CUNNINGHAM, Ky. (KT) – Hope That Binds, a non-profit that empowers families to share the gospel through adoption and foster care by providing financial support and like-minded community, encouraged several dozen mothers to rest in the grace of Jesus during a retreat at the beginning of the year.
“We’re learning that it’s just something that’s not really being done anywhere else,” said Olivia Looper, executive director of Hope That Binds. “There’s a huge need for it.”
Forty women from western Kentucky and beyond attended the Saturday event, themed Glory and Grace.
“Moms in general are … coming to these things kind of weary and needing to be refreshed and recharged,” Looper said. “And we just thought, what better theme than ‘Turn your eyes upon Jesus’?
“The retreat was a beautiful time to connect with families in our area to support one another. I was so encouraged by the stories I heard,” said retreat speaker Christi Hughes, a foster and adoptive mom of five. “I could see the movement of the Lord in our time together, even in the details of the weekend.”
Hughes actually met another foster mom who was contacted about the placement of two of her sons in 2020. Unable to accept the 15-month and 10-day-old siblings, she said “no,” paving the way for Hughes and her husband to foster and later adopt the boys.
“I’m so glad she said ‘no’ because we wouldn’t have these two precious boys who have become a part of our family,” Hughes added. “God always knows what he is doing, even when we can’t see.”
Hughes shared her family’s story of foster and adoption during the retreat, “sharing how God is constantly writing our stories weaving people into them as we journey this life.”
She also encouraged foster parents to realize they have signed up to enter a brokenness that may be unfamiliar. “I was able to encourage families to connect with the biological parents, if possible, to help in their healing process in order to reunite children with their parents.”
Attendees also heard from Addison Futrell, a foster/adoptive mom and counselor, about Trust-Based Relationship Intervention (TBRI), a trauma-informed counseling method that identifies the specific needs of children who are fostered or adopted out of challenging situations.
“We know that adoption is not God’s original design for the family, so it is beautiful, but it can also be really traumatic for the kiddos,” Futrell noted. “Whatever led…the biological family to separate from that kiddo can be really challenging. And so being able to equip and prepare the adoptive parents and the adoptive families to take on the set of behaviors, or the set of grief and questioning that an adopted kid might have as they age…It just is really important to me.”
While Futrell outlined the three core principles of TBRI — connecting, empowering and correcting — she wanted attendees to feel empowered to navigate challenging seasons and behaviors.
“(Parents) are the biggest change agent in their child’s life, and God has gifted them the ability to be able to meet their needs,” she said.
Looper said one of the benefits of Hope That Binds annual retreat is providing a place for moms to have conversations about the “specific, nitty-gritty” aspects of foster care and adoption that may not be discussed in other parenting circles or among friends.
“You don’t always have friends that you get together with that are in that same boat … (that) have an adopted child or are in foster care,” said Looper, a certified foster parent whose youngest two siblings were adopted through foster care. “And it’s just such a specific calling and very unique.”
Hope That Binds also offers adoption grants, scholarships for adoptive and foster families, post-adoption care and counseling grants, resources on the adoption and foster care process and connection to a community of families walking the same path. Learn more at hopethatbinds.org.
Friends of Life KY 