I just received an email from an entrepreneurial adoptive mom. She and a friend are considering creating a line of products to help adoptive families celebrate their child’s adoption day (sometimes referred to as "Gotcha" day).

They want your input about products you’d be likely to purchase. They’re particularly looking for ideas for boys. Here are their ideas so far — please let them know what you think of their overall idea, of their products, and whether you have suggestions for additional products (take the poll and/or respond in the Comments area).

• Picture frames decorated with flags of the child’s birth country, airplanes, and maybe the child’s birth date and gotcha day date
• Cake plate
• Cupcake plate

Take the poll!

For more news and information about adoption, visit www.laurachristianson.com, and
check out my Exploring
Adoption bookstore.

Looking for an adoption gift for someone special?

Check out these two links on laurachristianson.com to an amazing assortment of jewelry, apparel, posters, DVDs, ornaments, holiday cards, puzzles, dolls, baby items, multicultural gifts — all related to adoption.

Adoption Greeting Cards and Merchandise

More Adoption Merchandise

Deirdre and Company
Hand-crafted sterling silver jewelry and wall sculptures to celebrate the process of adoption or your adopted children. Each piece is packaged with a card celebrating the joys of adoption. Also available are adoption magnets and a pendant celebrating the Tree of Life at the FANA orphanage in Bogotá, Colombia.

Heartsong Cards
Cards that celebrate adoptive families: holiday cards, note cards, announcements, thank you, congratulations, and adoption day cards.

Laura’s
Links to oodles of Adoption Merchandise Sites

Laura’s
Links to Even More Adoption Merchandise Sites

For more news and information about adoption, visit www.laurachristianson.com, and check out my Exploring Adoption bookstore.

The award-winning Teach Me... books use familiar songs to teach children the fundamentals of foreign language vocabulary, the alphabet, numbers and colors, days of the week and much more. Each CD has been recorded using native speakers and professional musicians, and is accompanied by a fully illustrated book. Available in Chinese, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Spanish.

Laura’s
Links to oodles of Adoption Merchandise Sites

Laura’s
Links to Even More Adoption Merchandise Sites

For more news and information about adoption, visit www.laurachristianson.com, and check out my Exploring Adoption bookstore.

Red Thread Gifts

Owned by parents of a daughter adopted from China, this site sells teacher and coach appreciation gifts, t-shirts, Christmas stockings, tote bags, tiles, throw pillows, onesies, greetings cards, magnets, and more.

MoonRattles

Start family traditions with Heritage Holiday Kits for six Chinese holidays in 2007. Includes Chinese New Year, Dragon Boat Festival, Seventh Eve and Ghost Festival, Mid-Autumn and Moon Festival, Double Ninth (Chung Yang), Dong Zhi.

Red Thread Maps

Designed by Hendrika, mother of twin daughters from China, the maps show the general locations of orphanages that participate in international adoptions. Other adoption-related products are available at http://henimage.com/.

Laura’s
Links to oodles of Adoption Merchandise Sites

Laura’s
Links to Even More Adoption Merchandise Sites

For more news and information about adoption, visit www.laurachristianson.com, and check out my Exploring Adoption bookstore.
 

The holidays are creeping ever closer, and people are beginning to think seriously of what to get loved ones for the holidays.

If you’re looking for adoption-related gifts (particularly jewelry), I’ve created links to several dozen online outlets that sell adoption merchandise at my Web site, www.laurachristianson.com.

Adoption Greeting Cards and Merchandise

More Adoption Merchandise

Happy shopping!

Check out my Exploring Adoption bookstore, too!

When Mark Schultz wrote the song "Everything to Me," the story of a young mother choosing to place her newborn baby into the care of an adoptive family, he had more than just a pro-life sentiment in mind.

He had his life in mind. Because that young mother was his mom.
The song, which appears on Schultz’s new album, Broken & Beautiful, has opened the door for the singer/songwriter to tell his own adoption story for the first time. Only within recent months has Schultz revealed the news that he was adopted when he was two weeks old.

To read the complete article, visit ChristianMusicToday.com.

To read excerpts from an interview in which Mark discusses the inspiration for “Everything to Me,” visit Blog.Worship.com.

To watch a streamed video of the complete interview, visit Speedstream.

For more news and information about adoption,
visit www.laurachristianson.com,
and check out my Exploring
Adoption bookstore

If you’re interested in adoption jewelry, check out Tesoro Creations. They sell Adoptive Mother’s Bracelets, Gotcha Day Bracelets, Adoption Awareness Bracelets, Forever Family Bracelets, and Heart to Home Adoption Bracelets.

Owner Leah Hogsed writes:

This jewelry can be worn by any adoptive parent and is customized to each adoption story, using Swarovski crystals to represent the colors in the flag of the country from which parents are adopting. Each piece of jewelry is an original, handmade design with Swarovski crystals, sterling silver beads, and a sterling silver toggle clasp.

We created the Heart to Home Adoption Bracelet to represent the adoption process. Our hope for these bracelets is that they can be worn as a constant reminder that adoption is a process which begins in the heart of a family and ends in a home for a child who needs a family. This bracelet is perfect for those who are thinking about adopting, those who are in the process of adopting, or those who have already adopted.

Additional links to adoption merchandise:

Adoption Greeting Cards and Merchandise

More Adoption Merchandise

For more news and information about adoption, please visit my web site, www.laurachristianson.com.

Mary Beth Wells, who is both a birth mom and an adoptive mom, recently started a company called The Precious Baby Doll Company. Her mission is to help tell the stories of babies adopted all over the world and to help children learn about and celebrate adoption.

The Precious Babies, which have soft bodies and vinyl arms, legs, and faces, are approximately 17 inches tall. So far, there are three dolls:

American – Kimberly Caryn has blond hair and blue eyes and comes dressed in a cotton sleeper. She is named after the daughter that Mary Beth Wells (the company’s founder) gave birth to and relinquished for adoption.

Guatemalan – Sophia Allesandra, named after the daughter Mary Beth adopted from Guatemala, has dark brown hair and dark brown eyes and comes dressed in a soft yellow cotton dress with a bright red band on both the skirt and the sleeves. She also wears brown sandals.

Russian – Katya Irina has auburn hair and green eyes. Her outfit consists of a white blouse, gathered at the sleeves, with a red border at the collar and embroidered edging on the arms. Her red dress features the same embroidery along the top, bottom, middle and straps. The dress is lined and both the dress and blouse have velcro closures. Katya also comes with white lace booties.

All three dolls come with a diaper and each doll costs $80 (US). Accessories for each doll include a book that tells the story about their country of birth and the love that brought them to a new world. Other accessories include “pets” (tiny stuffed animals), clothing, satin blankets, a picture frame and a carrier sling.

Mary Beth Wells, the company’s founder, has an interesting adoption story. She writes:

I am a birth mother that relinquished my child for adoption when I was a very young girl. It was at a time when a young girl’s cries went unheard. I located my birth daughter and was met with hostility and anger from the adoptive parents. They took out a restraining order on me and made my daughter do the same when she was 18 years old.

Trying to close that chapter of my life, I attempted to move on. I married and found out that I could not conceive again. Four years ago I adopted a beautiful daughter from Guatemala. I have since divorced and am in the process of adopting another baby from Guatemala. I also now have a relationship with my birth daughter that grows stronger every year.

For Mary Beth, the joy of having two daughters means that for her, the circle of adoption to adoption is now complete.

For more articles about adoption and to locate additional sources for adoption merchandise, please visit my Web site, www.laurachristianson.com.

One mom who has some time on her hands while she waits to bring home her daughter from Guatemala launched an organization called Adopt Proud. Carla Birnberg, who started Adopt Proud May 5, says it’s an intriguing way to spark lively discussions about adoption and about family.

Birnberg, from Austin, Texas, launched a Web site and product line of colorful t-shirts, hooded sweatshirts, fitted baseball caps, coffee mugs and messenger bags, all bearing one word: Adopt.

Birnberg says she’s currently donating all proceeds from sales of the merchandise to two adoption-related charities: Casa Guatemala or Love Without Boundaries.

“We believe that there is, indeed, a way to be both charitable and hip. We think that being socially aware and generous does not necessarily exclude one from wanting to look good,” says Birnberg.

She adds, “With national adoption trends reaching historic highs, we thought it was time to support the cause both visually and financially. Introducing the adoption concept changes lives…everyone’s.”

So, what do you think, readers? Would you wear this merchandise? If you did, what kind of conversations do you think it would spark?