Nassau County Adoption Scam

Their dreams of adopting a beautiful baby girl were snatched from them before they could even hold the precious newborn. Joseph and Lisa Weiner of Port Washington claim they discovered the baby’s birth mother was a con artist with a criminal record who was duping two desperate families at the same time. Background checks would have revealed 33-year-old Jessica Dreves has prior arrests for petit larceny, drugs and spent...

Haitian Adoptions Jeopardized By Disaster

Tuesday’s earthquake has thrown U.S. families trying to bring home their children into a state of uncertainty. Many are finding themselves in a desperate search for answers about how their children, that they are in the process of adopting, are faring. Some fear that paperwork, which can take months or years, may be buried or lost in crumpled buildings, stalling or halting the adoption. Unlike adoptions in many other...

Alabama Adoption

When Air Force family Henry and Stephanie Hayes started foster care for children four years ago, they weren’t necessarily looking to adopt. They’re the parents of two birth children and had opened their Montgomery home to 11 foster children over the years. They were content. That is, until they met baby Jaylan. “He is medically fragile and when we learned that he would not be able to return to his birth...

A Home For The Holidays: 12/23/09

As the parent of three children that we adopted through foster care, please watch A Home For The Holidays with your family this holiday season. A Home For The Holidays shares, through the eyes of a child, the joy of having a family – not just for the holidays, but every day and forever. Each December, Wendy’s International, Inc., the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption and Children’s Action Network present A...

Families For Orphans Act

Anshula has recently come into an orphanage. She is four years old and alone. Where should she spend her childhood? In an orphanage? In temporary foster care? Or in a permanent and loving family? The answer should be obvious: a safe, permanent and loving family. Unfortunately, the U.S. government and many aide organizations do not seem to agree. In fact, the U.S. sometimes spends millions of dollars, ensuring just the...

Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption Awards $7.75 M...

DUBLIN, Ohio, July 1, 2009 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ — The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption announced today a total of $7,750,000 United States grants issued this year, including $7,223,000 from Wendy’s Wonderful Kids, the Foundation’s signature program. In addition, $594,700 was awarded to Wendy’s Wonderful Kids grantees in Canada. The remaining $480,000 in U.S. grants provided critical...

Enjoy A Frosty This Weekend And Support Adoption

This Father’s Day Weekend (June 20-21), Wendy’s is helping consumers treat Dad and help foster children at the same time. Wendy’s third annual Father’s Day Frosty Weekend provides an easy and tasty way to support the cause of foster care adoption and help the more than 129,000 children in the U.S. who are waiting for the love of forever families. During Father’s Day Weekend, Wendy’s will donate 50¢ from every...

Free Course On Creating Lifebooks

Adoption Learning Partners is offering a free online course all about creating lifebooks. This course covers some of the things that could be included in a lifebook, and provides templates you can print out and use. This course will be free until May 31, 2009. Beginning June 1, however, there will be a $30 fee. So there’s extra motivation to get started now! Use the link below to register. Adoption Learning Partners ©...

Adoption Reform Begins In Oklahoma

One of our adoption forum members brought this to our attention yesterday. Legislation increasing financial transparency during the adoption process to prevent the extortion of adoptive families gained the approval of the Oklahoma House of Representatives this week. OKLAHOMA CITY (April 16, 2009) – Both the Oklahoma House of Representatives and state Senate voted today to increase financial transparency during the adoption...

Adoption Tax Credit

You may be able to take a tax credit for qualifying expenses paid to adopt an eligible child (including a child with special needs). The adoption credit is an amount subtracted from your tax liability. For expenses paid prior to the year the adoption becomes final, the credit generally is allowed for the year following the year of payment. A taxpayer who paid qualifying expenses in the current year for an adoption which...

Forever Families Weekend

The Adoption Connection at Jewish Family Services of Greenwich in conjunction with the NJ Y Camps is thrilled to announce Forever Families Weekend, a family weekend experience for Jewish families touched by adoption. Families will have the opportunity to think consciously about their roles in both the Jewish community and the adoption community while enjoying a weekend at one of the largest Jewish summer camps in North...

Home For The Holidays: Foster/Adoption Special

Tune into CBS on Tuesday, December 23 8 p.m. EST/PST or 7 p.m. CST/MST For the 10th Annual A Home for the Holidays Special Celebrating Foster Care Adoption! Don’t miss this heartwarming one-hour television show! Celebrity performers will share the stage with extraordinary American families who share their joy and their stories of foster care adoption. This year’s show features Faith Hill and includes Tim McGraw,...

‘Jockey’ Adoption Services & Prog...

I’m excited to pass along this terrific program to you, made possible by Jockey (yes, the underwear company – lol). They are working with families who adopted through foster care to provide them with post-adoption support such as respite and parent support groups. As you know, we adopted three children though foster care and often gripe on this blog about the lack of services offered to those of us who have...

National Adoption Month-2008

November is National Adoption Month! November is National Adoption Month, a month set aside to raise awareness about the adoption of children and youth from foster care. This year’s theme of adopting teens from foster care builds on the Ad Council’s new public service announcement (PSA) campaign of the Children’s Bureau, the Adoption Exchange Association, and The Collaboration to AdoptUsKids. Here are some...

National Adoption Day 2008

National Adoption Day is a collective national effort to raise awareness of the 129,000 children in foster care waiting to find permanent, loving families. For the last eight years, National Adoption Day has made the dreams of thousands of children come true by working with courts, judges, attorneys, adoption professionals, child welfare agencies and advocates to finalize adoptions and find permanent, loving homes for...

Urge Senate To Reauthorize Adoption Incentive Prog...

(rainbowmom thank you for passing this along from our adoption forums) ACTION ALERT: Ask Senators on the Finance Committee to act NOW to reauthorize the Adoption Incentive Program and help support adoption and relative guardianship Today, more than 127,000 children and young people in foster care are waiting to leave the system – for good – to join permanent families. Every day without a permanent family feels like a...

Missouri Adoption Heart Gallery

Missouri Adoption Heart Gallery coming to St. Joseph by Sylvia Anderson Donald J. is a 10-year-old boy who loves cats, dogs, semi-trucks, going to church and watching Sponge Bob Square Pants on TV. He’s much like other boys his age, except for one thing: Donald dreams of having a family. “Someone to love me and I get to stay there forever,” he told the Missouri Department of Social Services. Just looking at his sweet...

John McCain Adopted One Of His Children From Bangl...

I just read yesterday that The McCains adopted one of their children (a daughter) from Bangladesh and that was the first I had heard of it. Of course as a parent through adoption I found it interesting (not that it would sway my vote-just cool as a fellow adoptive parent). I think this interview may be a few months old but here’s part of it. He talks about what led up to them adopting her and also transracial adoption....

Treat Dad To Frosty And Help Children In Foster Ca...

My daughters (who we adopted through foster care) took my husband to Wendy’s for a Fathers Day frosty last year and they intend to take him again this year. The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption is such a great organization and is one that everyone in the adoption community should support! TREAT DAD TO A FATHER’S DAY FROSTY AND HELP CHANGE THE LIVES OF CHILDREN IN FOSTER CARE DUBLIN, OHIO (May 27, 2008) – Forgo...

Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption Announces Top ...

(Dublin, OH – May 1, 2008) It’s the list that prompted policy change. After the first Best Adoption-Friendly Workplaces in America list debuted in 2007, more than 50 organizations nationwide established or enhanced their adoption benefits for 2008. As a result, employers who made the top 100 list released today by the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption offered more robust adoption benefits packages this year to make it....

Steven Curtis Chapman’s Daughter Killed By C...

What a sad story. Steven Curtis Chapman is a well liked adoption advocate and supporter of international adoption. He and his wife Mary Beth adopted three girls from China into their family, Maria being the youngest. The couple formed an organization, Shaohannah’s Hope, to aid families wanting to adopt. Maria died Wednesday evening after being struck by a car driven by her teenage brother in the driveway of the...