The following is a guest post from Anthony Zurica, an adoption attorney in New York City. He was guest on the IAG podcast, episode 28. He shares his experience with attending a recent adoption conference held in New York – including why attending adoptive parents conferences are a great thing to do. Enjoy!
Did you know the Adoptive Parents Committee, Inc (APC) is the oldest adoptive parent group in North America?
Founded in 1955, APC is a non-profit parent support group dedicated to improving all aspects of adoption. It offers adoption information, support, and education from the time people first consider adoption until their children are grown and starting families of their own.
At monthly meetings, workshops, and social events, APC members support and educate one another. Members can take advantage of the experience and expertise of adoption professionals and other members who have experienced the joy of adoption.
The 35th Annual APC Adoption Conference was held on Sunday, November 22, 2015 at St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights, NY.
The APC conference consists of numerous workshops on a variety of topics including things such as international adoption and extending all the way to topics such as ADHD: what can parents do.
I attended the APC conference this year because I truly feel that you can never stop learning. Furthermore, its just great meeting all the other adoption professionals that attend the conference year after year.
On to the 3 things I learned at the conference.
1. Is print advertising effective?
The short answer is, yes. While you need a varied advertising plan, print advertising is just one area that you must try to attack when searching for a birthmother or getting your info out there so a birth mother can find you.
In this specific workshop regarding advertising, we learned about the numerous ways and costs associated with advertising in today’s digital world.
The main takeaway from this workshop was that there is no magic wand you can wave that gives you the perfect advertising plan. Each family is different and learning as much as you can about what is out there and how it matches up with your needs is essential when starting out on your adoption journey.
2. The kids are all right.
This was a great eye opening panel that dealt with the children of LGBT families. Many LGBT prospective adoptive parents are very concerned with how their children will be treated out in the world when people start to look at the makeup of their family.
They have concerns about discrimination and since children are so innocent, they want to make sure they help inform their children to deal with any situation that may arise. The panel that sat and talked during the hour consisted of a few LGBT families and their adopted children.
All the children were so well adjusted it brought a smile to my face that their family and society as a whole was able to help navigate them on what could have been a very tough journey for a child.
3. EVERYONE has concerns and needs a support system to help them though this journey.
I sat in on a panel with adoptive parents who discussed their own personal journeys and the theme that tied all of them together was that not a day went by where they weren’t worried about a hundred different things.
Will the birthmother change her mind? Will the child love me? What will others think?
These are all normal and natural thoughts and the most important thing is to have people by your side throughout it all that you can look to for guidance and support, whether that be your attorney, your family, your adoption professionals or anyone you trust to have a time to give you their attention and love.
Prospective adoptive families gain so much by attending this conference that I almost implore all my clients to attend. There is just so much information to discover, learn and soak in that there is no way attending something like this can’t be beneficial to someone no matter what stage of the adoption process they are in.
From pre adoption info all the way to dealing with teenagers, there are different workshops for everyone and its just a great place to meet people that are going through the same journey. To learn more about the APC and their annual conference, click here: www.adoptiveparents.org.
My name is Anthony Zurica and I am an Adoption Attorney with an office in New York City. 
To get more info regarding the adoption conference, adoption in general and my law firm, check out www.nycadoptionlawyer.com and reach out via email at az@nycadoptionlawyer.com.
