GROUP ON THE PHONE

Salt Lake City offers a weekly Online Birthmother group.

Toll Free Number - 1-877-453-7266

Meeting ID Code - 3096 for participants

Thursday from 6 - 7 p.m. MST

This group is for Expectant Parents that want to participate in group but live too far away to attend and would like to talk to birthmothers who have placed for adoption.

ADOPTION EDUCATION CLASS ATTENDANCE

Tara and I are doing the Adoption Education classes at the office on the 3rd Thursday of each month. We are always happy to have someone attend. We usually get positive feedback on the information shared.

We use power point to cover various topics. Check out the office blog to see the topics covered.

Tara and I were also invited to present at the National FSA conference in July and are excited to share some of our ideas.

FSA

Tara and I are organizing our Birthmothers to be a part of FSA (Families Supporting Adoption). Currently, Tar has been serving on the local board and regional board. We have asked Megan to serve on the local board. We are also organizing birthmother to have their own board along side FSA to focus on birthmother support.

We look forward to seeing what happens. We are also asking for people to help with activities. We plan to have BM Day in May, BM Retreat in September, and some sort of activity in February. The National FSA conference is in Salt Lake City in July and there is usually a regional or local conference in November.

ARTICLE TO SUPPORT BIRTHMOMS

Here is a great article on Birthmothers.....

http://www.newsweek.com/id/238276?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+headlines/health+(Updated+-+Headline+Feed+-+Health)&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

ADOPTION.COM

A birthmother that gave birth 19 years ago tomorrow called this morning. I remember her as soon as she said her name. She sounded more grown up, but I knew the name. She was wondering if her son had sent any letters or was looking for her. I told her that I didn't think we had any mail, but that she could try adoption.com. She told me she has 3 teenage sons. We visited briefly after sharing information and said goodbye.

In about 15 minutes, she called back to say that her son had already registered on adoption.com. When she put in her info, up popped his name, address and phone number. Lucky for me, she called to tell me. WOW! We practiced what she might say and what to expect. As she hung up, she said she was going to call and keep me updated.

SO COOL!

BIRTHMOTHER DAY

Saturday before Mother's Day, we celebrated Birthmother Day at our office. We had 22 birthmoms attend and a few support people. FSA decorated the conference room and prepared plenty of food. We enjoyed ham, egg casseroles, muffins, salad and fruit. Tara prepared a beautiful program with a circle of butterflies on front. (We will use this theme again for Birthmother Retreat). We shared a butterfly poem and another reading. Each girl that chose to shared a little of her experience. We had other activities planned, but the socializing seemed to be the most important activity. Visiting with other birthmothers is supportive and healing.

FSA also gave each girl a pair of earrings they made the night before and a little jar containing tiny rocks with a leaf on the lid. The decorations were earthy, like a spa setting. Thanks to the efforts of so many people, it was lovely.

Towards the end, Tara had a slide show of pictures girls had shared, set to music. We then lit a candle to commemorate our unity and strength. Tara had also written on shinny, black rocks "Birthmothers are Heroes" for each girl attending. I can't say enough about all that Tara does to make the birthmother program even better.

Denise and Pam helped with decorations, food, serving and support. Denise had not attended such an event and said it was so wonderful for her to be in attendance and see so many girls that have placed a baby for adoption. She already knew that the pain does not go away and was awed to see the gathering of these women for support and bonding.

This is the second Birthmother day in our office. We look forward to another in 2011.