“They need somebody to trust and rely on.”

Carrie Feitl smiles as she talks about the joy in seeing her then-foster daughter show independence. “Once she got a job, her number one goal was to get a car – and she purchased it on her own within a week of getting her license,” she says. 

After three years together, the Feitl family, who have two biological daughters, officially adopted their 17-year-old daughter on October 26 and describe her as being determined and unafraid to try new things. Carrie and Scott began considering adoption 12 years ago when Scott was a pastor at a church in their hometown of Lansing, Michigan. Many of their friends in the congregation were either foster or adoptive parents and suggested that Scott start a support group they could attend to help each other. Eventually, the Feitls became licensed as foster parents and began searching for an agency. 

After moving to Louisville, they learned about St. Joe’s through the foster care and adoption ministry at Southeast Christian Church four years ago and began fostering their adopted daughter and her sister, who is 13. Fostering or adopting a child, Carrie says, can play a critical role in their future successes. “The kids need somebody to count on, to teach them to drive, to cook. They need somebody to trust and rely on. Earning her trust was part of the process, and those are huge reasons that we are proponents of fostering and adopting. We want to give kids a chance to be kids.”

P.S. Our St. Joe’s kids need loving people who are willing to be foster care parents or respite providers. Want to know more? Contact info@sjkids.org or Lisa Barber-Atwell at lisab@sjkids.org to schedule an individual in-person or virtual information meeting.  

This post was supported by funds made available by the Kentucky Department for Public Health’s Office of Health Equity from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for STLT Public Health Infrastructure and Workforce, under RFA-OT21-2103.

 The content of this post are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of or endorsement by the Kentucky Department for Public Health or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.