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How We’re Celebrating: Holiday Parties and Holiday Gifts

For many people December is a pursuit of finding things that give them joy and connection. Some may take comfort in traditions while others are forging new paths. And, frankly, for many it can be the height of a tough season. Whatever it looks like for you, we hope you know how thankful we are for our community. 

On Your Feet Foundation is recognizing the holiday season by hosting a non-denominational holiday party. All birthmoms are welcome to attend (virtually) dressed as their favorite holiday character (or not, because we just want to see everyone. Pajamas are okay too!) for a chance to win raffle prizes. This virtual event is growing to become a treasured tradition as a safe space for everyone to “getaway to” during the month of December.

In addition, we are in a second year of offering a holiday assistance program. Staff, board, and donors have made it possible for birthparents to apply for assistance with their gift giving. This financial assistance is offered to birthparents who need a little help buying gifts for the children that they placed or children that they are parenting. We feel so fortunate to be able to help with both needs. This week, we placed orders to buy gifts, shipped directly to 50 children, hoping this brings joy and decreases financial stress for those families.

Often we are asked for resources that can serve as gifts for those  within the adoption constellation. We offer a list below and wish everyone a cozy and fulfilling December. Next week, we will share some holiday self care tips from case manager, Jessica.

 

With Gratitude,

The Staff of On Your Feet Foundation


 

Gift Ideas

 

For Adults:

Our anniversary triad necklace sold by Virtu, benefitting On Your Feet Foundation. This necklace symbolizes the adoption triad, each triangular leaf representing the interrelated and inter-dependent relationship that exists between the three members of the triad: birthparents, adoptive parents and adoptees.

Grow, Flower, & Flourish: A Birthparent Journal. This therapeutic journal offers 52 weeks of prompts designed to help birthmoms tap in to their creativity and resilience and remember how to flourish in their own lives.

Finding Hope: A Birthmother's Journey Into the Light,  Hope O. Baker

Flip the Script: Adult Adoptee Anthology, Diane René Christian, Amanda H.L. Transue-Woolston, et al. 

All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir, Nicole Chung

The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade, Ann Fessler

American Baby: A Mother, a Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption, Gabrielle Glaser

What White Parents Should Know about Transracial Adoption: An Adoptee's Perspective on Its History, Nuances, and Practices, Melissa Guida-Richards

Booth Girls: Pregnancy, Adoption, and the Secrets We Kept, Kim Heikkila

Growing Up Black in White,  Kevin Hofmann

The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel of Adoption, Kathryn Joyce

Look At You Now: How Keeping a Teenage Secret Changed My Life Forever, Liz Pryor

In Their Voices: Black Americans on Transracial Adoption, Rhonda M. Roorda

God and Jetfire: Confessions of a Birthmother,  Amy Seek

In Their Own Voices: Transracial Adoptees Tell Their Stories,  Rita J. Simon and Rhonda M. Roorda

Redefining Family: A Birthmother's Path to Wholeness, A.K. Snyder

Adoption Through the Rearview Mirror: Learning from Stories of Heartache and Hope, Karen Springs

For Middle School+ Readers

You Don’t Know Me But I Know You, Rebecca Barrow

See No Color, Shannon Gibney

If Only, Jennifer Gilmore

The How and The Why, Cynthia Hand

The King of Slippery Falls, Sid Hite

For Black Girls Like Me, Mariama J. Lockington

The Inexplicable Logic of My Life,Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Swimming in the Monsoon Sea, Shyam Selvadurai

An Infinite Number of Parallel Universes, Randy Ribay

The Length of a String, Elissa Brent Weissman

For Children:

Sam’s Sister, Juliette C. Bond

What Makes A Family?, Hannah Bruner

The Story of My Open Adoption: A Storybook for Children Adopted at Birth, Leah Campbell

Tell Me Again About the Night I was Born, Jamie Lee Curtis

Coco and Olive: The Color of Love, Michelle Madrid-Branch

Growing Grace (written by a birthmom), Erin Mason

Motherbridge of Love by Xinran and Josee Masse

Twice as Tight (about a mama bird trying to find the perfect home for her baby), Kendall Schmitke

On the Night You Were Born by Nancy Tillman

 

We are always looking for new adoption constellation book suggestions, so if you've read something recently that really resonated with you, please let us know so we can add it to our list!

 

 


 

Thank you for recognizing the importance of post-placement support: