|
With more than 200 Hamilton
County children waiting to adopted, JFS staff plan to
highlight many of them and highlight the benefits of
adopting as part of National Adoption Month in November.
This year's national theme is
"Answering the Call - You don't have to be perfect to be a
perfect parent."
Adoption staff spent
several months preparing to mark the annual observance. The
cornerstone event, the agency's observance of National
Adoption Day on Friday, Nov. 20, will culminate with several
children legally becoming part of new families at a mass
adoption ceremony. |
|
Last year, seven children were
adopted during the annual event, while eight others joined
families in 2007.
Other Adoption Month events
planned include:
- an online chat about
adoption on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 10-11 AM.
Visit
www.hcjfs.org
to join the conversation
- a skating party for
waiting children and prospective adoptive parents
- an appreciation event
for families who have adopted as well as waiting
children and their foster families
|
|
Selena Burks is a hugger.
“I just love them,” the young filmmaker said
 as she left the stage and headed for a social worker in the audience. The
worker was overcome with emotion after Burks’ presentation last month of her
documentary “Saving Jackie”. Burks' film chronicles the relationship she and
her sister developed with their biological mother Jackie as she dealt with
the results of a drug addiction that sent her children into foster care. |
|
“Hugs always give me peace,” Burks told the
worker and more than 70 foster parents, guests and other social workers who
attended the October event, coordinated by HCJFS and its partner agencies in
the Everyday Heroes Collaborative. “Hugs are so therapeutic, aren’t they?”
The ability to give hugs, Burks recounted, is
a far cry from what she was able to do as young girl and teen watching her
mother using drugs.
Click here for more |
