To do less for orphans is to be reminded of what happens when we turn our backs on those who need our help as shown in Voyage of Damned, a movie based on the 1939 real life story of a ship carrying 937 Jews from Germany to Havana, Cuba.

It has been an exciting year for Nightlight Christian Adoptions of South Carolina. As you know in April of 2009 Carolina Hope was acquired by Nightlight of California.

Nightlight is collecting photos from our adoptive families for an online Christmas Card Family Album.

Merry Christmas! If you would like to have your Christmas photo shared, please send us an email (KathrynD@nightlight.org) granting your permission to put the photo on our web site, along with your digital photo.

From Hope to Reality’s design now reflects the design of Nightlight Christian Adoption’s main website.

The journal First Things has published a marvelous article entitled “Conscience, Courage, and Children With Down Syndrome” by the archbishop of Denver, Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M Cap. Here are some excerpts, with a couple comments from me at the end.

Thanks to those who participated in our book giveaway contest. We’ll be sending free copies of Launching an Orphans Ministry in Your Church to these people.

This Monday (Sept 28) at 9 pm ET, Laura Godwin is teaching an online class to introduce the adoption homestudy. Please sign up in advance at the Course Page.
To participate on Monday night, use this URL: https://nightlightevents.webex.com/nightlightevents/onstage/g.php?d=666217919&t=a. No password is required, because the event is free.

Nightlight is helping to spearhead the all-day workshop, Your Church and the Orphan. The goal of the workshop is to provide church members with the necessary information and tools to explore how your church can effectively minister to orphans and waiting children.

Professor of Genetics Robert Moss: The idea of an adoptee having access to a detailed medical history through a DNA profile is bogus, and the ‘profiles’ being offered to predict disease and traits are pretty useless.

Nightlight has two webinars coming up:
The Adoption Homestudy (free)
24 August 2009 (today! – it’s not too late to sign up!)
9-10:30pm ET
Details & Registration
(Snippet: The homestudy is the first step to completing an adoption. We will help you understand what is asked during the homestudy and what documents are required. Regardless of what agency you are [...]

Wednesday, September 2, at noon (ET), Laura Godwin will be teaching a lunch-and-learn webinar titled “China and Taiwan: Adopting the Child with Special Needs.”
This online adoption education is being offered free of charge by Nightlight Christian Adoptions. Here’s the write-up from the course page:
Children from China with special needs can be adopted relatively quickly. There [...]

As you probably noticed from the banner above, Carolina Hope Christian Adoption Agency has been acquired by Nightlight Chrisitian Adoptions of Califorinia. Our office is now the South Carolina branch office of Nightlight. We will continue to offer the same services to children and families.
We are slowly dismantlio our website as all the information becomes [...]

The spring 2009 issue of Nightlight Christian Adoption’s quarterly newsletter, “Family Album,” is available for download here (PDF).

You can now register for the upcoming Together for Adoption conference (more details here).

On Tuesday, April 21 (7-9pm), Carolina Hope Christian Adoption Agency will hold its monthly Adoption Education workshop entitled “Introducing Domestic and International Adoption.” The workshop is free of charge and will be held at Carolina Hope’s office in Greenville, SC. More details at our Adoption Workshops page.
Note that this workshop was originally scheduled for April [...]

Serious.Life Magazine, which I’ve mentioned in a previous post, just published a new issue today. Our blog and services are included in this issue (thanks to the publisher’s generosity), and we encourage you to take a look at the articles in the latest issue.
The magazine is owned and published by a family who have seven [...]

[The following guest post is by Martha-Marie Smith of Caroline's Promise.]
Caroline’s Promise has been an established non-profit ministry in North Carolina for five years and is now expanding into South Carolina.  The heart of our ministry is to reclaim hope for orphans.
Every day orphans in the United States and around the [...]

Carolina Hope will present an online education class on Ethiopia Adoption and Health Issues. A mother of Ethiopian children (who is also an adoption professional) will join us as well another adoptive mother who has specialized in the adoption of children with special needs.

From Together for Adoption’s website:

We are pleased to announce that the next Together for Adoption (T4A) conference will be held at Christ Community Church (Franklin, TN) on October 2-3, 2009. The uniqueness of T4A’s conferences is that they focus primarily on vertical adoption (i.e., God adopting us in Christ), with a secondary and necessary focus [...]