December 2019 Newsletter
Education News
2020 CHOOSING TO CARE CONFERENCE
DR. SHAREN FORD AS KEYNOTE
We are excited for our upcoming Choosing to Care Conference on February 1 and even more thrilled to announce that Dr. Sharen Ford will join us as our Keynote Speaker!
Dr. Sharen Ford is the program director for Focus on the Family’s adoption and orphan care efforts. In this role, she helps raise awareness of the need for adoptive families to provide loving and stable homes for the more than 100,000 waiting children in the U.S. foster care system. She also makes post-placement resources available for adoptive families.
Ford has spoken at a variety of conferences on adoption and orphan care issues including the Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO) annual conference, Bethany Christian Services’ annual conference, the White House Conference on Adoption, and the Federal Children’s Bureau Child Welfare Conference.
If you are an adoptive parent, foster parent, or considering adoption or foster care, you will NOT want to miss this incredible day. Come learn from incredible teachers like Dr. Sharen Ford and others. Find community with others who are on similar journeys. Walk away encouraged, refreshed, and challenged to continue pursuing redemption and reconciliation. Registration is now open. Childcare is free, but limited, so reserve your spot today!
Adoption News
UPDATING OUR ADOPTION ASSISTANCE GRANT
We have seen our Adoption Assistance Grant grow so much over the last few years. 8 years ago in 2012, we awarded five families a $1,000 grant. In 2019, we supported 42 families by awarding $107,820. Talk about some incredible growth! It is such an honor to support these families!
2020 will be a new and exciting year for us! We’re making some big changes that we will tell you about soon. We believe that these changes will equip us to continue to help adopting families. Our goal is to remove financial barriers to adoption. However, as we work to implement these changes and update our application process, we have made the hard decision to close our Adoption Assistance Grant application for the first quarter of 2020. We will begin accepting applications on March 1 with a deadline of June 15. Families that receive a grant will be notified by the beginning of July.
Foster Care News
FOSTER FAMILY CHRISTMAS PARTY
It has been our great joy to partner with DFCS to host a Christmas Party for foster families for the last four years. We love the opportunity to provide these families with a fun-filled night, gifts, and sweet memories. Over 40 foster families joined us last week to celebrate Emmanuel, who was not only with the people of Israel 2,000 years ago, but remains with each of us.
We truly could not do this event without the help of our community. We are so thankful for the following supporters:
Kristin Benton Photography
Fox’s Pizza Den
CFA Atlanta Highway
Marti’s at Midday
Athens Church – Be Rich
Watkinsville First Baptist Church
Carter’s
all who shopped the Amazon Wish List for party supplies and gifts for children
And a special thanks to Briarwood Baptist Church and East Athens Baptist Church for helping us to share some Christmas joy with the staff at DFCS by supplying gift cards. We are so grateful for everyone who supported us this Christmas season!