1. Pick an adoption agency to donate to. Even if you have not adopted a child or even thought of adopting a child, many adoption agencies survive due to donations. Donations go toward educating birth parents and prospective adoptive parents, and being able to advertise via social media, TV, and radio.
2. Become a Big Sister or Brother to a child in foster care. Sometimes children in foster care long for that one-on-one time they never had the opportunity to have with their parents or other siblings. You can be a positive role model!
3. Offer free photography/videography services to put on social media to an adoption agency. One of the most popular ways an adoption agency gets noticed is through social media. Reach out and see if you can help start a social media page or a website for an adoption agency.
4. If you feel fostering a child is for you, then go out and foster! Through fostering, you will be giving a child a family to be a part of while they await his or her forever family. It is lonely to wait for ANYTHING by yourself. In the midst of giving them a temporary family, you can be their teacher about love, family and respect.
5. Look in your community for adoption agencies having social events, and offer to volunteer at them. Through volunteering you can learn the processes of adoption and fostering, and maybe your heart will be open to fostering or adopting a child! One never knows what lies behind closed doors.
6. If you know a family who is in the process of adopting a child, throw them a baby shower! If the family you know is adopting an older child, throw them a Welcome Home Shower. No matter whether the adoptee is a baby, child or a teenager, they will need to know they are surrounded by love and kindness.
7. Read a book about adoption. Whether it be a book about how to adopt, or a memoir about adoption, such as Tenacity by Jonathan Lessin, tell yourself this year you are going to educate yourself about one or more facets of the world of adoption.
8. If you are crafty, and enjoy knitting or crocheting, you can make some baby blankets and maybe hats to donate to hospitals and/or adoption agencies for babies being placed for adoption.
9. Check into local middle and high schools and talk with the health educators about discussing adoption as an option for teen pregnancy. It could be a good way to help share the adoption world with those who don’t know much about it.
10. Design and run a fundraiser where the proceeds will go to an adoption agency or an adoption charity. I know I am a runner, and I would love to have a race where the entry fee into the race would go to the agency I was brought to as an infant. I had a friend who sold cards for Usborne Books, and she joined forces with an agency to give them a percentage of the proceeds she made with the cards.
No matter what your degree of separation from the adoption world, your support is always needed.
Are you considering placing a child for adoption? Do you want more choices with your adoption plan? Do you want to regain more control in your life? Visit Adoption.org or call 1-800-ADOPT-98. We can help you put together an adoption plan that best meets your needs.
Are you ready to pursue adoption? Visit Adoption.org or call 1-800-ADOPT-98 to connect with compassionate, nonjudgmental adoption specialists who can help you get started on the journey of a lifetime.
