February Webinar, Application of Trauma Sensitive Discipline

Harmony Family Center is excited to announce our free February Webinar.

Trauma Sensitive Discipline: Applying the S.E.T. Model
February 28^th, 8:30-9:30 pm, EST

Children who have been abused, neglected or substance exposed don't always respond to typical forms of discipline, challenging and frustrating many foster and adoptive parents.

Join Allison Cooke Douglas, adoptive parent and Education and Training Coordinator at Harmony Family Center, in an hour long discussion of why old standbys like timeout, spanking and lectures don't work for our kids and how parents can shift to mindful, connected discipline techniques for difficult behaviors.

Please register by clicking this link.

Serbia Program Update

We wanted to take a moment to give you a quick update on our Serbia program which is running smoothly and growing.  Our Serbia program opened in 2014 and between 2015 and 2018, we assisted ten Serbian children into their permanent families.  At this point in February 2019, we have eleven matched families in various stages of the process, adopting a total of thirteen formerly waiting children.  One family just returned to the US with their new son and another is slated to travel shortly.  We are so thrilled that more families have discovered this great program and the wonderful Serbian kids.  The Serbian Central Authority discourages submission of a dossier without a specific waiting child in mind and with a pre-approval of the Ministry.  The Serbian Central Authority continues to define its international adoption program as a program for special needs placements only, whether that means children with medical and/or development diagnoses and/or older children/sib groups.

Since April 2014, we have worked with the same fantastic Foreign Supervised Provider in Belgrade.  He single-handedly manages all of our cases from the Serbian side and warmly welcomes families when it is time to pick up their children.  He provides his excellent care and service to all parents and children.  His schedule for 2019 is already very full as many of you are projected to travel this year, but he and the Serbian Central Authority are as excited as our team here at Hopscotch to see so many children adopted.  Historically, Serbian officials take vacations or celebrate holidays in the months of July and August as well as part of December and January, so adoption travel is usually not scheduled during those times.

Finally, if you should be asked about our Serbia program by others interested in adoption, please let them know that a simple Letter of Introduction, is the new family’s first step in their adoption journey with Serbia, and as always sent free of charge and is non-binding.  It’s a fast and easy way to find out if a waiting child with specific parameters a family would be interested in is already registered and eligible for adoption; or to gain permission to see the file of an identified waiting child previously made known to Hopscotch. Serbia does not require an approved home study for them to make a provisional match, but they do expect the complete dossier and USCIS approval to be forth coming within 6 months, unless special circumstances occur.   Speaking of waiting children, there are at least two sweet little ones who have Down Syndrome ages 6 and under waiting to be found along with a very handsome and bright 8 yo boy who has spina bifida and an active kindergartner and preschooler each with global developmental delays and possible autism.  If you know of anyone who might be interested in these children or this program, please send them our way.

My best wishes to all of you – I so enjoy following the journeys and keeping up with our Serbia families once home with their amazing children.  Take a look at some of the Serbian beauties in the attachment who have found their forever families through Hopscotch.  I’d venture to say they were so worth the wait.

Viviane
Viviane Martini, Family Coordinator and Advocate
Hopscotch Adoptions, Inc.
Armenia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Ghana, Guyana, Morocco, Serbia and Ukraine
Pre- & Post-Adoption Services available to NY and NC residents
Phone: 336.899.0068

I’ll hold you in my heart…

Helpusadopt invites you to their NY meetup! See FAQ's about this event below.

FAQ:

How can I invite a friend/family member/colleague to the event?

The more, the merrier! Feel free to forward this email to anyone who may be interested in attending.

I can't attend for the whole time, can I still come?

Absolutely! Feel free to stop by when you can and stay for as long as you'd like!

I'm in the very beginning stages of the adoption process, should I still attend?

We invite all members of the adoption community to attend, even those just beginning the process!

Are children invited to the meetup?

We request that children not attend this particular meetup. As our meetups grow, we hope to have more targeted events and ones where children can attend!

Sayra Havranek, bCET
Manager of Communications and Development

Helpusadopt.org
917.684.5484