Whether you are a birth mother, an adoptive parent, adoptive parent or adoption professional, we want to hear your story!

Beginning September 3, 2013 A Child’s Hope will launch our Facebook Contest “A Note from the Heart”.

To enter join us on September 3, upload your photograph and a “Note From the Heart” about your adoption experience (Entry must be 500 words or less)

Contest Rules and Details –

RULES
Categories:
For Birth mothers and Families Adoptees
Adoptive Parents and Families
Adoption Professionals
Users will submit their photo and story into one of the four categories beginning on September 3, at 12:00AM EST (Eastern Time). Each person is allowed one submission, but multiple submissions about specific adoption stories are allowed (e.g. a birth mother and her adoption counselor can both submit an entry about their experience working together and building a lifetime bond). All submissions that include a link to a Pinterest board with more photos of their story will automatically earn 10 bonus votes!

**View Official Rules and Privacy Policy.
PRIZES
The adoption story that receives the most votes in each category will win a $150 gift card! Be sure to encourage people you know to enter the contest and share their story, and tell your friends and family to visit the page and vote for your story!

**Winners will be notified via e-mail and announced on Facebook following the conclusion of the contest.

VOTES
Your vote for your favorite adoption story will help decide our winner. Judges from an expert panel of contest sponsors will select finalists from each of the categories. Facebook fans will have an opportunity during the public voting period from September 3 at 12:00AM EST to September 30 11:59PM EST to choose their favorite adoption story from the selected finalists.

“A Note From The Heart” Contest is sponsored by Noah Z.M. Goetz Foundation, Our Chosen Child, My Adoption Advisor and A Child’s Hope.

Do you have a story you’d like to tell?  Email us at blog.ach@foryourlife.com.  Visit us at www.AChildsHope.com, or call our Birth Mother Hotline at 1-877-890-HOPE (4976) so one of our adoption counselors can answer your questions confidentially.

Please remember that this is a public site open to anyone; therefore, anything you post can be seen by anyone.

Cindy was joined by her sister on the most special occasion – Placement Day! This photo was taken on Dec. 21, 2012 with the birth mother, birth father and the birth mother’s mom. Ella was 7 days old.

Single mom Cindy will never forget the Christmas of 2012.  Her newborn daughter was placed with her for adoption just four days before Christmas. “The fact that Santa brought me a stork for Christmas was the best gift of all,” said Cindy , who herself is adopted. Cindy’s sister, Janet, joined her at the office on placement day to meet Ella. “No matter the journey, the waiting process is the most difficult to manage,” Cindy explained.  Cindy, an advocate for open adoption, looks forward to having a relationship with the birth family.

A big thank you to Cindy and baby Ella for allowing us to tell the story of their family!

Do you have a story you’d like to tell?  Email us at blog.ach@foryourlife.com.  Visit us at www.AChildsHope.com, or call our Birth Mother Hotline at 1-877-890-HOPE (4976) so one of our adoption counselors can answer your questions confidentially.

Please remember that this is a public site open to anyone; therefore, anything you post can be seen by anyone.

Alexis, now age 12, Meghan 10, and Savannah 6, all share the same last name but each has a different biological mother and father.  Their parents, Steve and Beth, used adoption through A Child’s Hope to help them grow a family.

“The girls are as close as sisters can be,” said Dad Steve, who stayed home with all three until returning to work full time last year.  They each know they were adopted and each have different birth parents, but except for the fact that they all three share different biology, they are sisters.”

Alexis was on hand to greet each of her new siblings when they were newborn. Each adoptive placement was a family affair.  Alexis first in 2000, then her sister Meghan in 2002, and their sister Savannah in 2006!

A Big thank you to Steve, Beth, Alexis, Meghan and Savannah for allowing us to tell the story of their family!!!

Do you have a story you’d like to tell?  Email us at blog.ach@foryourlife.com.  Visit us at www.AChildsHope.com, or call our Birth Mother Hotline at 1-877-890-HOPE (4976) so one of our adoption counselors can answer your questions confidentially.

Please remember that this is a public site open to anyone; therefore, anything you post can be seen by anyone.

Are you waiting or past placed family with A Child’s Hope? If you would like to be a part of a support group for waiting parents and for birth parents we invite you to join us at our upcoming 2013 organizational meeting!

Hopeful Parents was started in 2001 as a support group for waiting adoptive parents, past placed parents and birth mothers.

Waiting to adopt can be stressful, but support through others waiting and those who have adopted is a great way to deal with the stress!  When the group first started, activities were limited to an annual Holiday Celebration held in November, National Adoption Month, and for those families that had adopted that year lead a swearing in and adoption oath.. There were quarterly grab bag showers or “celebrations” for those who had placed in the last four months,  and there was a spring fund raiser which was a tea, featuring all babies and their mothers from the last year. For awhile the tea was held at the home of Parker Herring, and then tea was moved to a historic home in Raleigh.

In 2004, one of the placed adoptive families asked for help in forming the group as a nonprofit and in that year the first slate of officers were elected and programs were held every year through 2012. In November 2012, the officers of Hopeful Parents asked that they be relieved of their positions so they could form another group, NC Adoptive Families.  This group is for families who have adopted and live in NC and plan to have play dates for kids as well as support meeting for parents.

Over the years in Hopeful Parents there has been other activities including: gift bags for birth mothers at the hospital; a birth mother fund, an annual CPR class, and a maternity clothes closet in addition, each year there was either a “Cookies with Santa” or “Potluck with Santa.”

There is interest in the existing non-profit Hopeful Parents being revived in a version of what existed before, and the most interest has been expressed on a monthly support group for waiting families and other ways to support those waiting.

PLEASE CHECK HOPEFUL PARENTS & A CHILD’S HOPE FACEBOOK PAGES FOR DATE AND TIME.