21At this time of the year, we all have many things to accomplish: gifts to buy, a house to clean, sweets to bake, and schmaltzy Christmas movies to watch. The best way to start this busy season is to sit down and write a Christmas List. Christmas Lists are interesting things. They are tiny inventories of those that you love,…
It is time. Time for Gift of Life’s annual Secret Santa gift exchange. This is one of my favorite times of the year, because the staff becomes creative and competitive. Creative, competitive and sneaky. Now, I’m sure you’re familiar with how the Secret Santa game works. We all draw names from a hat to find out who we have. Then…
This time of year always brings out a number of emotions for me. I’m excited to get 2016 done and over with, but I’m a little sad to see the year pass, because it’s been kinda wonderful. One of those wonderful memories is Gift of Life’s Thanksgiving work family get together or GOLA -giving, if ya will. This is typically…
It’s that time of the year, again. The time of the year, when we bring a little holiday cheer to the community. Gift of Life works with many social and medical professionals. The counseling and care that they give is an important part of the adoption process. When choosing a gift to say thank you, we try to strike that…
October is a pretty full month. In addition to bringing Halloween, October is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month, as well as Infant and Pregnancy Loss Awareness Month. Somehow, October feels like the perfect month to discuss these kind of personal hurts. The weather is gentler. Our coffees are sweeter. We’re wrapped in soft scarves and the days are even shorter.…
Gift of Life Adoptions is always looking for new ways to educate ourselves on all aspects of adoption. So we were very excited when our director, Meghan, and myself got the opportunity to attend a presentation regarding infant care and Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome. Our intention was to gather as much information as we could so we could come back and…
This year, four of our staff were able to travel to beautiful Orlando to be a part of the annual Florida Adoption Council Conference. Gift of Life looks forward to this event every year. It’s a chance to network and reconnect with other adoption professionals. It’s also a great place to learn new policies, laws, and procedures. This year was…
As we talk about the hospital experience and making a hospital plans, I am reminded of one of my favorite birth mom stories. I had worked with a birth mom named Andrea for several months. Andrea was kind birth mom that struggled with an addiction problem. Although the delivery was sudden, the adoptive couple was able to be there. The…
As we mentioned in our last post, the time at the hospital can be physically and emotionally overwhelming. That’s why we always try to make a hospital plan with our birth parents ahead of time. Creating a hospital plan allows you to talk about what certain things you envisioned for this process, as well as what emotions you are concerned…
When we are diacussing the hospital time with a birth mom, this is one of questions we are often asked: If I’m placing my baby for adoption, do I still get to spend time with my baby at the hospital? Of course. Let’s take a moment to discuss your time with the baby at the hospital. First. This time is…