Full Circle Adoptions Newsletter

Happy Mother's Day to Sue and Gilberto (and their daughter Marla) whose son was born in Washington State on Mother's Day. Sue and Gilberto are Wide Horizons clients networking through FCA's Outreach Program. Full Circle is delighted to make this placement. Congratulations to you all!

Good luck, as well, to the families with current designations. Thank you to our colleagues in those states who are networking with us to provide the highest quality birthparent counseling and related services to the birthfamilies with whom we're working.

Welcome to local birthparents who have come to Full Circle Adoptions for counseling and related issues. We look forward to working together with you. Also, our warm welcome to the families who've joined Full Circle Adoptions Outreach Program and to other families who've begun the homestudy process, requested finalizations, co-parent adoptions and other adoption related services from Full Circle. We are glad to work with you on realizing your dream!

Upcoming Meetings
(All take place at the Full Circle Adoptions offices, 39 Main St., Northampton, MA, 3rd floor, except for the Eastern Mass Adoptive Parent Support Group, whose address is listed below.)

Birthparent Support Group:
Folks who've attended the support group have included individuals who placed their children recently as well as many years ago; folks who've placed through Full Circle Adoptions and through other agencies. We welcome everyone including folks who decided to parent! Thanks for your courage in considering this group! Hope you'll keep coming!

Wed. May 28 at 7 pm
Wed. June 25 at 7 pm
Wed. July 30 at 7 pm
August - take a break
Wed. Sept. 24 at 7 pm

Adoptive Parent Support Group:

Wed. May 21 at 6 pm
Wed. June 11 at 6 pm
Wed. July 23 at 6 pm
no meeting in August
Wed. Sept. 10 at 6 pm

Birthparent Buddy Program
Thank you Kettie for signing up as our first Birthparent Buddy. We welcome other women as well who've considered adoption and either decided to parent or make an adoption plan. Please feel free to be a part of this program regardless of whether you've placed through Full Circle or other agencies. It is such a wonderful gift of the heart to birthmothers and birthfathers who are trying to decide whether to parent or make an adoption plan. It's one thing to speak with a social worker or other professional; it's another thing to speak with a women who has "been there." If you are a birthparent who would like to speak with another, call us and we'll put you in touch with a "Birthparent Buddy"; maybe you need one conversation, maybe you want to meet and talk. You can do so here at the Agency or on your own. Please let us know of other ways we can assist you during this often difficult time!

Parenting Series
Starting in the Fall, we hope to offer a Parenting Series, one presentation per month on a subject of interest to birth and adoptive parents. Please let us know what subjects you would like us to cover and which days of the week and evening times are best for you!

An Evening About Adoption
On a regular basis we will offer "An Evening About Adoption" which is open to anyone wishing to learn more about domestic infant adoption. Please send your friends! These sessions take place at our offices in Northampton. Our next dates are:

Wed. May 14, 7-9 pm
Wed. June 18, 7-9 pm
Wed. July 16, 7-9 pm
We'll take a break in August
Wed. Sept. 17, 7-9 pm

Full Circle Adoptions is fortunate to have the availability of a number of area clinical social workers with expertise in adoption. These colleagues have offered to counsel and assist birthparents during their decision-making process and prospective adoptive parents with homestudies and support during the adoptive process.

In each issue of the newsletter we will make an effort to "introduce" you to clinicians with whom you may at some point have an opportunity to work.

Susan Lynn MSW has shared her expertise by providing homestudies for Full Circle Adoptions families. Susan Lynn earned her MSW from Western Reserve University. She is well known and respected in the Western MA adoption community. Susan has worked with Jewish Family Services in Springfield, Brightside in West Springfield, Spence-Chapin in New York as well as the Florence Crittendon Center in Nashville, TN. Susan can not begin to count the number of homestudies she has completed but estimates that it's well over 100. Currently she works as the Psychological Counselor at Baystate IVF in Springfield and she has a private practice. Susan focuses on working with families coping with infertility. She is also a Clinical Instructor with the Tufts University School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry. We welcome Susan's assistance in working with our prospective adoptive families.

We welcome Jewish Family Service of Greater Springfield (MA) to FCA's Networking Program. Founded in 1915, JFS has been a non-sectarian licensed adoption agency for over twenty years. They provide domestic adoption services and facilitate referral for international adoptions. Jewish Family Service refers homestudied clients who would like to have the Full Circle Adoptions Outreach program as one of their domestic adoption options. JFS clients can speak with their social worker for referral. An individual orientation includes financial and procedural information; there is no charge for the orientation. Welcome to the Network, Jewish Family Services! We look forward to working with you for the benefit of our mutual clients.

Congratulations to Silke Schade, FCA's Office Manager, on her graduation from Smith College!

Congratulations to Carol Owen LICSW: Carol has been accepted to the interdisciplinary doctoral program (Sociology and Social Work) at Boston University. While we will miss Carol while she is buried in studies, we applaud her courage in stepping on a renewed professional path. Carol hopes to focus on social policy in her future. Good Luck to you! Let us know if you'd like to do more homestudies as we always welcome your expertise and delightful humor!

Congratulations to our Director, Marla Allisan JD, LICSW: Marla will be a contributing author in Helen Carcio's book, Comprehensive Management of the Infertile Woman. Helen is a nurse practitioner with Community Health Plan in Greenfield. This is an academic text whose audience is health professionals (particularly nurses). Marla's chapter, "Legal Aspects of Domestic Infant Adoption," will be included in this book which will be published by Lippincott-Raven in Philadelphia, PA.

Marla's paper, "When You Suspect Abuse" (which is about the clinical dynamics of child abuse reporting by professionals) was previously published in The Family Therapy Networker. She is pleased to report that this essay has been chosen by Denise Gelinas Ph.D. to be included in materials for her presentations to seminars at Harvard and Brattleboro Retreat (VT). This essay will also be included in training materials for social workers in the Illinois DCFS Core Training offered by the Child Welfare Institute of Atlanta, GA. Thank you for passing on the ideas in these articles; we hope they are useful. Please feel free to contact us for reprints. We are happy to share.

Over these months of building the Agency, there have been many individuals who've been particularly helpful. How can we begin to thank Silke Schade, our Office Manager, who has masterfully organized the office and who is nearly done with editorial revisions on great new Birthparent and Adoptive Parent Orientation Guides; Rob Chambers whose advice on telephone systems saved us a lot of money; Gerry Hersh, our accountant, who always rises to the occasion when a designation begins to hop and we need to make financial arrangements for our families; Judy Lalonde of IKON office systems whose timely service helped keep the flow of faxes streaming in; Laurie Halbert Esq., legal researcher who's fast becoming our office's expert on the Indian Child Welfare Act; Deborah Bloom Esq., of Keyes & Donnelan in Springfield for able assistance handling legal terminations in court; Jeanne Murdick of Mount Holyoke College and Wayne Mercier of Thunder Web Productions for your help with our web site. Thank you all for your work!

In addition to these thank you's, let us all give a cheer to the Dear Birthparent Letter Team: Wendy Simpson of Simpson Designs and Steve Koloski! Wendy's artful graphic design of these letters has truly made them stand out in a crowd. She works tirelessly on these profiles, often on the weekends so as not to delay an adoptive family's quest for even a second. All our clients have reported her a delight to work with; we are so grateful for this critical piece of work. Thank you! Steve Koloski has a team of his own! Steve and his wife Terry, often travel together with sons Eric and Kyle to various parts of the Northeast to take the "cover" photo for the Dear Birthparent Letter. Steve and Terry, who are adoptive parents, know how stressful this time period can be and wish to be a part of making it a little easier (and successful) for families starting out in the process.

Thank you Team for helping our families bring their dreams for a larger family "full circle". Last but not least, Happy Special 40th Birthday to you Wendy -- may all your dreams come true!

If you are a family (or know of a family) who might like to offer a "welcoming home" please let us know. It can be a rewarding experience to participate in an adoption through offering a young woman a short term place to live. The welcoming home family receives a modest sum ($400-500) per month to defray costs associated with the housing. The Agency provides financial assistance for food, maternity clothing, as well as rent/utilities. The agency social worker assigned to the birthmother will provide emotional support and help her with applying for Medicaid and accessing other resources as needed.

Agency clinicians interview the birthmother prior to relocating her and educate her as to guidelines and house rules. We would also meet with the Welcoming Home family and the birthmother to insure that it is a good match. The birthmother frequently stays for 1-2 months during her pregnancy and usually wishes to return to her home state within 1-2 weeks after delivery. Thank you for considering this request! We are particularly eager to find homes in a 10-20 mile radius of the Agency in Northampton. Please call Director Marla Allisan with questions and/or interest in this program.

Thank you to families and individuals who have contributed to this fund.  We are hoping to create a fund which will have sufficient resources to provide revolving loans and outright grants for adoption expenses for families of modest means.  Thank you for considering this.  Please remember that any contributions are deductible as charitable contributions!

Our 100% cotton T-shirts are available in 4 vibrant colors:  bright blue, yellow, bright pink and lavender.   Net proceeds will be directed to the adoption assistance fund.  Please be sure to state size with order.

Child sizes:   S, M, L  -  $10
Adult sizes:  S, M, L, XL, XXL  -  $15

Please include $3 for postage and handling and indicate size and color..

Send to:  Full Circle Adoptions, 38 Main Street, Northampton, MA   01060

90 East to Exit 4 91 North towards Holyoke/Northampton Exit 18 off I-91 At end of ramp turn left (About a mile ahead is Northampton’s main intersection.)