January 13th 2020

Goodbye 2019 - hello 2020! I hope you had an incredible holiday season and are working hard on those New Year's resolutions. Our numbers are in for 2019 and we are so fortunate to have helped 73 children place with loving families. 13 infants were placed with families from our infant pool (Infant Adoption Program) and 22 infants were placed with our designated families (Designated Adoption Program). We placed 36 foster children through our Flexible Families Program and 2 children found right placement through our Fresh Beginnings Program. Our birth parent counselors were busy this year as they provided over 1,000 hours of critical counseling to women facing an unplanned pregnancy. November was #NationalAdoptionMonth , and we celebrated by sharing amazing stories on social media from adoptive families, adoptees, and birth parents. In conjunction with these stories, we encouraged our supporters to schedule their donations for Colorado Gives Day . A total of 81 constituents were tremendously generous and we were able to raise a record-breaking $16,000! THANK YOU! In December, we said a loving farewell to Assistant Executive Director, Lori Devlyn. We are truly going to miss having her on the team but wish her the best of luck on this next adventure in her life. We welcome our very own Jacinta D. Watkins as she steps into her new role as Placement Supervisor. We are also sad to see long-time employee, Sarah Olsen, leave the agency but support her as she welcomes another child into the world. I am thrilled to share that we were selected by The Foundation at Rolling Hills for their annual Gala & Golf Classic in June. This is an incredible honor and we hope many of you will be able to join us. I am currently seeking avid golfers to join our golf committee for this event. If you are interested please let me know! Over the last year I have been talking about our social enterprise, ARISE Adoption Academy and launching it in early 2020. Unfortunately, we are still working on securing capital and so our launch date has moved back some. However, we have had much success in building an infrastructure – which included building the website, creating several podcasts and webinars, and developing our online coaches. We have five people on our ARISE board of managers and we are working closely with Social Venture Partners in Denver (SVP) as one of their investees to work on fund development and marketing/communications for ARISE. Our focus this year will be to secure capital and launch at least a small version of ARISE. We will pilot ARISE hopefully by the late summer/early fall. We fully support and understand how important ARISE is to the post adoption community and we are committed to seeing this through. I am still looking for volunteers as board members or if you know someone with a business that would support ARISE, please contact me at aelliott@adoption-options.com .    We can't thank you all enough for such an amazing year and are excited to see what we can accomplish together in 2020. Cheers, Adrienne Elliott, Executive Director

Beth Matuszewich, Development & Outreach Coordinator Beth has spent most of her career in the not-for-profit credit union world, working with individuals, businesses, organizations and communities along the Front Range working to foster positive relationships. Beth became familiar with – and an advocate for – Adoption Options when two of her best friends adopted their son through AO. Originally from Chicago, Beth enjoys hiking, camping, travel, cooking and spending time with family and friends.

Josiah & Malakai are Finally Home! Flexible Families Caseworker, Leah Klein

Josiah and Malakai are such great kiddos! They are extra fun to work with because they are hilarious, kind, engaging, imaginative, and friendly. Josiah is very sensitive and artistic; he’s always thinking of others and loves to show off his artwork. Malakai is a total go-getter; he has no fear and doesn’t hesitate when trying new things. Josiah and Malakai’s past does not define them – they are incredibly resilient and have made great strides since being with Courtney and David. These children were so excited to finalize their adoption after 1,388 days in foster care and Adoption Options could not be more thrilled this family is finally forever!

Thank You Jane & Kevin!

In early January we said goodbye to long-time Cradle Care family, Jane and Kevin. We are so thankful that we have amazing people like Kevin and Jane as part of this program. The success of Cradle Care depends on the amazing families that are willing to give their time and love to babies needing interim care. "Cradle Care has been a wonderful adventure for our family since 2008. We have been married for more than a quarter of a century and have two adult children who were in elementary school when we started Cradle Care. We willingly share our home, our hearts, and our love because adoption played a significant role in each of our nuclear families. We enjoy getting to know adoptive parents and are blessed to have a small role in the creation of their family. We marvel at the courage and selflessness of every birth parent we have the privilege to meet. And we cherish every moment with baby! Each baby is a special blessing in our lives and we strive to give the best care, and love, we can." - Jane

Our Life Changed with Adoption Options The Roberts Family In October 2017, we began to explore foster-to-adopt programs after looking at the profile of a school-aged child on the Adoption Exchange website. We had no clue what was involved in the adoption process or what it would take to adopt a child who wasn't a baby. Shortly thereafter, we were connected with Adoption Options and began to learn about the importance of adoption, especially for older children in foster care. Courtney Empson-Whaley was our caseworker and helped us quickly move through the training and home study requirements. We learned a lot through this process about adoption, foster care, how the government (at the state and federal levels) impacts children in care, and the astounding number of kids who need a forever family. After completing our training, we were placed with our daughter (Tatianya) and adopted her on March 28, 2019 after eight months of fostering her.    Adoption Options' team of professionals helped us navigate uncharted waters, responded when we needed them, helped us find humor in the difficult aspects of parenting, created community, and helped us adopt our daughter. The sense of belonging and acceptance we continue to experience at Adoption Options is the epitome of family and community. Our hearts are full every time we think of our journey and the support given by our friends at Adoption Options.

The Foundation at Rolling Hills Annual Gala & Golf Classic benefiting Adoption Options Save the Date for our big 2020 event! We hope you can join us for one day or all three! Please contact Outreach & Development Coordinator, Beth Matuszewich, at bmatuszewich@adoption-options.com to learn more or to register. More details to come soon! Interested in sponsoring? All tournament sponsors will receive at least one golf foursome and gala tickets!

Remember Adoption Options this Tax Season! In 2019, Colorado returned more than $1 billion in refunds to 1.9 million state taxpayers. In 2020, Coloradans who receive a state tax refund will have a chance to donate all or some of it to a local nonprofit they trust. Consider choosing Adoption Options and your state refund could help change the lives of women, children, and families! On your return, please indicate "Adoption Options" and our registration ID# 20023003807. If you have any questions, please contact or Cheif Operating Officer, Samantha Deebs, at sdeebs@adoption-options.com .

Celebrate Your Birthday with a Facebook Fundraiser! es Facebook Fundraisers are a fantastic way to engage with Adoption Options. Encourage your friends and family to help you celebrate your birthday by donating to an organization close to your heart. We are so thankful to those that chose Adoption Options as their benefiting non-profit. In 2019 we raised over $2,000 through this platform - wow! Creating a fundraiser is simple: From your desktop, select the "fundraisers" tab on the left hand side of the home page. Click on "Select Non-profit" and search "Adoption Options." From here you can select a goal and fundraiser end date. Easy!

Dine Out & Support ARISE Adoption Academy! ves Program Love food? Love adoption? Help us raise money for our social enterprise, ARISE Adoption Academy by attending one of our "dine-out" fundraising events at Modern Market. 50% of your meal purchase will be given back to ARISE. Please commit to eating with us by RSVPing at the links below.

Wednesday, February 19 th from 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. Modern Market Eatery 1000 S. Colorado Boulevard, #101 Glendale, CO 80246

RSVP

Tuesday, May 12 th from 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. Modern Market Eatery 900 16 th Street Denver, CO 80202

RSVP

Introducing our Birth Parent Scholarship Program Adoption Options is now proud to provide a scholarship program for our birth parents post-placement. Many of our birth parents desperately need additional resources to take that critical next step towards a brighter future. We are now looking for sponsors to fund this program. If you are interested, please contact us to learn more!

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