October, 2013

Lutheran Family & Children’s Services

401 West Blvd. North

Columbia, MO 65203

573-815-9955 www.lfcsmo.org

Lutheran Family and Children’s Services has been in existence since 1868. We have a long history of working in the adoption field. LFCS is a local adoption agency which provides individuals with personal, face-to-face contact with adoption professionals before, during, and after the adoption. Options counseling is provided and if the decision is made to parent, then LFCS will continue to work with families, free of charge, to ensure that they have the best possible parenting experience. LFCS has staff committed to helping all members of the adoption triad (birth family, adoptive family, and adoptee), always focusing on the best interests of the child.

By working with LFCS, clients will receive:

A knowledgeable and qualified professional who will advocate on their behalf.

Support after the adoption, including counseling, facilitating pictures and letters, visits, and providing referrals for other services.

Birth parents may select the adoptive family and also have choices about ongoing contact

Advice to ensure that all laws and ethical practices are followed.

Time and counseling to ensure that an adoption plan is the right decision.

Records and Adoption files will be permanently stored for future service, such as exchanges, etc.

Confidentiality is of the utmost importance. It will always be maintained.

Foster homes licensed specifically for LFCS are available if a neutral home is needed while the birth parents make a decision.

All available adoptive families have gone through an extensive home study process and are willing to meet openness requests.

Sometimes being a good parent means choosing adoption

Lutheran Family & Children’s Services now has a

FACEBOOK PAGE FOR OUR MID-MISSOURI OFFICE

YOU WILL BE REGISTERED TO WIN A TARGET GIFT CARD

Please take a minute to Like our page and follow

the great work of LFCS.

We are thankful for the generosity of our Church based community. Having a supply of diapers and

wipes on hand to help our clients is such a blessing! It is great to work together to help build families through adoption assistance, foster care

and crisis pregnancy counseling.

Left: Diapers and wipes thanks to

Campus Lutheran

Church.

Right: Thanks to Trinity Lutheran

church in Jefferson city for the diapers, wipes and monetary

donation.

Left: Thanks to Saint Andrews Lutheran

church for the diapers Right: Thanks to Salem Lutheran

church for participating in our

Baby Bottle

Boomerang

Page 3 September, 2013

Working as a Team for Early Childhood

LFCS hosts many wonderful groups and celebrate with other agencies to work together on making every effort to make our community a better place. Below left is a meeting with

the Putting Kids First, Mental Health Committee. We continue to meet once a month regarding the mental health issue in Boone County. Pictured on the right is over 20 Social Service agencies that network together to benefit Early Childhood. These meeting

are at our office once a month. We are always happy to host these meetings and if your agency is interested in attending please contact Jessica Kirchhofer, with Parents as

Teachers 289-2845.

Thank you to Inside Columbia Magazine for their support of Lutheran Family and Children’s

Lutheran Family & Children’s Services

401 West Blvd. North, Suite B

Columbia, MO 65203 573-815-9955

www.lfcsmo.org

2013-2014 LFCS

Mid-Missouri Board Members

Emily Bange Kaye Clarke Sandy Dirks Lois Fagan

Vicki Hartwig Catherine Lavitt Paul Moessner

Carrie Paden Stacy Peters Nelly Roach

Leigh Spence Jayne Young

Leigh Spence has been a school counselor for Columbia Public Schools for 11 years and a CPS employee for 16 years. She is the new guidance director at Muriel Williams Battle High School. In addition to her appreciation for all the support LFCS provides for CPS students, she is also an adoptive parent, so the mission of LFCS is close to her heart in two ways. Leigh is married to Sean Spence and is mom to 24-year-old Clark.

LFCS would like to thank Leigh Spence for her continued support of the mission of LFCS to help build families through adoption assistance, foster care and crisis pregnancy counseling. Leigh has served on LFCS board since 1989.

Thank you to Caledon Virtual

for hosting Power Couple

Date Night at Bleu restaurant.

All proceeds were donated to

LFCS. Bleu took great care of guests by providing a wonderful and exclusive

menu for the attendees. Everyone had a lovely evening and learned about

LFCS services.