Getting Connected
Precious in HIS Sight using the Internet to feature waiting children!
By Annette Thompson
This article appeared in Roots and Wings magazine in their July/August/September issue in 1996.
Jesus loves the little children, All the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, They are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world
This children's song has always been a favorite of mine, so it was no surprise to me that I ended up working to spread this message by starting the Precious in HIS sight - Internet Adoption Photolisting.
My husband, Mike, and I have no children of our own. We had been foster parents, and though we loved the children we had foster parented, the "system" and social workers had caused us to look for a different way to help children. We considered starting an adoption agency but decided we couldn't afford to. Instead we chose to direct our efforts toward helping agencies find adoptive families for their special waiting children.
Because of our training and interest, it seemed natural to use the Internet, otherwise known as the Information Superhighway, to spread the word about children needing adoptive families. I'm a computer network administrator by profession and had used several commercial online computer services for several years. I enjoyed following the adoption discussions that were pat of those services. When my employer decided that he wanted an Internet e-mail address, I set out to figure out how to use the Internet.
After getting an account with a local provider, I found that the Internet offered an excellent opportunity for the average citizen to inexpensively and quickly publish information worldwide, and that there were many people who were connected over the net who were interested in adoption with a rapidly growing audience of over 30 million people, who could ignore the opportunity?
My first experience with adoption information on the Internet was through the newsgroups where people can post messages on a particular topic that others can read and publicly reply to. These function much like office bulletin boards. On line, I met and became friends with Lois Paul, director of Help the Children. She was trying to use the newsgroup alt.adoption to find homes for children awaiting international adoption through her agency. Unfortunately, some of the other regular participants in the newsgroup felt these messages were too commercial. Some members even felt publicly posting child information was exploitive. Even efforts to create an agency newsgroup called alt.adoption.agency were met with criticism.
Not being one who enjoys a conflict, I set out to find another way to find homes for waiting children. In September of 1994, I decided to use the portion of the Internet called the World Wide Web to achieve that goal. The Web is primarily a platform that people use to display information such as text, pictures, sounds, and video clips. It is also the portion of the Internet most used by business for marketing themselves. After finding a Web space provider who would let me put adoption information on their computer with a dedicated Internet connection, I learned how to create Web pages.
In November of 1994, I sent out my first mailing to about 500 adoption agencies and invited them to send pictures and descriptions of children for which they could use help in finding families. Initially, I had hoped to cover my costs by charging $4 per month to feature a specific child. The first 3 months would be given free of charge so an agency could try out the service and see if it was going to be effective. However, I got calls from several agencies who wanted to participate but said they couldn't afford the $4. I didn't want any child to not appear due to lack of funds so I decided to simply ask for donations. Though donations have yet to come in, we've spent over $7000 and continue to commit 20+ hours per week to the project because we've seen that it really is helping children and families "connect."
The Internet photolisting made its debut on December 19, 1994, with about 60 precious children. At first the photolisting stirred up controversy on the alt.adoption newsgroup because again some members of the triad still felt that photolistings were exploitive. Others objected to the religious connotation of the name and thought it scared away non-Christians. Though the arguing was stressful for me, people started visiting the photolisting and sending supportive e-mail. A reporter with CBS even noticed the controversy and did a national news story about adoption on the Internet, interviewed me, and showed the photolisting.
A few weeks after the site opened, I had the privilege of traveling as an escort to Ethiopia for Family Connections Adoptions. I had told agencies that responded to my photolisting invitation that I would like to do special features on different adoption programs and travel as an escort to visit overseas orphanages. I spent a wonderful week in Ethiopia and fell in love with the children and adults there. They were the friendliest people I had ever met and the children were loving and sweet. It was definitely a high point in my life. I wrote a multimedia story about my trip and the adoption program when I got back, and was pleased to be able to use the power of the Internet to include not only test and pictures, but also sounds and video clips.
Since our first tentative beginning over a year ago, additional agencies have joined in and even more children have been added to the photolisting. There are currently over 150 children listed, and the Web site is visited over 1,000 times per day now. Since potential adoptive parents contact agencies directly if they see a child they're interested in, I seldom find out which children are placed as a direct result of the photolisting. However, I do know of two children who have found homes this way, and it's been very encouraging to get email from people worldwide who have benefited from the services at this web site. A day never passes where I don't receive enthusiastic email messages from new people who have seen the photolisting and who write to say thanks or ask for basic adoption advice.
Not only does the photolisting contain information on children awaiting international adoption; it also lists all the international adoption agencies in the country and features articles on both domestic and international adoption. I regularly ask people to submit any adoption information they'd like to share so that others may read it. The submissions and suggestions of several Internet volunteers has been a great help.
The number of adoption related internet sites increases every month so I also maintain the document entitled "FAQ(Frequently Asked Questions) for Adoptive Parents-Adoption Information on the Internet." I update it several times per month so that parents can have a central location to find out where adoption sites are on the Internet. It's rewarding to see people making a positive difference in adoption through the Internet, and I heartily encourage agencies and parent groups to set up their own Web sites.
So, what does the future hold for the Precious in HIS Sight - Internet Adoption Photolisting? Well, judging from the wonderful response after the Adoptive Families of America conference, the number of children on the photolisting will be rapidly increasing. Also, once I save up about $400 for software, I plan to move the photolisting to a different Internet address which will allow for a number of improvements. The most significant will be the addition of a search engine so that parents can search for children based on the type of child they're looking for.
Future plans also include expanding the scope of the site to provide a place where prospective adoptive parents to post birthparent ads, a new section for listing special needs infants who are in the care of private agencies, and a supplement to the photolisting containing adoption information for parents in other countries. I'm also going to add email mailing lists for adoptive parents. In order to do all of this, I'll need to find more volunteers to help me though, and hope that interested readers of this story will volunteer to get involved.
I recently started creating commercial Web sites so that I can work out of my home and be a stay-at-home mom. Mike and I are in the process of adopting and are really looking forward to being parents. We're glad we have made so many wonderful friends on the Internet who have shared their adoption advice with us and know it will be helpful in the many years to come. It's comforting to know that the support of thousands of adoptive parents worldwide and a wealth of adoption information is only as far away as my computer!
About the Author: Annette Thompson can be reached at Precious in HIS Sight - Internet Adoption Photolisting at http://precious.org/ or by email at annette@precious.org.
Updated: January 12, 1997
Send comments and suggestions to:annette@precious.org
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