Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not. ~Dr. Seuss

This quote from the book, The Lorax, is a great way to open up conversation with our children about how we can serve others. Service is an amazing way to teach our children compassion. It is even more wonderful when we are able to help our adopted children to give back by serving and developing more compassion for adopted children and families.

Where can we find opportunities to serve within the adoption community?

Here are some ideas:

1) Contact foster and adoption agencies. Let them know what you have to offer – i.e. a family who can serve, two teenagers who can serve, one child, one mom, whatever you have. See if they can give you suggestions of how to help. Contact churches and ask who is in charge of their service. Contact homeless shelters, women’s shelters, and the Ronald McDonald house. Contact the pediatric section of the hospital and ask for someone to talk to.

2) We made meals and cookies to donate to the Ronald McDonald House. Contact them for the requirements necessary that allow them to accept the food.

3) Baggage Claim – a program that collects luggage and backpacks for foster children to move with, so they don’t have to use the horrid black plastic bags that most of my foster/adopted children arrived to my home with.

4) Offer respite for a foster family or an adoptive family – or mother’s helper – or read to the children, take them with your children to the park to play. Plan regular “trips” that you can take a child on, so they have something to look forward to and parents have a time that they can get a scheduled respite break (i.e. parks, zoo, and local attractions). Or plan instead for regular times to go to the family home and let the parents go out for a respite break.

5) Contact new adoptive families and ask them what you can do to help – gather supplies or clothing, read to new child, read to the other children so that they can get extra attention without all of the focus being on the new child, help new child with language if from same country

6) Scour yard sales or donations for furnishings (esp. dressers) that need some loving care. As a family, teach refinishing skills and get the dresser looking nice – then donate to a foster family. (Use freecycle groups)

7) Yard work. As a family or group, help a family with their yard care. This can be for a large family, a family whose parent(s) might be working long hours, a new adoptive family (so that they can focus on the new child). We help elderly neighbors. This may not be a direct “adoption help”, but it has helped the kids become more aware of the many types of folks and neighbors that make up a community.

8) If you know of a family as they receive a new foster or adoptive child, bring in meals for the family. On one particularly stressful day, I had a lady stop by with a box of Ding-Dongs. She said she was just thinking of us and wanted to bring a treat for the kids. She stayed only about as long as it took to say those words. That prepackaged box of junk food made my day. To know that I had support out in the “great big real world” buoyed my spirits. Not to mention, the kids loved the treats.

9) A group of girls from our church youth group showed up one night, unannounced. As a surprise they cleaned and read to kids, then put them to bed. This gave me the night “off” and was a very welcomed service!

There are so many opportunities that will come up once you start thinking about what you can do. The important thing as we teach our kids is that it’s important that we look around so that we can do SOMETHING to help! Remember Dr. Seuss: "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."

Other blogs about teaching service:
Teaching Adopted Children to Serve Others
How to Find Service Opportunities