Do any of your churches have an Adoption support group or ministry- Please share!

Hi Kelly! Thanks for writing and sorry for my delay in responding- my adoptive sister died after a long illness and I was in Florida helping my adoptive mom with her memorial. Regarding starting an adoption support group at your church as I did, I will share how I came to begin mine. First, I had attended adoption triad support groups while living in Indiana for a couple years. So I had been experienced observing others facilitators lead the group- my backround is a BA in Psychology and a Human Services Certificate with an emphasis on Crisis Pregnancy and Adoption. When I moved to Illinois I found no local adoption groups close by that focused on adoption, or adoption search and reunions for those from the closed adoption era. So, I first put some ads in the newspaper saying " Adoption triad support forming in the western Suburbs of Chicago area for adult adoptees, birth parents and adoptive parents. A group for sharing adoption experiences, emotional support, and education. And I included a phone number and my first name for inquiries. After 12 persons responded positively and showed interest, I asked my church pastor and trustee board if I might be able to use a church room, monthly for the group- they said yes. When persons called me I had a spiral notebook to record their name, address, phone number and e-mail and information regarding days/times that were best for them to meet in the evenings. After reviewing those I picked a time best suited for the majority and posted the information in the local newspapers ( free of charge for support groups). I called the persons and believe I sent postcards sharing about the first meeting. I have collected adoption books for many years so I had a small lending library and wonderful copies of Fact Sheets found on Adoption Information Clearinghouse website- they have LOTS of great 5 page fact sheets that they allow to be copied with great overview articles on many topics of adoption. For the meeting I set up chairs in a circle and also supplied coffee and light refreshments, (later members donated these items each meeting) I took a voluntary offering in an envelope passed around the group- and there is no pressure to contribute. The money covered paper goods, name tags and coffee supplies and sometimes some new adoption books for the library. My group has been meeting 9 years and I have LOVED leading it and meeting new persons all the time touched by adoption. Hope this is helpful and if you have any more questions, let me know! Blessings, Jody Moreen

Do any of your churches have an adoption ministry or support group? Share if you have one and any info or if you have persons interested in beginning an adoption ministry.Thanks, Jody.

I would like to see the church get more involved in the foster care system. It seems like there are not enough avenues for the body of christ to get involved in the lives of alot of the older kids who are harder to adopt out and are basically stuck in the current foster care system. There are two options on each end of the spectrum and nothing in between open to people who want to be involved in the lives of these kids. 1- Get married and adopt/foster some kids. Not an option for single people. Unfortunately, there's also not enough people willing to do this who are married. 2-Make a career out of working in a foster care facility. Lacks the warmth of a home environment. Sometimes likened to a prison (though they have come a long way since the turn of the previous century) There is the third option of being a mentor, but this doesn't really provide a substitute for the parent/child relationship (please correct me if I'm wrong) I think when we live life next to someone is when we build the deep relationships neccesary for real healing and redeption to begin. A once a week game of catch for an hour or two is good, but if you want to really want to show love to them, a more immersed relationship is needed. From talking to home directors, it doesn't seem like the mentors keep at it very long either. When I go to church, the kids there are loved, and they know they are loved. I see them on sunday morning, on sunday night, an wednesday night and usually anouther day along the week. If the church could be this immersed in the daily life of an average foster care facility, I think we'd see much fruit. Also, maybe if there was a midsized FCF, halfway between a real home and a FCF, or kind of like a house church. Anouther good thing could be if we could open the doors of our churches and hold an outreach for these kids, a chance for for all diferent personalities in our church to interact with all the different personalities of kids. This way each kid could be loved uniquely and personally. This could be an ongoing thing like once a week, along with personal visitations to the FCF by members of the church. Kind of like a partnership. Sorry if I got off subject, but these ideas have been swimming around in my mind for a while. I'd appreciate any feedback any of you might have.

Thanks for your post and an excellent proposal for churches to become involved in caring for foster children that have no family and desperately need to feel loved, encouraged and special. The church is a "family" and this might be a way for persons to become comfortable and it may touch the hearts of some and they may chose to foster or adopt. A non-threatening way for persons to connect with these precious children and develop relationships, hopefully resulting in some lasting relationships, foster care or adoption. I have not seen this and wonder if foster care agencies have thought of this as a good avenue for support and to gracefully expose the need of these children. By not seeing the children or becoming involved, persons can ignore this need- but when they meet these special children and interact with them and know their need- God may touch their heart to reach out and bring a child into their home to foster or adopt. Thanks again! Jody

There is an international christian agency that I heard about that pretty much matches the vision of what I had posted earlier. It's called World Orphans. They have built over 500 childrens homes wordwide. They always build the homes in partnership with local churches. Sometimes they'll have the first floor be the church, and kids will live upstairs. I so want to go visit one of their homes. I want to talk to the people in the churches and see the kids and just see the whole place. It sound awesome to me. If anybody would like to visit their website, it is: [url=http://www.worldorphans.org]World Orphans[/url]

Wow, Jody, thanks for this. I have been tossing the idea of starting some sort of group at my church (we have many adoptive families). I like the idea of making it an outreach. Originally I had thought of a simple playgroup, chance for moms/dads to get together while kids were playing nearby, but I'm a bit on the control freak side and I think free-play for 2 hours with a bunch of kiddos going wild in the gym while the parents chat would make me insane. I hope you don't mind if as I embark on this I converse with you about what's going on?! Melanie

My church New Life of Desher PA has an adoption group called Abba Father ministeries, we also provide support for pregnant Teens and foster parents. just wanted to add my two cents!!!!

My husbad and I have just begun our adoption journey. I see a real need in our churches for adoption ministry. I believe adoption is the heart of God. His own son was adopted as well as some of the most influencial characters in the bible, (Moses and Ester.) I believe as Christians we are called to adopt, (Jame 1:27.) Not all are called by the Holy Spirit to adopt, and no one should be recruited or pressured to adopt. But anyone can love and minister to ophan children in a very practical and meaningful way by helping other families adopt. Adoption by christian families can eventually bring many of the worlds orphans into God's kingdom. Ophan ministry and adoption belong in the church and it is my prayer that Gods people everywhere will eagerly respond to God's calling to love and care for orphans His way. I am praying about starting an adoption ministrty in my church. I see a real need for education about adoption options, for financial help and pre/post adoption support. I have found a website dedicated to helping others start adoption ministries in thier churches/ communities. [url=http://www.hfgf.org]The Home for Good Foundation Adoption Ministry[/url]

How do you find out if their are any Christian Support churches in ones area? We just started going to a new church here so I don't know if they have anything like this or not. I'm a bmother recently in reunion and it has been very obvious that God has been with me and my bson since I found out I was pregnant and right through this reunion.

I forgot to mention that this website also offers a free bible study to download. Its very interesting. [url=http://www.hfgf.org]The Home for Good Foundation Adoption Ministry[/url]

Hi... It's amazing that I have visited this forum for over 3 years now and am still finding my way to places I have never seen...like this part of the thread. (Hi Jody!) Three years ago we started an orphan ministry at our church with three other families who had adopted. In our church there are several families who have either adopted or their families have been touched by adoption in some way or another. Since we live in a comfortable suburb we are able to quickly forget about the needs of orphans in our own country and around the world. We felt it was an important step to equip the local church to pray for and reach out to orphans. Starting this ministry was very helpful for us as we were in the process of waiting on our first adoption at the time and this helped to channel our energies. In the past three years we have "adopted" a few orphanages and have collected money to send some children to school in Mexico and drill a well in Uganda. We have teamed together with the church's sunday school program and VBS to challenge families to reach out to orphans. We have had two Sunday morning services and two Sunday evening services specifically relating to the topic of God's call to care for the orphan. We started an adoption fund for members of our church and have helped to bring home five children (2 from China, 2 from Colombia and 1 domestic adoption). Grants given depend on the amount of money in the fund, but we have been able to give an average of $2,000 to each family. This has been a tremendous encouragement to the older members of our church who are unable to adopt, but want to come along side the younger families in the process. This past summer through fall we coordinated a baby bottle campaign and handed out over 100 baby bottles to families in the church and asked them to collect their spare change for 6 months in order to encourage a family who had not considered adoption (becuase of the financial aspect) to step forward. We will be giving all that was raised to a family who is researching their adoption options at this time. Our most recent endeavor is that my husband and I started an adoption support group open to all families in the North metro area of St. Paul/Minneapolis. It meets at our church and is definitely a Christan support group that is currently comprised of 10 adoptive families. We meet monthly and try to arrange a speaker/special topic for every other month with the off months being time to just fellowship, share ideas and offer up prayer requests to the group. It has been an incredible blessing to my husband and I as we learn how to lead a group like this. I realize that I've answered way more than was asked, but am very excited about this! Megan

Hi Adoption Friends from Jody Moreen, For a great book with tips to starting an adoption group/ministry at your church Laura Christianson, Adoptive Mom and author, speaker on adoption wrote a book this past year: The Adoption Network: Your Guide to Starting a Support System (Paperback) The book is listed at $9.99 but I saw copies of it on Amazon.com for $5.55, also try Half.com Here is the info from the book review: Book Description Do you desire to start a support network for those in your church and community whose lives are impacted by adoption? In The Adoption Network, Laura Christianson, founder and director of Seattle based Heartbeat Ministries, walks you through the basics of planning and launching a support system for adoptive families, foster families, birth parents or adoptees. Youll learn how to Develop a mission statement Plan a budget Recruit leadership Reach out to the community Create workshops, support groups, social events, mentoring programs and more Packed with practical pointers and worksheets, this handbook will equip you with the tools you need to create a vibrant adoption support network. Hope this is helpful- I am reviewing my copy now to fine tune my group I have been leading for 12 years. Blessings, Jody Moreen

I'd really like to join an adoptee support group at a nearby church in South Brooklyn. If anyone has any websites as to where to look, or anything like that... please let me know. I kind of need the faith & support =/

Hi Nikki from Jody, I have an adoption triad support group in the western suburbs of Chicago, IL. Put "Adoption Support Groups" in a search engine. I know that an adoptee named Curry Wolfe used to publish a national listing of adoption groups and outreach, counseling, resources list. A Pennsylvania group took it over and I think it is called the Blue Book- I will a search for it. Hope you find a group- it is a blessing! I belong to another online adoptee group - PM me if interested. Jody

You might check out [url=http://www.embracetexas.org]Embrace[/url]. I don't know where you are located, but "orphan ministries" and foster adopt ministries have been popping up all over Texas.