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President's Letter
November 2009
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Happy Holidays!! 'Tis the season to celebrate our families and / or the children we await, who will make our families whole. Do you have any traditions in your family that have evolved from building your family through adoption? Do you incorporate ideas from your child's cultural background? Do you reflect on your child's birthfamily in the course of your festivities? I have been remiss for the past couple years, but one of the traditions I had started a few years ago, was to write a letter to each of my children's birth families, updating them on the highlights of the year, and include a couple pictures. Since both of my children came to us through international adoption, we send our letters, via our agency, to the orphanages in which our children stayed. We are not positive that the letters will ultimately be seen by their families, but we still hope so. I am looking forward to writing this year's letters, and the opportunity, once more, to express my eternal gratitude to the selfless women that made the brave choices that directly resulted in giving me and my husband the opportunity to be parents...to make grandparents out of our folks...to fulfill our dreams.
Another tradition, and one of my favorite celebrations, is CAFFA's annual tree trim party at Brookfield Zoo-we create ornaments out of the pictures sent by our member families, and decorate our tree with them. It's heartwarming to see our babies' smiling faces on their tree and reflect on the journeys that got us to this point. For our waiting families, we hope it brings encouragement that their children will soon be with them. We lucked out with weather this year-it wasn't bitterly cold like it usually is...and we had many lovely families attend and connect with one another...embodying the spirit of the season.
I have to admit, that as I write this, I am feeling somewhat bittersweet. This is my last letter to you as President of CAFFA, before I pass the torch to Jan Reagan, who will take over in January. Jan has been on the CAFFA Board for 2 years, most recently in the role of Social Chair, and has many exciting ideas for our organization-I, for one, can't wait to see what's in store! I am looking forward to pursuing new volunteer opportunities, myself; however, it's hard not to feel a bit melancholy, as this organization has been "my baby" for the past two years-a true labor of love-and I will miss this role. I will not stray too far, as I will continue on as Education/Conference Chair for CAFFA. I would also like to welcome our newest Board Member, Anita Snow. Anita and her husband are the proud parents of 2-year old Owen, who came into their lives at birth, through domestic adoption. We are all looking forward to working with Anita, who brings not only parenting and adoption experience, but an event-planning background as well-perfect for her role as our new Social Chair.
I am really proud of this organization, and what we have been able to accomplish. Although we are non-profit, and our board is entirely run by a small group of volunteers, we believe we have been successful in reaching you in so many ways. Before I start congratulating myself, and patting our volunteers' backs too quickly, I want to let you know that CAFFA is only as strong as our membership-your continued interest, participation and involvement are the fuel for this organization. To this end, if you have not already, please fill out the on-line survey that was emailed to you-we need your feedback, ideas and suggestions as we look forward to a new year-your results will be an integral part of our kickoff planning meeting in January.
Before I sign off for the final time, I want to thank so many people for their amazing contributions to CAFFA-without their time and effort, we couldn't accomplish all that we have. Our Board-Janel, Amy, Lisa, Ann, Jan, Cathy and Carol-has worked tirelessly over the last couple years to pull together our events and to coordinate our "voice" in the adoptive community, with their endless ideas and energy. Also on our board, our webmaster, Andy, has brought our website to a new level-all our events are on line, and we are more plugged into the adoption community than ever before. Our newsletter team-Rachel & Laura-continues to turn out one exemplary issue after another. Our Playgroup and On-line group coordinators-Nicole, Sharon, Jennifer, Ruth, Veronique, Amy, Janel, and Linda-ensure there is a live, tangible connection among our members. Finally, YOU, our members, through your ideas, participation and involvement, keep us going strong, and we are grateful. Thank you, all...thank you, thank you!!
I also want to thank all of you for indulging me for the past 2 years, by letting me share my thoughts and little snippets of my life with you. Writing this letter is therapeutic to me, but my hope is that a story I told, or an idea I shared may have inspired a few of you in your own ways. As we approach the end of the year, enjoy the gifts of the season, and have a blessed new year.
Warmly,
Shila M. Khan
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