Most of us love to talk about our children, but there seems to be something extra special about adoption stories. If you have added a child or children to your home through adoption, and created your own forever family, we'd love to read your adoption story.   Asking readers to share their adoption stories has become our January tradition over the past few years.

Here are some of our newest adoption stories:

• Waiting for a "Yes"
• Long Term Placement Turned into Forever Home
• Choosing Foster Care Adoption Over International
• Single Parent International Adoption Story
• Already My Child - Vietnam Adoption Story
• Have Faith and Wait for the Right Timing
• Special Needs Older Child from China Adoption


• Now it's your turn to submit your adoption story

Katherine Heigl and Josh Kelley - Katherine Heigl and husband, Josh Kelley, have recently shared that they are ready to start the adoption process again. The couple adopted their daughter, Naleigh, about three years ago from Korea. Heigl has also shared that she struggled a bit bonding with their daughter, while her husband and Naleigh clicked right away. Through an interview with Scholastic Parent & Child magazine she acknowledged the importance of being prepared to parent an adopted child and how the process of forming attachments take time, building trust takes time. I'm so glad to hear a celebrity opening talk about the bonding process that goes along with adopting a child and that parenting a child that is not biologically your own is different. Relationships take time to build.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt -Adopting more children is still an open topic within the Jolie-Pitt home. In an interview with the The Hollywood Reporter, Pitt stated that they are open to more children, but nothing is in the works at this time as they currently have a balance within their home. He also stated that if they met someone who needed them and they felt that they could help, they would be open to adopting again. I like how the focus seems to be on the child and what Jolie and Pitt could do to offer help, rather than on their own wants and needs. That's the way it should be, in a perfect world.

SOURCES:
Katherine Heigl - Heigl Keen To Adopt Again After Understanding Special Bond
Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie Are Open To Adopting More Kids

Suggested Reading:

• 10 Five Minute Bonding Activities for Foster and Adopted Children
• Preparing to Parent the Adopted Child
• Internationally Adopted Children Sometimes Suffer Same Challenges as US Children
• Adoption Book Review: The Post-Adoption Blues

_{Cover art for Postcards From The Soul.
Copyright © 2011 Foster Care Alumni of America www.fostercarealumni.org}

The Foster Care Alumni of America's Community Art Project explores the culture of foster care through these very personal pieces of art. Who knew so much could be said on something the size of a postcard? I still remember when I first viewed these postcards. What a powerful impact they had on me and my viewpoint of not only the foster care system but the children and how they experience foster care.

So, take a moment and view the slide-show or buy the new book,  Postcards From The Soul, which gathers these powerful postcards into 138 beautiful pages.  I believe these images can help numerous members of the foster care community.

If you viewed the slide show - click "comments" below and share which postcard really stood out for you. I still think of the one featuring a young girl standing in what appears to be a battlefield and the card reads, "They said I had attachment disorder. Really I had a life disorder. I attached accordingly." Reminds me of several past foster kids, how about you?

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Suggested Reading:

• 6 Things to Know Before Choosing to Become a Foster Parent
• The Challenges of Foster Care
• Children and Family within the Foster Care System
• Understanding Each Role within a Foster Care Agency
• Understanding Grief and Loss in Children

The Foster Care Alumni of America is a national non-profit association founded and led by alumni of the foster care system. "Alumni" meaning those who have been in foster care during their youth or childhood. Their mission is to help transform the foster care system and help those in and out of foster care reconnect with their community in healthy ways.

Queen Latifah - The actress shared during an interview with Access Hollywood that she is interested in adopting a child. The forty-one year old said that she would raise her children with morals, values, and God. She also added that she would try to be more like her mom.

Jillian Michaels - Michaels started the adoption process back in 2010, to adopt from the Congo, but she has recently announced on Access Hollywood Live that she has been matched to a little girl - in Haiti! It seems that while the former Biggest Loser trainer was visiting an orphanage in Haiti she fell in love with a little girl. Through what she is calling "the grace of God," she has been matched with that child. Of course, the Haitian adoption process takes time and it could be up to another year before the child comes home. I bet Jillian Michaels is very excited to be one step closer to being a mom.

SOURCES:
Queen Latifah Talks Adoption
Jillian Michaels Adopting Haitian Child: I Fell 'In Love With This Little Girl'

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Suggested Reading:

• Adopting a Child from Haiti
• I-600A - Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition
• Definition of an Orphan