Identity Quest Spawns Adoption Support Ministry

WHEATON, IL (February 3, 2005) - Jody Moreen's quest to learn more details concerning her adoption has turned into a ministry in the Chicago area that has helped many adults in their own similar journeys.

After discovering the benefits of an adoption support group years earlier, Moreen started leading meetings through her home congregation, Faith Evangelical Covenant Church, about six years ago. The monthly meetings now average 8-15 individuals as people share adoption experiences, discuss issues relating to adoption and offer mutual support.

Another Covenanter, Sue Coons, has been especially helpful over the years with the group, Moreen says. The Evangelical Covenant Church of Hinsdale, where Coons attends, has also been supportive as it recently offered a Sunday school series on the spiritual dimension of adoption. Moreen previously conducted a six-week Bible study focused on adoption.

Although the adoption group at Faith Covenant does not follow a "Christian" agenda, Moreen has seen how her spirituality – and that of others – has benefited the sessions – and the participants. "I pray to honor God and I openly share my faith in God and his word and prayer and allow others to do the same," she says. "There is rarely a meeting where the Christians who attend do not openly share their faith and God's hand in their adoptions. A number of Christians and other local Covenanters have been involved in the group and give testimony to their faith in God. They reach out warmly as the 'Body of Christ' to attendees, many of whom have no church or faith background."

A longtime Covenanter, Moreen's adopted family was involved with Northwest Covenant Church in Mount Prospect during her childhood. She and her husband, Scott, attended North Park University (then College) and eventually moved to Hudson, Ohio, attending a Covenant church there. It was while in Ohio that questions about her adoption and her cultural/ethnic background surfaced. She discovered a local adoption support group (including adoptees, birth parents and adoptive parents) and found much encouragement hearing stories from the participants.

After her family moved to Indianapolis about a year later, Moreen found another adoption support group and began an adoption search for her birth family and history. Nearly three years later, she found out information about her birth family - although both of her birth parents were deceased, she discovered the whereabouts of three sisters who had been told that Jody had died at birth.

Moreen, now a mother of three, eventually discovered much about her Norwegian roots (her family's name was Johnson) and learned some valuable medical history while being welcomed into the family by her biological siblings. Her positive experience was integral to her increased involvement with the local support group (she became the group's facilitator), she says, and Moreen later joined an informal adoption sharing group at Hope Evangelical Covenant Church, where she and her family attended.

Seven years ago, the Moreens moved to Naperville and began attending Faith Covenant, where they had attended previously. When she couldn't find an active adoption support group in her area, Moreen advertised and discovered a viable interest. Along with her leadership at Faith's group, Moreen conducts workshops and occasionally speaks about adoption to large groups. She also edits a Christian adoption publication (available online at www.adoptionblessingsnewsletter.com) and hosts an online support group called Adoptees Christian Fellowship on Yahoo Clubs. The Internet group has a membership of 130 from throughout the world and information includes devotionals, testimonies and other resources.

"I find that the persons who attend the group most often are challenged in their emotions with issues of adoption," Moreen said. "They are then very open to spiritual matters and hearing testimonies of God's leading/healing in the lives of Christians in the group. Many who come are searching for answers, for resolution, to come to terms with their identity, their brokenness. I find it fascinating that in the six years I have been leading the group, how much freedom I have seen in our environment for Christians to share. No one has ever objected.

"I believe the Christians in the group have done much to reach out and build relationships with the other members," Moreen continued. "This builds trust and I find the attendees who are unchurched and not Christian are very open in our group to the gospel because of relationships built in this adoption community and safe environment. We have shared about God's unconditional love and forgiveness. We have also shared in our group the Biblical adoptees and those separated from their birth families in scripture - Moses, Esther, Joseph and Samuel. Many who knew of these biblical figures did not connect their adoption stories and find it fascinating that the Bible has so many who were touched by adoption or being raised apart from their birth families. Many have told me later that they looked up and read these biblical accounts."

To learn more about the adoption support group at Faith Covenant, email Moreen at adoption@wideopenwest.com.

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