Care For Children
New Foster Care Serving Opportunities
Grace to Ukraine
Grace to Ukraine will be hosting 19 orphaned
children from Ukraine in Birmingham June 2nd-24th. For more information or to be involved in any way, visit www.gracetoukraine.net or contact Suzette Davie at (205) 914-8810.
Journey Bags for Foster Children (ongoing)
Religion God Accepts
"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." - James 1:27
In obedience to Scripture, we have decided that we can not and will not sit idly by while children are in need of a home to care and provide for their deepest needs in difficult times, whether that is for a short time or for a lifetime. We long to show God's love in metro Birmingham in a way that not only serves the children around us but ultimately honors the Father to the fatherless (Psalm 68:5). As a result, we have dedicated ourselves to recruiting and raising up individuals and families to provide for all of the foster care and adoption needs in our county and elsewhere.
If you would like to foster, adopt, or need additional information about either of these areas
email .
Foster Care Resources
One of the great needs of our community is for foster parents to care for children in need of a home. Below you will find various resources to provide you more information about foster care and to help you become equipped to serve as a foster family.
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Group Preparation and Selection (GPS) is a 9-week course designed to help you prepare for foster care. These classes are facilitated by organizations partnering with Brook Hills and are offered at various times throughout the year.
Upcoming class information will be posted as soon as it's available.
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The support family will come alongside these families to serve with them and to help minister to the children in their care. Support families can offer assistance in a variety of ways, such as providing meals, baby sitting, transportation, physical needs and most importantly showing the love of Christ to the children in these families.
One-to-one interaction with foster children requires criminal history and being fingerprinted. This can easily be handled by DHR. Email Anita Bucher at if you are interested or have questions.
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The Foster Care Team is looking for experienced foster and adoptive parents to serve as mentors to those families that are taking their first steps into the world of fostering and adopting! We realize that many of our families in the church have already heeded the call to James 1:27 in the past and now have valuable experience and wisdom that would be helpful to those families who are just beginning this process. We anticipate that these families will have several needs, such as help in navigating the red tape, answers to the many questions that arise, and the need for assurance from someone who understands the unique joys, hardships and struggles that come with taking a child into your home and family.
If you are one of those wise, experienced, foster or adoptive parents that would be willing to mentor our newcomers, please send an email to .
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Adoption Resources
One primary avenue for the Scriptures discussed above to be accomplished through us as the church is through the process of adoption. Below you will find various resources to help inform you about adoption and to assist those families who are currently adopting.
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In many cases, families have expressed great desire to adopt children, but the financial costs involved in this process can be difficult to handle without the assistance of the faith family and others. As a covenant community, we want to sacrificially care for one another, and to come alongside one another through generous giving to align with the heart of God to accomplish the will of God.
In light of this need, we have partnered together with Lifesong for Orphans to develop an adoption fund designed to help people within our faith family to adopt children for the glory of God. There are several ways that Lifesong partners with the Church at Brook Hills to help families adopt:
- Approval process. Lifesong will use questionnaires and an applicant screening process developed in partnership with The Church at Brook Hills in order to determine a family’s eligibility for assistance. Using Lifesong partners to serve Brook Hills members ensures financial and personal confidentiality for families seeking assistance, and requires no additional personnel from The Church at Brook Hills to oversee the application and disbursement process.
- Matching Grants. After the approval is completed, the Brook Hills Care for Children Fund, as administered by Lifesong, would supply a grant to the adoptive couple for use in the adoption process. It would be set up to “match” a fixed amount that would be given on behalf of the adopting family through friends, family, and small group members. This allows the natural small group and family relationships to participate as a community of faith in the scriptural pattern of caring for orphans.
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No-Interest Loans. Also subject to approval, the fund would provide a fixed amount loan to members for use toward adoption expenses. The repayment resources would typically come from the tax credits that the US Government currently offers to adoptive families. This allows families who have benefitted from this process to continue helping future families to adopt as they repay their no-interest loan, since the fund is replenished time after time.
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Simplicity. The Church at Brook Hills and Lifesong partnership reduces the church staff administration work required to mange record keeping and funds disbursement burdens commonly required in adoption funding. Lifesong is able to manage the program effectively and efficiently in screening applicants, providing funds disbursement, and furnishing tax information in accordance with applicable laws.
How to Apply
1. You may submit an Adoption Grant and Loan Application after your “homestudy” is complete. The Adoption Grant and Loan Application is for Domestic and International Adoptions.
2. Click HERE to download an application.
3. Please mail the application to:
Lifesong for Orphans
Attn: Adoption Grants
PO Box 40
202 N. Ford St
Gridley, IL 61744
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Through our partnership with Lifesong for Orphans we have the opportunity for anyone to be able to give to specifically support the adoption efforts of those in our faith family. Here's how.
Make checks payable to ‘Lifesong for Orphans’. In the memo write ‘preference Brook Hills Fund’. Include a note with the check if you desire, but the memo is sufficient.
Mail the check to:
Lifesong for Orphans
PO Box 40
Gridley, IL 61744
If you want to have a donation put into a specific families account, then follow the same process but write the families name and account number in the memo. Again, a written note with the check can be included.
Lifesong will automatically send a tax deductible receipt for every donation of $250 or more and will send a receipt to anyone who asks (if a smaller donation is made).
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The mission of Heart Gallery of Alabama is to help find families, someplace to call home for children in Alabama's foster care system.
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