Travis & Amanda

We had been praying for 6 years about becoming foster parents. We were positive that this was a direction God was leading us.

Through our jobs in education we have worked with several foster children which only strengthened our desire to eventually become foster parents. I remember looking at training dates several times, but we just never had total peace about it. In April of 2015, I attended the WMU Mission Conference in Gatlinburg. One session was about foster care. I was surprised to find out that the Tennessee Baptist Children’s Homes had a program for foster care! As soon as that session was over I didn’t get 10 feet from the door before I called Travis and told him, “I think this is what we have been waiting for!” There was not even hesitation in his voice when he told me to go to the TBCH booth and get more information.

By June, we were enrolled in a PATH class. A few weeks in our trainer, [TBCH Regional Foster Care Supervisor] Kacey Bush, mentioned that she needed respite care for a sister and brother for a few days. She even told us that the little boy’s name was Travis! Our life changed in a moment. We said “yes” to doing the respite care. The kids moved into our home as our first placement in July once our training was complete. Then the LONG journey started. As of August 30th, 2017 Travis and Natalie joined our family forever! We wanted the adoption ceremony held in our church, even though to their knowledge a church adoption ceremony had never been done before. But the judge agreed! It was really important for us that God get the glory for this miraculous moment!

I cannot imagine doing this journey with anyone else! It was important for us to have a Christian agency and a caseworker we knew would be praying for the decisions for our family. Since our initial training in 2015 we also felt led to share our foster journey which has led to many families in Claiborne County also being trained through TBCH! We are forever grateful for TBCH and Kacey!

– Travis and Amanda Dunn, Foster Parents