I totally disagree with the suggestion that babies should spend the first six weeks of their life with their birthmothers. Adopted infants should be placed with the adopting parents at hospital discharge so that bonding and attachment will be facilitated. We know from experience in the foster care field that there can be serious mental health and attachment problems for children who experience moves during infancy. Moving a baby at six weeks of age would not be in the child’s best interest.

I do agree, however, that it is important for the baby to have a smooth the transition from the birthmother to the adopting parents. This is best handled with an open adoption. In open adoption the adopting parents and birthparents develop a relationship during the pregnancy that will continue over the lifespan of the adoption. The baby hears the adopting parents’ voices while he/she is still in the womb. As a result, their voices are familiar to him/her when he/she is placed with them. The birthmother visits with the adoptive parents during the early weeks so the baby continues to hear his/her birthmother’s voice, as well.

There are other ways to facilitate a smooth transition for the baby in an open adoption. For example, the birthmother can make a recording of her voice or a recording of her singing a song that she sang to the baby while she was pregnant. The adopting parents can play the recording of the birthmother’s song during the early weeks. The birthmother can also give the family a stuffed animal that she held or slept with during the pregnancy. Having this stuffed animal in the baby’s crib provides him/her with her smell. This and other creative ways help ease the transition for the baby.

With open adoptions all parties are working together for a smooth transition and adjustment for the baby.

• Photo must be of your child in his or her Halloween costume (Please note: By submitting any photos, you give IAC permission to reproduce them online and in promotional materials.)
• To enter you must be a current or alumni IAC family
• All entries will be added to our Facebook photo album
• The winner will be the photo that gets the most Facebook “likes”
• The winning photo will be determined on November 2nd, at 12pm PST.
• Send all photo entries to contests@adoptionhelp.org

Good luck!

What is Adoptee Night, and how did the idea develop?
In community partnership between the Mixed Roots Foundation and the SF Giants, the first ever Adoptee Night is a special event that will take place in helping to raise more awareness about adoption. Since it’s our first year, we hope that we can drive as many people as possible to attend, so that next year the SF Giants can fully sponsor this event next year and hopefully years to come. Full sponsorship will include a reserved section for the adoption community, a pregame show, as well as an Adoptee Night sponsored promotional item.

But for this year, we are kind of doing everything separate – just to get the momentum for next year (smile).  We will be hosting a separate pregame gathering at Lucky Strike that is located right across from AT&T Park at 4:30 p.m. We will also be handing out Adoptee Night rally towels and T-Shirts, so Adoptee Night attendees can show their support for this one of a kind event. The Ultimate goal is to replicate Adoptee Night to other sports teams in the country.

The idea of Adoptee Night kind of came from the concept of the other SF Giants special events but to really recognize and celebrate all who have been touched by adoption. As an adoptee myself and attending all of the other SF Giants special events – I thought to myself why isn’t there one for the adoption community??? Six in ten people are touched by adoption – that equates to about over 100 million people here in the U.S. and there are over 10 million adult adoptees; I think we are a pretty big community. Also, there is a need for creating more awareness. We all know that adoption isn’t going anywhere, so as the first and only national/global multicultural adoptee led foundation (all of our board members are adopted whom are representative of the international, domestic, and foster adoption experience) – we believe from our own personal experiences of being adopted – it is critical that we as the adoptee community help streamline more post adoption resources for adoptees and their families.

Can you tell me more about Mixed Roots Foundation?
Again, the Mixed Roots Foundation is the first and only organization doing what we are doing. What really sets us apart from any other nonprofit organization or even foundation – is that we are focusing on post adoption resources as well as really serving as the global philanthropic arm of adoption as well as being creative and leveraging all the resources that are available including the resources in the arts & entertainment, business, technology and health and science communities. We really are trying to address the changing needs of adoptees and their families throughout the whole life cycle of the adoptee – from birth to death. We also hope that this will provide a space / platform that individuals and their families can call home by giving back to the community and getting their voices heard both on a national and global level.

We hear George Lucas is a supporter. What was his involvement?
Yes, It was amazing to hear that George Lucas had accepted our invitation to participate in our public service announcement (PSA) that will broadcast at Adoptee Night on July 24th. We interviewed him because he is an adoptive parent of three children – two girls and one boy. We hope that we can get George and his kids more involved with the Foundation as he has shared a very positive experience with his adoption and wants to do anything he can do to help others.

How can people get involved with Adoptee night?
Buy Tickets and Represent! Again, due to this being our first year – it is critical that we show the Giants that we are a community and that we have the numbers to prove it. Also, we are looking for volunteers to help hand out materials both around the stadium as well as the pregame and in the stadium as well. All materials need to focus on post adoption resources whether that is mentoring or providing activities for adoptees and their families after they adopt.

What’s next for Adoptee Night and Mixed Roots Foundation?
There are actually a couple of other organizations that have started a similar Adoptee Night event in Texas and possibly in Missouri, Minnesota and New York! That is exactly what we would like to happen. The main goal is to raise awareness about the adoption experience and how we can further support adoptees and their families.  If we can create Adoptee Night to go viral at every sports team game – that will be a true success!

As for the Mixed Roots Foundation, due to being only a year old – we really are operating on a grass roots level, so our plea is to garner as many donations as possible, so we can meet our financial goals to continue the awareness events as well as create national and global models of post adoption resources that can be replicated to positively directly impact local adoption communities everywhere.

In the Fall, we will be re-launching our charter Adoptee Mentor Program (AMP) where we match caring and positive adult adoptee mentors with children who are also adopted. We will also be officially launching the first ever Global Adoptee Genealogy Project (GAGP) where we are helping adoptees and their families discover the biological and cultural roots through DNA testing.

For those who would like to support our work, you can feel free to direct them to our website – http://www.mixedrootsfoundation.org or our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/mixedrootsfoundation.

Babe Ruth – George Herman Ruth, Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948), best known as “Babe” Ruth and nicknamed “the Bambino” and “the Sultan of Swat”, was an American baseball player who spent 22 seasons in Major League Baseball. Ruth was the first player to hit 60 home runs in one season in 1927. Ruth’s lifetime record of 714 home runs stood until 1974 when Hank Aaron surpassed it.

Babe was adopted at the age of seven and was introduced to baseball by Brother Matthias at St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys. He is one of the most iconic athletes in US Sport’s history.

Kirby Puckett – Kirby Puckett (born March 14, 1961- March 6, 2006) was widely regarded as one of the best, and most popular, Major League Baseball players of the 1980s and early-to-mid 1990s. His unquestionable baseball prowess, outgoing personality, charity work, community involvement, healthy image, good repoire with the media, and nice-guy attitude earned him the respect and admiration of fans across the country. His home run in the 1991 World Series is often regarded as the highlight of his careerhttp://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=4429223 (streaming video of Home Run)
Kirby had two adopted children with his wife Tonya, Catherine Margaret and Kirby Jr.

A single Caucasian mother with her African-American son adopted through the IAC

In the past, through closed adoptions, these were probably dreaded words to hear. But now with open adoption, these words are easily explained and most likely already known from a very early age. By the time your child is asking these types of questions, they are noticing the differences around them and trying to figure out how they fit into the family and the world.

The key to answering any question about adoption from your child is honesty. If your child asks you about where their looks came from, or why they don’t look like you, you’ll want to go back and revisit their adoption story with them. Remind them that they have birthparents and that they likely resemble them more than you. If you have photos of the birthparents, pull them out and compare them to your child. Notice the differences and similarities between them. If you don’t have photos of them, or of only one of them, you can help your child imagine what they might look and what traits they might share. Give your child permission to daydream about their birthparents and acknowledge that they do share the same genetic background.

You can also take this opportunity to explore the differences and similarities between your child and the rest of your family. Perhaps you share eye color, or curly hair, or rosy cheeks. Perhaps you share silly talents such as touching your nose with your tongue or wiggling your ears. Or you might even share other interests such as sports, music, or math. Your child is likely trying to find something to connect them to you since they know they are not genetically connected.