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 celebrates the holiday season by offering a holiday assistance program for birthparents, giving them help providing presents for both the children they parent and those that were placed. There is no other program out there like it: while lots of holiday assistance programs help parents make holiday magic for their children, in order to qualify, you have to be able to provide a birth certificate, something adoptive mothers cannot do. Last week our staff handpicked presents for more than 70 children, helping spread holiday joy and help ease financial stress.
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 holiday season.
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 constellation, each triangular leaf representing the interrelated and inter-dependent relationship that exists between birthparents, adoptive parents and adoptees, and the constellation of family surrounding them.
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.
Solace Gift Boxes: Solace generously offered five of our birthmoms a gift box last month, and these boxes are so thoughtfully curated, and so filled with love; basically, this is a hug in a box.
Goodbye Again: A Memoir, by Candace Cahill. Candace was one of our 2021 Create! grant winners, and her book was published this year!
Chrysanthemums Under Streetlights, by S. Savannah Verdin. Savannah was our 2022 Create! grant winner, and her book was published this fall.
Both Cleaving and Cleaving, by Michelle Thorne. Her name might already be familiar to you - she's a birthmom, and an author, and this latest book is an intimate look into the life of a birth mother and represents some of what it’s like to live with placing a child for adoption
Tribeless: Discovering the Truth about Nature vs. Nurture as One Woman Finds Her Birthmother, by Shana Ross
What White Parents Should Know about Transracial Adoption: An Adoptee's Perspective on Its History, Nuances, and Practices, by Melissa Guida-Richards
You Don't Look Adopted, by Anne Heffron
The Lies That Bind: An Adoptee's Journey Through Rejection, Redirection, DNA, and Discovery, by Laureen Pittman
Voices Unheard: A Reflective Journal for Adult Adoptees, by Lisa Coppola
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
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
There are always a lot of books on our lists, and 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 2023 reading list!
