Celebrating Adoption Month Week-by-Week

Week 1: Begin National Adoption Month by Focusing on Your Child's Adoption Story

By Carrie Craft, About.com Guide

See More About:

Adoption Month E-course Quick Links: Index | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4

What You'll Accomplish This Week:

Celebrate your family's adoption story and write a mission statement that would help strengthen your family.
Remember children still waiting for adoptive homes and plan to get the word out to local media. Celebrate adoption month events in your area.
Read adoption poems. Write one of your own and submit it to About.com Adoption & Foster Care.

Why Your Child's Adoption Story Is Important

Every child wants to hear about how they joined your family, whether by birth, step, or adoption. I know I loved my baby books as a child. Adoptees are no different. They need to hear their adoption story – the truth - over and over and by all main players in their lives.

Take the time to write out how they came to be in your family. What day was it? What was the weather like? Who was there when they entered the home? How did everyone in the home feel about the new addition to the family? Did big brother or sister want to be close to them or shy away; or did they prefer the family game system? What gifts did they receive?

The Adoption Story Is Often Found in the Details - Details Give Them Something to Hold on To

There is also importance in birth family details. Write everything you know about your child's birth family. If you happen to know where they worked – write it. These details – even of hair and eye color matter to most adoptees and could be a clue in helping to find them one day.

Building Attachments for Happy Families

The time you spend together writing your child's adoption story and writing details about birth parents will help build attachments with your child. If you are secure in your feelings and the place you hold in your child's life, don't be intimidated by the reality of birth family. Your openness will bring your child closer to you and they will have the knowledge that they can go to you with questions about anything. Isn't that the kind of relationship we hope to have with all of our children anyway?

Family Mission Statement

A mission statement is often something you find on the wall of a business or organization. A mission statement states what that organization is about and the reason for their existence. The writing of a family mission statement is a neat activity that allows each family member to add their thoughts and priorities to what they each find important to have in a family or what a family means to them. The family mission statement may be a place to list goals too.

Start by giving each family member a piece of family and have them write 3 to 5 things they want in a family or in a home. Then compile the statements as there will surely be some repeats. Type it up and frame it for each family member to display in their room. Discuss with your family, what each statement means to them and how you can create that atmosphere in your home.

This Week's Assignments:

Write your child's adoption story.
Write a family mission statement.
Work on family attachment with secret pals.
Contact your local paper about Adoption Month.
Read adoption poems.

Review Adoption Month Week 1: November 1 - November 7, for details on your daily assignments.