National Adoption Awareness Month

November is National Adoption Awareness Month!

“The first major effort to promote awareness of the need for adoptive families for children in the foster care system occurred in Massachusetts. In 1976, then-Governor Mike Dukakis proclaimed Adoption Week and the idea grew in popularity and spread throughout the nation. President Gerald Ford made the first National Adoption Week proclamation, and in 1990, the week was expanded to a month due to the number of states participating and the number of events.

During the month, states, communities, public and private organizations, businesses, families, and individuals celebrate adoption as a positive way to build families. Across the nation, activities and observances such as recognition dinners, public awareness and recruitment campaigns, and special events spotlight the needs of children who need permanent families. It also includes National Adoption Day, traditionally a Saturday, which is observed in courthouses across the nation as thousands of adoptions are finalized simultaneously."
(source: http://national-adoption-month.adoption.com/)

This month I will try to post some blogs about my own experience of having been adopted from South Korea at 18 months and raised in predominantly white suburbia (aka Maple Grove, Minnesota) by my blue-eyed family. While our journeys will be different, I hope that I will be able to relate to our future adopted child well and help to guide him/her through the various things that s/he may encounter as an adoptee.

During the course of our adoption, we are required to read at least 3 books of our choosing on the topic. I’ve listed them below in case anyone is interested in checking them out as well:

Talking With Young Children About Adoption by Susan Fisher and Mary Watkins

In Their Own Voices: Transracial Adoptees Tell Their Stories by Rita J. Simon and Rhonda M. Roorda

The Connected Child by Karyn Purvis, David Corss and Wendy Sunshine

On a completely different note, we took Shay trick-or-treating on Halloween with our next door neighbors and their kiddos.  Shay was insistent on being a pumpkin and a princess so we obliged her.  And, I know I'm her Mommy, but I thought she was the cutest trick-or-treater out there :)

Here are some pictures I took on my iPhone (please forgive the blurriness):