"Adopting" A Child For Christmas And/Or All The Time

Hope Y’all can help me out…

My Significant Other and I are both in our 50’s, our children are grown, and even though we love our grandkids, I would like to surprise her this Christmas by “adopting” (sending money) to a little girl somewhere.

Could Y’all please recommend an agency of this kind to me? I tried doing a GOOGLE search on “Adopt A Child”, but all that came up was adopting period.

If possible, I would like to get a picture of the little girl and know a little bit about her so that I can enclose it in the gift envelope I will give Pam as part of her Christmas.

BTW: I do know this will be an ongoing thing (monthly payments) and it isn’t just a passing fancy.

Thanks very much!

Quasi

As a former foster mother, I suggest calling your local Office of Community Services, or whatever agency heads up Child Protective Services, and asking about children in long-term foster care who have no/or limited contact with their biologicial families.

You might specifically ask if there is a child in care who would appreciate music, gymnastics, cheerleading, sports, etc. lessons. Funding is very limited for these children, and foster parents are often strapped for cash after trying to meet the childrens needs, much less their extra curricular desires.

To insure that your money is properly applied, you can request to make the donations directly to the provider of the extra-curricular service. This will elimated the sticky fingers of the state agency and unscrupulous foster parents (yes, they are out there )

Thanks for thinking of those less fortunate!

Yeah, keep your dollars local.

The Salvation Army runs something called the “Angel Tree” program, which is where you buy a gift for a specific needy child. Sometimes it’s just a list, sometimes it’s an actual physical Christmas tree, where the names are written on paper angel ornaments and you grab one.

Many churches also run their own “Angel Tree” programs. And if they aren’t doing an “Angel Tree”, they probably have some sort of “coats for kids” or Christmas basket program.

Church list for Dallas, Georgia. http://www.churchangel.com/WEBGA/dallas.htm

The Salvation Army is way down at the end, after about a million Baptist churches (!), but their phone number and address aren’t listed.

According to Yahoo Yellow Pages, the closest Salvation Army to Dallas, Georgia is:

Salvation Army The-Douglas County
8460 E Courthouse Sq~ Dglsvl,
Douglasville, GA
Phone: (770) 942-7188

So, anyway, what I’m getting at is, I know you probably had in mind sending money to some little “foreign” child somewhere, but I’ve always thought that this way you have a better sense of what your money is doing.

After you get in contact with somebody who’s running an “Angel Tree” program, explain what you want to do, that you want it to be an ongoing relationship. People do do this. Once they understand that you’re not a child molester looking for fresh talent, that you’d be satisfied with a letter and a photograph every so often, they’ll be more than happy to match you up with someone local and needy.

Thank you both very much!

Quasi