CONNECT Program
Thousands of happy families are united each year through the wonderful work of adoption. However, in some cases, despite a family’s best intentions and their desire to parent their adoptive child, the transition proves too difficult and the placement does not work out as planned. CAN has developed a resource to help these children and families in crisis. Our new CONNECT Program was born out of a parent’s love to provide a safe and secure option for their child to find their new forever family through our agency. The program aims to help families prevent a disruption or dissolution; however, if a new family is in the child’s best interest we can help facilitate the transition process. To learn more check out our CONNECT Program on our website.
If you are an adoptive family needing post-adoption support and are facing challenges with your child’s adoption transition, please contact us. Our adoption counselors are standing by to help guide and support your family.
Read MoreChances 4 Children – Adopting from Haiti
Because of the tumultuous history in Haiti, adoptions can be difficult but extremely necessary. Children of All Nations works diligently to facilitate adoptions with Haiti and are thrilled to be working with Chances 4 Children to make this happen. In a country like Haiti it can be difficult to establish the right connections to facilitate a successful adoption. Over time Children of All Nations has experienced various interactions while conducting international adoptions and we are so thrilled to finally be connected with an orgnaization like C4C.
In regards to the deterioration of the Haiti economy C4C feels that one of the most hopeful rays of light comes from an orphanage in the small village of Lamerdelle, just east of Port au Prince. They believe that “the answer to Haiti’s orphan epidemic is not just adoptions.” It is their goal to provide education, orphan care and projects that will help improve the community.
As for orphan care they support four non-Adoption Orphanages which house nearly 400 children at any one time. By providing monthly donations of food, clothing, medicine and financial assistance they are able to improve the conditions and the overall care of these orphans. And just to make sure, they make bimonthly visits to these orphanages to ensure child welfare and that the partners are continuously providing enrichment programs for these children.
Beyond the children, Chances partners with local nonprofit groups to not only build schools, but also to create fresh water supplies, provide medical care at a local clinic, and implement vocational training, artisan craft programs and community based agricultural projects which add local employment opportunities.
Since 2006, Chances for Children has been caring for orphaned children and preparing them for their future lives with their new families. They ensure immediate results, because they have partnered with teams in Haiti who have been active in their local communities for years. To date they have had over 100 children adopted into loving homes in Canada and the United States. Children of All Nations is proud to be their partner!
Read MoreThe Reunion is Back!
Join our T.E.A.M. 2014! T.E.A.M. stands for ‘Tell Everyone Adoption Matters’. We are inviting all of our families to Join our T.E.A.M. June 20th and 21st to celebrate our agency-wide family reunion. This is going to be two days of fun, good food, and LOTS of memory making. This event will help raise money for many of our orphan care projects. We have some outstanding projects that are close to completetion. Click on the following links to learn more or click here to register your family for the reunion.
(Every registration includes a t-shirt, if you are unable to attend the reunion you have the option to purchase a t-shirt in support of our orphan care projects.)
Read MoreReflections on the Philippines Winter Hosting Program
The Philippines hosting program was beyond what CAN expected. Our families had fun, the kiddos had an even better time, and we are seeing that many of these children will become official members of a lot of these families very soon.
We wanted to share some of the testimonies we have received from our families. We hope that more families will be encouraged to host kiddos in preparation for adoption. We are looking to develop many more hosting programs in the future and we need wonderful families like these to step up and help out.
“We hosted two boys, 9 and 15. We have four of our own, 7, 5, 2, and 6 months. People thought we were crazy, maybe, but we knew this was something we should do. Over the four short weeks we experienced more joy and happiness than any of you thought was possible. Two quiet, shy, strangers came in December and two of my own boys had to leave in January. This was an amazing, heart wrenching, great, horrible, crazy experience and we would do it again in a heart beat!!! Even my two year old kept saying he was going to go on the airplane too and go live in the Philippines.” -Smith Family
“An NHFC email arrived,but I did not read one until mid-November two days before the due date of application has. I called to be sure all children were spoken for.(Our lives were just too crazy.right?? We are currently residing in two states.) Alexandria, informs me that another family had to back out and if she does not find a back up by 7 pm, it was approximately 11 am at the time, this brother and sister would not get to come to the US for Christmas.
I had only briefly mentioned the program to my husband having thought “now is not the time”.
Due to various circumstances a few of these children do not have a forever family at this time. If your family is interested in learning more about them please contact Lacee@childrenofallnations.com to view their files.
Read MoreTyphoon Relief
Last month a devastating Typhoon struck the shores of the Philippines taking over 6,000 lives. This was one of the deadliest storms the Philippines had ever seen. Children of All Nations works closely with orphanages in the Philippines, in order to help out we immediately launched a relief program. We decided to start collecting money to help. We collected over $2000 dollars and sent it to the NORFIL Foundation. We just received this email from them.
“NORFIL Foundation is actively helping in the safe relocation of children who were from the Reception and Study Center for Children (RSCC) in Tacloban and children who were orphaned because of the typhoon and were brought to RSCC. This facility was severely damaged during the typhoon. The financial assistance of kind-hearted people like you helped us cover the expenses that include airfare, land transportation, accommodation and supplies for the children and their social worker escort while in transit, and child-caring supplies such as milk, food and other material assistance prior to their transfer to safer location. We have also extended assistance by giving them much-needed child-caring supplies.
Our agency is so excited to hear the good news. The Philippines has a lot to do in order to recover, however one way you can help now, is choosing to bring home your forever child.
To learn more about adopting from the Philippines you can contact Lacee@childrenofallnations.com.
Read MoreThe True Spirit of Christmas: The Gift of Love
Monday night 19 Filipino children arrived in the U.S. for our first Philippines hosting program in partnership with New Horizons for Children. For many of these children, it is the first Christmas they have ever had with a family, and for all of them, it’s their first time out of the Philippines! Of course, after months of hard work and many late night phone calls to ICAB (the Philippines child protection division of the government), I was just giddy with anticipation at finally seeing the kiddos arrive. Luckily, I had the pleasure of witnessing the union of one of our Filipina host children arriving to the Austin airport and meeting her host family. It was one of the most memorable and heartwarming experiences of my life. I’m glad I hydrated myself that day, because there were lots of tears of joy, and there continue to be as I get updates on how the kids are doing.
The whole family was at the airport: Mom, Dad, both of their kids and Nana, all wearing red shirts and adorable Santa hats, bearing a beautiful sign to welcome “J” to Austin and into their family. As we stood outside of the security gate, many passengers from other flights walked by and said, “man I wish I was J! What a great welcome for her! Merry Christmas!” “Merry Christmas!” the family called back as passengers walked by.
As her flight finally landed and the passengers trickled out, several of them stopped to comment when they saw the family, as they recognized J’s photo on their welcome sign. They all said they saw J on the plane, that she was the cutest, sweetest little girl and that they were so happy she was able to come all the way from the Philippines to be here for the holidays. She had a special “AAI” volunteer flight attendant fly with her to escort her from the connecting flight and ensure her safe arrival.
Meanwhile, our tension was mounting because we couldn’t wait to meet her! We had all been waiting so long for this moment, and we all worked so hard to bring this little girl here for her first Christmas with a family since she was 5 years old. Dad melted my heart as he had learned a significant amount of Tagalog in order to make J feel more comfortable, and was practicing the whole time with his note cards to ensure he got their first introductions right. (It’s always extra sweet when men/dads do these kinds of things, right?).
Then, there she was! A few other people from the flight were following behind her and everyone stopped to witness this beautiful union. She had a big smile on her face and walked shyly over to say hi to everyone. Of course, if I had been successful in holding back my tears of joy until that point, it was all over then. Sorry for the blurry photos. It’s what happens when you’re overwhelmed with joy and can’t keep your hands steady. (Note we have blurred out J’s name and photo due to ICAB policies.)
So the Tagalog introductions by Dad commenced, and she seemed a bit taken aback, but happy that he knew her language. While she speaks some English, it can be overwhelming when no one speaks your native language and you’re in a new country. All of the children in this host program are so incredibly brave. As an adult who regularly travels, I still get stressed out going to a foreign country. But these children are resilient. They have all jumped right into life with their host families, calling them mom and dad already, bonding with their children, and some even brought their host families gifts! Let me emphasize that these children are orphans and have very little or nothing that is their own, yet they made a sacrifice to bring a gift for their host family. This brings me to my next point and the title to this blog.
What we should be focusing on this holiday season is loving each other. It shouldn’t be all about gifts, decorating, parties and shopping. While all of these things can help get us excited about the holidays, we need to remember that regardless of our religion or background, this is the season to LOVE each other. These host families have brought these children into their lives out of love. These children have brought gifts to their families and made a true sacrifice by doing so out of love. The families have brought the children so much joy, and vice versa. They a blessing in each other’s lives, and the hosting program is a reminder that what we should focus on is blessing someone else with this gift of love, especially if it means making a sacrifice ourselves.
With this in mind, we wish you Happy Holidays from the CAN Staff. We invite you to spread some love from now until the end of the year in the spirit of orphan care, and enjoy these photos of our Filipino kids having the time of their lives!
Phillipines Hosting
Today 19 children are arriving from the Philippines for our first hosting program! One of our team members will be at the airport tonight to meet one of the kids and their host family. This is super exciting because it’s the first Christmas many of these kids will have with a family EVER, and it’s the first Winter host program the Philippines has ever done! Some of these kids come from the Typhoon-affected areas, so we are also taking them away from these disaster zones for a month while they continue to rebuild them. We’re so happy this is finally happening, as we’ve been working on this for most of the year. We hope most of these kids will get adopted through the hosting program and our Philippines adoption program will see a huge jump in numbers!
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