Centerville Branch
Jan 31, 2011
Date Night
Jan 12, 2011
Community Adoption Forum
Thursday, January 27, 2011
7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Davis County Library, Centerville Branch
45 South 400 West, Centerville
Intro to State Foster Care / Adoption
Real-life stories
Q & A
Jan 5, 2011
Happy New Year!
January Board Meeting: January 13 at 11:00 at the Centerville Agency. Everyone is encouraged and welcomed to come!
January Chat Night: January 20 at 7:00 pm at the Reed's home. Mike Mortenson, who has a Bachelor's Degree in Accounting and is finishing up his Master's Degree, will come talk to us about adoption and taxes. It will be a fun and informative night!
Date Night!: Saturday, January 29 at 6:00 pm at Bajio in Centerville. Come enjoy a night out with your spouse for dinner with other couples from FSA. We will have a green balloon at the table so you will know where to sit. This will be such a fun night to relax and get to know each other!
Dec 2, 2010
December - A month off
Nov 9, 2010
Boondocks this Saturday!
Nov 4, 2010
National Adoption Awareness Month!
Oct 17, 2010
The gift of story to your adopted child
We have been invited to attend a workshop held by one of our FSA couples. This is for a masters thesis, and as such is geared toward couples who have already adopted. If you have adopted, this would be a great opportunity to learn about incorporating adoption into story telling. Here are the details:
When: Saturday, November 20, 2010
Time: 7:00 pm-9:30 pm
Cost: FREE! (Even Parking)
Where: Weber State University - Shepherd Union Building Room 312
You and your spouse will receive:
-Dessert
-Free story performance geared for adoptive couples
-Book with 12 adoption folktales
-Workbook on how to share stories with your child (tots to teens)
-Gift bag with goodies for other dates and entertainment
Spread the word to any adoptive couples you know!
The night consists of performance, workshop, and hands-on activities. Before the event, a background survey and consent form will be completed as this is part of a storytelling masters thesis. Couples will email a paragraph once a week for 7 weeks on impact, if any, on their parenting. Confidentiality will be maintained for the written response.
There is limited seating, so RSVP to Rachel Hedman (801) 870-5799 or to info@rachelhedman.com
Oct 8, 2010
Upcoming Events
October Chat night will be held on Thursday, October 21 at 7:00 pm at the Reed's home. Chat night is usually held on Wednesday, but this month it is Thursday because we have a guest speaker coming to tell us about her experience with foreign adoption.
November is National Adoption Awareness Month! Come celebrate at Boondocks in Draper (75 South Fork Drive), or in Kaysville (525 South Deseret Drive) on Saturday, November 13 from 11 am to 2 pm. Cost is $5 per family (cash only please). This price includes unlimited mini golf, 10 arcade tokens, and one pass to chose from go karts, slick track, rookie go-karts, rock wall, laser tag, or max flight roller coaster simulator. We are looking for volunteers to help with some administrative work for this event as well as help cleaning up. Please email centervillefsa@gmail.com if you would be willing to help, or come to our board meeting next Thursday.
Sep 24, 2010
Sep 14, 2010
Chat Night and Adoption Alternatives
Adoption Alternatives: Adoption Alternatives is on September 23 at 7:00 pm at the Centerville Library. Anyone and everyone is invited to attend. We will be discussing designated adoptions and how to spread the word you are adopting to find an adoption opportunity. This meeting will be very helpful to anyone who is thinking of adopting in the future, or who is wanting to adopt currently.
Thank you!
Sep 3, 2010
Summer Potluck a success!
Aug 17, 2010
Potluck Picnic!
Date: Friday, August 27
Time: 6:00 PM
Place: Mountain Road Meetinghouse Bowery
910 South Mountain Road, Fruit Heights
Directions:
If you are coming from the south, go north on Hwy 89 and turn right on Nicholls Rd. At the top of Nicholls, turn right on Mountain Rd. and travel south for about 1/2 mile. The church is on the left.
From Kaysville, go east on 200 N to Hwy 89 and turn right. Travel south to Nicholls Rd and turn left (to the East). At the top of Nicholls turn right on Mountain Rd. and travel south about 1/2 mile until you see the church on the left.
This is an ADULTS ONLY potluck. You will need to bring a main dish for you and your spouse, as well as something to share (salad, side dish, desert, etc). We will provide water to drink, as well as the paper goods (plates, cups, napkins and utensils).
We hope to see you there!
Aug 9, 2010
August Chat Night!
Aug 5, 2010
Elizabeth and Jeff's Adoption Story
We are Jeff, Elizabeth, Caleb, Jake and Olivia. All three of our kids are adopted. Caleb is adopted through LDS Famly Services and Jake and Olivia are adopted through other agencies. Since Olivia's adoption story is the most recent I'll share that one with you. 
It started out like any other day. I got Caleb off to school, I hadn't woken up at 6 to work out as planned, so I had that to do, I had laundry to do...
Every day, several times a day I check the sites of multiple adoption agencies because they post their available adoption situations online. I always want to be the first to call if there is one we are interested in. For about two years I'd been having dreams about a little girl who has a little darker skin, either Hispanic or half African American. I have known this is what I needed to look for when I look at these situations. When I woke up that morning the thought came to me to look at babies who are full Caucasian. I could be wrong about what I'm looking for. Wednesday morning an agency posted a situation about a full Caucasian baby girl. It said she was due in about 6 weeks. I called and left a message expecting to hear back in a week or so.
About 10 minutes later the phone rang. It one of the agency owners calling to tell me the information on this baby. She also told me that the birth mom was in labor right then and the baby would be born that day. I told her to go ahead and show our profile and she told me she would take the profiles over to the hospital when the baby was born for the birth mom to look at and choose a family. At 2:22pm the call came. She asked if I was serious about wanting a baby that very day. Of course! She told me the birth couple really liked us and had chosen us. I called Jeff, who was in a meeting. Because he knew we were being shown he answered anyway. For whatever reason when I told him about this baby that morning he hadn't realized the birth mom was in labor. He was shocked when I told him she'd already been born. He left work and we headed to the hospital for a meeting with the birth parents. The drive to meet the birth parents is always a long, nervous one. This time felt even longer since she was already born. I was so nervous. I wondered if it would be easier if we just didn't do it. Every time I got that scared I felt strongly that we should just go forward in faith, put one foot in front of the other and keep moving. One of my main concerns was that she was full Caucasian. I had always, always, pictured her to be something other than that, but I felt peace about this particular baby.
Our case worker called when we were about a block away from the hospital. She told us that when the doctor had examined the baby he realized that she is not full Caucasian after all... she's half African American. The birth mother confirmed this when she was asked. The case worker needed to make sure we were ok with that. That was my first confirmation that what we were doing was the right thing. I had been right all along thinking that the baby we were looking for was not full Caucasian. Had I not called on her that morning because she was listed as Caucasian we would have missed her.
When we got there we talked to Olivia's birth mother for a long time. She told us why she chose us and what she liked best about our profile. She told us that the case workers had told her that when she looked at profiles and saw the right couple she would know. She looked through them all and knew we were the right family for her baby.
The kids were super excited to meet Olivia two days later when we brought her home.
Because Olivia's birth mother lives on the other side of the country we haven't had a chance to see her since placement. We love to hear from her though and enjoy sending her pictures.
