Utah Foster Care opened the first session of their weekly forum for National Adoption Month.
This week kicks off the start of National Adoption Month, which is meant to raise awareness for adopted and foster care kids.
Utah Foster Care held a forum last night discussing personal experiences and answering questions from interested parents.
“We’re hoping to share that message that it doesn’t take people who wear blue tights and a red cape to do this,” foster adoptive consultant John Thill said. “It takes normal everyday people doing an extraordinary thing.”
Utah Foster Care has held events for the kids, such as chalk art contests and a trunk-or-treat.
They also post weekly tips for parents of foster kids.
Their resources are meant to make the transition as smooth as possible for both the parents and the children.
“We’re not only helping people get into the process, but helping to stabilize a family so that their family doesn’t disrupt again, the child’s family doesn’t disrupt again,” Thill said.
The forum emphasized to new parents the importance of giving stability and love to the kids and preparing them to return to their biological families.
“Without the perspective that this child has had to lose something to gain you, is not having a perspective that is full,” foster adoptive consultant Anna Gibson said.
Gibson described how even a 19-year-old college freshman was adopted, not because she needed the hands-on care, but for the eternal family relationship.
“She needed them to be there for her forever,” Gibson said. “That’s all that that was, was they were saying, ‘You’re ours and we are yours, and we’re not going anywhere.’”
Be on the lookout the rest of the month for an adoption appreciation event to reach out to those involved in adoption and foster care.
You can follow Utah Foster Care and their events on Facebook.
