[blkrankins]

Please help us. We are looking for a support group or other families that have adopted a child that is AA or Haitian. We are both Caucasian and have adopted an 8 year old boy. We want to know that we are not the only ones in Georgia and maybe meet other people. Thank you.

[bichonlover]

We adopted a bi-racial newborn back in 09/2001 and are also interested in a support group. Has anyone responded back to you privately? We'd be interested in talking with you. Please PM me and let's talk more.

[Suzanne Roush]

I would be so excited to meet with other multi-racial adoptive families in Atlanta! My name is Suzanne and my husband and I live in Decatur and adopted our beautiful Lili in June...she will be six months old at Christmas and is Hispanic/African-American/Possibly Caucasian. I am determined to have her grow up with much diversity, as a matter of fact, I am very sad that we can't afford another adoption just to have another brown person in the family (my husband and I are pretty darn white.) Can you all PM me as well?

[blkrankins]

I would love to get together soon. Somehow we will make this happen. Any ideas everyone? A safe place to meet. We live in Marietta. A convient local for all would be north Atlanta? Talk to you all soon.
Laura (Kaci's mom 8 year old boy from Haiti)

[Suzanne Roush]

Some coffee shop somewhere? I need to do a little more research among all my adoption materials....(forgotten, I'm afraid, since we got Lili in June!) and see if there are existing multiracial family support groups in the area.

But let's start one of our own!

Suzanne

[Papamba]

I'm N. of Atl. also. An idea for meeting place would be a mall or park. PM me to let me know. I have a 2 yo son.

Pam

[davinok]

I just found this forum and what looks like a somewhat old posting. Did you guys ever get together and are you still doing so? We have a beautiful aa daughter 21 months and would love to meet other adoptive families

Katie, Rebekah and Aliyah

[Suzanne Roush]

I'd still love to have a get together and me all these other multiracial families. Lili is 9 months old now. I live in Decatur and work in Roswell, so somewhere in north atlanta would be okay for me. I am pretty busy until May, how about then?

Suzanne

[davinok]

We live in Decatur as well. Maybe we should come up with a tentative date and post it, then when we see how many are planning to come and their locations we can set a place to meet?
Katie

[Suzanne Roush]

re: dates and times and places to meet, if everyone is interested...like I said it would be hard for me to plan an outing until May, but I really want this to happen!

[Papamba]

I really would like to meet. I live in Cherokee, so N. Atl. would be good for me. However, we are going to visit a pot. bmom the weekend of May 20th, so please don't pick that date. Any suggetstions on the place?

Pam

[Suzanne Roush]

I'm afraid N. Atlanta is a bit out of my territory so I can't think of the anyplace specific but I suggest someplace large enough for our children yet quiet enough to be able to talk. Does anyone know of a park or anything ?

Suzanne

[dps]

Hi. I was wondering if your group ever got together or is still active on this site or otherwise? My husband and I are both white, and ready to start a family. There are a couple of problems. I have found myself absolutely drawn to the children of Haiti, and want to adopt a child from there. But my husband is very (VERY) concerned about the racial implications - for the child and for our family. He's not a racist, but he is someone who does not want to be stopped and questioned about his family origins (or anything else) every time we leave the house. He doesn't draw attention to himself or our family, and he is afraid that adopting a black child will do just that.

He is concerned not only for how this will affect us, but obviously for the child as well. Here's the real kicker - we live in the dreaded Forsyth County Georgia (if you grew up in GA, you'll understand). We just moved here from marietta a year ago, and it seems that the county is becoming more diverse, but we don't know whether our child would be subject to the intense closed-mindedness that is the history of this area.

Please comment on any of my issues!! THanks very much in advance.

[Searching4Life]

I am an "inter-racial adoptee"; my adoptive parents are both white European immigrants.

If I could offer one word of advise, based solely on my own experience, it would be to ensure that your child establishes and maintains a strong connection with God, or obtains and retains some spiritual foundation throughout his/her childhood. The reason is simple, no "professional", no matter how educated, will be able to provide the "assistance" that your child will need. My parents did not expose me to religion, or "spirituality"; that turned out to be a demoralizing blow to my development.

I also suggest that you take your child to a "black" church, this will give you in sight into the "black" or AA culture and, more importantly, provide your child with a link back to his/her racial group. He or she will definately need it during the turbulent teenage years.

My experience has been that the "black" community will be much more accepting of your family than the "white". My opinion, of course, is colored by my own experience, the dynamics and make-up of my own family unit and the social dynamics in Connecticut as they existed from 1977 to present.

[dps]

Thank you so much for sharing your experience and advice with me. Yours is a perspective that I value greatly - no two experiences are exactly the same, but you seem to have faced many of the same challenges that our child would face.

I agree with you about the need for spiritual grounding in a child's life, whether in a transracial family or otherwise. A love and respect for all life can help people to overcome so many of the obstacles that we all face every day.

Thank you again. Best wishes to you.