November 07, 2013

How can you and your family celebrate National Adoption Month?

As you already well know, it’s National Adoption Month, which means it’s our time as adoption advocates to spread knowledge and information about the adoption world to as many individuals as we can, while also rallying for those children desperately in need of a family to adopt them.

One of our roles as adoptive parents is not only to teach others about our adoption, but to teach our children about adoption as well, as this is their history and a huge, important part of their own personal culture. So while it’s important that we all think big picture this month, taken some time to bring your National Adoption Month down to the micro-level, by educating your children more about what adoption is, including the millions of children who need help and how you and your family can get involved. Here are a few ideas!

If your child has a relationship with their birth parents of any sort, take a moment to have them write a special note to their birth parents, thanking them for their choice and celebrating their bravery as part of the celebration and awareness of National Adoption Month.

Talk to your child’s teacher to see if perhaps you and your child can prepare a short presentation together about what National Adoption Month is, and how students can get involved. Many young children don’t know what adoption is…this is a very wonderful way to help your child educate others, while also working on a special project together!

Sit down once a week and have your whole family write a letter to a child in foster care. Not only is this a beautiful way to offer support and love to a child who needs it, but it connects your children to the greater cause of children who need homes. It also does well to put their own lives into perspective.

Take some time to remind your children this month how special they are. How much you love them and couldn’t imagine your life without them. After all, you might not know about National Adoption Month if it weren’t for them!

Watch an adoption-centric documentary or read an adoption-related book together. This is a good way to engage your children intellectually, while also sharing a family story time.

Find one National Adoption Month-related activity that you can all participate in as a family. Volunteer at an orphanage or with a foster agency…getting your kids actively involved in National Adoption Month gives them a greater ownership over what it means for them.

How are you and your family celebrating National Adoption Month? We’d love to share new and different ways of getting involved!