Happy World Social Work Day and Social Worker Appreciation Month!

The month of March is National Social Work month, and this year’s theme is Social Work Matters.  Some social work matters include but are not limited to: adolescent development, aging and family caregiving, poverty reduction, non-profit management, and community development. Social Workers care for people in every stage of life, from childhood to late life, by helping families and individuals overcome life’s most difficult challenges. Some of the troubles that Social Workers work to alleviate include: poverty, stress, discrimination, addiction, abuse, depression, physical illness, unemployment, underemployment, divorce, disability, death, medical conditions, intellectual challenges, and mental illness. Social Workers help ensure the personal well-being of their clients; they prevent crises and counsel individuals and families, as well as make sure people get the help they need from the best resources available. For more than 100 years, Social Workers have been catering to the needs of lower-income families and individuals.

LSG is active in providing superior services in each of the areas listed above, and we would like to recognize all of our exceptional Social Workers at the agency. To celebrate the hard work of these Social Workers at LSG, Foster Care and Family Intervention Services recognizes National Social Work month and invites everyone to make a Social Worker at every level feel appreciated on March 20, 2012, World Social Work Day.

ADOPTION: LSG Case Manager Reconnects with Adoptive Child after 40 Years

Working in adoption and focusing on permanency for children with a family that will always be theirs, we have the blessing of seeing “Love in Action.” Many of the older children we place are operating from an emotional basis of fear. When the adoptive parent can respond to fear with love, the relationship will be the transporter for the child to begin to trust in LOVE IN ACTION. Healing happens on an individual level with no specific timeline. Sometimes it is necessary for the family to actually make their family world a little smaller for a time. That would mean narrowing in to the household and not going here and there with classes, festivals  and activities that demand every single minute of the day. In December, I was contacted by someone who randomly reconnected with me, having seen my name in adoption papers after his adoptive parents passed away. As it turned out, I had placed this gentleman with his adoptive family in the late 1970s when he was almost two years old. He called to thank me for “the best decision ever made” because he stated his adoptive family were “the best parents a child could ever have.” In remembering this placement, this had been a child who felt the separation and trauma of leaving his birth family as a toddler and coming into foster care. His adoptive family had responded with patience and LOVE IN ACTION, helping him learn to trust the new family as they developed their bonds without a time frame for attachment in mind.

Adoption is an ongoing social process, not just the legal finality of a court order. All of us in the Adoption department feel grateful when we hear these stories and see children move successfully into placement with a new permanent family.

Written by Anne Boyte, Adoption Case Manager for LSG

ADOPTION: More Families, More Placements in 2012

As we move into the New Year, our Adoption staff has renewed their passion and commitment to finding families for children waiting for a permanent home. We have scheduled IMPACT training classes for parents who want to adopt from the foster care system, and have also scheduled our Cooperative Open Adoption training for parents wanting to adopt newborn infants. IMPACT is scheduled at theAtlantaoffice on January 21 and 22. The Cooperative Open Adoption Training for Parents is scheduled for February 4, 2012. We have invited 14 prospective adoptive families for IMPACT and have extended the invitation for the class to foster families needing to be trained as well. We have invited 25 prospective adoptive families to the newborn infant training.  Families may be trained in both programs if they wish to be considered for children as they are available and need homes, whether they are infants or older children.

The Adoption Program has approximately 35 approved homes watching to be matched with a child at any given time.

Please contact either Anne Boyte at aboyte@lsga.org or Electra Evans at eevans@lsga.org if you have any questions about either of these classes.

Adoption: Creating Holiday Traditions and Rituals in Adoptive Families

Many children who have been placed for adoption from foster care have anxiety and uncertainty about holidays and the expectations these times carry.  It is helpful for adoptive families to quickly establish rituals and traditions that embrace their newly formed family members, so the child can feel a part of a heritage that is significant fro the family. Traditions such as these help create bonds in adoptive families. The most enduring traditions cost little money, but help everyone feel special. . Your family traditions will remain important as your child becomes an adult.

One way the adoption staff at Lutheran Services of Georgia helps families build these holiday traditions is through our annual Adoptive Family Christmas Party. This year Andrew Willis was our Santa Claus, juggling several pillows to stuff his Santa suit! We also have a volunteer who annually offers her services as a clown teaching the children to make animal shapes out of balloons and keeping them enthralled with her pink hair and colorful clown garments. Families are asked to bring a dish to share and the children often help in the preparation of a holiday favorite from their home.

What we have discovered over the years is that families early in placement come in numbers to the party but as time moves forward and they develop strong traditions of their own, the tether to the agency is gradually released.  We are thrilled to see this as we know this means the adoption is no longer the primary focus of the family life. We do see families who adopt newborn infants return year after year to share with great pride their bundle of joy’s growth and development.

On December 4, 2011, we had between 50-60 people attend our annual Adoptive Family Christmas Party. Several families returned as they are now ready for placement of additional children from foster care.

We feel very blessed to be a part of the children’s transition to permanency, love and a nurturing family to grow up in. This has become a seasonal tradition we are proud to offer our families.

Adoption: The Difficulties of Finding Homes for Older Children

One of our major challenges in the adoption program is finding a permanent family for older children.  The average age of a child waiting for a permanent family in theU.S.foster care system is approximately 8 years old.   Parenting older children presents many challenges.   Loss is a significant experience and often is repeated.   These experiences may leave them with unresolved emotional issues.    Often these children experience multiple models of parenting and expectations. Yet, according to our successful adoptive parents, adopting an older child can be a great joy and gives a child a since of security, love and belonging.   Parents adopting older children need community and familial support, and an understanding of themselves and their own issues.

Our agency welcomes families who are willing to open their hearts and homes to older children to meet this great need.  To support this effort, the federal government offers States incentives to States to provide permanent adoptive families to children in foster care.   The State and Federal Government Office offer assistance, medical insurance and supportive services to families adopting older children.

www.adoptionissues.org/adopting_older_children.html

Adoption: Lutheran Teachings Guide Us to Serve

We in the LSG adoption program recognize the journey of adoption for both the family and the children who are adopted. We also recognize it is a privilege to find a permanent home for a waiting child. Adoption is one of the many missions of this agency serving and engaging the community by bringing hope, healing and strength to people in need. This past year, we successfully transitioned all the families and the children from two other agencies to our adoption program who unfortunately had to close their doors due to budget cuts and the economy. In some cases, we accomplished this awesome task with no financial support with this transition. We are proud to say over this past year, we found “forever families” for 35 children in foster care which included seven sibling groups of 2, one sibling group of 3 and one sibling group of 4 children. We found a “forever family” for 8 infants in our cooperative open infant domestic adoption program and has facilitated ongoing connections between the adoptive families and the birth families. In spite of these accomplishments, we know that the work continues on because the need is so great for the hope, healing and strength that we at LSG provide.

Adoption: A Baby's Long Journey Home

A baby girl, born too soon, too tiny, and with so many medical complications, has shown us all what it means to be a true fighter. Lutheran Services of Georgia is known by local hospitals as a go-to agency to find families for domestic infants with medical issues, so it was no surprise when the LSG adoption case manager received a call about Annie.

At the time, her prognosis was very guarded, but soon the good days outnumbered the bad. And a family had come forward – mom, an NICU nurse, and dad, a teacher. Even though they live out of state, they visited Annie as often as possible through the many months she was in the hospital. Annie’s birth mother knew that her child would be in good hands when she selected them to adopt Annie.

Finally, in early August, Annie was released and today is a plump, happy little baby. There’s still a long road ahead for Annie and her new family, but we all know that there’s a lot of fight in that little seven-pound baby. One baby, one birth family, one adoptive family – one agency fulfilling its mission to bring people home.

For more information on Lutheran Services of Georgia's adoption services, click here.