November is National Adoption Month

November is National Adoption Month and we spoke with Shelley Garcia, Program Supervisor with Adoptive Family Suppoirt Network D.A. Blodgett St. Johns on the need for adoption and the difference it can make. 

More information can be found here: https://dabsj.org/

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Remember is National Adoption Month. This is West Michigan's Morning
News Steve Kelly, Read Kita and Laurence Smith. So locally,
let's talk a little bit about that. Shelley Garcia's a
program supervisor with Adoptive Family Support Network program from Da
Blodge at Saint John's. By the way, Shelley walks the
walk too. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Thank you happy to be here.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
We talk about the idea of adoption. It's so important
to point out that those experts, those people that not
only help arrange such things, walk alongside you, right, And
that's a little bit what adoptive Family Support does. And
you're someone who's done it as well, So talk to
us a little bit about your history.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah, so I myself, I am adoptive parents. I have
two boys and both through adoption. Our whole entire staff
is all adoptive parents. So anybody that calls in with
any questions or or need support in any way, chances
are somebody on the team knows how to navigate or

(01:06):
relate to that situation.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
I think you think that you've got to be the
best parent in the world right ever, and have all
the answers in order to jump into such thing, but
the need is so great and there's so much help
to help once you've done it right.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yes, I mean, we are a pretty unique program and
the support that we offer to the state of Michigan
is pretty lucky to have a post adoption support program.
A lot of places don't. Once they finalize, families are
just kind of left on their own. So it's definitely
a need and we are super honored to be able

(01:46):
to walk alongside families on this journey. You know, Shell,
you talk about that support.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
I love this.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
All of your team members are adoptive parents themselves, so
you're actually talking to someone who has had this shared experience,
which just seems way more comforting to me. Absolutely, we
get a lot of feedback saying, you know, talking to
social workers are talking to this caseworker, it feels like
they're coming from a place of judgment or you know,

(02:15):
not really understanding, and when they talk to one of us,
they finally feel seen and heard. So it's really an
awesome program.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
Well, Shelley, congratulations. Over the past year, your staff has
increased activities throughout the state. It's great to see with
a number of adoptions and families going up and you've
got a big event right, that's coming up on Sunday,
the three Mile Project. You're in Grand Rapids.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
We do super fun, exciting event and it is all
about just celebrating our families, an opportunity for everyone to
get together and see families that look like theirs and
connect with people that kind of understand their journey, and
it's just it's a great fun event.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
Whenever somebody is running for political office, the first thing
I do is create an exploratory committee and they put
press releases out about that. If you're someone a loving
family thinking about making an addition, how does one begin
to start an exploratory committee to find out more information

(03:20):
about whether or not adoption is right for you?

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Well, I think you can contact our any of our
staff since we have experience in it, and you can
do that at dabsj dot org and then go to
adoption and then post adoption support to find us any
of the adoption workers on the team would also be helpful.

(03:43):
And if you are needing more information or support, you
can make sure to reach out to me directly and
I'll make sure that I can connect you to wherever
I feel you need to go give.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
Us thirty seconds on the difference that it makes, maybe
just from your personal experience with your two kids.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yeah, I think I connected to AFS. I'm actually as
a parent first before I came onto staff, so I
can speak to that pretty clearly. The conversation that I
had with a person who's still on our team today
on the phone was like feeling really feeling like, oh

(04:29):
my goodness, I'm not crazy. I'm not alone. I'm not
the only one, And for people in general, that's what
we want to hear, right, we want to feel like
somebody else understands us and we're not alone in it.
So just just having that is huge.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
A program supervisor with Adoptive Family Support Network Da Blige
at Saint John Shelley Garcia, thank you so much for
your time today.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
Thanks so much for having me