Welcome Home Has Been Changing Lives for Over 20 Years
Welcome Home is a program at ICA that brings families together in a unique way. Through the years the program has grown, shifted, and adjusted, but the overall idea remains the same; orphaned children from different countries visit the United States. While here, they are placed with host families for three to six weeks. Upon their arrival, they are lovingly welcomed as treasured guests, shown the sights and landmarks of the United States, taught about the God who made and loves them, all with the ultimate hope of finding them an adoptive family. Over the years, countless children, many of whom were likely to remain orphaned because of their age, have been placed with forever families.
Meet the Marinucci family. They adopted one daughter at birth and had always hoped to adopt again. Wife and mom, Laura, recalls the series of events that led to their involvement in Welcome Home:
“We were one of the families who benefited from someone else hosting. We were unaware of the program until my best friend’s daughter attended a bible study at the home where the girls were staying. Unexpectedly that same day we received an inheritance check in the mail. I was chatting with my friend that finances always held up our decision to adopt. We lived in a very small home and she said maybe we needed to think about our living arrangements first. After going to pick up her daughter and witnessing her come out crying stating ‘there is no family for these girls and they will have to return to the orphanage with bleak prospects once they age out of the system’” she called me and said “I think I have your money spent for you!”
The Marinucci’s immediately called, and met with the girls the very next day. While their was no […]