WAITING WEDNESDAY: Come out and enjoy a good movie

Don't forget this Saturday night is our FSA Movie Night! We are meeting at 6pm at the Maryland/Serene chapel and the show will start promptly at 7pm!

We will be "making" our own cars for the drive-in and then the feature film will be "CARS"... It is sure to be a fun night.

Have dinner before you come but save room for popcorn!

FINDING FRIDAY: National Conference "Finding" Classes

This year there are a bunch of great classes being offered that are geared especially towards the "finding" aspect of the adoption process. This is a great place to find info on what you can do to help promote your own adoption and how to get your name out there.... Take a look at these great classes that will be offered.

* Be an advocate for adoption
* Marketing 101 for adoptive couples
* What are you waiting for?
* Adoption in the digital age
* Promoting adoption through the media

Be sure to sign up and join us in Utah, July 31 - August 1 for this awesome weekend full of great classes just like these...

Click here for registration details.

WAITING WEDNESDAY: Attend the National FSA Conference

That's right..... Mark your calendars, Clear the dates with your boss, Find a hotel room, Do whatever you need to make sure you are at this great event!

The National Conference is just around the corner and it is sure to be a great weekend filled with informative classes, great speakers and just a feeling of love and support all about adoption.

The conference is July 31, 2009 to August 1, 2009 and will be held at the Davis Conference Center in Layton, Utah.

Click here for the official flier details!!!

Upcoming Activity: "Drive-In" Movie Night

Mark your calendars for Saturday, July 11th! We are putting together a great activity at the Maryland Parkway and Serene building starting at 6pm and you won't want to miss it.....

We are going to have an old fashioned drive-in movie night, complete with popcorn, "cars" and a great show. The movie will start promptly at 7pm so you won't want to be late.

Check your emails as the E-vite is going out!!!

A Father Indeed

Mormon Messages again shares with us a touching story about what it means to be a FATHER!




Happy Father's Day.

FSA FAMILY BASEBALL GAME NIGHT

Make it a FROSTY weekend

Grab your family and friends and head out to Wendy's for a Frosty this weekend... In honor of adoption Wendy's is donating 50 cents for every Frosty they sell this weekend. Celebrate the start of summer, Father's Day and this HOT weather we are having by enjoying a FROSTY!

Play Ball

There is only ONE WEEK LEFT to get your tickets for the Las Vegas 51 game on Saturday, June 20th! You should have received the E-vite by now and hopefully you have RSVP'd to let us know if you are coming.... Be sure to get your tickets (they might sell out and we wouldn't want that to happen!) You can get your tickets at the ballpark, or online at www.lv51.com or through ticketmaster.com. The game starts at 7:05pm but we will be there at 5:30pm to enjoy some food "tailgate" style before the game. Bring your own snacks, dinner, dessert, whatever you and your family would like and join us before we head inside. We will show up wearing our FSA T-shirts, or brown if you don't have one, and meet at the bottom of the hill in front of ticketing. If you have any questions or problems, can't find us... whatever.... give either Aranne 302-8336, Dan 302-8335 or Mike 355-4081 a call so we are sure to meet up. We will get general admission seats ($9/ticket) and sit on the 3rd base side in the shade.

Invite your family, especially your dad for Father's Day, and come out and join us for a great night at the ball game.

FINDING FRIDAY: 5th Sunday Presentations

"We recently completed two back to back 5th Sunday presentations in two Wards, in the same building on May 30th.

This came about when we asked the Bishop of our Ward if he would allow us to do a presentation in our own Ward. Since Lisa and I are working as coordinators in this outreach program, we felt that we should personally have the full experience that the stake reps go through of meeting with the Bishop, enlightening him to the mission / purpose of the program, setting up the appointment, and then making the actual presentation to the Ward. In our first contact with our Bishop, I think I had caught him at a busy moment on Sunday and I don't think it registered to him fully what we were requesting. A few days later I followed up contact with him in an email. I again requested his availability to consider us making the presentation on the upcoming 5th Sunday. He replied to this email very quickly and very enthusiastically with a YES! He called us the next day and told me that at the moment he had received the email, he had been struggling in thought over two unwed pregnancies he is dealing with in the Ward. He told me he was feeling like he was not getting anywhere with the people involved, and he felt strongly that to have our presentation might be touching to them. He was unfamiliar with some of the offerings of LDS Family Services in regards to unwed mother counseling services, etc. so we directed him to itsaboutlove.org to research the topic, which he dutifully looked at and made reference to in our presentation.

The second presentation came about when another Ward in our building heard out our upcoming presentation appointment and asked if we would be willing to also make one in their Ward. We were eager at the chance because that Ward is also dealing with an unwed pregnancy situation. Our Stake is currently without a called rep, so Lisa T. - the 5th Sunday presentation coordinator for FSA - agreed to act in that capacity for us.

Our Ward was first and we were all quite nervous and excited. The Relief Society room was completely full, and extra chairs were brought in. Our Bishop had wisely invited the priests and laurels to sit in. He opened our meeting with a heartfelt testimony urging them to listen carefully to the message. He then bore a short testimony of the importance and joy that comes through adoption, as his brother has two adopted children. Lisa T. then spoke, using the narrative outline as a guide and shared with the group her own personal experiences and testimony of adoption. She had an added excitement in that just the day before her adopted child had been sealed to her and her husband Dave. She shared three important statistics that raised an audible response with many in the room:

- 40% of all pregnancies currently in this country (2007 statistic) are to unwed mothers
- On average there is one pregnancy per Ward in the church
- 100% of all placements with LDS Family Services result in that child being sealed to a mother and a father

These are powerful numbers and should always be shared in a presentation. Lisa T. did a touching job in her part, and then it was time for Lisa S. and me to share our experiences and testimony. The Bishop then closed with some sensitive urgings to consider ways that this presentation might be useful, and his testimony. It was a really amazing meeting, and as a bonus, we had a Stake rep present to get ideas for her own presentations.

After a short break, it was time to do the second presentation. This one was attended by another Stake rep, and in this one, we had the benefit of having a member of their bishopric - who was placed with earlier in the year - also share a testimony and experiences. This meeting was also well attended and moving for all involved.

It's so exciting to be involved in work as worthwhile as this and we are thrilled to be able to assist in the bringing of this message to all the Wards in this Valley."

...Story and thoughts shared by Mike S. - 5th Sunday and Outreach Committee Member

THOUGHTS FOR THURSDAY: Trusting In the Lord

FINDING FRIDAY: New Website

The new itsaboutlove.org site has FINALLY arrived and it is beautiful! Hopefully everyone has worked with their caseworker and either re-done their profiles so they are up on the new site, or they have just published their info once and gotten it on this new site the first time... either way we want to make sure that everyone who is eligible has their info up on this great resource and is able to be viewed by potential birth parents....

If you have any questions be sure to contact your caseworker and find out what you need to do to get your profile up and online now!

This site also has lots of info for us as potential adoptive partents... Be sure to check it out and look through the great information that is on there.

UPCOMING EVENT: 51's B-Ball Game

Coming up on Saturday, June 20th we are heading out to the ballpark and going to enjoy an evening of baseball....

This takes place on Father's Day weekend so we of course want to make sure that you invite all of the special men in your lives (and anyone else that might enjoy a great game)!

The games starts at 7:05pm so mark your calendars now and make plans to be sure to head out to the game and enjoy a night of great food and fun with your fathers!!!

More info to come soon.... along with an E-vite!

FINDING FRIDAY: Pass Along Card Photos

Need an updated photo for your pass along cards? How about for your web profiles? How about an new family picture because your were just placed???

We are blessed to have a very talented, and very generous lady in the valley who also happens to be an adoptive parent who wants to help out those of us who are in the adoptive community by providing her photography services, and doing it all for FREE!

Marissa M. wants to help by offering a mini-session (30 minutes up to 4 people) and will give out a disk of 10-20 images. This will be a great way to starting building your actual pages or any online profile you are creating.

If this is something you are interested in please contact Marissa at marissajcg@hotmail.com.

THOUGHTS FOR THURSDAY: We Are Famous

Make sure that you guys check out the National FSA blog as we are FAMOUS!!! Our very own Warm Springs Campout made it on the blog.

Thanks to Mike S. we have been featured on the blog and we wanted to let everyone know so that you could read the great article and share in the excitement.

MONDAY MORNING MEETING: Meet the local Social Workers

We need a few volunteers!!! We are looking for a few couples (or some ladies) who want to get our and be involved in the community.

We had done this in the past and actually had some great feedback and we want to continue the program but need some new help with the program.

We are looking for people who would be willing to visit one hospital and speak with the social worker in that hospital each month (or every other month) and let them know about LDS Family Services and the wonderful programs, services and opportunities that we offer to birthmothers. We want them to be familiar with us and our agency.

Don't worry... we won't send you out unprepared... We have a great couple that is heading up this program and they will be helping you and giving you information that you can take to your social worker and also help give you ideas of treats that you might be able to bring along with you (everyone loves sweets!) and also send you a reminder every once in a while to make sure you are still going and making your visits...

If this is something that you think you might be able to do we would love to have you contact us and let us know. Again you personally would only have to visit one hospital, one social worker and it would only be every month or maybe even every other month. This is not a big committment and we hope that you will think about this and see if it is something you might be able to fit into your schedule.... Please email me at Durban51@yahoo.com or leave a comment on here so we can get back to you and get you contacted with Natalie W. who is running the show!!!

Thanks for thinking about it.

National Foster Care Month

May is National Foster Care Month and before the month is over we wanted to take a minute and recognize all of those children in foster care who need a home and also all of our families here in Nevada that have been built through foster care!

During the month we want to:

* recognize foster parents and child welfare workers

* build awareness of the pressing need for foster families, the importance of keeping siblings together and keeping kids in their communities

* bring to the forefront of policy dialog the need for programs to help foster youth transition to independent living

THOUGHTS FOR THURSDAY: Imagine...

IMAGINE... Imagine if these adoptions hadn't taken place? Imagine what could happen for future adoptions? IMAGINE!

Happy Day!!!

Wishing all of the ladies a Happy Mother's Day....

For those that are Mothers and for all those that Mother!

CELEBRATING BIRTHMOTHERS

Today is the day that we want to recognize, honor, thank and remember all of the special women that have made so many families come to be. Thank you for your most precious gifts and for being who you are!

MONDAY MORNING MEETING: Baby Kenna

We want to congratulate the Waldron Family on their new placement. Baby Kenna was placed with them on March 1. She joined brother Levi and sisters Rhyan, Katie and Isabelle.

To read about the rest of the Waldron family and how they came to be.... take a look HERE at their previous Monday Morning Meeting post.