Tuesday night, December 23, you can hear your favorite celebrity musicians and learn about helping kids. Faith Hill, herself an adoptee, will host the 10th annual “A Home for the Holidays” TV special.
This event blends star power and music with adoption information. Dave Thomas (the Wendy’s “Where’s the Beef” guy) was one of the originators of the show, which aims at increasing awareness of the need for parents for children who wait in foster homes.
I wrote last year of my experience watching the show and finding it less intrusive and tear-jerking that I had feared. There was lots of music and celebration, interspersed with interviews with foster and adoptive families. (I was relieved to learn that although children and their families were present, most of their stories were taped earlier so as not to put the children “on the spot”. The show does profile about a dozen children currently needing families, but their stories are taped and their names kept private.)
Hill has performed in past shows, and this year she will host as well as sing. Her husband, singer Tim McGraw, will join her, as will Melissa Etheridge and Gavin Rossdale, as will other stars, including adoptee Jamie Foxx and adoptive parent Martin Short. Other actors and actresses will introduce segments telling an adoption story.
Hill believes most of the celebrity guests on the show have some connection to adoption. She herself was adopted as a baby. She says that her parents, originally on a long waiting list for a baby girl, chose the name “Faith” because they had faith that the adoption would happen, which it did sooner than expected.
The singer says, “I was adopted into a wonderful family. It [adoption] is one of the truest testaments to unconditional love, and as long as you can really show a child support, mountains can be moved. Babies are adopted by the thousands every day, but children who have been taken out of their homes because of abuse or neglect need a home as well.”
Hill goes on to talk about older teen-agers. She says often people assume that a child only a few years from age 18 doesn’t need a family. Hill points out that teens still need someone to come home to, to be grandparents to their children, to have a connection and a history with a family, and to be shown love.(Last year I wrote a blog about youth aging out of the foster care system when turning 18. Read it here.)
Indeed, most of the children featured on past shows have been about age 7 to 17. However, the show will provide an 800 number which will connect viewers to someone in their region who can speak with them about different adoption options.
Hill said that all of the children specifically featured on previous shows have been placed with families. That would be 10 or 12 children a year, but Hill says the show has led to the adoption of over 20,000 children.
Our former adoption blogger wrote about what it was like to watch the show with her adopted daughter, who had been in foster care for a year before her adoption at age five. You can read her blog here.
If you can’t adopt but want to help foster kids through mentoring, tutoring, donating, or advocacy, please read my blogs on Helping Teens in Foster Care Grow Up and More Ways to Help Foster Children.
Please also see this related blog:
All I Want for Christmas is a Forever Family