Springs of Love encourages, educates and equips Catholics to discern and live out the call to foster and adopt, while creating communities of support to help cultivate a culture of foster care and adoption in our parishes. Springs of Love hopes to convey both the beauty and the challenges of fostering and adoption with attention to such issues as adoption after infertility, the impact of trauma on children, parenting a special needs child, the adoption triad, navigating relationships with birth families, the language surrounding fostering and adopting, the role of the Church in caring for children in need of parents, and more. We hope that Springs of Love will be a place where Christians who wonder if they might be called to foster and/or adopt can come to hear inspiring stories, learn about the very real joys and challenges of fostering and adopting, and get connected with others who are on this path for support and encouragement. One of the most powerful ways that the Church can support vulnerable children in care is by offering practical support to the families who love them. Springs of Love Care Teams provide wrap-around support for foster families and families in crisis from prayer to making meals to providing material support. This support will hopefully encourage more Christians to open their hearts to foster and/or adopt. In sharing the beauty of adoption, Springs of Love hopes to also inspire women and men who are facing unplanned pregnancies to see adoption as a loving, desirable option.

Springs of Love is a sister organization of Springs in the Desert, an apostolate that accompanies those struggling with infertility by offering a place of respite and solidarity where they can know God’s love for them and discover His unique call to fruitfulness. Springs of Love serves both Catholics struggling with infertility, as well as those who are not, in order to raise awareness of the need for loving families for the over 400,000 children in foster care and countless children in need around the world.

Greg and Kimberly met while studying at the JPII Institute for Studies on Marriage & Family and were married soon after. After several years of struggling with infertility, they became foster parents in the hopes of adopting. They were blessed to be able to foster, then adopt Anthony. While he was still a baby, they were overjoyed to have the opportunity to adopt twin girls, Zailie & Gabriella, who were just 5 months younger than Anthony. When the “triplets” were 4, John Paul burst onto the scene.

The Henkel family wants to encourage other Catholics to consider fostering and adopting as a way to build their families, care for the children in need of a family, and be a gift to the birthparents unable to care for their children. They consider Springs of Love as a family mission to spread the joy (and, let’s be honest here, the very real struggles) of fostering and adopting, so that others might also open their hearts to love a child who needs them.