adoption Day" where thousands
of children across the United States have their adoption finalized in court!
CELEBRATE
ADOPTION
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As an adoptive family, what can
you do to celebrate National Adoption Month?
-contact your local schools and
help them celebrate too!
-contact your local child care
facilities and ask them to celebrate adoption too!
-connect with your employer/HR
and start an adoption benefit!
-start an adoptive family
support group in your area!
-plan a community gathering with
your local adoptive families support groups!
-write a letter (and send a photo)
to your congress person to help encourage their support!
-write a letter to your child's
birth/first parents, expressing your emotions!
-write a letter to your child telling
them how much you love them!
-work on or look at your child's
Lifebook!
-plan a family outing!
-sponsor an orphan in your child's
birth-country
-start an adoption ministry at
your church
-have a fundraiser/garage sale/bake-off/silent
auction at church... to benefit your child's orphanage/adoption expenses!
-have siblings in the home write
about "what adoption means to them"!
-look into culture camps and homeland
tours for your family!
-learn something fun about your
child's birth-country or birth-culture!
-go out to eat or cook ethnic food!
-make a tradition of having a family
photo taken every November... then send it out with Christmas cards!
-write a letter/story to your local
newspaper educating about adoption!
-pray for birth/first families,
foster families, orphanage caretakers, adoptive families, and orphaned
children around the world... that they may celebrate the Blessings of adoption
too!
CELEBRATE
ADOPTION
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
