by Michele Fried Discrimination: The unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or gender. I recently asked why we don’t have a separate section on our website for LGBT adoption. Here is what I learned from our founder and CEO, Michele Fried, regarding her
Continue reading »by Michele Fried It was a simple nice idea. The birth mother support group was meeting regularly and we thought it would be neat to have a holiday party instead of a support group meeting in December. Honestly we had a personal goal of recruiting at least three birth mothers to attend this party. We
Continue reading »by Michele Fried In January of 2011, I was invited to take a look at the beautiful sanctuary in The Unitarian Universalist Church located on Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo, New York. It was the very first time I was there, yet it felt familiar to me. I mentioned this to the Reverend and added that
Continue reading »by Michele Fried As my children are getting older (and so am I), motherhood seems to be defined in so many different ways. One thing remains constant, however, and that is how it feels to be afraid for your child. Before I became a mom, so many people told me how hard being a parent
Continue reading »by Michele Fried Many people don’t know this but I minored in the philosophy of religions and continue to be fascinated by the differences yet incredible similarities within many religions. What I am most fascinated about is that "adoption" has deep roots within religion. As an example, I have outlined different religious perspectives regarding the
Continue reading »by Michele Fried Working in adoption means so many different things to us. It means having the opportunity to be a part of a journey that is extremely intimate. It means connecting with many different people. It means having professional ethics and a deep understanding of people in general. It means that we are committed
Continue reading »by Michele Fried We have and have had clients who were devoutly religious as well as those who describe themselves as atheists and agnostics. We have heard clients insist that a higher power has/had some intricate plan in their life, in the lives of their children and family. We have also heard clients wonder aloud
Continue reading »by Michele Fried Recently we wrote about stress and offered ways to deal with stress. We acknowledged that stress in not necessarily unhealthy in fact. When considering stress, when do we pass into something known as anxiety? What is anxiety and when does it become a diagnosis? Saying we feel anxious or stressed does not
Continue reading »by Michele Fried I remember reading a painful account written by Roseanne Barr as she described falling to her knees and begging the paparazzi not to leak the story of her having a child at the age of 17. In 1970, when she was 17, Barr had a child that she placed for adoption. Brandi
Continue reading »by Michele Fried “Wow. I have been feeling really stressed out lately!” Have you heard that before? Are you saying that? A partner? Friend? Coworker? Stress can surprisingly be good. It may energize or motivate you. The human stress response prepares us for physical activities and allows us heightened sensitivity and being more alert. Good
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