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| Wasills |
Jacob Wasill was nine when he shared his adoption story with
his class. He was stunned and hurt when the response of one of his classmates
was…”Hmmm, so your real mom didn’t want you?” When Jacob’s parents, Billy and
Joi Wasill mentioned to friends that Jacob was adopted (an event not a
lifestyle), the friends thought Jacob was lucky, Billy and Joi were wonderful, but
had disparaging remarks about his birth mother.
When Joi’s best friend’s teenage daughter got pregnant and knew that
marriage and parenting were not possible ; she made an adoption plan for her
preborn child. She wanted an open adoption and selected a couple that lived in
the area. As the pregnancy progressed, she backed out of that decision. She
said that every day at school she met with nothing but disparaging comments
from her classmates and even some teachers about her decision to make an
adoption plan. ’Don’t you love your baby? No one will ever love the baby like
you do. Your baby will grow up to hate you for giving it up for adoption were
typical comments she endured each day.
She was made to feel like she was a bad person. These events propelled
Joi to do something to correct these outdated stereotypes of adoption and show
adoption as the loving and life
affirming option that it is.
An educator by training, Joi knew that the community and
especially the schools needed to be educated about the beauty of adoption. Adoption
today is not like the inaccurate TV movies filled with drama. Adoptions today can be confidential, semi
open or open with the birth mother making that decision. Outdated and negative
adoption language needs to be replaced with positive adoption language. The
birth mother is not “giving up,” she is making an adoption plan. Contrary to the negative image, birth mothers
making an adoption plan are brave, courageous and practicing sacrificial love. Research tells us that less than 1 % of
unplanned pregnancies end in adoption. This has tragic consequences for the
child and our country.
Her original presentation was known as The Adoption
Option and presented to one high school in her hometown of Hendersonville
TN in 2002. This was followed by other
requests and soon turned into copy written curriculum known as Decisions, Choices and
Options. Today this nonprofit
currently educates approximately 12,000 students every year in middle Tennessee.
The engaging, fact based and impeccably sourced material is accepted in public
and private schools. Pregnancy Resource Centers are partnering with Decisions,
Choices and Options in Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Missouri, Mississippi,
Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, South Carolina and Texas to present
this prevention education program.
Studies have shown that when presented the facts of adoption
and what it looks like today, teens are more likely to choose adoption in an
unplanned pregnancy so their child can have life and an abundant life as a
member of a family headed by a married mother and father.
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| DCO presentation |
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