ABOUT A MOTHER'S CHARM
* A Mother's Charm (AMC) is a
non-profit, 501(c)3 adoption education and advocacy organization. AMC
is not legally associated with any adoption agencies, facilitators,
support organizations, professional societies, nor any other adoption
support services. A Mother's Charm is an adoption education and advocacy
company, not a volunteer-run organization. *
Who
is A Mother's Charm?
Founded more than four years
ago by two women who adopted two best friends from Russia, A
Mother's Charm has grown through the added work of its board
and many volunteers to be the trusted information bridge between
parents and professionals in the adoption community. It
is a non-threatening place where pre-adoptive parents has help
to assimilate all the information they get from various sources.
It is a place where post-adoptive parents find the connections
to those who can support them. It is also the place where adoption
professionals and social workers come to learn about enhancing
their parent education programs and to get the view of the process
from "the parent side of things".
The two founding moms went
to their boys living in the same orphanage and in the same group
of 12 kids, in St Petersburg, Russia. The experience was life-changing
and they met many other parents, while living in Russia waiting
to take their kids home, who had not been as well prepared as
they were for the process. Many fewer had really been well prepared
for what life would be like when they go home. Since their adoption
education had been steller, not all the other parents they met
along the way had been so well-prepared. created the A Mother's
Charm with the mission to educate, celebrate and advocate adoption,
as well as support orphan care programs worldwide. *See their
story in
Parents Magazine. |
 |
| "Best Friends"
at Baby Home #1 St Petersburg, Russia - 2001 |
|
EDUCATE
The major emphasis of A Mother's Charm (AMC) is in adoption education.
The ever-growing AMC curriculum
includes comprehensive adoption resources, made available to the public
exclusively from A Mother's Charm, covering a range of vital topics
not usually addressed in adoption education. This information is provided
for adoptive parents and potential adoptive parents mostly from the
educational benefit of insight. AMC develops books, courses, and many
other resources covering pre-adoptive topics such as how to afford adoption
and lessons-learned from seasoned parents who struggled when left alone
with their post-institutional or post-foster care child. The goal of
all the materials from AMC is to prepare adoptive parents with an exceptional
set of tools.
AMC has also introduced a professional
course series regarding the adoptive family and adoptee view of adoption
disruption. CEU credit is provided for all professional material. The
professional courses are intended to enlighten those who work in the
adoption field regarding the realities of the adoptive family/adoptee
side of the process.
AMC has hosted numerous conferences
and seminars across the USA over the years on a range of vital adoption
topics. AMC conferences have drawn hundreds of participants each time
they are offered. The expert speakers that AMC hosts include professionals
from a range of areas, such as medical topics, post-adoption support
projects, affording adoption, etc.
A Mother's Charm has a presence
at many adoption conferences hosted by other organizations as well.
Due to the unique position AMC holds as a trusted bridge between professionals
and parents. Director, Ruth Ellen Heaton, is often asked to speak at
adoption events to provide unique insights gained from contact with
the public and adoption professionals.
CELEBRATE
A Mother’s Charm offers a line of specially designed adoption/orphan
care charms intended for adoptive mothers. The line features the AMC
designed an engravable Gotcha charm, which celebrates the adoption of
a child. AMC also created the exclusive Shoes from Around the World
charm line. This charm line includes likenesses of traditional footwear
from the USA and various other countries from which large numbers of
children are adopted. Among the other jewelry pieces in the AMC line,
there are opportunities to celebrate with references to the spiritual
and photographic. There’s even a Gotcha key chain for dad!
ADVOCATE
Motivated by the care their own sons received while in an orphanage
in Russia, A Mother’s Charm founders designed the company to advocate
a variety of orphan care programs. AMC puts a great deal of effort into
advocacy projects that support the orphans who have not nor will not
find a permanent home. AMC supports many domestic and international
orphan care programs, through publicity and collection of donations.
AMC takes on advocacy projects as the needs become apparent.
* Basically, A Mother's Charm
just wants to make a difference in the lives of orphans and adoptive
families.
See other stories of A
Mother's Charm in the media.
