Free Interest Meeting March 2 at Dillon International Office in Dallas

A group of Russian orphans will make the trip of a lifetime as they travel across the world to stay with American host families this August.

The program, called Angels from Abroad , provides older children a chance to learn about American culture, share their Russian culture and experience living in a family. It also helps raise awareness about the need for adopting older children, said Irina Shytova, director of Dillon International’s Russia program, available through the licensed, non-profit agency’s affiliation with Buckner.
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Buckner Foster Care and Adoption Urgently Recruits Families to Meet the Demand

DALLAS – Last year in Texas, an estimated 12,750 children were left waiting for an adoptive family. These children were removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect and placed into the foster care system. After their parents’ rights were terminated, they needed a more permanent place to say. But there weren’t enough homes for all of them. Read More

CARTHAGE, Texas – Jim and Linda Kimberly were sitting on the porch on Easter Sunday, watching their youngest son Jared play with his cousins, when they felt the call.

“Jim said, ‘You know, I’d like to take up the idea of fostering,’” Linda recalled. “So we did it. We just really felt called to it.” Read More

By Analiz G. Schremmer
Buckner International

LUBBOCK, Texas — Barbara and Sean Smith have fostered more than 50 children, so people assume it’s because they can’t say no.

“Oh, we can say no,” Barbara clarified. “We just don’t want to miss out on the blessing.” Read More

By Jenny Pope

Buckner International

SUDAN, Texas – When 10-month-old Samantha arrived in the Baker’s home, she was so weak she couldn’t sit up in her crib.

“She wouldn’t make a noise. She just laid there,” Crystal Baker remembered. “We’d walk in and it was so sad. She’d be laying in her little bed, her eyes never moved. I thought, ‘Why in the world will she not cry?’”

Sam’s older sister Ally, 5, told them. “She would never cry at home. She knew she’d be beat to death if she cried.”

Today, 2-year-old Ally is shy and reserved. She carefully watches new people of the corner of her eye, but eagerly joins her sister Journey when she offers her an apple. She smiles and cries, like a normal 2-year-old girl. Read More

By Analiz G. Schremmer
AMARILLO, Texas – Tim and December Barcoft love children.
They lead children’s Sunday school as a couple and December is studying to be a teacher. But they haven’t had children of their own.

“Because we haven’t been blessed with our own kids yet, we see it as God’s way of asking us to do this now,” December said.

The couple is fostering a pair of brothers ages 5 and7 who were physically abused before coming into their home, they said. But only two or three weeks into their stay with the Barcofts, they asked, ‘Is it OK if we call you Mom and Dad?’ Read More

By Susan Serrano
Dillon International

WILLOW PARK, TEXAS—It’s a love story with some tears at the beginning. Overjoyed at the birth of their son, Carter, two years earlier, Mike and Libby Skaggs, members of Hulen Street Baptist in Fort Worth, eagerly planned to expand their family. But their dream was sidetracked by devastating news: “We learned we would not be able to have any more children biologically. That was a season of grieving for us,” Mike recalled.

God’s plan for the couple soon became apparent. “We had always thought we would adopt some day, and when we couldn’t have another child by birth, it seemed clear what we were meant to do. God very clearly was telling us to adopt,” Libby said. Read More

By Jenny Pope
Buckner International

It all started with a single word, scrawled into the margins on Cyndi Krawietz’s Bible. Adoption? It was written with a question mark.

“I had written it there in January 2004,” she said. “It just seemed so impossible then. I thought there’s no way we could ever afford it.” Read More

By Analiz G. Schremmer

BEAUMONT, Texas – Monica Garrett always dreamed of being a foster group home parent.

“When I accepted this job, I accepted a calling. I know this is what I was called to do. I know this is what I was supposed to do,” she said.

“It is amazing to be able to give a child a home and make them feel loved and secure. I want the kids to feel that they are a part of me.” Read More

By Jenny Pope
Buckner International

(DALLAS, Texas) — Families traveled around the world and back Feb. 28 at the annual Adoption Heritage Day at Buckner Children’s Home in East Dallas. More than 88 people and 25 volunteers attended the event designed to help international adoptive families connect with their child’s culture and with each other. Read More