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Archive for January, 2010
Great meeting with Graceland Baptist
I had a great meeting with the Senior Pastor at Graceland Baptist. He is supportive of LOCI. I look forward to our relationship!
- Darren
Want to adopt from Haiti right now?
Anytime there is a natural disaster in another country, families are separated from each other (sometimes temporarily and sometimes permanently). The situation in Haiti right now is horrendous. The licensed adoption agencies that work in Haiti are working very hard to get the children that have been referred to adoptive families (this means the adoption process for a specific child had been started before January 12, 2010) out of Haiti and home to their adoptive families. Those agencies will also continue to work in Haiti to place children who are legally available for adoption with adoptive families. It could take months, even years to identify children who have no living relatives to care for them. In most cases, the country will do everything possible to identify living relatives and reunite the family. The children will not be available for adoption until they have been identified as legally an orphan and available for adoption.
Even prior to the earthquake, Haitian law does not allow for a Haitian child to travel to the United States to be adopted. Therefore, prospective adoptive parents must obtain a full and final adoption under Haitian law before the child can immigrate to the United States. Prospective adoptive parents can expect a lengthy process to adopt a child in Haiti.
If you are interested in adopting from Haiti, of course, go ahead and start your Home Study. We would be happy to work with you for your Home Study. You will also need a child placing agency, but should only work with a licensed child placing agency that has an existing adoption program in Haiti. Many legitimate adoption agencies will not accept new applicants for an adoption from Haiti right now because they are very busy helping the children already adopted and because they want to proceed cautiously during the restructuring of the country. Be very careful, you may see or hear of emails, news stories or other media sources that tell of hundreds of children coming to the U.S. for adoption. Many children may come to the U.S. from Haiti for temporary care and shelter, but these children will not automatically be available for adoption and would likely need to go back to Haiti at some point to be classified as an orphan and then start the process of being adopted. There is no guarantee that a family providing temporary care and shelter would be able to adopt that child regardless of how long the child is in the family’s home.
If you would like more information regarding our agency and the services we provide or the situation in Haiti, just let me know and we will be happy to help you!
Thanks,
Colleen Parker
Assistant Director
Adoption & Home Study Specialists
- Phone: 502.423.7713 (KY)
- Toll-free: 888.762.4459 (IN)
Ministry Opportunity at Boys Haven
Just got off the phone with Boys Haven. LOCI has a GREAT opportunity to bring the ministry to their campus. – Darren
Details on Donated goods
We have continual need for donated items. If you are interested in donating some of these items, please call the LOCI Hotline at 502.238.1093 to express your interest and get specifics on making the donation.
Dignity Bags are distributed by the State to children that are entering into the Foster Care Program. When filling bags volunteers should keep in mind the age, sex and whether the child they wish to fill the bag for is Caucasian/African American.
Dignity Bags needs:
- hair products (shampoo/conditioner)
- brush/comb (barrettes)
- deodorant/powder
- socks
- t-shirt
- journal & pen
- disposable camera
- deck of cards
- $10 fast food gift card
Dignity Bins are containers that are at 13 to 14 Neighborhood Centers around Jefferson County where families come for medical attention as well as supplies.
Dignity Bins needs:
- diapers size newborn-4
- wipes
- bottles
- onesies size newborn-18mos.
- socks size newborn-5years
- T-shirts, sweatshirts and sweatpants size 2T-5T
- small stuffed animals
- coloring books/crayons
- snacks
The Resource Store are for teens that have aged out of the Foster Care Program and have completed LOCI mentoring training – they will earn access to “the store” to get items for their apartment.
For Teen Moms the needs are:
- diapers, wipes and bottles (like above)
- baby clothes
- baby toys
- strollers
- high chairs
- cribs
- books for little ones
- baby shoes
- baby blankets
For Aging Out kids, the needs are:
- beds
- dressers
- bed linens & blankets
- kitchen tables/chairs
- pots/pans
- dishes
- silverware
- small appliances
- dish towels/dish cloths
- cooking utensils
- couches
- chairs
- living room tables
- lamps
- cleaning supplies
- bathroom towels/wash cloths
- decorative items
- professional clothing
Update: 2009 Year End activity, 2010 plans
By Darren Washausen, Executive Director
It is hard to believe that it has been nearly two months since I have provided an update on LOCI. So much is going on, and it is so good to see God working.
On November 30th, we had another planning meeting with the State of Kentucky. LOCI attendees were Lisa Owen, Bruce Zoeller, Michael Whitten, and Darren Washausen. Jeff Stumph also visited the meeting with LOCI.
On December 4th, we were invited to a conference on teens aging out of the system. There was good attendance and a great presentation taught about the needs of teenagers in the foster systems of the U.S. It gave us the opportunity to promote our plans to provide 2 Mentoring Programs in 2010. These are 1) a foster teen mothers program and 2) an age out mentoring program.
On December 14th, we held an “ice-breaker” winter wonderland dinner and party. This event took place thanks to the participation several churches coming together. This is what LOCI strives to “be all about”. The teens and their children attended the dinner, played games, and had portraits taken of their families.
Since then, LOCI has been in a time of planning and praying about what the new year will bring. I think it will be another exciting year on many levels.
We now have a new website with more functionality. I plan to blog via the website in 2010 and link that to our Facebook group. We will also be working to make the site more dynamic.
Last week Monday, we had a meeting with the State of Kentucky to update them on the programs that are being started. These programs will require volunteers to fulfill various positions to carry out the mentoring programs.
Last week I was invited to attend a Christian Alliance for Orphans event, specifically their National Church Orphan Ministry Council meeting. It was a great opportunity to communicate with various programs throughout the U.S. and learn more about the future focus of the Christian Alliance for Orphans. There will be more to come on this as the Council continues to organize.
This week will bring a little more organizing on some LOCI programs in addition to contact with more churches interested in learning more about the LOCI alliance.
I will do my best to provide updates for everyone. I pray God will call you to serve in this ministry to serve the fatherless.
Blessings,
Darren
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