About Us
Who We Are
We are a group of Christians from diverse communities and theological backgrounds—all affected by adoption and united by a desire to:
- Center adoptee and birth parent voices;
- Illuminate lived-experience truths often missing from conversations about adoption in The Church;
- Support those who have been been pushed out of God’s story because of adoption practices and messaging;
- Journey towards healing alongside those harmed from the trauma of relinquishment and separation in adoption;
- Advocate for reforming adoption practices and policies.
Our Core Beliefs
- We value the inherent worthiness of birth parents and adoptees in the eyes of God.
- We prioritize family preservation whenever possible and encourage The Church to do the same.
- We recognize the loss that exists in every adoption, and work to remind others that God is close to the brokenhearted.
- We recognize the importance of first families to adoptees.
- We courageously lean into conversations about hard topics.
- We value truth as a pathway to binding up our wounds and healing.
- We believe in equal representation in church adoption groups, with birth parents and adult adoptees invited to the table, even when they share what may be considered countering perspectives.
- We aim to address the fallout from hetero-normative, white middle-class ideals and how they affect adoption.
- We honor unmarried people and child-free families as much as we honor families with children, and aim to bring awareness to cultural pressures to parent children and the ways this can lead to harmful adoption practices and commodification of children.
- We believe in decoupling conversations about adoption from conversations about abortion.
- We strive to offer community in Christ with each other, as God intended, and we see all parties in adoption as integral to this community.
- We endeavor to be like Jesus, who disrupted the status quo and brought secrets to light.
Our Areas of Focus
Supporting those who have been kept out of God's story due to harmful adoption practices.
Illuminating healthy ways for pastors and congregants to think and speak about adoption.
Our People
Sara Easterly is co-author of Adoption Unfiltered: Revelations from Adoptees, Birth Parents, Adoptive Parents, and Allies and author of Searching for Mom, which won a gold medal in the Illumination Book Awards, among several other honors. Her adoption-focused articles, essays, and book reviews have been published by Newsweek, Psychology Today, Dear Adoption, Severance Magazine, Feminine Collective, Godspace, Her View from Home, and Englewood Review of Books, to name a few.
Sara is founder of Adoptee Voices and previously led one of the largest chapters of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators, where she was recognized as SCBWI Member of the Year. She is a trained course facilitator with the Neufeld Institute, and brings 20+ years of experience as a publicist and event planner orchestrating book tours, launch campaigns, and large-scale events.
Sara is founder of the Faith Collective for Truth and Healing in Adoption and a member of the Collective’s Steering Committee, as well as the Educating, Equipping, and Reform Team.
Dr. Patrice Martin is an adoptee advocate and nonprofit management scholar-practitioner with over twenty-five years of experience in grants and program management. Patrice’s advocacy work in the adoptee community started in 2019 after her reunification with her biological family on the hit TLC show Long Lost Family. Patrice primarily centers her advocacy work for adoptees around subjects concerning media, faith, and legislative matters.
Patrice is co-host of Adoption Retold: A Podcast by the Faith Collective for Truth and Healing in Adoption and a member of the Collective’s Steering Committee, as well as the Educating, Equipping, and Reform Team.
Natasha Tripplett, a Jewish-Jamaican American author, lives in Northern California where she writes from a treehouse perched in a sycamore tree. As a baby, Natasha was adopted into a Dutch, Christian family. Her multicultural background has allowed her to flow seamlessly through different cultures while bridging gaps that typically divide people. Natasha is represented by Caryn Wiseman of Andrea Brown Literary Agency and has picture books published by HarperCollins, Chronicle, and WaterBrook. Natasha bubbles with excitement over antiques, chocolate, coffee on the front porch, and cozy movie nights in front of the fireplace with her husband and four children.
Natasha is co-host of Adoption Retold: A Podcast by the Faith Collective for Truth and Healing in Adoption and a member of the Collective’s Steering Committee, as well as the Educating, Equipping, and Reform Team.
Julian Washio-Collette is a domestic, same-race, Baby Scoop Era double-adoptee, relinquished and adopted as an infant and again at nine years old. He is passionate about contemplative spirituality and fostering growth and healing in the adoptee community, especially through writing. Julian has trained extensively in Buddhist and Christian contemplative practices, took temporary vows as a Benedictine monk at New Camaldoli Hermitage, Big Sur, California, holds an MA in Theology from Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary, Collegeville, Minnesota, and is currently training to give spiritual direction, with an emphasis on attending to the spiritual needs of adopted people. He lives with his wife, Lisa, at Dandelion House, a Catholic Worker house of hospitality near Portland, Oregon, where he can often be seen riding his unicycle on the Trolley Trail.
Julian is the producer of Adoption Retold: A Podcast by the Faith Collective for Truth and Healing in Adoption and a member of the Collective’s Spirituality and Care Team.
Iris P. Bryant’s great passion is helping adoptees find purpose on the other side (or smack dab in the middle) of pain. Iris’ most important credentials come from the least favorite parts of her life. She has walked through rejection and abandonment, learned to navigate life as a caregiver, and faced grief after the loss of her husband, David, the love of her life. Because of these painful seasons of her life, she has credibility to speak into the pain of others. A North Carolina native, Iris loves to share stories from her life in order to share God’s message in those little moments. She has two young adult children and two adorable granddaughters.
Iris is the social media manager for the Faith Collective for Truth & Healing in Adoption.
Amber Jimerson is a birth mom of 17 years in a semi-open adoption, a psychology student, and a preacher’s wife. She is a former board member of the National Association of Adoptees and Parents, where she facilitated the First Families Support Group for two years. Currently, she facilitates the Knee-to-Knee in-person support group for birth moms in central Indiana, hosted by Adoptions of Indiana. Both she and her husband, who preaches at the Brownsburg Church of Christ, are also artists, and together they raise their four children.
Amber is a member of the Collective’s Educating, Equipping, and Reform Team.
Beka Overby is a birth mom currently in reunion with her first son who she placed in a semi-open, private adoption after finding herself pregnant at 16. After attending Multnomah Bible College in Portland, Oregon and then studying pastoral counseling in Sydney, Australia, Beka began working in full-time ministry in a variety of roles from facilitating small groups, women’s community, local outreach ministry, and writing/leading worship. Both she and her husband, Seth, currently minister at New Hope Church in Portland, Oregon. Over the course of more than two decades as a birth mom, Beka has counseled, supported, and journeyed alongside many fellow birth moms, as well as advocated for teen moms who bravely choose to parent. Beka and Seth parent three young boys together (8, 6, and 2 years old) and enjoy spending time outdoors in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.
Beka is a member of the Collective’s Spirituality and Care Team, as well as the Educating, Equipping, and Reform Team.
Reverend Colin Fagan is new to engaging in the complex realities surrounding adoption. His interests and reflections intersect at the connection of theological ethics and spiritual formation as resources for more robust and constructive pathways for the Church’s discussion on adoption, as well as its pastoral care for all impacted by it. As a spiritual director and ordained minister, he cares deeply that the Church be a space for adoptees to thrive and flourish and discover that the tragedy implicit in adoption can be held well alongside the hope of a transfigured life that is discovered in friendship with Jesus.
Colin was ordained to the diaconate in the Anglican tradition and is currently a part of the Diocese of Saint Anthony in the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches. He holds an MA in Conflict Resolution and Master of Divinity, both from Lipscomb University. He lives in Tennessee with his family.
Colin is a member of the Collective’s Spirituality and Care Team, as well as the Educating, Equipping, and Reform Team.