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In a heart breaking article that swept the nation in mid October, we met Davion Only, a 15 year old child who has been living in foster homes since he was a toddler. Currently living in a boys home, Davion knows that he has just three years before he loses the possibility of belonging to a forever family. So with courage, he, with the support of his case worker, walked to the front of his church and told his story in the hopes that someone, anyone might adopt him. I suppose what troubled me the most about this story was the knowledge that there are families out there that want to adopt Davion but are impeded by an array of mind numbing paperwork and bureaucracy. Home study processes that can take months. Just getting the FBI to release a traditional background check can take 8 weeks! Applications, home inspections, laws regarding adopting from out of state, the list goes on and on.  And while the intent behind the paperwork and the bureaucracy is to maximize the safety and well being of children, we see too often that even with the hurdles that exist to protect them, kids can still get hurt.  I had the privilege of speaking with Leigh Anne Tuohy this month, the inspiration behind the movie The Blindside starring Sandra Bullock and Tim MacGraw.  Leigh

Anne has a motto she likes to go back to when asked about the current state of affairs

for children in our state system, "there are no unwanted children, only unfound families." Unfound, what an appropriate word.  Unfound does not just apply to those who have yet to become eligible to adopt, “unfound” can be employed to describe the thousands of families that are eligible to adopt NOW, families that took the trainings, got their home study approved, and re-approved, and re-approved and continue

to wait. “Unfound” describes the couples who heard about the need and responded with their hearts open and ready only to click on images of waiting children, make a phone call to the child's case worker and never hear back.  For National Adoption Awareness Month, how about we shed some light on these Unfound families for a change?   For the 1500 families that stepped forward to adopt Davion, how about getting 1499 connected with a child who is eligible for adoption NOW? No child should ever have to put himself out there, marketing himself in the hopes that someone, anyone would call him "son."  Let's roll up our sleeves and start removing the barriers that are concealing home study ready families that are open to adopting TODAY!

A word from our founderBy Anthea Ramirez, Chief Sharer

"Turn Around" has become a motto for the Tuohy Family and their audience of millions all over the globe.  Two words, the referred to action, so simple, and yet the consequences of which can literally be life changing.  For Michael Oher, "turn around" has made the difference between being a somebody to becoming a someone in a family.   Walking alone in the cold without appropriate clothing for the weather, Leigh Anne noticed Michael and in a simple action changed not only Michael's life but her own forever.  For the Tuohy's adopting Michael was just the natural thing to do.  Though her story has become a major motion picture, Leigh Anne will be the first to tell you, the actions her family took, anyone can take, really.  Leigh Anne wants people to know that all her family did was see a need and respond.  Often times, Leigh Anne will get asked about the risks of adopting a child, especially an older child from foster care.  People worry about the emotional baggage that could wreak havoc on their family. They worry about what people would say about seeing a different child on their family's Christmas card, or how an adopted child would affect their children's birth order. They worry and worry and worry and ultimately their fear gets in the way of doing the right thing. "How often do you get out and check the air pressure in your tires?", Leigh Anne asks.  "We take risks every single day.  The point is to take risks on things that matter and people always matter."   Though Leigh Anne challenges her audience to take risks that matter, Leigh Anne understands where the fear comes from. When the Tuohys brought Michael home, he weighed over 200 pounds and literally towered over them.  He was also just one year older then their oldest daughter Collins. Adoption was not the Tuohy's knee jerk response to being a solution in Michael's life, it became the solution as they grew in relationship with him, a process that took time.  For Adoption Awareness Month, Leigh Anne, true to her character is setting a high goal.  Find 100,000 families to adopt a child from foster care. No Big Deal, really. Leigh Anne believes it can happen, when people let go of their preconceived ideas of just who these children are and open their hearts to who these children can become. 

For more information click here or visit the Making It Happen Foundation

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From left to right, SJ, Sean, Michael, Leigh Anne, and Collins.

Family Found: Meet the Tuohy’s.

FaithBridge Foster Care is an Atlanta-based foster care agency that partners with local churches and communities to address their local foster care crisis through a proprietary ministry model called the FaithBridge Community of Care(SM). The FaithBridge Community of Care is research-based, integrated delivery system that recruits, trains and supports foster families through unparalleled support of a volunteer recruitment and matching system, a FaithBridge family consultant who provides child welfare expertise and spiritual support to families and a web-based ministry management tool that tracks cases, families and outcomes. For more information, visit www.faithbridgefostercare.org.

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Check out the Adoption-Share video!For testimonies of how Adoption-Share is helping pregnancy centers, adoptive

families, agencies and birthparents, click HERE!

Agency in Focus: FaithBridge

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The Millers. Our family lives in Southwest Missouri in a rural farm/ranch community. We run cattle (250+ head), keep a few pigs, horses and chickens as well. My husband is also the pastor of a church in our community. We homeschool our older children, and the younger kids go to our small public school in the nearest town. We love to have bonfires with friends and neighbors, go to the drive in movie theatre during the summer, and participate in whatever sports the kids are interested in! We are

licensed for ages birth - 18years old. After fostering so many children, however, we feel it is best to stay in birth order, or adopt an older teen - to avoid disrupting the family dynamics of the other kids in the home. Our oldest is a bio daughter who is almost 13, then a bio son who is almost 11, then a bio son who is almost 8 and an adopted daughter who is almost 6.  We have been registered with the National Down Syndrome Adoption Network, hoping to adopt a baby or toddler with Down Syndrome. We have been waiting almost 2 years, but have not been selected yet. We are open to DS, cerebral palsy, and other developmental delays (on a case by case basis). 

FOUND: Families that are ready and waiting to adopt!

We are Gary, Angie & Gage. Gary is a College Instructor, Angie works part time in the school kitchen and Gage is in Fifth grade. We love to go camping in our motorhome and explore new places. Each year during the summer, we choose a new state to visit, then we pack up the motorhome and set out on an adventure. If I had to describe our family in one word, it would be " CLOSE", because we are always together. We live in South Dakota, but we are originally from Florida. We love the slower,simpler pace here. We are unable to conceive children of our own ,but we were lucky enough to be blessed with Gage through adoption in 2003 and feel our family isn't yet complete. We have so much fun together as a family and want to share our life with more children. We are signed with an adoption agency and also foster care. We are hoping to adopt boy/girl, newborn-4 years, caucasian,hispanic,native american,asian child, possibly younger sibling group.

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We are the Browns. We have been on our adoption journey for almost 6 years. I knew from the time I was a small child I wanted a large family. After the birth of our youngest son we experienced infertility and miscarriages. We felt called to adoption. We are a very tight family. We do everything together. Most weekends we can be found at the local theater, hiking, driving our go karts or fishing. We live in the beautiful state of Alabama. One word that could describe our family would be adventurous. We are open to any race, gender, disability, age 0-5 years old. We are very open to sibling groups, HIV+, and most special needs.

Jacksons: Our family enjoys going to community events (like Pumpkin Patches), hiking, singing songs in Spanish, and spending time with other families with kids around the same age. Our family in one word is Hugs. We give a lot of affection. We live in WA. We are wanting to adopt to grow our family and to be a family to a child who needs a family. Although we had our son after IVF treatments, due to infertility, adoption or embryo adoption are our only options for increasing the love. We are open to adopting an infant, or a teenage girl of any race. We have been trying to adopt for more than 2 years.

Davidsons: Home study approved family from Georgia. waiting for over a year. Open to child 0-3 with special needs.

Keyes: We are a Foster to Adopt Family. We have had 8 different foster children who have come and gone through our home but have only been asked about the opportunity for a single child for adoption for which we were not the selected family. We are willing to adopt a child who is already available for adoption through the state, our agency knows this yet we have not been matched with any children. We are wanting to adopt a child from the ages of 0-11. Race and gender are unimportant to us as long as we are a good fit for the child and they are a good fit for us.

Lawsons: We're a Christian family living in Kansas. Ben is a family practice doctor in the Air Force, and I'm a college educated stay at home mom. Hoping to adopt a girl to add to our family of 5 boys!

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