Gift of Adoption Fund

Jeremiah

Jeremiah is a one-year-old boy who was abandoned at the hospital shortly after his birth. He suffered from exposure to a variety of substances during pregnancy. Upon hearing about Jeremiah, Dorothy and Robert decided to act. They knew if Jeremiah was not adopted quickly, he would likely end up in long term foster care due to his birth circumstances.

Today there are more than 500,000 children in foster care in the United States. Of these children, 129,000 are currently eligible for adoption. Once in foster care, the average child waits five years to be adopted and each year 20% of these children exit foster care at the age of 18 without an adoptive family.

A grant from Gift of Adoption allowed Dorothy and Robert to adopt Jeremiah and keep him from ever becoming a part of these statistics. Remarkably, Jeremiah is not the first at-risk child Dorothy and Robert adopted. Dorothy told us, “We love adoption and we really believe that our kids are special — way beyond their special needs!”

Zoe

Zoe is an eight-month-old girl who was placed with Daniel and Casey just days after she was born. Daniel and Casey had just requested an addendum to their foster care license to allow them to adopt when they were contacted by a friend about a birthmother who wanted to place her baby for adoption but did not have a family for her.

Nearly half of the grants awarded by Gift of Adoption support domestic adoptions – with priority given to uniting or preserving biological siblings and preventing a child from entering the foster care system.

Daniel and Casey were excited about the opportunity to give Zoe a loving and secure family but, because it happened so fast, they did not have the time to save the necessary funds. A grant from Gift of Adoption provided the last funds needed to complete Zoe’s adoption – giving her a permanent home and a chance to thrive.

Claire

Claire is a six-year-old girl who was abandoned at birth in the Philippines. After living the first two years of her life in a hospital, she was transferred to an orphanage where she has lived for the last four years.

Studies show that children in international orphanages generally lose one month of progress against developmental milestones for every three months they are in an orphanage. A grant from Gift of Adoption provided the last bit of funding needed to bring Claire home to her family where she can thrive and be all that she was meant to be.

When Todd and Cynthia of North Carolina first saw Claire’s photo over a year ago, they knew she would become their daughter. Prior to traveling to the Philippines to bring Claire home, they shared, “She has stolen our hearts and is a part of our family already.

Amanda

Amanda is a beautiful three-year-old Estonian orphan with Downs Syndrome. Unfortunately, many children in international orphanages who have Downs Syndrome are transferred to mental institutions at the age of four. The odds of them being adopted after that are extremely low. Knowing this, Thomas and Kris decided to act.

In 2007, Tom and Kris welcomed Kara into their family when they adopted her from the Ukraine. Kara and their youngest daughter, Meghan, also have Downs Syndrome. Knowing there are so many more children like Kara who are in need of the love and security of a family, Tom and Kris soon began a second adoption journey. Financing a second adoption so closely on the heels of the first proved to be difficult. Because time was of the essence, they turned to Gift of Adoption for assistance. A grant from Gift of Adoption provided the last bit of funding needed to give Amanda a forever family and allow her to be all she is meant to be.

What does the gift of adoption mean to people, find out from Gift of Adoption families and those impacted by adoption.

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