“They didn’t just listen to him. They actually took notes and heard my child.”

Brittney Combs – with the help of the St. Joe’s team – learned how to restore the family she thought she had lost.

When the state placed her 12-year-old son Hunter in foster care in October of 2020, Brittney Combs vowed to keep her family together – and create a home where he could feel safe. Cortney Emberson, director of clinical services at St. Joe’s and the therapy team worked with Brittney to make it happen. She supervises the therapists who work in their foster and residential treatment program and their outpatient Behavioral Health Services Organization program. Also, Cortney helps oversee the therapeutic treatment of the kids who reside at St. Joe’s.

For 2.5 years, Brittney was separated from her son and feared she wouldn’t see him again.

“Adoption changed my life.”

Codey Zipperle found peace – and a family he could count on – when he met Cindy and Joel Zipperle through St. Joseph Children’s Home. Codey and his younger brother Brandon, were in foster care for several years and wanted to have a stable home life with their parents, but attempts for reunification with the family failed. “I knew there was an issue with my biological parents, but I never got a straight answer from them…coming and going from foster care to their house became second nature,” he says.

Fortunately, a chance meeting between him and the Zipperles – a meeting that wasn’t supposed to happen – led Codey to a family who couldn’t wait to give him their last name.

The Gift of Family

Brydie Harris and her partner Xian Brooks saw the gift in waiting for the family they wanted.

For six months, the couple was on the St. Joe’s waiting list for foster care and hadn’t been paired with anyone until they met *John and *Emma in April 2022. They learned about Emma from friends who also adopted children through St. Joe’s, so they inquired about fostering her but didn’t know what to expect.