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You are invited to join the 2010 Summer "Journey of Hope"

02/08/2010

Valerie Karlsson

The Fatherless Foundation will be bringing a group of Ukrainian orphans to Indiana for a cultural exchange experience this Summer. The children will stay with host families throughout the state of Indiana for 3-4 weeks. The hosting experience is similar to having a foreign exchange student and was designed to allow the children to experience American culture and a much needed break from the orphanage setting. The goal is to inspire and instill hope in these children. It will also let the children know that a family here in the United States cares about them. The host families are encouraged to stay in contact with the child they host once the child returns to Ukraine. For some of these children, this hosting experience will be the first time they have experienced a “normal” family life.
 
Host families do not have to have any intentions of adopting a child. This hosting program is not an adoption program. Host families play a big role in building awareness of international adoption and the needs of these orphans by introducing their host child to family, friends, coworkers, and their church congregation through normal activities while the child is with the family. The children visiting are older children ages 7 -14 years old who have only a slim chance of ever being adopted in their native country. If the host family decides to pursue an adoption in Ukraine through our hosting partner MLJ Adoptions, Inc., the family may request to adopt the child they have hosted. There is no guarantee that the family will be able to adopt the child hosted because only the government of Ukraine can make an official referral for adoption.
 
Host families must complete a background check and pay the travel expenses for the child they host. The cost to sponsor a child varies with each trip and will be a tax deductible donation. Families are encouraged to participate in fundraising to offset the cost. Translators and caregivers from the orphanage also travel with the group. The children speak Russian and Ukrainian. Amazingly, there is little problem with communication during a hosting experience. Host families are given language guides and provided with help when needed for communicating. We also provide a list of translators available by phone 24 hours per day to assist host families.
 
If you are in Indiana or a surrounding state (within 2 hours driving distance) and interested in hosting a child, fundraising, or sponsoring a group in your area, please contact Hosting Coordinator Valerie Karlsson.
 

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Poem: A Child's Heart

12/09/2009

Tony Stewart

I drew inspiration from the events of this week one evening. I was lying in my room and thinking about what all we had experienced when the words just began flowing:
 
“I’ll love you forever,” some mothers will say
But sometimes that is just how it goes
I did not mean to leave you alone all this day
But the heart of a child knows
 
“This mess is your fault, I wish you weren’t here
This isn’t the life that I chose.
I’m stuck raising you, through all of MY tears”
But the heart of a child knows
 
What life do they have when mom says that she’s through
Another child to the system she bestows
“You’ll like the kids here, they are all just like you.”
But the heart of a child knows
 
Now we can all help, we can break through that shell
The attention we give to them shows
Though our skin might be different, our cultures as well
Still the heart of a child knows
 
Love matters the most when it’s given to others
And through time it continually grows
‘Til finally one day she will call YOU her mother
Because the HEART of a child knows.

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Etched On My Heart Forever - Part 2

12/09/2009

Tony Stewart

read the first part of Tony's story here:

As I mentioned, the 9 and 10 year olds that I got close to were very loving and affectionate and maybe even a bit clingy. I noticed that to be largely the case with the children from about 6 to 10 or 11 years old. Perhaps they felt that at their ages they still had hopes of a visitor deciding to take them in and be a part of their family. But some of the older girls, around 12-14, seemed to have a different appearance. Don’t get me wrong, these kids were well behaved and polite and in many cases pleasant. But there was something in the faces of a couple of them that I cannot shake. One in particular appeared distant and hardened. Perhaps she had a terrible past that has been weighing her down. Perhaps she looked ahead and didn’t see much of a future. You see, at about age 16 most of these children will have aged out of the orphanage. If they don’t have a family, where do they turn? I mentioned earlier that I expected to be playing with toddlers and loving on babies. Most of you have probably had that as your first impression of orphans as well. Few people make a decision to adopt and say that they want an older child. I believe this girl is aware of that fact.
 
The instance that keeps going through my mind was from a day when we were playing with several of the kids. One member of our group, Nicole, was playing with a group of kids that included this young girl. The girl did interact, she was not withdrawn from the group. But as I mentioned, I just saw something that appeared hard and distant. I don’t know the conversation that she and Nicole had or what was said to lead to the hug, but at one point they leaned toward one another and embraced. As this girl wrapped her arms around Nicole’s neck, she had the warmest smile come across her face. I sat a few feet behind Nicole where I could see this girls now beaming face. She was beautiful. That’s how children should look. As they released their embrace, the smile faded and her face returned to the distant image I had seen before. As I’ve thought about that moment, I wonder if the girl was imagining that THAT must be what it’s like to be loved. I don’t know for certain what she was thinking, but God certainly showed me the need for love by ALL of these children, not just the infants and toddlers.
 
I pray that I will not soon forget about the vast need, not just in Nicaragua but in our own country, in Congo, in Ukraine, and throughout the world. I know that adoption may not be for everyone, (I myself have been praying about where God wants to place me and my family into this equation), but I urge everyone to listen to God’s call. Whether an infant or an older child, whether they are orphaned by “traditional” methods (whatever traditional means) or by other circumstances, whether international or domestic, the need is great. The events of the week were wonderful. I made some wonderful new friends and I saw what unconditional love is through the eyes of Christ. After seeing these children that I have never met and never known, and knowing how my heart just ached for them, I believe I have a little better understanding of how Christ could have loved me so much that he would do anything for me. Before I knew Christ, I was lost. I was destined for death. I was not a member of His family. I was an orphan.
 
I’d like to leave you with one final thought. What would you do if you knew the exact day you were going to die? How would you act? How would you feel knowing that one morning you would wake up and THAT would be the day that your life, as you now know it, would be over? Now, imagine you are a child and you see that fateful morning coming closer and closer. That’s what some of these children could be facing. Please think about it…pray about it….listen to God’s call…..make a difference.

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Etched On My Heart Forever - Part 1

12/08/2009

Tony Stewart

What do you think of when you hear the word “Thanksgiving”? I’m guessing that what comes to your mind is some combination of family, turkey, parades and football. Well, this year I did not spend Thanksgiving with my family. And while we did have a traditional turkey dinner, we did not see a single play of a football game. And there were no parades to be seen, no mention of Macy’s and no high school marching bands. This year, I spent the week of Thanksgiving in Nicaragua. I was traveling with a group of new friends for the purpose of visiting some orphanages there. New, because I did not know anyone from this group until just a couple weeks before the trip…and Friends because we shared an experience for the week that I will not soon forget. No, make that an experience that I’m quite certain I will never forget.
 
The group was representing the Fatherless Foundation and consisted of 7 of us; some directly linked to the foundation, others (like me) interested in learning about the culture of Nicaragua, in loving on these lost children, and hopefully in making a difference in some way. I left with the intention of holding some infants and playing with little toddlers. I believe that is the image that came to my mind when I heard the word orphans. I picture a home where kids had to go after losing their parents to some tragedy by accident, war, disease or the likes. I knew there would be a wide range of ages, but surely a large group of infants and toddlers that God would open my heart to. Afterall, they are the more helpless ones, right? Well, God did most definitely open my heart, but he maybe opened my eyes even more.
 
We visited a few different orphanages and I felt like we saw quite a broad range of living conditions. We visited places where we felt the kids were well cared for and had loving directors and we visited others where our group just felt a sense of uneasiness, that perhaps the kids were not getting all that they needed. This could be from too small of sleeping quarters to untidy eating areas to just locations that are so rural that getting visitors to come in and show these children some love and affection is a task in itself. But where God opened my eyes was not in the homes or the conditions, but in the children themselves. First of all, my inclination of how some of these children came to live in this home may have been inaccurate. Without going into great detail, let me just say that there is nothing traditional about how a child becomes homeless without a family to care for them. I was also surprised to find that the children were older, no babies or toddlers in the homes we visited. But what God showed me was a misconception that I had.
 
Though we visited a few orphanages, I would like to recount a few things from one orphanage in particular. I had a wonderful time at this place, playing with the kids and making connections with some of them. As anyone from our group would tell you, I really got close to two of the children. They were 9 and 10 years old and we played together and hugged each other and I really felt a connection. When we left the orphanage on the final day, the hugs were stronger and harder to release. I didn’t want to leave them and I don’t believe they wanted me to leave. Those moments will be etched on my heart forever. But it is a different moment that I noticed that I have not been able to get out of my mind since our return. A moment that I don’t believe anyone else in our group had the opportunity to notice.

Read the rest of Tony's story here...
 

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Giving Thanks by Giving Back

11/02/2009

Nicole Skellenger

A group of eight professionals including four attorneys and a CFO of a Fortune 30 company will be spending Thanksgiving week in Nicaragua on a orphan service trip facilitated by The Fatherless Foundation. The group will be arriving in Managua, Nicaragua on Tuesday November 24th and departing on November 29th. They will be going to three orphanages, visiting over 100 children, and providing clothing, school supplies, and toys. In addition to general orphan assistance, our group in conjunction Puedo Leer Library on Calle Santa Lucia, will be hosting a baseball clinic in the community of Granada. The Library has been very supportive in this endeavor and will be using the clinic to promote literacy by focusing on baseball books leading up to this event. Our group will be providing sports books, baseballs, bats, gloves and hats out to the children (many of whom have never owned their own baseball gloves or bats). We are thrilled to have the opportunity to provide assistance to those orphans in Latin America and hope that many will find their forever families soon! There is a great need for adoption in Nicaragua and throughout Latin America. The social and economic conditions in many of these areas combined with the high fertility rate causes many children to be orphaned or abandoned. Such children are in desprate need of a loving home. Please contact mark@mljadoption.com for more information about adoption from Latin America

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Would You Like to Host An Orphan?

10/22/2009

Host Families Needed

HOST FAMILIES NEEDED


The Fatherless Foundation, Inc. will be hosting a group of Ukrainian orphans to travel to  Indiana for a cultural exchange experience this winter and next summer. The children will stay with host families throughout the state of Indiana for a two week period in the winter and 3 week period in the summer. In the past the hosting program has been a wonderful success!  We thank all of you who have participated in the past!

The hosting experience is similar to having a foreign exchange student where the host family will welcome and care for a Ukrainian child in their home during their stay. This hosting program was designed to give the children the experience of a lifetime and a much needed break from the orphanage setting.  The hosting program also seeks to create an awareness of the need for older orphaned children and to find forever families for these children.

The goal of bringing them to Indiana is to inspire and instill much needed hope in these lost children.  It provides the child an opportunity to know that a family here in the United States cares about them. For many of these children, the hosting experience will be the first time they have experienced a “normal” family life, thus we encourage the host family to stay in contact with the child when the child returns to Ukraine.

Host families play a big role in building awareness of international adoption by introducing their host child to family, friends, coworkers, and their church congregation through normal activities while the child is with the family.

If the host family decides to pursue an adoption of the child, the family may request to adopt the child and begin the formal adoption process. However, there is no guarantee that the child hosted is legally available for adoption until the family has submitted their paperwork to the adoption center in Ukraine.
 
These children are older children ranging in ages from  7 -14 years of age.  The only requirement to become a host family is a background check and home visit. 

If you are willing to open your home and heart to a child visiting from Ukraine please contact Lydia Tarr at Lydia@mljadoptions.com.  

We welcome your interest and questions!

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Fatherless Foundation Auction Benefit Oct. 30, 2009

10/20/2009

The Fatherless Foundation, Inc. Annual Benefit Fundraiser

October 30, 2009

     On Oct 30, 2009 The Fatherless Foundation, Inc. will be holding its third annual benefit auction and dinner. The foundation was founded in 2006 by its director, Michele L. Jackson. After having worked as an international and domestic adoption attorney for several years, Michele realized that there was a great need for orphan and orphanage support around the world. Many came to her wanting to help but did not know how. Michele established the foundation as a means for all who want to provide assistance to our forgotten children.

     In only three years the foundation has provided assistance to orphanages, orphans and adoptive families seeking to adopt. The foundation has provided much needed financial assistance, food, clothing, school supplies and medical care to orphanages in Vietnam, Nicaragua, Honduras, Ukraine, Croatia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Guatemala, as well as organizations in the US. The foundation has financially assisted adoptive parents in financial need adopt orphan children. The foundation works through financial support, grants and through mission trips.

     All staff members of the foundation are volunteers which means 100% of funds raised are used towards orphan and orphanage support. The foundation is deemed a 501(c)3 and therefore all contributions received are 100% tax deductible. We invite all of you to join us at the upcoming benefit dinner and fundraiser on October 30th. The event will be held this year at the Knights of Columbus, 2100 E. 71st Street, Indianapolis, IN 46220 beginning at 6:00 p.m.

     If you are unable to attend and want to contribute please mail your check to: The Fatherless Foundation, Inc., 8910 Purdue Road Ste 480, Indianapolis, IN 46268.

Please help us help the most vulnerable! For further information please visit: www.thefatherlessfoundation.org, or email Sonja@thefatherlessfoundation.org

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