Our FAMILY CARE area now consists of BOTH our Foster Care and Forever Families areas as they were previously. We hope our new layout makes this much easier to understand and to partner with us. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us. Welcome!

*Back-to-School-Bash* 

We are SO excited to offer our Annual Back to School Bash in four different sessions this year! We want to make sure all of the families get an opportunity to come and enjoy a great way to get a jump on their needs for back-to-school. 

Each adoptive and/or foster family that attends can come out and get a backpack with school supplies for their children (biological kids in the family too)! Stay tuned for more surprises and information. 

To attend, we just need you to sign up for which day and time you'd like to come visit us. With your confirmation, we can have volunteers available and things ready for you. Sign up below! We can't wait to connect with you! 

Save your spot here: 

FOSTER CARE

What We Do

Our Hope House provides children placed in foster care with emergency needs such as hygiene items, brand new pajamas, socks and underwear. We also give gift cards for crucial needs such as shoes, coats and clothing. We give filled backpacks to children for school at our annual Back to School Bash. We facilitate a secret Facebook group of mostly local Foster Moms (moms only at this time, sorry dads) to use as an encouragement and source of support with get-togethers as an added bonus. *NEW* We have weighted blankets for those that need them! 

The Stats

  • There are roughly 12,500 kids in care in the state of Ohio an a daily basis
  • In the United States, a child is goes into care about every two minutes
  • There are 2,500 kids in Ohio waiting to be adopted

What You Can Do

  • Donate new socks, underwear, pj’s and hygiene items
  • Organize a collection for the items above​
  • Become an alternate caregiver (caring for a child for less than 24 hours)
  • Have you or your church support the foster care program with a $50/month donation

    Foster Care Volunteer sign-up! 

FOREVER FAMILIES

What we do:

What YOU can do: 
We empower adoptive families through pre-adoptive trainings, fundraising grants and tools, welcome home materials and prayer. We also have an ongoing secret Facebook page for support and encouragement for Adoptive Moms too, coupled with get-togethers as an added bonus.

The Stats

  • More than 140 million children worldwide are orphans. Another 230 million more who are never counted in these statistics due to living on the streets, being trafficked or forced to be a child soldier​
  • 81.5 million Americans have considered adopting a child, but only 5,647 children were adopted (internationally) in 2015

Help wanted! 

Pre-Adoption Support!
We are looking to divide this area in two and need a volunteer to step in! We have come to notice a big difference between working with families before their child is adopted and after they are home. If you know a bit about the adoption process in either domestic, foster care, or international adoption and you'd like to be a champion for our chosen Featured Families AND be a part of the process of choosing them, please contact Nate Taylor with all of your questions. We need you!  
Post Adoption Support! 
We so so so much want to be here for you in your adoption journey when the rubber meets the road and things get complicated. Yes, there are AMAZING things about adoption we want to celebrate with you along the way too, but we also want to be the safe place that welcomes you in the joy and the sorrow. Email Alyssa Tracy if you'd like to join us! We are a group, a team, a family. 
  • Give $50 for a meal card for an adoptive family newly united together.​
  • Commit to pray for one of our Featured Families.
  • Give $100 toward the cost of an adoptive grant.
  • Find an orphan and help advocate for them to find a family.
  • Pray for orphans not chosen by families worldwide.
  • Offer to help adoptive families in your local church.
  • Volunteer with us to help support local adoptive families. We have a support group and there are many needs! 

    Forever Families Volunteer sign-up! 

Featured, Forever Families  

Are you currently in the adoption process and looking for support and help? OR maybe you are interested in adoption but wonder what the steps are? Is it even possible for your family? It is our hope with this program that we can help with all of those questions. For families in the process, needing help, read through the two documents below. For families INTERESTED but not ready to take the step, we invite you to follow along with a family in the process and support them along the way. We will now have Featured Families here on our website as well as social media and emails. There are benefits to families with this partnership as well as requirements they have to meet. Currently, we have a few families below but be sure to keep checking back for new updates and deadlines. We are opening spots for MORE families to be featured and partners with us. Here is the what-to-know about this new program.
*We currently are on hold with a new deadline for applications for new families. With our previous Coordinator, Amy Shaw stepping down to be home with her two new girls from China, we need to take a little time to adjust. Keep checking back from time to time for updates. You love you Amy and that big, amazing family of yours! We thank you DEEPLY for the time and heart you've given to Children's Lantern. 

Current Featured Families

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ADOPTION SUCCESS STORY 
Angie, a single woman who has always wanted to become a mommy, worked for more than 4 years to adopt a child. She thought she wanted to bring home a daughter, but in the waiting process she stumbled onto a video from a Peruvian orphanage where a 7-year-old boy was featured. She was moved deeply by him. At the very same time, she got an email from a friend who was in Peru at that time and was messaging her about this same little boy! Angie applied for a Children’s Lantern Adoption Grant and was approved. Frank and Angie were matched by God and seemingly knit together at the heart level.

Children’s Lantern was there to welcome Angie and Frank home with a bundle of post-adoption goodies. They were there with prayer and emotional support throughout the entire process.

Previous Featured Families 

Adoption Grant Recipients

Although we no longer give just a straight grant funds only for adoptions, we want to honor the families we have previously partnered with in that way. The families you see here have all been through the adoption process. Some have been international, and some have been private domestic adoptions. However they have come to be a family, we support them. We stand with them on the journey that is adoption. From the beginning, if you have given to Children’s Lantern, you have had a part in bringing some of the children you see here to their forever families. 

When you have given to Children’s Lantern, you have helped bring these sweet ones HOME. We thank you, deeply.

Meet Mandy Keegan, Family Care Coordinator

My name is Mandy Keegan.  I have been married for almost 20 years to my high school sweetheart Shawn.  We have 6 of the most amazing kids on the planet: 3 daughters and 3 sons.  I am a stay at home mom and the Family Care Coordinator for Children’s Lantern.  We have been foster/adoptive parents for 8 years, and through that journey we have had the awesome privilege to foster 8 children total. Through our foster care journey, we were also blessed to adopt 3 times.  

When I look back on my life, ten years ago I would never imagined fostering or adoption would be part of our future.  I remember (almost like it was yesterday) where I was and what I was doing when God placed it upon my heart to consider adoption.  I tried very hard to pursue that in a very different way then what God had planned for us.  I am so glad and feel very blessed that He worked hard on showing us what we needed to do, despite my own ideas, and that we took the step (in faith and terrified) to become foster parents.  We have absolutely had countless ups and downs, tears and laughter, deep heartache and great joy.   There were times I questioned the decision that resulted in complete life change, and also times I have had such peace that it has overwhelmed me.  

 What gives me my drive to be part of Children’s Lantern? That’s easy, it’s the families.  Many children who come into care are so hurt, broken, and traumatized.  With only the clothes on their backs, they are torn from everything they know and are scared, confused, and carrying baggage that is not theirs to bare.  

My hope is to walk along side of those children but their foster families as well.  To be able to see those foster children heal, grow, learn to trust, and gain hope in their lives again.  To support a foster family in anyway that I can to lessen their stress, worry or burden walking this hard but also rewarding path.  I understand personally how hard it is to take on all that comes with fostering and how vital it is to have support from someone who understands exactly what you are going through.