Year in Review
’tis the season to reflect on the previous year, so I wanted to highlight some of my favorite moments from 2008 and all that God is doing in and through Forever Homes.
Support Group
In March we started the Forever Homes support group and in 9 months it has grown into a wonderful, active and nurturing group. We weren’t sure if anyone would show up, but we knew that no one else was providing this kind of support for adoptive families. We handed out some flyers and made some phone calls and had 5 families our first night. We have met every fourth Monday night since then and our network has grown to about a dozen families supporting and caring for one another. More than that, this group of strangers has become great friends and allies in helping their hurting children heal. We had a memorial day picnic together, a weekend camping trip, and a Christmas party. Our mom’s have kept Starbucks and Smoovies in business through their impromptu meetings.
Volunteering
Volunteers provided more than 800 man hours of service to adoptive families this year. Concerned individuals provided meals, yard work, home construction, and respite care to families assimilating abused and neglected children into their homes.
Adoptions
Three families in our support network finalized the adoptions of their foster children in 2008. Adoption day’s are a major celebration in the lives of our kids, as it is a major step in helping them realize that these families are theirs forever. Eight foster kids were also placed within the network of Forever Homes families with the anticipation that they will be adopted in the near future.
Racing Limos
One of my favorite moments of the year was when I was contacted by Racing Limos of the Tri-Cities. They wanted to provide a date night outing for one of our adoptive couples. We decided to have a “best story” contest at our support group to decide who would receive the gift, and our group chose to give it to Dana, a single mom who was finalizing the adoption of her daughter that same week. Dana chose to use the limo ride to transport her and her new daughter to the courthouse for the adoption. NBC news even showed up to cover the story, but was unable to air it because of some confidentiality and safety concerns. Regardless, Dana, her daughter and friends and family that got to ride in the limo loved arriving in style. It was an amazing addition to a life-changing day.
The Perfect Move Magazine
The word is out about our new little non-profit, and we were approached by a local magazine who wanted to feature us in their local section. You can read the article here.
The IRS
After more than a year of writing our application for 501(c)(3) and waiting for it to get in front of a live person, we have finally been in contact with our assigned agent. We expect to receive approval any day now.
Challenges of 2009
We are off to a great start and I am very excited about some of the opportunities we are pursuing in 2009.
We are overwhelmed with all there is to do, and as an all volunteer organization we have realized that in order to proceed we will need full time staff. Parents are regularly crying out for help and we want to help make their placements and adoptions successful. To that end we are currently recruiting and training respite staff who will come into homes to provide help as needed. We are also helping families identify and train support networks.
There are about 80 adoptions from foster care finalized in our area every year, so we have just scratched the surface for the type of support we’d like to offer. We’ll need more resources and manpower to help all those families and we hope to hire an Executive Director to lead these efforts early in 2009.
