Speaker 1: Something you should go. Something you should know is brought
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Speaker 1: the gold standard. Genesis Gold Group is the only IRA
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Speaker 1: gooldra dot com. Excited to visit with not one but
Speaker 1: two amazing guests today, I have Austin on Colleen with
Speaker 1: all about you and this is an adoption organization. Colleen,
Speaker 1: you started this in two thousand and.
Speaker 2: Six, Yes I did. It's a nonprofit organization that serves
Speaker 2: families wanting to adopt, birth parents who are choosing adoption
Speaker 2: for their child, and then of course the adopted child.
Speaker 1: And by doing this you get to meet a bunch
Speaker 1: of amazing people. And one of those amazing people is
Speaker 1: sitting next to you right now. Austin. And Austin, you
Speaker 1: went through this process, you and your wife did. How
Speaker 1: long ago did you start the process?
Speaker 3: So we started January first, twenty twenty three, and we
Speaker 3: went through AU with Colleen to do our home study
Speaker 3: and we got put on their list and we were
Speaker 3: matched with a child in March of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: Very nice, and now you have how many kiddos do
Speaker 1: you have all together?
Speaker 3: It was our first one, your first one, Yeah.
Speaker 1: But I can tell from that smile it's probably not
Speaker 1: gonna be last, isn't.
Speaker 3: No. I we got to get through the survival stage here.
Speaker 3: There you go, move on.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited. And the thing that's neat I saw
Speaker 1: this as somebody shared it online. I saw the story
Speaker 1: of what you guys had gone through and then you
Speaker 1: started a Sunshine Scholarship, and I just thought, what a
Speaker 1: neat thing. So tell me what is a Sunshine Scholarship?
Speaker 1: And how can people who are listening still contribute and
Speaker 1: help with this?
Speaker 3: So I came up with this ID and I proposed
Speaker 3: it to calling about creating an adoption grant program for
Speaker 3: like the prospective families or couples that want to adopt.
Speaker 3: But also there's a financial commitment to do an adoption right,
Speaker 3: And so what I wanted to do was create an
Speaker 3: adoption grant fun for families of South Dakota to be
Speaker 3: able to just alleviate a little bit of the burden
Speaker 3: that comes with being able to have a family.
Speaker 1: I love that, And Colleen, this has got to be
Speaker 1: kind of a neat thing for you, because again, you
Speaker 1: started all about you in two thousand and six and
Speaker 1: you had a chance to work now with a bunch
Speaker 1: of people. But to maybe have the opportunity to open
Speaker 1: the doors for some people who might not be able
Speaker 1: to do it, that's just a really neat thing, isn't it.
Speaker 2: It really is. And to see Austin and his wife
Speaker 2: and their family be so excited and ready to take
Speaker 2: on this challenge has been very rewarding for us.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we talked a little bit ahead of time
Speaker 1: because I was asking where are the clients that you
Speaker 1: work with? And mainly South Dakota, but also in Nebraska
Speaker 1: and North Dakota, but mainly South Dakota. So probably a
Speaker 1: lot of people in this area right around here.
Speaker 2: Yes, we do have a lot of families in the
Speaker 2: Stux Falls area, a lot of birth parents in the
Speaker 2: Stux Falls area.
Speaker 1: If somebody listening is maybe because there's two different sides
Speaker 1: of an adoption. There are people that are saying, we
Speaker 1: want to have children, but we're not able to have
Speaker 1: children for whatever the reason, and we're looking at adoption
Speaker 1: as the solution. But there's also people on the other
Speaker 1: side of that, where they're looking at adoption as a
Speaker 1: solution to give their child a loving family. Do you
Speaker 1: have more people on one side of that equation than
Speaker 1: the other. Is that kind of equal right now?
Speaker 2: Well, typically there are more families that want to adopt
Speaker 2: a child than there are birth parents that are choosing
Speaker 2: adoption for their child. So it's not so much numbers
Speaker 2: situation as a match. Austin mentioned the word match, and
Speaker 2: what that looks like is when a woman who has
Speaker 2: an unexpected pregnancy or a couple who has an unexpected
Speaker 2: pregnancy choose adoption, they get a lot of choices. They
Speaker 2: get to choose the type of family they want, They
Speaker 2: get to choose how open they want the relationship to be,
Speaker 2: so they have a lot of options in the process
Speaker 2: us and so anytime someone is struggling with not knowing
Speaker 2: what to do, we also provide just counseling services for
Speaker 2: them so we can help them with decision making. If
Speaker 2: they come to us, it doesn't mean that they have
Speaker 2: to choose adoption. It means that they just want to
Speaker 2: explore it, and then we help them come around to
Speaker 2: whatever decision that they want to make. And then when
Speaker 2: they choose then we provide families for them to look
Speaker 2: at that are going to meet the same types of expectations. So,
Speaker 2: for example, an open adoption where you have ongoing contact
Speaker 2: with the birth parents, we want the adoptive family and
Speaker 2: the birth parents to be on the same page with
Speaker 2: that so that it's a healthy relationship long term.
Speaker 1: I love that, and sadly, most of the time all
Speaker 1: we know about adoption is what we see in movies
Speaker 1: and TV shows, and that's not always the best picture
Speaker 1: of that isn't no, And it's usually not even kind
Speaker 1: of really close to what reality is.
Speaker 2: It really isn't Adoption is hard. Adoption comes with trauma
Speaker 2: for everyone, and kind of the spurring reason for the
Speaker 2: Sunshine Fund and the work that Austin is doing is
Speaker 2: because families who struggle with infertility look at adoption as
Speaker 2: an option to grow their family, so they experience a
Speaker 2: trauma of not being able to conceive biologically. And then
Speaker 2: you have individuals who have an unexpected pregnancy and they
Speaker 2: are trying to figure out what to do and they
Speaker 2: experience that range of emotions that you can imagine going
Speaker 2: to making the most selfless decision ever possible and to
Speaker 2: allow someone else to raise their child. And then third
Speaker 2: is the child themselves and being separated from their biological
Speaker 2: parents at birth is a trauma. And so that's why
Speaker 2: it's so important that our adoptive families go through all
Speaker 2: the training and are able to know strategies for bonding
Speaker 2: and attachment and those types of things. It Austin and
Speaker 2: his wife went through all those kinds of trainings and
Speaker 2: they can or he can maybe speak to that.
Speaker 1: That's fantastic. And what was that like going through that
Speaker 1: whole process?
Speaker 3: It was actually enlightening a little bit. You know, my
Speaker 3: perspective adoption, I didn't really have one because I didn't
Speaker 3: I don't work in it, I don't know anything about it.
Speaker 3: So going through the trainings at the time was like, man,
Speaker 3: every parent should go through trainings like this because you
Speaker 3: learned so much on just the little things and big
Speaker 3: picture items. And I think it's a very well put
Speaker 3: together training plan that AU has nice and I believe
Speaker 3: in it wholeheartedly, and I just think it prepares a
Speaker 3: parent or parents for the capability to take on taking
Speaker 3: care of a child and nice and it's very very
Speaker 3: rewarding to go through the training, but it also just
Speaker 3: prepares you in general, Colleen.
Speaker 1: If somebody would like to learn more about AAU, how
Speaker 1: do they find you, guys online? Do you have a website?
Speaker 2: We do, it's AA you the letter you adoptions dot org. Okay,
Speaker 2: and they can also call. We answer our phone twenty
Speaker 2: four to seven.
Speaker 1: So I'll throw a link to that to make it
Speaker 1: easy to find. And Austin, if somebody would like to
Speaker 1: learn more about the Sunshine Scholarship or if they'd say, hey,
Speaker 1: I'd like to contribute to this, how do they do that?
Speaker 1: What is the process there?
Speaker 3: So they can either one email me at my email.
Speaker 3: I can give that to you. It's just Austin Clays
Speaker 3: at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: We have a link on the AAU website as well
Speaker 3: to donate. If they want to give a check, I
Speaker 3: can always do that as well. I can meet them
Speaker 3: where they're at.
Speaker 1: Very nice.
Speaker 3: But if they just want to learn more about it
Speaker 3: or contribute, like you said, they can email me or
Speaker 3: go on the AU's website and again the.
Speaker 2: Website once again, AAU Adoptions dot org.
Speaker 1: Very nice and I'm going to throw a link to
Speaker 1: make it easy to find. Thank you so much, guys, yes,
Speaker 1: thank you, and again I'll throw that link at Facebook
Speaker 1: dot com slash Sunny Radio and Facebook dot com slash
Speaker 1: suit Falls News.
Speaker 2: And Something You Should Know.
Speaker 1: Something you Should Know is brought to you by Genesisgoldira
Speaker 1: dot com. Put your retirement plan on the gold standard.
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