Hi Everyone!!!
This is Kim & Galen, your new FSA Co-Chairs! We just returned from the LDSFS Board Meeting! It was a great experience to sit on the board and listen to all that LDSFS has to offer. Everyone showed lots of excitement for their responsibilities, including us. We look forward to serving with you on the board as your new FSA Co-Chairs!!!
At the moment, we are currently in the process of calling all of you so we can get to know you better. We want to find out what we as an FSA board can do for you. We would like to be able to understand where each of you are coming from, and what you envision your pre or post adoption experience to be like. We want to able to provide what you and your family need. We would like to encourage the sense of community many of you have desired to have among each other, but haven't been able to form. FSA should be a rock for each of you as you go about your adoption journey.
We come from a very strong FSA (in California) where we could confide in the members of the FSA and get support. Our previous FSA had activities all the time, and the couples became like family. There are times when it's hard to communicate to others what you are feeling as an adoptive applicant, birth parent, or as an adoptive parent. This is where FSA can help. We have either been there, are going through it, or have been touched by it. I am hoping we can get to know each other better this year!! I hope we can become an FSA family, have fun activities, and become good friends.
Some highlights that we hope to pursue this year are:
Major Activities
Spring Fling - Activity possibly mingled with Education late March/ Early April
Summer BBQ- Location TBD (One will be held here and in Alaska)
Regional FSA Conference- Sometime in August
National Adoption Month Activity- Either dinner or a temple trip in November
Christmas/ Winter Party- December or January
Education
We will be having monthly adoption education classes once a month on a Saturday morning.
(****Many of you have desired to have adoption education, since the state of WA does not require any. It's hard to know what to expect when you haven't had any education on the topic, having only a homestudy. We are all in this together. Adoption today is changing so much, so let's come and learn together!)
Blog/FSA WA Yahoo Group
We also are going to be adding contributors to our FSA blog. The current contributor is doing a wonderful job, and will continue in her position as the head of the blog. However, we would love to get a few other people to contribute as well.
***We also want to encourage you to post on the FSA WA Yahoo Group. This can be a great way to get your questions answered, to share your excitement, or other feelings with others who know what you're going through. LDSFS case workers, directors, or anyone else working at the agency will not be allowed to join. They will not see or hear of anything that is being posted. It was touched upon tonight. We reiterated the importance of families being able to chat soely with other members of FSA. The LDSFS respect that and will not be included in the group.
A Facebook group is also being created. We will keep you posted on how to join!
Play Groups/ Bi Monthly Activities
We would like to start up play groups in the Spring. We would also like to have bi-monthly pizza nights as well. We were thinking of having them regionally. For example, those who live in the Olympia area can get together and have play groups and their pizza night the same days or nights families are getting together in the Seattle or Bellingham areas. This way people don't have to drive so far to go meet their new best FSA friends! :-)
(Please email me and let me know what you think of this idea! If any of you would like to coordinate any of these activities in your area, we would be more than willing to put you on the committee for your area!)
Outreach
We are looking for people to give 5th Sunday presentations in their ward and stakes. (Or any ward or stake, including the Deaf and Spanish wards!) Regional Reps with LDSFS are also an asset in getting the word out for these 5th Sunday presentations. We can give presentations at schools, businesses, or anywhere else that would welcome them.
We can set up an LDSFS booth at farmers markets and provide interested people information on adoption. Our last FSA did this. We can set up a little booth, table, and chairs......and there you go.
We can wear our FSA shirts and bracelets. Or we can be a testimony bearer of the blessing of adoption in our lives.
OK well that is not a comprehensive list but I think it should suffice for the moment. If any of you would like to participate on the board, or be in charge of a single task or event, please email us! We would love to work beside you, our inspiration!
Sincerely,
Kim & Galen
P.S. In order to execute these events we will need lots of help from you. If you could contribute in any way- we would be more than grateful. This is going to be great!!!
