Safe Families Testimony

Volunteering with Lydia Home’s Safe Families program has been a huge blessing for our family. We knew it would be rewarding to help underprivileged kids on a very personal level, but it has definitely impacted our lives in ways that we had never even considered. The immediate rewards were obvious. The foster children that we have had the privilege of caring for have adapted quickly when provided with a stable, secure home. A little love and a sense of security really does go a long way. The smiles and laughter alone are enough to make the small sacrifices of having them in our home more than worth it, and the moms have been truly grateful, as well. Sometimes, the little things that we take for granted are the really big things to them, and to be able to provide these little things for even a short period of time is very gratifying. These kids openly respond to the natural need to just be loved, but the experiences of the moms have often conditioned them to doubt love and fairness and justice. We hope that by offering the moms a love without reason, we can help them recognize that God’s love is real.

Our first motivation to join the Safe Families program was the obvious desire to help kids in need, but we also hoped to help our own children overcome the price of privilege. Our kids have never known what it means to go without. Our kids, Bailey, Peyton, and Tres, are ten, eight, and seven. We’ve tried to teach them about gratitude and service and Jesus’ desire to help the poor and disadvantaged, but they never really understood what all that meant. To not have a home or a family car or three meals a day or two parents that you can depend on were foreign concepts to our kids. Realizing that not all children have the kind of life that they have has been somewhat of a surprise to Bailey, Peyton, and Tres, but it is teaching them about a much truer, deeper sense of compassion. Of course, there have been some ups and downs and a few trials, but the experience has always taught us and our children things that we needed to learn.

We expected the Safe Families experience to be rewarding and that it would teach our own kids some really important life lessons that they might not otherwise understand, but it has turned out to be so much more. Specifically, it has taught our family a great deal about racial reconciliation, and it has allowed me to be able to more openly talk to others about God. When we decided to become a foster family, it just never really crossed my mind that all or most of the children that would come to us would be children of color. We can talk all we want about prejudice and discrimination, but by having these foster children in our home, we have shown Bailey, Peyton, and Tres that people of different races or ethnicities are no different than we are; that they need to be loved and cared for just the same as we do. More importantly, it has shown them that we all need God’s love in the exact same ways. Having the foster children in our lives has initiated some very open conversations about racism that we may not have otherwise had, but I think our children have learned the most about racial reconciliation just by observing what goes on. These lessons for us and for our children are priceless.

For me, personally, being involved in Safe Families has stretched me in other ways, as well. I can honestly say that I am not an evangelist. It is just not in my nature to candidly talk to acquaintances or total strangers about God. When you go to the grocery store, park, gym, a restaurant, or wherever with three white kids and two or three African American kids, you get a lot of attention. People I know or total strangers often ask “Are all these kids yours?” or “Who are all these kids?”. I tell them about Safe Families and am questioned about why I would want to take this on. I simply say that because we have been so hugely blessed in our lives, we just really want to give back---that it is not only our desire but that is almost our responsibility to give back. This either opens the door for a spiritual conversation or just offers an open demonstration of my faith. Many times, the conversation is with someone I’ll never see again, but I walk away knowing that I have impacted them. They just don’t understand why we would want to take in inner city kids that we don’t know when we have three children of our own and a great life in the suburbs. I think they realize that it is God’s love that motivates us.
So, when I say that being involved in Safe Families has been a huge blessing for our family, it is an understatement. God has worked in our lives in ways that we could have never predicted. As is always the case, by giving of ourselves, we have learned and grown and been abundantly blessed in return.

Terry Hooker

"Treasure of Jesus"

I came across this beautiful song and video from togetherforadoption.org that I think you'll find powerful.

(If you know how to add a youtube video to blogger, please contact me so I can post the video and not just the address.)

Please take a moment to click here and watch and listen to this video and see how God might speak to your heart.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCK8dMoErRA

Adoption Conference

Together For Adoption Conference 2009

We are pleased to announce that the next Together for Adoption (T4A) conference will be held at Christ Community Church (Franklin, TN) on October 2-3, 2009 (see conference schedule, childcare information, and list of hotels).

Registration for our breakout sessions is now open. Visit our Breakout Sessions page for instructions.

Join us as we explore “Our Adoption in Christ: What it Means for Us and for Orphans.”
Registration: $40 per single or $60 per married couple. Group rate is available (email dan.cruver@TogetherforAdoption.org for information). New: College Student Rate: $25 (Parents may also utilize this rate for children 9 years old and older).

With over 132 million orphaned and vulnerable children in the world, what our world needs is Christians who have been freshly gripped by the stunning vertical reality of their adoption by God. If anything can mobilize the church to address our world’s orphan crises, it will be the good news of vertical adoption.

Join us as we seek to connect the dots between our adoption by God and the adoption of children. Registration is now open.

General Session Speakers and Topics:

Michael Easley, Topic: Orphan Care and Jesus, the Great Servant of the Poor
Michael Easley recently joined the pastoral staff of Fellowship Bible Church (Nashville, TN) as a teaching pastor (read his church bio). Dr. Easley came to Fellowship Bible Church from Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois, where he served as president (and currently president emeritus) since March of 2005. Michael and his wife, Cindy, have four children, three of whom were adopted.

Russell Moore, Topic: Adoption and the Renewal of Creation
Russell Moore has served as the Senior Vice President for Academic Administration and Dean of the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary since January of 2004. Dr. Moore is also a preaching pastor at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, where he ministers weekly. He is a senior editor of Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity. Dr. Moore has also written the forthcoming book, Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches. Russell and his wife, Maria, have four children, two of whom were adopted.

Scott Roley, Topic: Adoption and the Pursuit of Racial Reconciliation
Scott Roley is Senior Pastor of Christ Community Church (Franklin, TN). Based on his experiences in local mercy ministry, Roley authored God’s Neighborhood: A Hopeful Journey in Racial Reconciliation & Community Renewal which traces his personal call to racial reconciliation and community renewal and shares the powerful narrative journey of a white pastor’s identification within an African-American community. He followed that book with its sequel, Hard Bargain, to be published in 2009. Scott and his wife, Linda, are parents of a multi-ethnic family and live in Franklin, Tennessee with their five children, three of whom were adopted.

Scotty Smith, Topic: The Freedom of Adoption
Scotty Smith is Pastor of Worship, Preaching and Teaching at Christ Community Church (Franklin, TN). Scotty is Founding Pastor of Christ Community church, a member of The Gospel Coalition, and author of five books: Unveiled Hope, with Michael Card; Speechless, with Steven Curtis Chapman; Objects of His Affection; and his latest two, The Reign of Grace and Restoring Broken Things, with Steven Curtis Chapman. Scotty and Darlene, his wife of thirty-five years, have two adult married children.

Ed Stetzer, Topic: The Gospel, Social Justice and the Missional Church
Ed Stetzer is President of LifeWay Research and LifeWay’s Missiologist in Residence. He is also Visiting Professor of Research and Missiology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Visiting Research Professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Ed has written numerous books, two of which are Compelled by Love: The Most Excellent Way to Missional Living (with Philip Nation) and Breaking the Missional Code (with David Putman). Ed and his wife, Donna, have three daughters.

Worship will be led by Kevin Twit of Indelible Grace. Zach Nielsen, blogger at Take Your Vitamin Z, will be live-blogging the Friday night / Saturday conference. The list of our excellent breakout sessions (four breakout session slots) and other conference details are forthcoming. Childcare will be provided—limited availability, additional fee. Together for Adoption Conference 2008 audio. Review of Our First Conference.

For more information or to register visit http://www.togetherforadoption.org/.

10 Things to do Before Sending a Foster Child or Newly Adopted Child Back to School

Are you ready to send your foster or newly adopted children back to school? Here is a handy checklist to help you send them back to school with less stress.

1. Health

· Check your child's medical card, with foster care or a state adoption you should have received one, for the date of your child's last physical. You will also need to make appointments for your foster child's dental and eye appointments. Keep these appointments current.

· Make sure you have the child's immunization records and that they are up to date. You will need the immunization records in order to enroll any child in school in the United States.

2. Paperwork

Upon enrollment you will find several forms to fill out. Go prepared and make sure you have everything on this checklist for foster and adoptive children.

3. Know the Child's Education Plan

Does the child have an Individual Education Plan(IEP) for special education, behavior, and/or speech classes? Foster parents or pre-adoptive parents can not sign an IEP, only the child's birth parent or an Education Advocate can sign IEP's or make any changes to the plan. Things to keep in mind:

· As foster parents you should be able to attend parent teacher meetings and conferences, but think first before you share too much information.
· Since each state is different, ask if you as a foster parent can you sign permission slips for field trips.
· Can the child sign up to play sports? It's a good idea to get a release allowing you to sign for such activities.
· Can the birth parents attend conferences with you? This would be a great way to mentor a birth family by modeling how to act at conferences, ask questions, and advocate for a child. If birth parents are not allowed to attend meetings with you, then take steps to include them by sharing information.

4. Practice Address and Phone Numbers

Children new to your home need to know this for safety and for school. Make sure they know your full name, how to spell it correctly, and where you work.

· Practice writing the address and phone number.
· Have an index card in the child's backpack with the needed information.

5. Practice the Route to School or to the Bus Stop

Show the child the route they are to take and make sure it is a safe route. Walk or bike it with them. Practice skills such as:
· Crossing the street
· Yielding to traffic
· Stopping at stop signs
· Locking up bikes
· Knowing the correct bus number

Do not assume that your child knows these things. Practice, even if the child says they know. We have discovered that most of the children that tell us that they know how to ride a bike safely, in reality, do not. Always ask them to demonstrate their skills. Try making it a game instead of a test. Go on a family bike ride. See how they handle traffic. Don’t forget helmets!

6. Attend Open House or Tour School Building

You and your child will be able to meet the teachers and tour the school buildings at open houses. If school is already in session ask for a tour and to visit the child’s room when you enroll.

7. Discuss Safe Rides

Make sure the child knows who they can get into a car with and who they can not.

· Remember neighbors, social workers (for foster children or pre-adoptive children), and close relatives.
· Teach them to look for ID/name tags on people claiming to be social workers.
· Discuss who not to catch a ride from. Include strangers and anyone you’d rather not have your child be alone with – we all have these people in our neighborhoods.
· It may be difficult but you will also need to discuss getting into cars with birth parents. If the children have supervised visitation or no visitation, the children should not get into a car with birth family. Talk with the social workers about the plan and the best way to discuss this with the children.

8. Practice Opening Lockers

This is such an embarrassing thing for kids, being late to class or to gym because they can't open their lockers. Use the time you have at enrollment or at an open house to practice. Get a lock at home and practice.

9. Be Involved with the Child’s Education and with the School

This is great for foster parents too. Volunteer to be a room parent and help plan holiday parties for the child’s class. If you don’t have time to attend school parties, bake cookies or send a bag of candy. Go on field trips or volunteer to come in and read to the kids. Most kids love to see their parents or care givers being involved in their activities.

10. Create a Cover Story
A cover story is something that the kids can tell others about why they are now in your home. This may also be needed for kids who are newly adopted. Children adopted internationally may be teased for an ethnic name, different appearance, or an accent. Foster children adopted over a summer may have to deal with a new last name and answering questions about why they could not go back home to birth parents. For more information on cover stories read, Teaching Foster/Adoptive Children How to Answer Questions.

Source: Carrie Craft from Ask.com

International Justice Mission Benefit Dinner

Join International Justice Mission (IJM) at the 2009 Chicago Benefit Dinner. The featured speaker is Gary Haugen, Founder, President and CEO of IJM. If you have never heard Gary speak or heard his heart on matters of justice, you are in for a message that will challenge and inspire you. There will also be a live performance by singer/songwriter Sara Groves.

The Benefit Dinner will take place on Saturday, September 26, 2009 at the Chicago Marriott Downtown. Reception at 6:30 p.m. Dinner served at 7 p.m. Reservations are $100 per person. R.S.V.P. by September 10, 2009 at www.IJM.org/benefits or 703-740-9923.

IJM is a human rights agency that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. IJM lawyers, investigators and aftercare professionals work with local officials to ensure immediate victim rescue and aftercare, to prosecute perpetrators and to promote functioning public justice systems.

Perhaps this is a way you can support orphaned and vulnerable children. If so, please make your reservations today. For more information go to http://www.ijm.org/.

Please read the story of the situation that is currently happening to this adoptive family trying to bring home their daughter from China. Imagine having to leave for home without your legally adopted child. Imagine a child finally meeting their forever family, only to be left behind. It is truly tragic. Please take the opportunity to use your voice so that this situation does not continue to occur. It is somewhat lengthy, but I ask you to please read and act. Here's a synopsis of the story:

Upon receiving a special needs referral for the child we were to adopt, Harper (Guang Yue Ye) Scruggs, we were notified that she had recently been hospitalized for pneumonia in both lungs, and that she was on certain medications we knew were used to combat tuberculosis. We asked if we could have a PPD test done, and if we could have access to her chest x-rays, and we were told that we could not have access to those files, but that she had 3 negative PPD tests and did not have tuberculosis. We asked for another PPD test to be done before we travelled, but were told that this would not happen. Being told that it was okay to travel, we went to China to adopt her, and upon completing the adoption were notified that she had indeed been diagnosed in early June with TB. She had by this time been on anti-TB medications (Rifampicin, Isoniazid, and Pyrazinamide) for 1 1/2 months.New CDC regulations had been instituted for China beginning July 1, which indicate that immigrants to the US, including adopted children over the age of two, must undergo a successive series of tests to indicate that they are free of TB.

For someone like Harper, the regulations ultimately require a skin PPD test, a chest x-ray, 3 sputum smear tests, an HIV test, and 3 sputum cultures. Sputum cultures require a minimum of 6-8 weeks for a negative result.Harper has active TB, in that she has a positive PPD and chest x-ray. However, successive x-rays from before medication and 2 months later show a definitive clearing in the lungs, indicating that the medicine is working. Her sputum smears are negative, and she has begun the sputum culture test process. In addition, she had been hospitalized 2 months prior to our journey, and at that time also tested negative with her smear tests. She was given a throat swab sputum culture, which after two months also proved to be negative.

To gain an immigrant visa to the US, Harper needed to apply for an I-601 waiver, which allows the state department to issue a visa even though there is an active case of TB. The CDC is given the waiver application and puts forth an opinion to the USCIS (Homeland Security), who then decides to grant or not grant the visa. In Harper's case, the CDC decided that the previously performed throat culture was not admissible as it was a slightly different type of test, there was only one performed, and it was not from an approved CDC lab (of which there are 5-10 in all of China). The waiver is still technically in process and can be reevaluated upon completion of the sputum cultures, in about 2 months.

In making its decision, the CDC decided that the following facts did not outweigh their protocols: 1. The hospital lab where the tests were originally performed is the Guangzhou Pulmonary Hospital. It is very sophisticated and respected, with an emphasis on lung issues. The panel physicians sometimes send tests to this hospital when they require a closer look with better equipment. However, it is not a CDC approved lab and so tests from here are not considered. 2. TB generally is not considered infectious in children, as children don't have the lung power required to expel the germ. In a conference call held on August 7 between the CDC, Department of State, congressional offices, adoptions agencies, attorneys, various independent doctors, and children's organizations. During the call, the CDC asked a renowned expert to discuss the issue (Dr. Jeffrey R. Starke, M.D., FAAP of the Texas Children's Hospital), who immediately and definitively stated that there were only 2 reported cases in the world of a child having been known to transmit TB and that he could comfortably state that more than 99% of children with active TB are not contagious. He stated that the culture tests on children are not reliable and implied that they are of little use in these situations.

3. People with TB are generally considered to be non-contagious within 2-4 weeks of taking medication. Harper, at the time her waiver was denied, had been on medication for 2 months.4. No other options were considered, such as masking her or allowing her home in a private plane, and then quarantine.

Because we have a son back in the US, and because we both need to work in order to pay our bills, and because we had no savings or credit left due to the costs of the adoption itself, we were forced to return home without our daughter. An extended stay for either of us would probably mean the loss of a job. We located a local family that agreed to take her in, and so Harper was abandoned for the 4th time in her young 4-year life.

Any number of people in the Department of Homeland Security, the CDC or the Department of State could have fixed this with a single phone call,and in fact still can. Natural born children of US citizens are not required to undergo these medical exams to get back into the US, but these poor orphans, now children of US citizens, must languish in foreign countries and be denied access to US healthcare. It is discriminatory. The drugs Harper is currently taking are known to cause liver failure. A blood test has to be administered every two weeks to check the liver function. We cannot even be with our daughter to make sure that her medicine is working effectively and there are no life threatening side effects.

We move forward now with several goals. First and foremost, we wish to bring our daughter home. Second, we want to show the world what a poor law this is, and work to get it changed to help all of the other children affected by these regulations. One method of change is to pass the Foreign Adopted Children Equality (FACE) Act. ( S.1359, H.R.3110 which will give adopted children abroad immediate US citizenship. If this legislation had been in place Harper would not have been treated as an immigrant and would have bee allowed to return to the US with her parents. This legislation should come under consideration in the House sometime in the Fall. Please contact your senators and representatives on Harper's behalf. http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml or http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm.

Third, the Joint Council has been working with Dr. Dana Johnson and other stakeholders including Quad A, NCFA, and EACH as well as Congressional Offices, on the issue of the CDC TB protocols. Together they have actively advocated with the United States Dept of Homeland Security, the U.S. Dept of State Office of Children's Issues and the Center for Disease Controls and Prevention on the new TB protocols. However, at this time no positive change has been made by the CDC.

As each day passes, more and more children and families are affected by this issue. Our understanding is that there are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of cases similar to this in Ethiopia, where the regulations have been in place since Spring In an attempt to gain support and advocacy on this issue in broader terms, Joint Council has launched a petition requesting that the CDC change its protocols and more appropriately protect the health of America. The petition can be found at http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/build-families-not-barriers.html. We encourage you to sign the petition and distribute it widely. Through online social networking, the petition has gained over 3000 signatures in only a few days. Finally, we would like to see changes at the CDC, as the current regime has either judged adopted children not worthy of the same rights and benefits as other Americans, or worse, have absolutely failed to consider the fundamental question of who it is they are writing these regulations for. These are children, not tiny adults, the same regulations should not apply.

A recap of our journey can be found at our blogsite, http://jayscruggs.livejournal.com/. Jay Scruggs and Candace Litchford can be contacted at jayscruggs@aol.com and candacelitchford@aol.com, respectively. At our blog a video of the moment we had to abandon our daughter can be viewed, and we think it is imperative that this be seen to truly understand the ramifications of this case.

James Scruggs and Candace Litchford

Hands Around The World

Me(left) With my Friends

My name is Anna Lee and I just turned 10 on June 23. My mom works in the kitchen for Hands Around The World, which is what I got to go to. At HATW (Hands Around The World) there are different groups of adopted kids like, KIS (which stands for Korea,Indian, and South Asia), African American, Latin American, Eastern Europe, and of course China! Since I was born in China I got the experience going to this culture camp. What I got to do was so amazing! Also what is so nice about it was that I got to go with 3 of my China Group friends, Amy, Hannah and Madison! I got to learn about my culture. This year it was about the land. In history we made a diorama of the land. In Music we got to sing a song in Chinese so then we can learn some of the songs that they do in China. In Written Language we got to re-write a poem written by a famous poem writer named Bay Juy. Also for lunch we got to taste what people eat in different countries which is a great experience. It really means a lot when I can go to this camp and learn, learn, and learn so much.

(Hands Around the World is a culture camp for adopted children. For more information visit www.handsaroundtheworld.com.)