Your Stories Needed!

In an effort to help others within our Layton Chapter, we would like to try something new with our blog. Our hope is to share a variety of adoption stories from all different perspectives and situations to help each of us throughout our own personal journeys. We would like to feature an adoption story, experience, thought, etc. each week on our blog. This can range from a particular family's adoption story, a birth mother or birth father story, the miracles that happened along the journey, stories from those who have gone through different agencies, coping with failed placements, experiences with the approval process, etc.

 

We would absolutely love to hear from you! If you have a story that you would like to share, please e-mail us! Our hope is that by sharing our thoughts and experiences, we can learn and grow together.

 

 

Please e-mail us at laytonfsa@gmail.com if this is something you would like to participate in. Stay tuned for these incredible stories!

Looking forward to hearing from you!

FSA Committee Meeting

Our next FSA Committee Meeting will be on Thursday, August 23rd at 1:00 pm at the Layton Agency. Everyone is welcome! We will be talking about future activities and what we would like to see happen with our chapter. We would LOVE everyone's input! 

If you would like to be involved but can't attend, please let us know. You are welcome to bring your kids. We will have a few toys and a treat to help keep them entertained.

Family Barbeque

How Could She Let Him Go?

The following article is from this month's Ensign:

I learned a surprising lesson when my sister placed her baby for adoption.

10408When my younger sister, Lauren, told me she was pregnant, I couldn’t have been more upset for her. She had just come from telling the baby’s father, who had abdicated any responsibility, and she was devastated. All I could do was hold her while she cried.

Lauren’s Decision

After talking to our mother, Lauren decided to see a counselor at LDS Family Services and begin procedures to place her baby for adoption. I was appalled. How could she think about giving up her baby? He had a family! Her decision split our family down the middle. My parents and one sister supported the adoption, and my other two sisters were as opposed as I was. I was so angry that most days I stayed away from our apartment. How could she possibly feel good about abandoning her baby to strangers?

My mother and sister Jennifer arrived to be with Lauren the day before her due date. There was no one else to take them to the hospital the next morning, so despite my resolve not to participate, I found myself walking down the long, sterile corridors of the maternity ward.

The doctor looked somber as he came out of the operating room. He said, “Lauren will be back to her room in about half an hour, but the baby was sent to the intensive care unit. He is having difficulty breathing.”

My mother and I headed to the intensive care unit while Jennifer waited for Lauren to come out of recovery. A nurse motioned us to an incubator where I looked into the face of my new nephew. He looked just like Lauren. I had been praying that she would change her mind and keep him, but now I just prayed he would live.

As my mother and I stood vigil the third morning, the nurse said, “You know it’s not too late to back out of the adoption.” I saw a steady stream of tears falling down my mother’s cheeks. For the first time I realized I wasn’t the only one hurting. “I don’t know how we’ll be able to do this,” she said.

One Day with Ryan

Ryan—that was what Lauren had decided to call him. We would get only one day with him before his adoptive parents took custody.

It was almost noon by the time we got everything situated at the hospital the day Lauren and Ryan were released, and we only had him until six o’clock that evening. We had decided to pack a picnic lunch and take him to the park. It was a lovely day, and we enjoyed watching him eat and stretch and sleep. He was so contented and sweet. I kept thinking there was no way I could go through with this. I had never known love like I felt for that tiny baby. He wasn’t even mine, but how could I let him go?

When we arrived at LDS Family Services, I lifted Ryan out of his car seat and eased him into Lauren’s lap, and she cuddled him. We sat there drinking in these last precious moments that would have to last a lifetime.

Lauren handed him to me so she could get out of the car. I had the impulse to run, but before I could, the door to the office opened and a social worker came to greet us. Then something amazing happened. I stepped out of my dark world, over the building threshold, and into the warmth of what I imagine heaven will be like. That’s the only way I can explain it. The room was enveloped in the sweetest, warmest spirit I have ever felt. The adoptive parents had an aura about them that melted my heart. I knew they were meant to be Ryan’s parents.

My sister made the right choice. She would have struggled just to put food on the table if she had kept Ryan. She loved him but could not have given him the choicest gift—that of a temple sealing to his parents. I’m thankful my sister’s vision saw beyond her loss, that her ears heeded a prophet’s counsel, and that the healing power of the Atonement can comfort us in our deepest sorrows.

For additional information about adoption services, contact LDS Family Services at 800-537-2229, or visit www.ldsfamilyservices.org.

2012 Regional Conference Service Projects

Each person who attends the Regional Conference this year is encouraged to sign up for a Service Project and donate the supplies needed to complete the project.  (Each project will cost approximately $1 - $6 and remember that this year there is no registration fee for the Conference!)

Service Projects will be done Friday evening so don't forget to bring the supplies required to complete your project.  Feel free to sign up for more than one project if you would like!

PROJECT OPTIONS & SUPPLIES:

1. Fleece Blankets

• Fleece (Pick one)

• Child: 1.5 yards of child appropriate printed fabric OR
• Young Adult/Adult: 2.0 yards of fabric suitable for young adult/adults

• Scissors
• Rotary Cutter/Mats (if desired)

2. Journals

• composition book* (8 ½ x 11 paper bound/no spiral please – see attached photo for reference)
• glue sticks
• scissors
• paper cutter (if desired)
• (3) sheets of coordinating scrapbook paper (We need journals for both girls and boys)
• embellishments coordinating with design

3. File Folder Games – “Kids Who Count” will provide copies of the games; you bring the rest of the supplies: 

• colored pencils  
• scissors  
• glue stick 
• (2) sheets of cardstock (any color) 
• (1) manila folder 

*Watch the back-to-school sales for good deals on the supplies!  

ORGANIZATIONS FSA IS SERVING through these projects:

Birth Mother Baskets 

Birth Mother Baskets {bmb} is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that delivers gift baskets to birth mothers who have recently placed their babies for adoption.  These gift baskets hold so much more than just the tangible items inside of them.  They are filled with LOVE, warmth, and support.  bmb provides a loving voice saying, "you are not alone, you are loved, you are brave and yes, someone has felt this unbearable pain before."

Please, help us support these brace women who truly give the greatest gift of all . . . selfless LOVE.

West Ridge Academy 

West Ridge is designed to assist young people ages 9-18 who have a history of emotional and behavioral problems, low self-esteem, academic underachievement, substance abuse and family conflict.  

The purpose of West Ridge Academy is simple: to send a child home with a change of heart. We are consistently able to do this by applying our foundational principles of Family, Spirituality, Integrity, Work, Service and Gratitude. With each student, a Master Treatment Plan is individually developed and implemented, created specifically for each student’s needs 

The Road Home 

The Road Home is a private non-profit social service agency that assists individuals and families experiencing homelessness in Salt Lake County and along the Wasatch Front. Our mission is to help people step out of homelessness and back into our community.  

Originally established in 1923 to assist stranded travelers, the Road Home has grown to address a spectrum of needs that people experiencing homelessness encounter as they work to restore their lives. In addition to operating the largest shelter in Utah, the Road Home has developed a comprehensive housing program that helps people move into housing as quickly as possible. 

Utah Youth Village 

Utah Youth Village changes the lives of troubled children and families. The Village offers residential care in Treatment Foster Homes and in Group Homes. The Village also offers in-home help through Families First, an intensive program that teaches parents valuable skills. Other programs include Parenting For Success classes, therapy, and privately funded higher education grants for Village graduates. 

Kids Who Count

Kids Who Count is an early intervention program.  Early intervention provides services and support to families with children under the age of three with a disability or a delay in development.  Kids who Count provides services to families living within the Nebo School District.