Mosaic of Manhattan

Dear Waiting Families,

We have to decided to not hold a meeting on our usual second Thursday evening in August. The next meeting would have been on August 11, but the next time we meet will INSTEAD be on Thursday, September 8, at 7pm at 1700 Wildcat Creek Road. Watch for email updates for more details!

Thanks,

The Mosaic Team

Come join us next Thursday evening for good dessert and good discussion at 1700 Wildcat Creek Road (Contrary to some GPS results, the house is exactly 1.7 miles from Scenic Drive; it’ll be on your left.).

This will be an excellent opportunity to connect with other couples and singles who are waiting to be united with their children through foster care, international and domestic adoption.  We’re looking forward to discussing key questions adoptive parents should ask themselves as they’re embarking on the adoption journey.  No matter where you are in the adoption or fostering process — even if you haven’t really “started” at all! — we would love to see you there!

Please contact Karen at kssheffield@hotmail.com or 785.776.3712 for more information.  If you are interested in childcare, please call Carrie at 817.201.6450 by Tuesday, May 10.

Are you ready for the hard work of building trust and affection with your child?  If you’re like me, the answer is two-fold:  ”Uh, yes… sign me up for more trust and affection.  But as for the hard work of getting there?  I’m a little intimidated about knowing where to start and what exactly that’s going to look like in my family!”

Our hope is that as we band together with other local Manhattan families, sharing our lives as we interact with this study, the hope and healing will turn out to be filled with much more joy and encouragement than intimidation.

This fall or winter, Mosaic hopes to delve in deeper by launching a small group study based on The Connected Child by Dr. Karyn Purvis, Dr. David R. Cross, and Wendy Lyons Sunshine.  This book is gold for parents of children from other countries and cultures, from troubled backgrounds, or with special behavioral or emotional needs.  The accompanying study, Created to Connect (pictured above), focuses on forming rich relationships within adoptive families, basing the content on biblical truths.

You can find more information on the study at the Tapestry Ministry and Empowered to Connect website.

Are you up for the challenge?  We’d love to hear from you as we try to plan the schedule for late 2011.

• What intrigues you most about this study?
• Are you eager to meet families who are also on the road to healthy attachment?
• What evenings of the week work best for you (and your spouse)?

Please send us your ideas by emailing us at carrie@mosaicofmanhattan.org.

In it together with you,

Kyle and Carrie

Please help Mosaic spread the word to any adoptive or foster moms or moms-to-be in the Manhattan area!  We would like to invite you to 3904 Westbank Court on Saturday, April 2 at 10a.m. for a casual, let’s-get-acquainted brunch.

We love to hear each other’s stories.  To begin this rich conversation of our journeys of adoption and foster care, we invite you to bring your child’s lifebook, if you’ve created one.  This can be anything from a simple album you used to introduce yourself to your child as an infant to something more extensive to help your older child learn about his or her birth and adoption story.

Please RSVP to Amy Brox at dnaksu@yahoo.com by Wednesday, March 30th.

We’re excited to kick off our first waiting families small group meeting on the evening of Thursday, March 10.  The group will meet at 1700 Wildcat Creek Road.  (This home address is sometimes incorrectly located on GPS and web maps.  It is actually exactly 1.7 miles down Wildcat Creek Road, as you’re heading away from Manhattan.  It’s on the left-hand side of the road.)

All foster and adoptive families are welcome, and especially those who are somewhere between thinking about the foster/adoption process and waiting to meet the precious child who will be placed in their home.  More details about the meeting will be coming soon.

In the meantime, please feel free to contact Karen Sheffield at 785.532.9500 or kssheffield@hotmail.com for more information.  If you know you’d like to drop your children off at child care at a different location, please contact Carrie Beyer at carrie@mosaicofmanhattan.org.

Please join us at 3904 Westbank Court in Manhattan for this month’s playgroup.  We’ll meet from 10-11 a.m.  This is an ideal time for kids as well as adoptive and foster moms and moms-to-be to get to know each other.  We hope you can make it!

Please contact Tara Gallagher at taragallagher@cox.net for more information about the playgroup.

Parents and kids!  Come join us for our first playgroup meeting at Gymnastics Plus this Friday from 10.30am to noon for open gym.  Cost per child is $4.

Please contact Tara Gallagher at taragallagher@cox.net for information.

Our bookshelves are yours in this community!  As with many of the familes with whom we’ve spoken, good books were a crucial part of our education as we started out on the adoption journey.

The list below includes books on attachment, transracial adoption, culture and travel, biblically based adoption books, as well as a short list of children’s books.  We expect this list to grow in the coming  months, so check back!  Please contact Carrie Beyer (carrie@mosaicofmanhattan.org or 817.201.6450) if you’d like information about borrowing any of the books listed below.

Books Available

Toddler Adoption: The Weaver’s Craft (Mary Hopkins-Best)

Adoption is a Family Affair (Patricia Irwin Johnston)

Adopting After Infertility (Patricia Irwin Johnston)

Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew (Sherrie Eldrige)

Black Baby, White Hands: A View from the Crib (Jaiya John)

Becoming Attached (Robert Karen, PhD)

Parenting from the Inside Out (Daniel Siegel, Mary Hartzell)

Real Parents, Real Children: Parenting the Adopted Child (Gulden, Bartels-Rabb)

The Connected Child (Karyn Purvis, David Cross, Wendy Sunshine)

Adopted for Life (Russell D. Moore)

Fields of the Fatherless: Discover the Joy of Compassionate Living (Tom Davis)

There is No Me Without You (Melissa Fay Greene)

The Strength of Mercy (Jan Beazely)

Inside Transracial Adoption (Gail Steinberg, Beth Hall)

Does Anybody Else Look Like Me? (Donna Jackson Nakazawa)

In Their Own Voices (Rita J. Simon, Rhonda M. Roorda)

In Their Parents’ Voices (Rita J. Simon, Rhonda M. Roorda)

Ethiopia and Eritrea travel guide (Lonely Planet)

A History of Ethiopia (Harold G. Marcus)

Held at a Distance: My Rediscovery of Ethiopia (Rebecca G. Haile)

Children’s books:
A Mother for Choco (Keiko Kasza)

Ten Days and Nine Nights: An Adoption Story (Yumi Heo)

Rosie’s Family: An Adoption Story (Lori Rosove)

If you are an adoptive or foster family (or will be!), please join us for Mosaic’s kick-off event on January 29 at 6.30 p.m.  The party will be held at Frith Community Center at Jardine Apartments.  Dinner is provided.

Please bring your family and meet other adoptive and foster families from the Manhattan area and hear more about the vision for Mosaic in the coming year.

To RSVP or to become involved in this growing ministry, please contact Carrie Beyer at 817-201-6450.