January Placements

A great start to 2010:

Five new little ones  ...  five happy families!

Multi-racial Families Being Built

We are connecting with an increasing number of African American women in unplanned pregnancies.  They are exploring adoption through Adoption Associates and preparing to find just the right home for their baby.  At the same time, AAI staff diligently works to prepare and ready prospective adoptive parents to receive these little ones.  

We have an urgent need for couples who are eager to become parents or extend their family through adopting an African American or mixed race baby.  We are seeking African American and interracial couples who are considering adoption.  Further, we are seeking homes that embrace becoming a multi-racial family and celebrate diversity!  Families would need to give attention to their child's first culture and heritage, commit to instilling pride in his or her ethnic/racial identity and be willing to learn the skills to navigate through a race conscious society as a multi-racial family.  If you have questions about what this means for your family, we have trained staff prepared to talk about these opportunities with you.

If you are home study approved or are interested in beginning the adoption process please contact us at 1-800-67-ADOPT.  We'd love to come alongside of you!

2009 Stats

72 placements

of which 68 were Michigan birth mothers

4 were out of state birth mothers

57 links through profiles

15 designated links (family found their own birth mother)

20 African American babies

6 Caucasian/African American babies

46 Caucasian and other mixed race babies

God is good!

"God works while we wait."

The Baby Hope Tree

by Elisa Morgan, former president and CEO of MOPS

as printed in Thriving Family

It was December 21.  The phone rang.  The only other couple in our adoption group who hadn't yet been placed with a baby - besides us- was calling to say they finally had a child.  I hung up, feeling like I'd been shot in the chest.  No baby for us.  We'd been waiting for almost five years, and I longed to be a mother.  

I rolled up my spiritual sleeves and began to beg God for a baby by Christmas.  I set up a Christmas tree and decorated the branches with pink and blue ribbons and christened it the "Baby Hope Tree."  Every day I knelt there, pouring out my prayers.  

Then the phone rang, and I heard the hard truth that there was not going to be a baby by Christmas.  Our first child didn't come until Easter.  At last.  Our second child came two years later in a blistering July summer. 

When I look back at that 21st day of December, I realize now that my daughter was safely growing in her birth mother's womb on Christmas Day.  God was indeed answering my prayer.  He was working while I was waiting.

Every Christmas since then, we've continued to set up a Baby Hope Tree, tied with pink and blue ribbons.  In the early years, my husband and I did the work while telling our children the tale of our waiting and wanting them so much.  As they grew, they began to set up the tree themselves, Eva tying on the pink ribbons and Ethan the blue ones.  Well into their 20s today, they still come by and admire the tree, the tender reminder that God works while we wait.

NOVEMBER

SEVEN NEW BABIES 

WERE PLACED INTO 

THEIR FOREVER HOMES 

IN THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER.  

Can You Relate?

I thought I would be able to sneak through the holidays in one piece. It's so busy and fun and wonderful. I LOVE Christmas and everything that goes with it. I was so sure I would breeze through upbeat and cheerful and was mostly concerned about what I would feel like on January 1st. But I didn't escape. It's the day before Thanksgiving and my heart is so sad, my arms so empty, it's hard to be thrilled about doing any of my favorite things....I just want a baby. Link to a former waiting adoptive mother's blog, http://rebekahpinchback.blogspot.com, to read the rest of the story.

Thanksgiving in Disguise

From small glimpses of God to being a part of grand performances orchestrated by Him, I have seen God and come to know God more this past year than any other time in my life.  When I reflect on why this is, I notice that I have had trials and an aching heart and fear of the unknown like no other time in my life.  During this Thanksgiving season I find myself thankful for trials (what, really?) because it has brought me closer to the One who gives me a hope and a future.  I hope you, too, can claim this promise for yourself this Thanksgiving season.