FREE Webinar to Increase Your Child’s Self-Regulation Skills! Learn How on 4/30

Harmony Family Center’s free April webinar, I Feel Angry in My Tummy: Increasing Self-Regulation in Traumatized Children will be held on:

Tuesday April 30^th from 8:30-9:30 pm, EST

You can register by following this link!

"Just as a thermostat can break, if it gets overused, this too can happen to a child’s ‘brain thermostat’ when there is too much stress. The thermostat or ability to self-regulate, simply gets overwhelmed." –Dr. Stuart Shankar

Join Harmony Family Center’s Education and Training Coordinator, Allison Cooke Douglas, for a deeper look at self-regulation in children with trauma histories.  We will discover what self-regulation truly means, how a child’s history impacts these skills, the relationship between self-regulation and behavior and how committed adults can assist kids in building these vital skills.

Department of State Continues to Wash Hands of Humanitarian Disaster

In this report, the State Department washed its hands of any responsibility for the decrease, citing external factors and mismanagement by U.S. adoption service providers.

But many international adoption advocates in the United States argue the report masks the real story – one in which the number of orphans languishing in institutional care and parents willing to adopt them has increased while onerous regulations and costs have strangled compliant, ethical U.S. adoption service providers.

Georgian Car Enthusiast with James May in Georgia!

Our son, perhaps like many of your own sons and husbands, is a modified car enthusiast. Our Kelley Tornike, happened to come across this great article which included an interview with Akaki Khamaldze about his experience in meeting James May. There is footage of their street racing encounter through beautiful Georgia and most importantly, Khamaladze’s gratitude for the James May’s crew in highlighting the annexation of Georgia, by Russia, literally every single day by physically moving barbed-wire fencing further into Georgia over-night. Khamaldze explained that one day you are Georgian and overnight, the barbed wire fence with Russian soldiers standing guard is on the other side of your property, now you are Russian.

Continue reading>

SOUTH AFRICA’S New Section of the Children’s Act Will Have A Devastating Impact on Adoption

The New Section of SOUTH AFRICA’S Children’s Act will have devastating effects on adoptions if left unopposed.  Take a moment to watch this short awareness campaign video with official Petition.

Yes, Please!!!!

If you can roll out pizza dough, you can make khachapuri—Georgia’s famous cheese- and egg-filled bread canoes.

Look on a map, and you’ll find Georgia nestled between Russia to the northeast, Azerbaijan to the southeast, Armenia and Turkey to the south, and the Black Sea to the west. Georgia’s cuisine is influenced by all of these neighbors—from its khinkali (soup dumplings filled with ground meat and herbs) to narsharab (deep-red pomegranate sauce) to badrijani nigvzit (fried eggplant with walnut sauce). But it’s a whole family of cheese-filled breads, known as khachapuri, that really stands out. (“Khacha” means cheese curds and “puri” means bread. And now you know a little Georgian.)

Continue reading this post>

The Intercountry Adoption Information Act - Its About Time!

It’s been a good week for accountability and transparency in intercountry adoption! A big shout out to @RichardPBurr for his contribution also in calling for life saving changes for orphaned children and the parents waiting to call them their own.

Continue reading>

Gift of Adoption: Grants Awarded to Qualified Adoptive Families Up To $10K

Information about Gift of Adoption Grants

Gift of Adoption is the largest provider of adoption assistance grants awarded without regard to race, religion, age, marital status, or sexual orientation. Grants of up to $10,000 are awarded monthly to qualified applicants to remove prohibitive financial barriers and make possible the adoptions of some of the most vulnerable children in the U.S. and around the world. There is no application deadline. Families are invited to apply anytime after completing their home study and before finalization.

Gift of Adoption provides grants to complete both domestic and international adoptions. Any U.S. citizen who has an approved adoption home study from a Hague accredited agency (if international adoption) or licensed social worker (if domestic adoption) is eligible to apply.
Financial need, perseverance, and imminence of the adoption must be demonstrated.
Gift of Adoption considers the totality of circumstances when reviewing grant applications. While not limited to these categories, Gift of Adoption’s greatest funding priorities encompass:

For domestic adoptions, the priority is to award grants that:

• Help keep children who are in or at risk of entering the foster care system from entering the foster care system (this includes relative and kinship adoptions).
• Unite biological siblings or prevent them from being separated.

For international adoptions, the priority is to award grants that:

• Unite or preserve biological siblings.
• Prevent a child from ‘aging-out’ of the orphanage system.
• Prevent special needs children from becoming institutionalized.
• Facilitate the placement of a child with a life-threatening medical condition who will not receive proper care until adopted.

Continue reading>