I was trying to think of another way to raise money that everyone can be a part of. Something that represents every person and would forever be a part of our child's life. I have been doing some research on this topic and I kept coming up with a jigsaw puzzle. The idea is to sell a puzzle piece to people who want to be a part of our child's life for $5 a piece. Individually the piece is just that... a piece of the puzzle. Don't they say it takes a village to raise a child? Hopefully, in the end the puzzle will become the big picture. A picture of family, friends, and acquaintances holding this child that is coming into this world.
My idea is that once all of the pieces have been purchased for $5 a piece then it will be glued together and hung in the nursery for the child to have forever. Forever knowing that he/she was loved before he/she was even born. By everyone.
If one piece is missing the picture will not be complete. That is why we need your help. If you want to buy a piece of the puzzle for $5 please contact me. The puzzle is a 750 piece puzzle. Please spread the word.
“They are the children God has graciously given your servant.” Genesis 33:5
My email: Shelly.Hollon@gmail.com
Thank you so much for all the love, prayers and encouragement that we have been given during this process. It still amazes us the many blessings that we have been given. All of this ultimately the work of God through you all. Thank you!
Jonathan and Shelly
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Adoption Orientation part 2
As I stated yesterday there was SO much information that was given at the orientation that I thought it was only fair that I gave it to you in two days as well. I forgot to mention yesterday that we are the first orientation to get all forms on a flash drive. Thats right, after 50 years of paper Christian Homes has gone paperless. Good for them and I am glad to be a part of the process. It really has been a pleasant experience so far. Its all in a PDF file. Just fill it in and email it back to them. (By the way we are over half way done with ALL the paperwork :) )
We were asked to be back at Christian Homes by 8:15 Saturday morning. That was an early time for us as we did not make it to bed until around 11:30. We were filling out all of the paperwork and doing as much as we could before we passed out from the day. Luckily for us Christian Homes is only about 10 minutes from the Marriott hotel we were staying at in Abilene. I feel I must add that it was 46 degrees in Abilene on Saturday morning. Very strange but also very nice. I like to think the Lord was giving us a "cool" start to Saturday and maybe the rest of our lives.
We arrived at Christian Homes as 8:15. Christian Homes attorney Paul, wish I could remember his last name, came to speak with us about legal matters and what to expect. In Texas the birth mother has a mandatory 48 hour time frame to sign over her rights after the baby is born. Again this is mandatory. She can choose to have us in the hospital room giving birth OR she can choose to have those 48 hours to just her and the baby. That seems a little non-negotiable. We can have input, but that is up to her. Now, the father issue can be a whole new bag of worms according to Paul. There can be three types of fathers. The first one is when the birth mother does not know who the father is, second one is the father is known but does not want to be a father, and the third is when she knows who the father is but he will not respond to written request to come forward for the baby. The first and the last types of fathers get 30 days in Texas to contest the adoption. That is if the first father finds out that she is pregnant with his baby. Do not hold me to all the above information regarding fathers. It was thrown at us so quickly. That is what I understood at least.
After Paul was finished we got to meet a panel of 3 women who were all adoptees. I will omit their names for their privacy. They were all great and told us their stories. They did not hold much back. Open adoption was a main key that we kept running into this weekend. If we decided on open adoption we would work out a gentlemans deal with the birth mother that we can all live with. Examples would be a yearly photo and letter, or a monthly photo. They usually deal with photos. It is not legal and binding that we send pictures or letters but its your word which means something to us. Most of these women had open adoptions and they seemed happier that way. There was one woman who did not have an open adoption and that seemed to still plague her to this day. Why did the mother or father not want to be in her life? Of course she may never know the answer to that, but I pray she finds closure one day. It was an eye opening panel and I am appreciative we had that time with the three ladies.
The agency also brings in birth mothers to speak with us. Unfortunatly, only one showed up. We will refer to her as Miss J to keep her privacy. She continues to go to the orientations to tell her story. Miss J is a beautiful women who looked all of about 21. When she told us she was really 38 my jaw dropped. By the way, Miss J is a different age than 38, but I did not want to give her true age out as that may be another identifying way for some. What I am trying to convey is that she was really about 20 years older than she looked. She told us her story which had me in tears and in love with her within 5 minutes of hearing her speak. I know Jonathan was too. Miss J had a very terrifying life experience that I hope noone will ever have to endure. We will continue to pray for Miss J as she continues on her journey.
The over all experience was awesome and one that we would do again. It was an unbelievable weekend. I am so glad that we were able to share this information with you all.
We were asked to be back at Christian Homes by 8:15 Saturday morning. That was an early time for us as we did not make it to bed until around 11:30. We were filling out all of the paperwork and doing as much as we could before we passed out from the day. Luckily for us Christian Homes is only about 10 minutes from the Marriott hotel we were staying at in Abilene. I feel I must add that it was 46 degrees in Abilene on Saturday morning. Very strange but also very nice. I like to think the Lord was giving us a "cool" start to Saturday and maybe the rest of our lives.
We arrived at Christian Homes as 8:15. Christian Homes attorney Paul, wish I could remember his last name, came to speak with us about legal matters and what to expect. In Texas the birth mother has a mandatory 48 hour time frame to sign over her rights after the baby is born. Again this is mandatory. She can choose to have us in the hospital room giving birth OR she can choose to have those 48 hours to just her and the baby. That seems a little non-negotiable. We can have input, but that is up to her. Now, the father issue can be a whole new bag of worms according to Paul. There can be three types of fathers. The first one is when the birth mother does not know who the father is, second one is the father is known but does not want to be a father, and the third is when she knows who the father is but he will not respond to written request to come forward for the baby. The first and the last types of fathers get 30 days in Texas to contest the adoption. That is if the first father finds out that she is pregnant with his baby. Do not hold me to all the above information regarding fathers. It was thrown at us so quickly. That is what I understood at least.
After Paul was finished we got to meet a panel of 3 women who were all adoptees. I will omit their names for their privacy. They were all great and told us their stories. They did not hold much back. Open adoption was a main key that we kept running into this weekend. If we decided on open adoption we would work out a gentlemans deal with the birth mother that we can all live with. Examples would be a yearly photo and letter, or a monthly photo. They usually deal with photos. It is not legal and binding that we send pictures or letters but its your word which means something to us. Most of these women had open adoptions and they seemed happier that way. There was one woman who did not have an open adoption and that seemed to still plague her to this day. Why did the mother or father not want to be in her life? Of course she may never know the answer to that, but I pray she finds closure one day. It was an eye opening panel and I am appreciative we had that time with the three ladies.
The agency also brings in birth mothers to speak with us. Unfortunatly, only one showed up. We will refer to her as Miss J to keep her privacy. She continues to go to the orientations to tell her story. Miss J is a beautiful women who looked all of about 21. When she told us she was really 38 my jaw dropped. By the way, Miss J is a different age than 38, but I did not want to give her true age out as that may be another identifying way for some. What I am trying to convey is that she was really about 20 years older than she looked. She told us her story which had me in tears and in love with her within 5 minutes of hearing her speak. I know Jonathan was too. Miss J had a very terrifying life experience that I hope noone will ever have to endure. We will continue to pray for Miss J as she continues on her journey.
The over all experience was awesome and one that we would do again. It was an unbelievable weekend. I am so glad that we were able to share this information with you all.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Adoption Orientation Part 1
I will be telling you about the orientation in two parts. There is so much information packed in and this weekend was the same way. It was such an awesome opportunity and we are so thankful to have done it.
The adoption orientation was great. I have never met a greater bunch of individuals. When we arrived we were greeted by Sharon, the receptionist, at Christian Homes. She showed us the room we would be in for the orientation. We were ushered into a large room with 2 1/2 walls full of 8x10 photos of all of the children that have been adopted through Christian Homes. Most of them were later in life photos and some were baby pictures. It was neat to see the "extended family" of the agency. The room had tables in the shape of a giant horse shoe. At every table sat 1 couple, and there were 10 couples present for the orientation. Everyone looked different some were older, some were young, and many different ethnicities. Jonathan and I sat down at the first table on the left of the podium. That was one of the only tables left by the time we got there which is fine by me as I like to sit in the front anyways. After a couple minutes the Christian Homes staff started walking up and introducing themselves to us. It was refreshing to see how easy it was to talk to them all. There was never an awkward moment and the conversations just kept flowing. A few minutes later Bob Parkhill, VP of Christian Homes, walked up to the podium and called the orientation to order. After a quick prayer, he told everyone he would like us to introduce themselves. It was very cool to see and hear the dynamics of the other couples that were there. Bob said something that really stuck with both of us. He said "do not size up the other couples; we are all on the same team not opponents." I could not have agreed more. I was not looking at the other couples in the room and thinking "who is going to be getting our baby?" Instead, I was looking at them all as potential support systems. As we started going around the room we learned that there were couples from all over the United States. 1 couple from New Mexico, one from Arkansas and one from North Carolina (whom I will get to more about later). WOW, couples that committed to travel across the U.S. to work with Christian Homes. What a beautiful picture and made us feel very blessed to live within driving distance of this wonderful organization. The introduction portion of the orientation made everything already worth it.
The next thing on the agenda was for us to learn all of the wonderful things that Christian Homes has to offer birth mothers, the community and the adoptive parents. We listened to a few of the staff members speak about the adoption process. Marketing is a HUGE part of the agency. They advertise at Planned Parenthood's, OB/GYN offices, colleges, Seventeen magazine, and many other popular magazines. Bob let us in on an interesting fact; did you know it takes Christian Homes $6,000 in marketing fee's for 1 baby? Now, Christian Homes does not JUST help birth mothers who are giving their babies up for adoption. They help all mothers who come through the doors no matter if they are giving their babies up or not. We think this is a huge ministry that is lacking in todays society. Some of these mothers who come in to the agencies are just scared or are not sure. I can not remember the exact numbers but about half of the mothers that come into the agency for help are actually putting their babies up for adoption. That is a lot of women who need help. Help with groceries, rent, phone, water etc. Christian Homes will help with what the can. Not only financially, but emotionally as well. They have a therapist on staff at all times or at least one close by.
We also went through how to write birth mother letters, and the photo albums we have to come up with. The photo albums can be no longer than 10 pages (front and back), and stapled in the upper left hand corner. We were very excited to actually see some examples of adoptive parents albums and to hear some reasons why birth mothers chose or did not choose those families for her baby to go to. A birth mother could see a potential adoptive mother wearing a Dallas Cowboys sweater and say "I love the Cowboys" and choose the adoptive family based off that one shirt. Bob told us of a story of a young birth mother, 17, who was reading Gullivers Travels at school. When it came time for her to find the adoptive family she opened an album and the adoptive family had a dog named Gulliver. She chose them. Isn't that neat? SO, it is very important that we be true to ourselves and you never know what will jump out at these women. By the way I do not want you to read this as me saying all of the girls are young. In the next blog I will tell about a birth mom we met who was 38 when she put her baby up for adoption.
The last thing we went over on Friday was outreach programs that we had to do to adopt through Christian Homes. They had 10 different ideas but you had to choose three to do. This seems more like a marketing/research for ourselves out in the community or maybe to make sure we are good about being open about our adoption with our friends and families. In case you were wondering YES this blog does meet one of the requirements. So does my Cupcakes for Our Cupcakes Facebook page, coming, and my adoption group through church with Kathryn. We are more than good on these three things.
That ends part 1 of the blog about the adoption orientation. Please check back tomorrow where I hope to tell you all about the birth mothers, adoptee's and birth parents who have already adopted through Christian Homes. What a awesome weekend!
The adoption orientation was great. I have never met a greater bunch of individuals. When we arrived we were greeted by Sharon, the receptionist, at Christian Homes. She showed us the room we would be in for the orientation. We were ushered into a large room with 2 1/2 walls full of 8x10 photos of all of the children that have been adopted through Christian Homes. Most of them were later in life photos and some were baby pictures. It was neat to see the "extended family" of the agency. The room had tables in the shape of a giant horse shoe. At every table sat 1 couple, and there were 10 couples present for the orientation. Everyone looked different some were older, some were young, and many different ethnicities. Jonathan and I sat down at the first table on the left of the podium. That was one of the only tables left by the time we got there which is fine by me as I like to sit in the front anyways. After a couple minutes the Christian Homes staff started walking up and introducing themselves to us. It was refreshing to see how easy it was to talk to them all. There was never an awkward moment and the conversations just kept flowing. A few minutes later Bob Parkhill, VP of Christian Homes, walked up to the podium and called the orientation to order. After a quick prayer, he told everyone he would like us to introduce themselves. It was very cool to see and hear the dynamics of the other couples that were there. Bob said something that really stuck with both of us. He said "do not size up the other couples; we are all on the same team not opponents." I could not have agreed more. I was not looking at the other couples in the room and thinking "who is going to be getting our baby?" Instead, I was looking at them all as potential support systems. As we started going around the room we learned that there were couples from all over the United States. 1 couple from New Mexico, one from Arkansas and one from North Carolina (whom I will get to more about later). WOW, couples that committed to travel across the U.S. to work with Christian Homes. What a beautiful picture and made us feel very blessed to live within driving distance of this wonderful organization. The introduction portion of the orientation made everything already worth it.
The next thing on the agenda was for us to learn all of the wonderful things that Christian Homes has to offer birth mothers, the community and the adoptive parents. We listened to a few of the staff members speak about the adoption process. Marketing is a HUGE part of the agency. They advertise at Planned Parenthood's, OB/GYN offices, colleges, Seventeen magazine, and many other popular magazines. Bob let us in on an interesting fact; did you know it takes Christian Homes $6,000 in marketing fee's for 1 baby? Now, Christian Homes does not JUST help birth mothers who are giving their babies up for adoption. They help all mothers who come through the doors no matter if they are giving their babies up or not. We think this is a huge ministry that is lacking in todays society. Some of these mothers who come in to the agencies are just scared or are not sure. I can not remember the exact numbers but about half of the mothers that come into the agency for help are actually putting their babies up for adoption. That is a lot of women who need help. Help with groceries, rent, phone, water etc. Christian Homes will help with what the can. Not only financially, but emotionally as well. They have a therapist on staff at all times or at least one close by.
We also went through how to write birth mother letters, and the photo albums we have to come up with. The photo albums can be no longer than 10 pages (front and back), and stapled in the upper left hand corner. We were very excited to actually see some examples of adoptive parents albums and to hear some reasons why birth mothers chose or did not choose those families for her baby to go to. A birth mother could see a potential adoptive mother wearing a Dallas Cowboys sweater and say "I love the Cowboys" and choose the adoptive family based off that one shirt. Bob told us of a story of a young birth mother, 17, who was reading Gullivers Travels at school. When it came time for her to find the adoptive family she opened an album and the adoptive family had a dog named Gulliver. She chose them. Isn't that neat? SO, it is very important that we be true to ourselves and you never know what will jump out at these women. By the way I do not want you to read this as me saying all of the girls are young. In the next blog I will tell about a birth mom we met who was 38 when she put her baby up for adoption.
The last thing we went over on Friday was outreach programs that we had to do to adopt through Christian Homes. They had 10 different ideas but you had to choose three to do. This seems more like a marketing/research for ourselves out in the community or maybe to make sure we are good about being open about our adoption with our friends and families. In case you were wondering YES this blog does meet one of the requirements. So does my Cupcakes for Our Cupcakes Facebook page, coming, and my adoption group through church with Kathryn. We are more than good on these three things.
That ends part 1 of the blog about the adoption orientation. Please check back tomorrow where I hope to tell you all about the birth mothers, adoptee's and birth parents who have already adopted through Christian Homes. What a awesome weekend!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)