This all started with a nudge. Mark and Kelly Raudenbush adopted their daughter Lydia from China’s special needs program in 2010, 3 years after they started their paperwork. Adoption turned their world inside out. The season of waiting, wrestling with big decisions, learning, and waiting more was not unique to them. While some might say adoption is not for the faint of heart; they were convinced adoption was all about being faint of heart.

They found themselves feeling a nudge to do something, to step in and hold up other families as they pursued growing their families through adoption. One year later, they started The Sparrow Fund with the specific purpose of giving grants to families adopting internationally so that they could enroll in programs that would give them preadoption support, counsel, and medical reviews of referrals.

Soon after the start, Mark and Kelly and The Sparrow Fund’s board of directors began hosting single-day opportunities for foster, adoptive, and waiting parents as well as professionals to come together to learn better how to do what they were called to do. Registration filled fast as The Sparrow Fund gained a reputation for worthwhile trainings that empowered parents and encouraged families. When a Sunday night coffee with a group of local adoptive moms concluded with a declaration that what local families really needed was support for couples, it seemed natural to grow The Sparrow Fund’s programs to include what we named Together Called, a weekend marriage retreat designed specifically to pour into foster and adoptive husbands and wives. In 2012, The Sparrow Fund hosted the first annual Together Called retreat which sold out fast and has every year thereafter.

In 2014, The Sparrow Fund team grew their programs again after one anonymous donor gave a gift that was able to fund the start of our orphanage initiatives. Kelly’s passion for caring for all caregivers, including those who stand in the gap for children for only a season, led to leading teams of volunteers to an orphanage in Shaanxi, China to build relationships and winsomely draw caregivers and children to more deeply experience relationships. By early 2017, trips expanded to include two additional orphanages, one in Shaanxi and one in Guangdong.

With a sweet office space completed in 2017, a committed and growing team working together, and a lot of encouragement, we have been able to grow what we offer to families including launching Sparrow Family Services, our own child and family therapy program, with Project Puppy Love, the first attachment-based canine-assisted therapy program in our area specifically for foster and adoptive families.

That’s a glimpse at the backstory and a glimpse at where we are now and where we’re headed. Our efforts aren’t without challenges. The world of adoption is constantly changing as are the needs of the children and families we serve in. But, we’re not going anywhere. Mark, Kelly, Abbey, Melissa, and our leadership team are all in. And, we’re glad you’re here too.