The adoption group for mutual assistance, launched in October 2020 in Sofia at the For Our Children Foundation, is available to the adoptive families we support every third Wednesday night of the month. Epidemiological measures did not limit our idea. We started to live, we continued online.

The April gathering of the group on the 21st evening is the 7th in a row. The former Mother and Child Home in Zone B5, 21 Gueshevo Street, has now been transformed into a modern community social services complex. But it is not the effect of the external beautification and renovation of the old municipal building that attracts candidates – adoptive parents and adoptive parents.

The adoption group is a different event, participation in it is a voluntary and natural continuation of trust. This is a serious and in-depth part of my work with families who have adopted adoption as a personal mission. The effect of years of natural demand on their part and remaining in a trusting relationship, which has been observed for years, is in response to the adequate, needs-oriented preparation before and after adoption.

The topic of adoption is complex to understand and not entirely familiar. For most families, this is a topic – taboo, too personal, intimate and deep. Too much prejudice. Requires confidentiality and professionalism. It requires special attention for each family, with a focus on its personal history and self-awareness.

The social distance imposed by quarantine measures, the closure of families, being alone with oneself, seems to increase the need for space for sharing. Social distance actually provokes the need for delicate encouragement: for each of these families with a specific and delicate profile to become part of a community in order to feel supported and able to socialize among “kindred spirits”, despite the difficulty of sharing and trusting.

Social distance further necessitated entry into reality, humility and the attitude that “… accepting a child through adoption is like building a church …”.

Observations show a closed cycle: families who have voluntarily chosen our foundation continue to seek expert support from their trustee / at the beginning is the mandatory quality training for prospective adopters: exciting lifelong learning, which on the one hand lands adoptive parents and develops self-reflection by reducing own delusions.

Then comes the natural desire for families to remain in an informal relationship with the same professionally trained trustee who can respond to any dilemma during the long adoption process.

Then came the need to share with “others like us,” and the urge to “tell about ourselves and our experiences.” Implemented adoptive families spontaneously and willingly provide direct support (both emotional and purely practical), and the benefits of this type of mutual assistance are irreplaceable.

The adoption self-help group is open, but entry is controlled. Each of the families who went to her knew in advance the spirit of the Center for Public Support “St. Sofia” – part of the complex for social services in the community, where each of them has felt quality care and warm attitude at the right time.

Petya Yanachkova,

family consultant, senior expert

The expansion of the scope and content of the program for work with the Adoption Group for mutual assistance is realized with the support of Generali Bulgaria.