Category: Angels in Adoption

CCAI Angels in Adoption: Meet Amy Sharp

 CCAI’s Angels in Adoption™ Program provides Members of Congress the opportunity to honor an individual, couple, or organization from their district that have made an extraordinary contribution on behalf of children in need of homes. The Angels in Adoption™ travel to Washington D.C. to participate in three days of events all designed to train them to use their personal experiences to affect change and to celebrate their hard work and dedication to adoption and foster care issues. The events include the Adoption and Foster Care Advocacy Fair, tours of DC and networking events, an award ceremony, legislative seminar and an opportunity to visit Congressional offices to share how adoption has affected their lives. 

This year, on September 12, CCAI will recognize actress Katherine Heigl, singer-songwriter Josh Kelley, and PEOPLE Magazine as the 2012 National Angels in Adoption™ for their dedication and commitment to adoption and foster care issues. They will be honored, along with local Angels in Adoption™ selected by 143 Members of Congress, at CCAI’s 14th annual awards gala in Washington, DC.

Over the next couple of days, we will be highlighting some of our Angels in Adoption Angels in Adoption™. Today, we’d like to introduce you to Angel Amy Sharp.

CCAI Angel in Adoption Amy Sharp

Amy Sharp has lived in North Carolina her entire life and is dedicated to children in need of a nurturing and stable home. She and her husband Rod have three children: their biological daughter, Erin; Anna, who was adopted from Korea; and Maggie, who was adopted in the United States. Erin has adopted two children from Uganda, after serving in an orphanage there in 2007, so Amy is an adoptive grandmother as well.

In addition to being an adoptive mother, Amy is also a dedicated foster parent for the state of North Carolina and has been a foster mother for over 25 years, providing a home and loving care for close to 60 babies. She contributes to her community through teaching Sunday school, speaking at a camp for girls, and being involved in the music ministry at her church.

CCAI Angels in Adoption: Meet Darriel and Jessica Steedman

CCAI’s Angels in Adoption™ Program provides Members of Congress the opportunity to honor an individual, couple, or organization from their district that have made an extraordinary contribution on behalf of children in need of homes. The Angels in Adoption™ travel to Washington D.C. to participate in three days of events all designed to train them to use their personal experiences to affect change and to celebrate their hard work and dedication to adoption and foster care issues. The events include the Adoption and Foster Care Advocacy Fair, tours of DC and networking events, an award ceremony, legislative seminar and an opportunity to visit Congressional offices to share how adoption has affected their lives. 

This year, on September 12, CCAI will recognize actress Katherine Heigl, singer-songwriter Josh Kelley, and PEOPLE Magazine as the 2012 National Angels in Adoption™ for their dedication and commitment to adoption and foster care issues. They will be honored, along with local Angels in Adoption™ selected by 143 Members of Congress, at CCAI’s 14th annual awards gala in Washington, DC.

Over the next couple of days, we will be highlighting some of our Angels in Adoption Angels in Adoption™. Today, we’d like to introduce you to Angels Darriel and Jessica Steedman.

Many people experience “empty nest” syndrome, but Darriel and Jessica Steedman, along with their youngest son Holden, decided instead to fill up their nest. Already registered foster parents, they had helped many children as their four older children grew up and moved out on their own.

In 2005, Darriel and Jessica brought home Stevie, Holden’s new little sister.  Soon the Steedmans made room for baby twin brothers, Joseph and Jesse, who shared a biological mother with Stevie. In 2007, they adopted another new baby, Cody, followed, in 2012, by two-year-old Bella.

Holden, who had once been the youngest of five children, is now a loving older brother to five little siblings. As Jessica says, “We never intended to adopt so many, but we just fell in love with each and every one of them. It’s a running joke – we say we’re done, but our friends don’t believe us!”

Darriel, a Navy veteran who spent two years as a child at the Lena Pope Home in Texas, feels a strong urge to “give back,” along with his wife, Jessica, and to provide a safe and loving home for their children.

 

The Steedman children

 

CCAI June 2012 Newsletter Available Now

Highlights include:

  • CCAI 2012 Foster Youth Interns to Champion Change in Nation’s Capital
  • Nominate Your 2012 Angel in Adoption™ Today
  • Save the Adoption Tax Credit
  • Spreading Seeds: A 2010 Angel in Adoption™ shares the  story behind his daughter’s adoption

Please note the pending adoption and foster care legislation is on pages 6-15, and upcoming events are listed on page one.

Adoption Today Features Article on Angels in Adoption™

Nominate an Angel in Adoption™!

By Kathleen Strottman and Allison Cappa

“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.” Robert F. Kennedy said so eloquently what we at the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI) try to uphold daily and who we hope to esteem through our Angels in Adoption™ Program.

The Program began 14 years ago when a few Congressional offices began to brainstorm about the good that could come from honoring deserving constituents from their state and/or district who had impacted the life of a child in need of a loving family. That first year, in 1999, an awards ceremony was held on Capitol Hill to celebrate those very constituents. As co-founding Member of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption caucus and adoptive father Rep. Jim Oberstar puts it, “the first event was sparkling. There was so much enthusiasm and love.”

Since that time, Angels in Adoption™ has grown to be three days of events with over 1800 individuals, couples, and organizations recognized for the incredible work they have done to highlight the issue of foster care and adoption.  The Angels are invited to travel to Washington, D.C., where they learn how to advocate on behalf of children around the world waiting for a loving family to call their own. Additionally, they are honored at a prestigious Congressional Pinning Ceremony and at a very special Gala attended by senior members of the Executive Branch, US Senators, US Representatives and National Angels, like Kristin Chenoweth, First Lady Laura Bush, Patti LaBelle and Al Roker, who are using their celebrity status to promote adoption on a national and even global level. Furthermore, Angels in Adoption™ seeks to increase the public awareness of these individual deeds that profoundly impact a child’s life. The press from this event has spurred hundreds of human interest stories with the hope of inspiring others. Since the program’s inception, more than 1,800 Angels have been honored for their contributions to the cause of finding every child a home.

We all know the miraculous effect adoption has.  Because of Angels in Adoption that message is spreading. As 2011 National Angel in Adoption™, award winning actress (star of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”), former National Adoption Day spokesperson, Nia Vardalos, said of the adoption of her daughter, “My husband and I were matched with our daughter via American Foster Care, and the minute we met her, our lives changed forever.  At three years old, our perfect little girl walked into our house, and turned it into a home.”

Do you know of someone you would like to nominate to a Congressional Office because adoption or fostering children has changed their life forever? Nominate them as an Angel in Adoption™ by visiting www.angelsinadoption.org. You can also complete a nomination form online for submission which will be passed along to an appropriate Congressional office. The deadline for this year’s nomination is July 6, 2012. 

The preceding article was featured on page eight of the June 2012 Issue of Adoption Today. See Adoption Today.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition builds a home for an Angel in Adoption

Last year, CCAI recognized ABC’s top rated series Extreme Makeover: Home Edition as a National Angel in Adoption™.  At the time of the award’s gala, the show had built homes for 32 deserving families who had fostered andor adopted children.  In April, an episode aired that featured Beverly Hill-Burdette, who is one of CCAI’s 2011 Angels in Adoption™.  Because of her heart of gold and passion for helping children, as Beverly has fostered over 30 children and has adopted six, she was selected by Representative Scott Rigell (VA-District 2) to be his Angel in Adoption™.

While the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition crew was working hard to build her new house in Virginia Beach, designer Johnny Littlefield headed to Washington, DC to accept the Angel in Adoption™ award on Beverly’s behalf. When Johnny returned back to Virginia Beach, he made sure the award certificate was a part of the décor of Beverly’s beautiful new home. In fact, the first thing Beverly saw upon entering the foyer of her house was the framed Angels certificate, personally signed by Representative Rigell.

Be sure to watch the video of designer Johnny Littlefield’s meeting with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to receive the award on Beverly’s behalf.

Angel in Adoption certificate hanging in Beverly's foyer

Angels continue to advocate

CCAI is excited to highlight the below Angels in Adoption™ honorees for their continued commitment toward working for a family for every child.  Angels are some of the most amazing individuals out there and CCAI could not be more proud to see them nationally recognized for their tireless efforts!

2010 Angel, Andrea Faris Roberts, executive director of Reece’s Rainbow, has been named PEOPLE Magazine’s Reader’s Choice HERO of the year!

2009 Angels, Josh and Trina Hildabrand, are recognized as “Everyday Heroes” in the Nov/Dec 2010 issue of Fostering Families Today magazine!

In addition, a few Angels recently received the 2010 Adoption Excellence Award!  This award is given out by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families:

  • 2009 Angel, Gia Tutalo-Mote, founder and CEO of Forever Family
  • 2009 Angel, Children’s Home Society of Florida
  • 2001 Angel, Janice Goldwater