Jockey Being Family™ Review & Giveaway!

I feel that adoption is a common process that affects all of us in one way or another. It may not affect you or me not on a personal level, but I am sure all of us know of someone who has gone through the adoption process or has been adopted themselves.

Did you know that “there are [currently] more than 118,000 children in the United States public foster care system awaiting adoption?” Even though every day more children are adopted into loving homes, more continue to wait to find that special family.

Once a family adopts a child, it is an ongoing, life-long process of learning and adapting to the new family situation. Since these families often experience unexpected situations and may require help along the way, Jockey began Jockey Being Family™ in 2005 to help families deal with the life-changing event of adoption.

Jockey Being Family™ strives to strengthen the bonds between the members of adoptive families to ensure they have a successful transition and future. To make this possible, Jockey Being Family™ works with a wide range of non-profit organizations across the United States. In addition, Jockey works to connect these families with resources plus various supports and services (e.g. respite care, support groups, etc.). Through the Jockey Being Family™ program, the hope is to eliminate the chance of failed adoptions, which can cause many children to be put back into foster care.

One is example is Jockey’s experience with non-profit organizations is with the Adoption Resources of Wisconsin (ARW). “Jockey partners with ARW through the Home to Stay Backpack program, designed to provide newly adopted children in Wisconsin with personalized backpacks. Jockey employees gather each month to create the backpacks, which are delivered as part of ARW’s monthly Home to Stay caseworker visits. In 2005, Jockey provided nearly 300 children in southeastern Wisconsin with personalized Welcome Home! Backpacks, touching nearly 300 adoptive families.”

Jockey Being Family™ has recently come out with the Jockey Being Family™ Bear. This bear is 11” x 5”, super cute, cuddly and comes with it’s own red backpack. This bear is sure to bring joy to any child. With the purchase of each bear, Jockey has agreed to “donate $3 to the Debra Steigerwaldt Waller Foundation for Adoption to charities supporting adoption.” After adopting (purchasing) the Jockey Being Family Bear, you have the option to give it a name and print of a personalized certificate. This can be done here.

To help spread the word about Jockey Being Family™, Jockey has offered to give one of their new bears to one lucky reader! Please read all the details below.

What can you win? One winner will receive a Jockey Being Family® Bear in the color Mocha.

To enter, visit the Jockey Being Family Website. Then, come back here and leave a comment telling me what you like about their program. This question must be answered to gain an entry in the giveaway.

Each of the following will give you one extra entry in the giveaway. Please make sure to leave a separate comment for each thing you do:
-Tell me a story about how adoption has affected your life.
-Subscribing to my blog. Do not forget to activate your subscription.
-Adding my button to your blog sidebar.
-Following me on Twitter (ihchicky). Please make sure to leave your Twitter name in your comment.
-Posting a message about this giveaway with a link back here on Twitter. Make sure to leave a link to your twitter message in your comment. You can do this once a day. Please make sure to come back each day and leave another comment with your new twitter message link.
-Blogging about this giveaway on your blog. Please make sure to leave a link to your blog post in your entry.

This giveaway will end on Saturday, January 17th at 11:59pm (Central Standard Time). After the giveaway has ended, the winner will be picked randomly using random.org. EMAIL RULES: In order to win, you must provide a valid email. I will be notifying the winner by email only. Please make sure your blog profile includes your email address and make sure that it is visible. If you do not have a blogger account, please make sure you have included your email address in your post. If there is no email address provided, to contact the winner, another person will be chosen. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to the winning email notification with their complete mailing address (I will be forwarding all this information to the sponsor), If this information is not received within 48 hours, a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is open to residents of Canada and the US!

Good Luck!