Our story, as most stories involving youth in foster care, begins in the lowest of places. It begins when we came to the end of ourselves and found the healing power of unconditional love, the resiliency of children who had lost everything, and the exponential growth that can stem from opportunity. My husband and I began our adoption journey in 2015 when we decided to adopt from foster care. Within three years we had added three children (ages 6,8, and 9) to our family. We found ourselves changed in a way we could not ignore. It was impossible to re-harden our hearts to the invisible children lost in the foster care system. 

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Through our connections to the foster care community, we discovered the desperate need for loving families of youth aging out of the foster care system. We discovered the staggering statistics and the insurmountable odds these people were facing. We discovered that many of these young people were becoming homeless, pregnant, incarcerated, and drug-addicted due to lack of opportunity and lack of support from a caring adult.

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We feel called to love the broken-hearted, the lost, the forgotten, the invisible or the never seen. We turn our faces and our love in the direction of tragedy to love those who need it the most. We continue taking risks and not worrying about the possible dangers associated with loving people who might not love us back or accept our love or be grateful for our love.

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Unless we make a commitment to saving these youth, we will continue to lose them and whatever unique benefit their existence might provide for the human species of which they are an essential part. We believe that healthy relationships have a transformative, healing power over the effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences. Building resilience in youth can help people avoid and overcome many of the problems arising from childhood adversity. Support from a mentor can prove the critical difference to a youth in finding a way to stay on on a path offering better health and prosperity.

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