Our
15th Anniversary: It is amazing to us to realize
that the JCAN has been around 15 years.
18 years ago we would not guessed that we would be
adoptive parents to three children (in addition to our
3 biological children), nor that we would star an
organization that would fill such a crucial need in
the Jewish community. After adopting our
daughter Elisheva, we heard of many cases of Jewish
children who were unable to find appropriated adoptive
families. In some cases they were abandoned in
hospitals. In others, whether placed
voluntarily or following a termination of parental
rights, their social worker just didn't know how to go
about finding a Jewish home for a Jewish child.
We tried to get a number of Jewish organizations
involved when we realized that there were many Jewish
families interested in adoption but that there was no
way to match them to the Jewish children in need of
homes. But, none of the organizations we reached
was interested (since most of the children we deal
with have special needs, this is not a money-making
presupposition, as we can testify), so we decided that
we had do it ourselves. And so, we incorporated
the JCAN in June 1990 and, 15 years later, having
found homes for over 1500 children, with very little
money, we are proud to still be here!
We do want to thank all those who helped us get
started: the members of our Board of Directors,
including Don Jacobson, Esq., Janice Fellner and Dr
Albert Sutton; also Dixie Davis, of The Adoption
Exchange (then known as the Rocky Mountain Adoption
Exchange) Bev Moore of AASK, who gave us invaluable
advice on how to make an adoption exchange work, and
Stanely Kamlet with the Endowment Fund of the Allied
Jewish Federation who sent both financial and
emotional support our way. And there been so
many other, too many to mention, all the birth
families who entrusted us with their children and the
adoptive families who made themselves available for
those children.
We, of
course, want to thank all the many donors, both
individuals and organizations, who have supported us
financially through the years. We have also been
blessed by number of anonymous donors: cash or money
order in the mail; anonymous donation through a
foundation; money in pushkas (charity boxes) at local
Jewish stores - literally hundreds of dollars!
We
did also want to take this opportunity to reiterate
what we do:
We
attempt to help families in crisis avoid abortion or
adoptive placement if they would prefer to parent
their child; we often can offer some emotional
support or medical information, or can direct families
to appropriate resources that can offer them
assistance.
Then, if after the assistance we have offered they are
still interested in considering an adoptive placement,
we can provide information and advice about how to
proceed, and we can help located potential adoptive
families.
We offer advice and
information to families interested in adoption about
options available in adoption. We offer able to
help them make decisions about how to pursue their
goals in adoption.
And, we collect
information from families interested in adoption so
that we know whom to call (and whom not to call) for
those children in need of adoptive placement.
It must be stressed
that our goal at the
Jewish Children's Adoption Network is not to find
babies (or children) for families interested in
adoption. That is simply a corollary of our goal
of making sure that there are potential families for
the children that are referred to us. In other
words, our concern is with finding homes for children;
the adoptive families are the resource we use that
enables us to do that. As a side-effect, if you
will, of finding homes for Jewish children, we have
found children for 1500 families over the past 15
years!
Stephen Krausz:
Steve and his wife, Vicki, have six children, 3 birth
children and three adopted; two of the adopted
children have Down syndrome, while the third has a
family history of mental illness. As a result of the
adoption of their first child in 1987, the Krauszs
formed The Jewish Children's Adoption Network, a
national adoption exchange that finds homes for about
100 children a year (90+% with special needs). Dr.
Krausz, who has a Ph.D. in Physiology.
JCAN is
a A non-profit organization dedicated to providing a
national clearinghouse so that Jewish children in need
of foster homes or adoption can find families who will
preserve their Jewish identity. Primarily special
needs.
The
use of the following words "We and Us" refers to
Jewish Children's Adoption Network and NOT to Mile
Chai or Aharon's Books
Proceeds go to the Jewish
Children Adoption Network
The use of the following words "We and Us" refers to Jewish Children's Adoption
Network and
NOT to Mile Chai or Aharon's Books
Prices are set by Jewish Children's Adoption Network
