Page 2 - Hawaii Island MidWeek - Nov 16, 2022

2 HAWAI‘I ISLAND MIDWEEK NOVEMBER 16, 2022
Celebrating National Adoption Month
By Shaylah Nichols, LSW, director of social work with A Family Tree
Treat And Trick
Chris and Manny first contacted A Family Tree last August. For
specialized in international adoption. Over the years, HIC helped place children from all over the world to families here in the U.S. Eventually, HIC introduced a domestic infant placement program, providing support to local birth mothers and helping them get matched with local adoptive families. We also help local families adopt both infants and waiting children from the mainland. In 2020, we re-branded the agen- cy and became A Family Tree and Pono Roots Counseling Center, providing both adop- tion and mental health services to the community.
adoption and how to support the adoptees in their lives. Our current focus is helping the youth currently waiting to be adopted from foster care find permanent homes with loving families here in Hawai‘i.
In my book, 2022 gave us the best Halloween that we haven’t had in a long time. Of course, it also brought back all my antics of old, but first let me talk about the “treat” of this year’s Halloween. Then I’ll talk about the “trick.”
them, raising a family was always part of the plan. Their dreams of having biological children came to a screeching halt, though, when they were informed that they were unable to conceive naturally.
We are asking the commu- nity to donate to A Family Tree to help children in foster care find permanent, loving homes. Your donation will also allow us to continue doing the work we’ve been doing for the last 47 years in providing support to adoptees and adoptive fam- ilies in the community as one of the only adoption compe- tent mental health centers in the state.
My wife and daughter’s parochial school church decided to hold a “trunk or treat” event the evening before Halloween in the church parking lot. If you don’t know, trunk or treat is where you gather in a parking lot and decorate your trunk for Halloween and kids in costumes come by for candy and treats. The entire church and school community was invited to participate.
After taking time to heal, Manny and Chris eventually decided to pursue adoption as a way to grow their family. A Family Tree guided them through the home study pro- cess, providing training and counseling along the way. Ex- actly one year and one day after Chris and Manny first contact- ed A Family Tree, we received the exciting news that the cou- ple had matched with a birth mother in Texas. On Sept. 12,
Manny and Chris with their baby girl.
PHOTO COURTESY A FAMILY TREE
It was more like a Halloween carnival with potluck food and desserts, games and activities, a DJ playing dance and Halloween music, free popcorn, shave ice and goodie bags. My wife and I helped decorate our daughter’s car trunk. All the participants had very clever ideas worthy of Pinterest posting.
Chris and Manny welcomed their beautiful daughter into the world.
It was a beautiful evening and as I stood near the cars while my wife and daughter dished out candy, I was suddenly struck by a major “treat.” I visually took in the large turnout of families. All the children were wearing their adorable and clever costumes, as were some of their parents. There was laughter, people holding hands with their children, dancing, kids running around and people enjoying the foods prepared by the church community. Everyone was happy!
A Family Tree has been helping families like Chris and Manny for almost 50 years. Initially founded as Hawai‘i International Child (HIC) in 1975, the agency
November is National Adop- tion Month, and our goal is to raise awareness about adop- tion — both how people can expand their families through
Donate at afamilytree.org. Learn more by calling 808- 589-2367 or emailing hello@ afamilytree.org.
Fill in the blank cells using numbers 1 to 9. Each number can appear only once in each row, column, and 3x3 block. Use logic and process of elimination to solve the puzzle. The difficulty level ranges from Bronze (easiest) to Silver to Gold (hardest). Answers are on page 11
RATING: GOLD
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And that’s when it hit me. As I took all this in, I was over- whelmed by a feeling of pure joy. In that moment I knew that in spite of everything happening in the world, that we were going to be all right.
Now, for the trick. As I said, the children were dressed in costumes that were adorable (especially the younger ones) and many times they were accompanied by their parents also dressed in costumes. While my wife and daughter went to get some food, I took over passing out the candy. One family was Blue’s Clues themed. The child was dressed as Blue, the mom as Mailbox and the dad as Steve. It was really cute. Well, here comes the “trick.”
This little boy shouted, “Trick or treat!” and was dressed as a classic nerd with black-rimmed glasses, high-waisted pants, a bow tie and, well, you know the look. I know a nerd when I see one as it takes one to know one. I looked up at his parents and started laughing. “That’s great!” I said. “A family of nerds!”
The three of them stood there silently looking at me when the dad pointed at the mom and said, “We’re not wearing costumes.”
I ended up giving their child the entire bowl of candy.
rnagasawa@midweek.com