What We Do
We Facilitate getting you the help you need
What We Do
We Get Adoptive Families Connected
We have volunteers to support foster and adoptive families. Some of our connection opportunities are potlucks, meal trains, donation drives, respite nights, and CarePortal requests. We provide community resources and increase community awareness of our ministry through various community events.
We Educate Adoptive Families
We host monthly educational series on varied topics for adoptive and foster families. These events should count towards oster parent training hours. We offer books to check out and provide links to local training and education resources, seminars, webinars, and resource fairs.
We Are Launching into the Future
We will be starting a scholarship for high school seniors who want to enter service fields as well as internships for college students.
WE AIM TO HELP FAMILIES LIKE THIS
My husband and I struggled with infertility. My husband had always wanted to adopt a child, so we began fostering children in 2013 in hopes we would be able to adopt. We fostered 8 children from 2013 – 2018, and we adopted 4 of them. Three weeks after adopting our last son, I found out I was pregnant with our daughter. We had been trying for 9 years to conceive. God apparently had another plan for us before gifting us with one of our own. We currently have 5 children. Adoption is beautiful, but it’s also a very difficult journey.
Our oldest son has Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD). RAD is a traumatic disorder where a child doesn’t form healthy emotional bonds with their caretakers due to emotional neglect or abuse before the age of 3 years old. A child with RAD struggles to attach to any caretaker because his/her original bond was broken with the most important caretaker which is the biological mother. These children struggle to form healthy relationships their entire life. Because our oldest son was having unsafe behaviors in the home because of his RAD, we had to find placement for him. He attends a therapeutic boarding school.
Our youngest adoptive son has special needs and is diagnosed with Intellectual Disabilities.
Each adopted child comes with their own baggage of trauma. As adoptive parents, we go above and beyond parenting the child. We unravel the damage, help them heal, and hopefully help them bond to us, so they can become compassionate and godly adults someday.
– Johnson Family
Our adoption journey began while we were engaged. After we were married, God laid on our hearts to adopt 2 children. Once married and after we had our 2 biological boys we began the process to adopt from Ethiopia in October 2009.
In February 2011 we were called with a referral for 1 baby girl. We spent the weekend praying that God would give us clear direction and we felt His leading to wait. It was such a hard decision and yet we wanted to be faithful to God. The next 14 months were hard and painful as we continued to wait. Finally on April 19, 2012 our caseworker called us and let us know that we were being matched with twins just 1 month old. Due to us waiting for siblings we were the ‘longest waiting’ family in our adoption agency. But, things fell together quickly once we were referred our twins and they were home in our arms, July 2012 less than 3 months after the referral date.
While our children were so well loved and cared for by our adoption agency’s home in Ethiopia and so young when they came home, our kids were and are still kids who have dealt with trauma and loss that seems to often be right under the surface.
Adoption is challenging and it definitely needs to be a calling that both parents feel led to do. Adoption is also beautiful as we watch the layers be peeled away and God continue to work in their hearts and grow us as a whole family in the process. Intentional time, bonding and family connection is a big focus to truly have the ‘hearts of our children’.
– Hartwell Family
The Ascent Church Operation Easter Basket 2022
