Foster Parenting Adventures: CD's pre-school celebrates her adoption

CD has been in an extraordinary daycare/preschool since she was 18 months old, about 3 weeks after she joined our family. ?Back in those days, CD had many fears. ?This preschool has worked with children in foster care before as they are licensed to accept the funding from the state source that pays for children in foster care to go to daycare. ?They supported her when she had intense separation anxiety. ?They held her and soothed her when an unfamiliar adult would enter the room and she would panic. ?They understood that CD had a tendency to choose one attachment figure at a time and if that teacher was going to be absent, they alerted us so we could choose to keep her home as she would not handle the day well.

CD has thrived in this school. ?She is no longer afraid in school at all. ?She has generalized those feelings of safety and security to the whole school, all the teachers and all the adults that enter the building. ?Her social skills are extraordinary. ?It has been her home away from home.

On Thursday, when I came to pick CD up from school, I found an extraordinary booklet that the school staff had put together. ?In it were notes from all of her teachers and good wishes from the rest of the staff. ?The children in her class each added their handprints to a page and signed their names. ?There were quotes about how it is love that makes a family scattered throughout. ?It was beautiful. ?I was so moved. ?I have since covered every page in plastic so that it can be kept intact for as long as possible.

On Thursday, CD's teacher told me that they would like to do something with the class in honor of CD's adoption day on Monday (today). ?I thought it was a wonderful idea. ?CD and I stopped at a bakery this morning to pick up rainbow sprinkle cookies for the class

and my family donated this book to the school in honor of CD's adoption:

Parr's Family Book introduces preschoolers to the notion that families are created in different ways. ?Some are big, some are small, all love to hug and kiss you. ?Some families look like each other, some have two moms, some have two dads, some look like their dog and some families adopt children. . . .

I also loaned the class this book, which is my favorite book for CD introducing her to adoption:

Most adoption books I have found are about infancy adoption, international adoption or have strong religious language. ?Others talk around adoption by not using the word or explaining how it works with human beings as they focus on something like a duck being part of a family of dogs. ?This book explains in all in concrete, preschool age appropriate language. ?It is the truth, it is upbeat and it is all about love. ?The preschool director and CD's teacher were thrilled that I brought the book in as they believe, as I do, that her classmates (none of whom are adopted) could only benefit by being introduced to the idea that families come together in all different ways.

This is how the world changes. ?This is how people in the minority become accepted rather than stigmatized. ?It is one child at a time, one teacher at a time and one family at a time.

I am so grateful to CD's school. ?Their support these last three years will forever be appreciated by our family.

Source: http://fosterparentingadventures.blogspot.com/2013/06/cds-pre-school-celebrates-her-adoption.html

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