Louisville Orphan Care Initiative (LOCI)                                                                                 The mission of LOCI is to mobilize churches and work with the State of Kentucky to care for orphans and has recently obtained their registration as a nonprofit organization.  Not everyone is called to adopt but everyone is mandated by Scripture to care for the widow and the orphan.  LOCI provides many ways to care right here in Louisville.  Specific outreach opportunities include "Dignity Bags and Bins," volunteering time at picnics for Foster families, mentoring and respite care.  They also need administrative volunteers to help with documentation of their ministry and its programs.

For more information, please visit their website www.louisvilleorphancare.com or email them at info@louisvilleorphancare.com.

Adoption and Home Study Specialist
Contact: Linda Davidson or Belinda Davis at (502) 423-7713 or visit our website at www.adoptionspecialists.org
Adoption and Home Study Specialists, Inc. is a non-profit, licensed child-placing agency serving birth parents placing their children for adoption—children in need of homes, families interested in adopting minority children in the United States or abandoned children from other countries. Their experienced staff offers confidential, sensitive, supportive guidance through every step of the adoption process. Their services include domestic placement, adoptive home study reports for domestic and international adoption, post placement supervision reports, court reports, placement investigations for independent adoption, adoption referral services, assistance with your individual adoption plan, adoption education, support groups, and other social and cultural resources. AHSS is licensed in Kentucky and Indiana.

For the birth mother, services include counseling for pregnancy, adoption, and grief. They continue to support before, during, and after the pregnancy with assistance with pregnancy-related expenses and assistance in selecting the adoptive family you want to adopt your child. AHSS believes that birth parents give the greatest gift of all and considers it an honor to assist you in your adoption plan.

A Helping Hand Adoption Agency
Contact: Victor Bondarenko at (800) 825 0871 or www.worldadoptions.org
This Christian interdenominational ministry is dedicated to serving orphans around the world through adoption and orphan relief. They specialize in domestic and international adoptions from China, Ukrain, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia. 

International Adoption Playgroup
Meets the first Friday of each month, September - May| 11:45 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.               Activities Center - Noah's Ark playroom
       
May 7 is the last meeting until the fall.  They will resume meeting September 3. 

Contact: Kathy Brooks, (502) 254-7049

Anyone who has adopted internationally or is interested in adoption is welcome to come!  This group is geared for ages 6 and under; all siblings welcomed.

Jefferson County Foster to Adoption
Contact: (502) 595-KIDS or Jennifer at (502) 241-1192
Jefferson County has hundreds of children in need of loving parents. Some children need temporary homes (foster care), but many need the security of a permanent home (adoption). Children in the state's care range from 0-18 years of age. The state provides extensive training to equip foster and adoptive families with the necessary tools to best serve the child. The costs involved are mostly time and love; the state provides a small stipend to assist families in meeting the needs of these children.

Websites
Special Needs Adoption Program

Love Basket Adoption Agency
Contact: Sarah Price at (502) 423-5780, sarahp@lovebasket.org or www.lovebasket.org.
Named by missionaries to India when they witnessed babies being left in baskets outside orphanage doors, Love Basket is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) member of the Joint Council for Adoptions. Founded in 1982, Love Basket facilitates adoptions with Christian families internationally in the countries of India, Zambia, Guatemala and Ethiopia. Love Basket also has a successful domestic program placing infants throughout the United States. Licensed in Missouri, Minnesota, and Kentucky, we are a smaller agency that focuses on ministering to our families and children to the glory of Christ.

Project G.L.O.W.
Contact: Susan Killeen at (502) 387-3848, projectglow@yahoo.com, or www.projectglow.org.
Project G.L.O.W. equips parents seeking to adopt internationally or through the foster care system through a variety of parenting workshops, classes, and support groups. Project G.L.O.W. also provides assistance to children and families through consultation and therapy. Additionally, they raise funds to assist those children left behind in institutional care.

Hopeful Hearts                                                                                                                  Contact: info@hopefulheartsfoundation.org                                                                         Having successfully facilitated in excess of 400 adoptions in the past ten years, this ministry allows families to adopt from Ukraine without the added expense of adoption agency fees. Contact Kathy Drane or Nancy Stanbery for more information on opportunities for families to adopt from Ukraine through this very successful program. 

Adoption Mentoring & Support Group 
Contacts: Carol Shutt 254-1518 cshutt9354@aol.com or Roxie Pottinger 384-8508 TPOTT3@bellsouth.net.
This group allows God to use our adoption experiences and stories to bring honor and glory to Him and to encourage and support those who are in the process of adoption or considering adoption. 

Families Thru International Adoption (FTIA)  
Contact: Salome LaMarche (888) 797-9900 slamarche@ftia.org or www.ftia.org.
FTIA is a not-for-profit, licensed child placement agency specializing exclusively in international adoptions.  FTIA helps families adopt children from Russia, China, Ethiopia, Panama, Guatemala, Brazil, India, and Vietnam.  FTIA has placed more than 3500 children in forever families. 


Financial Assistance
Contact: (309) 747-3556 or www.lifesongfororphans.org
Southeast Christian Church, in cooperation with Lifesong for Orphans and ABBA Fund, provides limited financial assistance to qualifying Christian families to help defray adoption expenses, subject to resource availability. For more information, contact:
Lifesong for Orphans
(309) 747-3556
Download a Financial Assistance Application (500k pdf).

Here are some frequently asked questions about adoption and financing.

Q. How does the Financial Assistance work?
A. Adoption grants are made for qualifying Christian families who are members of Southeast Christian Church. You are asked to raise funds for your adoption in much of the same way you would if you were raising funds for a mission trip. Then those funds are matched dollar-for-dollar.

Q. Why do you require that we raise funds?
A. There are millions of children around the world who need parents. We would like to raise the awareness of the need for support in this area. Your effort to raise funds in your community from your friends and family helps increase this awareness. In return, we are willing to thank you for your effort by matching your effort dollar-for-dollar.

Q. How long does it take to approve an application?
A. It usually takes about three weeks for an application to be approved.

Q.  How much money is available?
A. Matching grant amounts range from $1,000–$4,000 per child that a family is adopting. The matched or raised funds will hopefully exceed that amount, and they will be eligible for the matching grant plus whatever is raised through the matching process.