November is National Adoption Month, and Sunday, November 8 is Orphan Sunday.

Here are links to articles and videos that celebrate adoption:

• Orphan Sunday, Live, From Nashville – With Steven Curtis Chapman, Jim Daly and Dennis Rainey. If you missed the live event, you can watch it at GospelMusicChannel.com starting Friday evening, Nov 13, 2009.

• Adoption and Discipleship – from Jason Kovacs

• Our Adoption in Christ – What it Means for Us and For Orphans (free e-book from Together for Adoption)

• What it’s really like when you finalize your child’s adoption in court – Video from Carla Williams

• Carla Williams’ adoption story (she’s an adoptive grandma) – at Christian MomLogic

• 30 Ways to Celebrate National Adoption Month – from me

• Sidney Gaskins is devoting all her blog posts this November to National Adoption Month. Her blog is The Pulse. She tweets @enterprisinglyf

• See how others are marking National Adoption Month all across the country.

Weaving Families Adoption Ministry debuted its free online magazine this month.

RJ Caswell, Exective Director of the North Carolina-based ministry, writes:

Our mission is providing adoption counseling, education, and comfort throughout the lifelong journey of adoption. We felt the magazine “fit” with education and comfort, but we wanted it to be more than just an adoption magazine.

Many churches are moving to orphan care and adoption ministries (we help start ours) and we know so many families who adopt want to be able to support orphan care ministries.  So, the magazine was born.  We wanted to include adoption education and personal adoption stories as well as ministries who are serving vulnerable children and families.

The summer issue (35 pages) is packed with articles, including:

• A column from author Kristen Wong
• An inside look at international adoption, from the perspective of the director of a child placing agency
• Hope for parents of children with difficult backgrounds
• Hints for affording adoption

The second issue comes out in September. RJ welcomes suggestions for articles and says, “We hope folks that read the magazine will find comfort and inspiration.”

I'm passionate about helping churches
and faith-based organizations start adoption/orphan care ministries.

In the November issue of Adoption World e-zine, I announced that I am donating copies of my book, The Adoption Network: Your Guide to Starting a Support System, to churches,
denominations, seminaries, para-church organizations, and faith-based
adoption events.

What a response! During the past two weeks, I have shipped out over 700 books! People have ordered anywhere from one to 200+ copies at a time. Several church denominations have requested copies for every church in their region.

Now that I'm relatively caught up, I thought I'd let the rest of the world know about my mega-ministry book donation.

A bit about the book:

The Adoption Network is a 112-page, softcover workbook for those who want to start a face-to-face community of support for adoptive and foster parents, first/birth parents, and/or adopted people of all ages.

The book provides step-by-step instructions and worksheets for how to:

• develop a mission statement
• plan a budget
• recruit leadership
• create workshops, support groups, social events, mentoring programs, and more

While The Adoption Network specifies how to create faith-based ministries, it is generic enough that it can be used for any type of adoption network. The book retails for $9.99, so getting multiple copies for the price of shipping/packaging is deal that can't be beat.

The generosity of some dear friends enabled me to purchase several
thousand copies of The Adoption Network (yes, authors have to purchase our own books!).

I request two things:

1. 
   You pay shipping (let me know how many books you need and I'll calculate actual shipping costs).
2. 
   You "pay it forward" by giving the
   books to those who can use them. Feel free to use the books as door
   prizes (not door stops), as small group study guides, and as gifts for
   church leaders and others interested in adoption/orphan ministry.  
   

Contact me today: laura@laurachristianson.com, and we'll set up your book shipment.

Want to learn some easy, low-budget tips for starting an adoption support community? Watch this 10-minute video. During my appearance on the TV talk show, The Harvest Show, I explain:

• Why it's critical to start an adoption support network for adoptive families, birth families, and adopted people.
• Tips for how anyone can start an adoption support community.
• Low-budget suggestions for how to start a ministry in your church.
• Forming healthy relationships between birth & adoptive families in open adoption.

In Part 1, guest columnist Beckie Stewart, a mother of four children ranging in age from 12-19, explained how her life turned topsy-turvy when she added an adopted infant to the mix.

By Beckie Stewart

One of the biggest issues I struggled with prior to adoption was the fear that I may not love my adopted child as much as my biological children. I found myself unable to share this fear with anyone but the Lord. It was discussed in some books and magazines, but not a lot.

After months of collecting all the necessary paperwork and waiting for information on an available child for us to adopt, we received a picture and short biography about a little girl from Kazakhstan, who was waiting for a forever family. The moment her picture came up on my computer, my heart pounded with excitement. I found my feelings for her were just like the day I gave birth to my other children. I knew I would sacrifice my life for this child.

That realization helped me understand how much my Heavenly Father loved me when He adopted me into His family. I can now confidently say, like Paul did in Romans 8:38-39, that I am absolutely persuaded that nothing can separate me from the love that the Father has for me.

It does not matter whether my daughter was born from my womb or not. She is my daughter, and I am her mother. Biological or adoption, being a mommy to a child is born in the heart, not in the belly.

The Lord is using this child to solidify in my heart what it truly means to love my children and to be loved by Him.

Beckie and her pastor husband, Joe, have 4 biological children and 1 adopted from Kazakhstan. They have been married 23 years and have been serving the Lord in Delavan, Illinois for the last 6 ½ years. E-mail Becky at beckiejoe@gmail.com.
————————————————-

Sign up for Adoption
World, my free monthly eZine! Just send a blank email to adoptionworld@aweber.com

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

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My book, The Adoption Network, includes ideas for starting an adoption support community in a small town or small church—one where there are few foster or adoptive families. One of my low-budget recommendations is to start a resource lending library.

Gracie, a foster mom who blogs at “The Journey of a Lifetime,” took that suggestion to heart and joined BookMooch, a free, online book trading service. Gracie writes:

The only cost involved is the shipping cost of books people mooch from you. I’ve been able to get some of my adoption books this way, which definitely helps with the expense.

Gracie then added a cool feature to her blog: she created her own online lending library. She writes:

“Our church is small and therefore not very conducive to circulating adoption books to those outside of it. So this has become my venue for making these available to whomever I meet. I plan on writing a review on each book, and asking those who borrow a book to leave a comment on the ones they read with a short review as well.”

Gracie’s inventory currently includes the following books:

• Fields of the Fatherless : C. Thomas Davis
• The Adoption Decision : Laura Christianson  
• The Adoption Network : Laura Christianson
• The Complete Adoption Book : Laura & Raymond Godwin
• Becoming a Family : Lark Eshleman, Ph.D.
• Toddler Adoption : Mary Hopkins-Best
• Attaching in Adoption : Deborah D. Gray
• Nurturing Adoptions : Deborah D. Gray
• Dear Birthmother : Kathleen Silber & Phylis
• The Adoption Experience : Lois Ruskai Melina & Sharon Kaplan Roszia
• Real Parents, Real Children : Holly van Gulden & Lisa M. Bartels-Rabb
• Adoption as a Ministry, Adoption as a Blessing : Michelle Gardner
• Launching an Orphans Ministry : Jason Weber (FamilyLife)
• Children of Open Adoption : Kathleen Silber & Patricia Martinez Dorner
• How It Feels to be Adopted : Jill Krementz
• A Mind at a Time : Mel Levine, M.D.
• I’m Chocolate, You’re Vanilla : Marguerite A. Wright
• Acres of Hope : Patty Anglin

Gracie reviewed both my books on her blog. She wrote me: “Your Adoption Network book has been the best of its kind that I have found. I appreciated all the practical ideas of ways to get involved.”

Check out her reviews:

The Adoption Decision review
The Adoption Network review

Thanks, Gracie, for sharing a fantastic, workable idea for distributing adoption-related books!

——————————-

Sign up for Adoption
World, my free monthly eZine! Just send a blank email to adoptionworld@aweber.com

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

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The last two posts have introduced you to orphan hosting programs. Linda Goodnight  has hosted four children since 2005. She told me about her experiences with two hosting programs that she recommends:

URGEX, U.S.-Russian Global Exchange 
www.urgex.net

Fostering Hope 
www.hopeukraine.org

Q: Do you need to be actively seeking adoption in order to participate in the program?

A: Not with these two. Not at all. In fact, they are host-only programs, although some people do end up adopting their hosted child.

Q: What training do host families receive prior to the child’s visit?

A: With both Fostering Hope and Urgex, an e-mail seminar is provided.

• Urgex also provides a world of language info and other resources to prepare the host family.
• Fostering Hope also has a close-knit group that meets to discuss the program and the coming children so that parents are prepared.

Q: How much does it cost to participate in the program?

A: Both programs were about $2,300 total. If you live on the east coast, this is quite a bit cheaper, but because I live in the central part of the U.S., the child had to be flown to me and this added another airline fare.

Q:  How long does the child stay in your home? 

A: 3-4 weeks, depending on the time of year.

Q:  What host program activities do you and the child participate in during the visit?

A: Get-togethers with the other families.Each site has a coordinator that sets up some outings that all can attend. There are also telephone translators for any problems that may arise and a caregiver from the orphanage.We, personally, never had any issues.

Q: What is the most challenging aspect of hosting an orphaned child?

A: You’re probably expecting me to say “language,” but it really wasn’t. There are many ways to communicate and we did incredibly well. The hardest thing about hosting is sending the children back at the end of the vacation. We know going in that this will happen, but it is still so, so difficult to say goodbye.

Q:  What is the most rewarding aspect of hosting an orphaned child?

A: The entire experience is immensely rewarding.   
Examples:

• Seeing a child’s eyes when they experience something they have never seen before—something as simple as bubble bath or a vacuum cleaner or a clothes drier. 
• Hearing those first English words, spoken with a darling accent, “sank oo.”
• Giving them the attention they have craved for so long and done without and watching them bloom from it. I could go on and on about the positives of opening your heart to a needy child.
• Best of all, I keep up a correspondence with the kids, sending them little cards and gifts. They write back. I know I have touched lives forever. In fact, one child wrote about her hosting experience: “Those were the best days of my life.”

Q:  Did you adopt the children you hosted?

A: We had planned to adopt the first child we hosted through a disreputable group. When that fell through, we decided to host for the joy of it and not worry about adoption anymore.

Q:  Why do you recommend these programs?

A: Both of the programs I have discussed are professional, caring, wonderful programs who are deeply committed to the children. They do their best to keep the cost as low as possible and work hard to provide the most positive experience for everyone. They also both do humanitarian work in the orphanages before and after the hosting.

Related posts:

• Orphan Hosting Programs: New Horizons for Children
• Orphan Hosting Programs: The Russian Orphan Lighthouse Project
• Cultural
  Programs for Adopting Russian Orphans
• Pros
  and Cons of Hosting Programs for Soviet Bloc Orphans
• The Foundation for Orphans – links
  to many orphan hosting programs

Other posts in the Orphan Care
series:

• 7
  Reasons Why 90% of the World’s Orphans Will Never Be Adopted
  
• Orphan Care
  Organizations

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

Sign up for Adoption
World, my free monthly eZine! Just send a blank email to adoptionworld@aweber.com

]]> http://www.laurachristianson.com/laura/what-it%e2%80%99s-like-to-participate-in-an-orphan-hosting-program/feed/ 0 http://www.laurachristianson.com/laura/orphan-hosting-programs-the-russian-orphan-lighthouse-project/ http://www.laurachristianson.com/laura/orphan-hosting-programs-the-russian-orphan-lighthouse-project/#comments Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:00:00 +0000 http://www.laurachristianson.com/laura/orphan-hosting-programs-the-russian-orphan-lighthouse-project/

In my last post, I introduced you to a program that brings orphans from other countries for short-term stays with host families in your area. Here’s another:

www.lhproject.com

Lisa Smith, program director, says this is “a Christian older orphan vacation hosting program for orphans from Russia. We have done 33+ trips since 1997 and I myself have helped more than 800+ Russian orphans become adopted. I lived in Russia for 10 years and am also a facilitator.

Their Website states:

Through 10-day vacation bible school trips to the US to prospective adopting host families, we have helped over 350 Russian orphans find Christian ‘forever homes’.

A fee of $600 for the first child you host is required to be paid by host families to defer the cost of the transportation of the children. In the case of sibling groups (related or unrelated sibs), parents are given the option of hosting a second child at an additional cost.

Lisa says she is looking for new hosting cities for her program. If you or your church is interested in having a group of older Russian orphans visit your area, please contact Lisa via her Website.

Related posts:

• What It’s Like to Participate in an Orphan Hosting Program
• Orphan Hosting Programs: New Horizons for Children
• Cultural Programs for Adopting Russian Orphans
• Pros
  and Cons of Hosting Programs for Soviet Bloc Orphans
• The Foundation for Orphans – links
  to many orphan hosting programs

Other posts in the Orphan Care series:

• 7 Reasons Why 90% of the World’s Orphans Will Never Be Adopted
• Orphan Care Organizations

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

Sign up for Adoption
World, my free monthly eZine! Just send a blank email to adoptionworld@aweber.com

If you’re thinking about adopting an older child internationally, you might consider participating in a program that brings children from other countries for short-term stays with host families in your area.
In the next few posts, I’ll be introducing you to several programs.

New Horizons for Children, Inc.
www.newhorizonsforchildren.org

Regional programs operate in the Northeast, Southeast, Central Texas, and West Coast. The deadline for applying to be a summer 2008 host family is April 30, 2008.  Le Ann Dakake, Director of Hosting Programs, told me a bit about their program:

Q: Why did you start New Horizons for Children?

A: I started it after my husband and I adopted an older teen from Russia in 2000. Now he is 21 and his prayer has always been for God to help his friends and other orphans find families, too. We have now adopted 5 times… most recently after becoming a last minute backup family to a little boy age 5 with mild Cerebral Palsy… we weren’t expecting to adopt nor ever considered a handicapped child… he is now home and we can’t remember life without him in it! In all, we figure about 80% of our host families don’t expect to adopt, but 70%+ do.

Q: You are a non-denominational Christian ministry. Do your host families need to be Christians?

A: Our host families are of a Christian faith, and our aim is to share the love of Jesus with kids who may have never known or realize they do have a Father! The same one we all have, in Heaven, who loves them very much.

Q: Do you need to be actively seeking adoption in order to participate in the program?

A: No.

Q: What training do host families receive prior to the child’s visit?

A: Full day in Atlanta area or Philadelphia area, host parent training manual, telephone and email support and access to past host families.

Q: How much does it cost to participate in the program?

A: Cost of the child’s travel: $1,950 presently.

Q: How long does the child stay in your home?

A: 4-5 weeks (4 weeks at Christmas—mid-December through mid-January, or 5 weeks in summer—late June through early August)

Q: What host program activities do you and the child participate in during the visit?

A:

1. Group events if the family lives within the program radius on some weekends, usually 7-10 days apart.
2. Welcome party: America 101. This is a Christian experience with crafts and games.
3. Farewell party. Out of program families who live more than 2.5 hours from core programs in Atlanta or Houston or Philadelphia do not attend these and have other connection needs with email of photos, calls to chaperones etc.

Q: What is the most challenging aspect of hosting an orphaned child?

A: Expectations of family and child not being equal. Keeping in mind the child is an orphan, and became that way from something that happened to them. They don’t “look like” orphans, so families tend to forget and raise expectations beyond what a child is ready for.
The farewell at the airport is really tough. But, all kids come as a group and must return as a group, or the program will end.

Q: What is the most rewarding aspect of hosting an orphaned child?

A: The blessing of experiencing life through a child’s eyes and teaching love from a family perspective, realizing communication is 20% verbal and 80% non-verbal and connecting with a child who came into your home not speaking your language or being familiar with your schedules, culture, meals, living conditions, ways of showing love, etc.

Related posts:

• What it’s Like to Participate in an Orphan Hosting Program
• The Russian Orphan Lighthouse Project
• Cultural
  Programs for Adopting Russian Orphans
• Pros
  and Cons of Hosting Programs for Soviet Bloc Orphans
• The Foundation for Orphans – links
  to many orphan hosting programs

Other posts in the Orphan Care series:

• 7 Reasons Why 90% of the World’s Orphans Will Never Be Adopted
• Orphan Care Organizations

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

Sign up for Adoption
World, my free monthly eZine! Just send a blank email to adoptionworld@aweber.com

I was pleasantly surprised to read a personal experience article about infertility–written by a man–in Today’s Christian magazine (Jan/Feb 2008).

In the article, Elliott J. Anderson, author of Answers in Abundance: A Miraculous Adoption Journey as Told from a Father’s Heart, candidly shares his struggles with infertility, his emotional and spiritual shift to considering adoption, and some amazing truths the Bible reveals about infertility and adoption.

I haven’t read his book yet, but if it’s anywhere near as well-written as the article, I can’t wait to get my hands on it!

For more news and information on adoption topics, please visit www.laurachristianson.com or my Amazon Exploring Adoption bookstore.