Adopted by Design

Foster Care Christmas Wish List Wrap-Up

 

I want to say “thank you” to all of you who donated gifts or money to our Foster Care Christmas Wish List program.  We delivered the gifts to the Fairfax County Department of Family Services last Friday afternoon, and the gifts were distributed to children in foster care the next evening at their Christmas party.

Your response far exceeded my expectations for this program, and for that I am incredibly grateful.  In total, you donated close to $800 that was used to purchase gifts for children in foster care as well as two carloads full of physical gifts.  Because of your heart for children in need, every single child currently in foster care in Fairfax County (close to 350 children) will receive at least one gift this Christmas. 

 

Finally, I want to thank Josh Cahan and Samantha Cave with McLean Bible Church in McLean, Virginia for including entries on the MBC Angel Tree specifically for this program.  The success of the Wish List program would not have been possible without the faithfulness of the staff and congregation at MBC. 

Some pictures of the shopping and delivery of the gifts are included below.  For their protection, and because of legal considerations, we were not able to take any photographs of the children in foster care.

 

 

-Andrew Brown, Director of Foster Care & Domestic Adoption

 

One More Week- Foster Care Christmas Wish List Gift Drive

We are in the final week of our first Foster Care Christmas Wish List gift drive and the response has been phenomenal.  I want to say a big “thank you” to everyone who has already donated.  Your generosity is truly appreciated, and the gifts will be a great blessing to the kids who receive them. 

If you are still thinking about donating, but have not yet done so, it’s not too late.  The county is throwing a Christmas party for the kids where they will be distributing the gifts next Saturday, December 11.  So, you still have a little more than a week to donate!

As a reminder, you can donate online in just a matter of minutes by visiting our secure online payment page.  Please be sure to select “Christmas Wish List” from the drop-down menu at the top of the page.  One-hundred percent of money donated to the Wish List program will be used to purchase gifts.  You can also send your donations directly to our main office at:

        America World Adoption Association
        Attn: Foster Care Christmas Wish List
        6723 Whittier Ave., Ste. 202
        McLean, VA 22101

If sending a check, please write “Christmas Wish List” in the memo line and include a copy of the Wish List indicating what gifts you would like to purchase.  The Wish List can be found by visiting http://www.awaa.org/downloads/Foster_Care/Wish_List.pdf.     

We will be delivering the gifts on Friday, December 10 and will be posting pictures and video of the delivery to the blog. 

Thank you for your heart for these special children.

-Andrew C. Brown, Dir. Foster Care and Domestic Adoption

Foster Care & Domestic Adoption Update

In Acts Chapter 1, just before Christ ascends into heaven he instructs his disciples to be His “witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  As an international adoption agency, America World has gone, literally, to the ends of the earth to share God’s love for children.  We have not yet, however, served the children in our own backyard – our Jerusalem and Judea.  Jesus’ instruction to be his witnesses in our local community as well as throughout the world inspired all of us here at America World to explore the idea of providing domestic adoption and foster care services.

I am happy to report that it has not even been a month since America World formally launched its Foster Care and Domestic Adoption program, and we are already making inroads toward our ultimate goal of serving the children of Virginia.  Our current efforts for domestic adoption and foster care range from a short-term project to provide Christmas gifts for children in foster care, to the greater, long-term goals of placing American children in permanent, loving families.

I’m sure many of you have already read about our Foster Christmas Wish List program on this blog, and I know that many of you have already contacted our office about how you and your local church can help.  For those of you who are still unfamiliar with the program, our office has started an effort to collect items that children in foster care in Fairfax County, Virginia have expressed a need or desire for this Christmas.  We are currently accepting donations of gifts for children of all ages, and are also equipped to accept monetary donations through our website that we will use to purchase gifts for the children.  This effort has already started to generate a great deal of interest and we are currently working with churches in our local area as well as families from across the nation who want to join us in this simple way to share God’s love at Christmas.  If you would like to make an online contribution to this program, you can do so by clicking here and selecting “Christmas Wish List” from the dropdown menu. 

Last week, members of our domestic and program staff met with local child welfare officials to discuss current needs and what role America World can play in serving the children of our community.  This was a fruitful meeting and represents the beginning of what will hopefully be a long-term partnership with state and county officials.  The greatest need that was expressed during the meeting was for the recruitment of families who are willing to foster and, in many cases, adopt children in their own communities so that the children can remain in the same school and with their current group of friends while going through a difficult time of separation from their birth families. 

Another pressing need that has been expressed, and an area where I believe America World can truly make a difference, is prevention.  Under the law, children can only come into state care and protection where an immediate danger to the child’s health or well-being has been proven.  This standard is important because it is designed to minimize the government’s involvement in the lives of families and promote the nuclear family.  However, the standard also creates uncertainty for families that are having difficulties that do not yet rise to a level that would require state involvement.  Often these families are isolated and unable to get the help that they need to address problems that could eventually result in the breakup of the family.  If families who are struggling are able to get the help that they need before state involvement becomes necessary, we would be able to reduce the number of children who end up permanently separated from their birth families. 

To this end, America World has begun partnering with a national organization called Safe Families for Children.  The Safe Families movement is one of compassion that provides families with the help that they need to address issues such as temporary job loss, homelessness, and drug or alcohol dependence before these issues snowball to the point where the family is in jeopardy of losing their children.  The beauty of the Safe Families model is that it is a grassroots movement that echoes the early church’s “fellowship of believers” who lived and worked together to support those amongst them who were in need.  The Safe Families model utilizes churches to identify families who are willing to take in children on a short term basis, usually for little more than a month at a time, while their parents work to address the issues that are affecting their ability to care for their children.  The benefit for the parents is that the program is completely voluntary on their part, so they are never in danger of losing the legal right to their children and can solve whatever problems may exist without the added stress of court dates, lawyers, and random CPS visits. 

Christmas Wish List



I’m excited, and it’s not just from all the coffee I drank this morning.  In just the few days since I posted on the Christmas Wish List program, I have already received several expressions of interest from people and churches interested in partnering in this ministry to children in foster care.  We even received an email from someone in Chicago who is planning to organize her home church to donate gifts this Christmas.  God is truly moving!

As a result of this interest, I thought it would be beneficial to post the “Wish List” on the blog for you to download, print, and distribute to family and friends.  You can download a copy of the Christmas Wish List here: http://www.awaa.org/downloads/foster_care/wish_list.pdf

Remember to send your donations to:

        America World Adoption Association
        Attn: Foster Care Christmas Wish List
        6723 Whittier Ave., Ste. 202
        McLean, VA 22101

We can also provide you with a tax receipt for your donation that will allow you to claim your donation as a charitable contribution on your tax return.  If you are sending a monetary donation, simply write “Christmas Wish List” in the memo line and we will send the tax receipt to your return address.  If you are donating an actual gift, please include a copy of the sales receipt or a letter giving the estimated value of your donation along with your return address and we will send you a tax receipt for that amount. 

Thank you for your willingness to serve God’s children!

-Andrew Brown, Director of Foster Care & Domestic Adoptions

Foster Care "Wish List"

It’s fall.  The leaves are changing, there’s a brisk feeling in the air, and pumpkins are stacking up on porches throughout the neighborhood.  This can mean only one thing – it’s time to start thinking about Christmas. 

Now, normally I’m the kind of guy who resists any attempt by a holiday to jump to the front of the line for attention.  Christmas should wait patiently until Halloween and Thanksgiving have had their turn.  Today, though, I’m willing to break my rule and give Christmas a little early attention. 

As many of you who follow the happenings at America World know, we are in the process of expanding our services to encompass foster care and domestic adoptions.  These programs will be launched first in Virginia, and are currently in the initial licensing stages.  It will be several months before we have all the paperwork done and infrastructure in place, but we can start serving these children right now. 

I recently attended a meeting of the Fairfax County Department of Family Services where one of the social workers passed out a Christmas Wish List for children in foster care.  The list looked like any Christmas list that a child would make around this time of year, but also included such basic items as toothpaste and towels.  It struck me as I read the list how “normal” these children are.  They have the same needs, wants, and wishes as any other child of the same age.  But it also struck me how abnormal daily life is for a child in foster care.  It is impossible to look at a child and immediately identify them as a foster child.  Children in foster care are as diverse as our communities – they come from all ages, races, and religions.  The one thing that they share, though, is that, for one of any number of reasons, they have been separated from their natural families.

We are eager to start serving these children and will soon be launching our Foster Care Christmas Wish List drive.  This drive is aimed at collecting items from the “Wish List” for children in foster care in Northern Virginia.  As we near the Christmas season, we are asking that you would prayerfully consider donating an item from the list to help a foster child experience God’s love this year.  You can also send a monetary donation along with a copy of the “Wish List” that we will be sending out in the coming weeks indicating what items you would like the money to be used to purchase.  On December 20, we will deliver all donated gifts to the Fairfax County Department of Family Services to be distributed to the children in foster care. 

You can send your donations to:

     America World Adoption Association
     Attn: Foster Care Christmas Wish List
     6723 Whittier Ave., Ste. 202
     McLean, VA 22101

If you choose to make a monetary donation please write “Foster Care Christmas Wish List” in the memo line of your check and be sure to note what items you would like to purchase from the Wish List.

I hope that you will join us in this simple way to demonstrate God’s love to these truly special children at Christmastime.

For more information, please feel free to contact me, Andrew Brown, Director of Foster Care and Domestic Adoption, at andrew.brown@awaa.org or 1-800-429-3369 ext. 131.

-- Andrew Brown, Director of Foster Care and Domestic Adoption