Families

Meet the Fusiliers

Our families are irreplaceable.

Pathways for Little Feet was founded because we believe God called us to help bridge the financial gap that was keeping families from adopting. Helping a family overcome the financial ‘mountain’ to adopt a child brings our organization so much joy!

Potential Families

The Pathways for Little Feet Family Fund provides financial support through interest-free adoption loans. As family loans are paid back through monthly repayments, the money helps other families adopt. This sustainable stewardship model has helped bring over 600 children into Christian homes!

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Process & Eligibility

Process

Process:

  • Interest-free loans provided up to $10,000
  • Term and monthly repayments based on individual family application
  • Repayments received each month will be recycled to help new adopting families

Requirements:

  • Completed Application
  • Full Approved Home Study & Any Updates
  • Current Credit Score Report
  • Last Year’s Tax Information
  • Last Month’s Bank Statement (Checking & Savings)
  • Copy of Valid Driver’s License
  • Copy of Last Two Pay Stubs
  • Letter of Recommendation from a Pastor at Your Church

You can email your completed application along with required documents Madison@pathwaysforlittlefeet.org

  • Financial Need of Prospective Parents – Funding priority will be given, but not limited to, families presenting the greatest need
  • Licensed Adoption Agency & Approved Home Study – Applicants must use adoption agency that is licensed in their state of operation
  • Sought Additional Financial Support – Applied for other financial assistance, employee assistance, fundraising, etc.
  • Financial Stewardship – Applicants agree to repay the loan by auto-draft monthly payments in order to help other families with their adoptions
  • Availability of Funds – Sometimes requests for assistance outweigh resources, and we regret that we are not always able to provide assistance to every family. Therefore, we cannot guarantee that every family will receive a loan.
  • Timeline of Adoption (if approved) –  Adoption timelines vary, therefore as part of our due diligence, additional information or a new application may be requested pending release of funds.

Pathways for Little Feet, for us, was more than just the financial resources. They were calling to pray for us, to check on us, and they provided support as well…”

-Fusilier Family

Current Families

James 1:27 describes caring for the orphan as “pure religion.”  As we look back at what God has done through Pathways families, it is profoundly humbling to have been a witness to His love for the orphan and the adoptive family!

We thank you for your continued payments which helps our Pathways Family Fund remain sustainable and allows for more families to adopt more children.

We want to stay connected with you and continue to serve you! Please keep us updated on what’s going on with your family and let us know how we can serve you through prayer!

Make A Payment

Family Payments are for families trying to repay their interest-free adoption loans. To make a donation, please visit our Donate Section.

Make a family payment quickly, easily, and securely by selecting to pay with one of the available payment methods below.

All family payments received after 8:00 PM ET may be processed the following business day. Weekend/Holiday payments will be processed the next business day.

User our secure checkout page to make a Family Payment.

Make a Family Payment

Submit a Prayer

At Pathway’s for Little Feet, we strongly believe in the power of prayer. It’s at the core of everything we do. We’d love to continue to pray for your family, please let us know how we can!

Submit a Prayer

Share an Update

We would love to stay connected and to hear from you! Let us know how you’re doing on your adoption journey or your post-adoption journey!

Share an Update

Pathways not only helped us financially, but it has come alongside of us in other ways as well. We could not have asked for more. Pathways’ help with 3 of our 8 adoptions has been unparalleled.

– Majewski Family

Here are some resources that we believe can also help those seeking to adopt. Most of these are specific towards helping financially, but there are also other resources found below as well. If you would like help or assistance with something and you can’t get that help below, please reach out to us and we’d love to be able to serve you as we’re able.

Resources

Organizations That Help Financially

  • www.adopting.com — general adoption website
  • www.adoption.com — general adoption website
  • www.adoptioncouncil.org — the National Council for Adoption website. Resources for all types of adoption for the professional, families, agencies, birthparents and media.
  • www.adoption.state.gov — the United States Department of State website on international adoption.
  • www.adoptivedads.org — adoption and foster care website specifically for dads and dads-to-be
  • www.adoptivefamilies.com/foster — a wide variety of articles and stories about foster care and families adopting from foster care
  • www.child.tcu.edu —TCU’s Institute of Child Development, a research institute led by Drs. Karyn Purvis and David Cross (authors of The Connected Child) that focuses on the needs of adopted and at-risk children and successful parenting techniques to help children heal and thrive
  • www.childwelfare.gov/adoption — formerly known as the National Adoption Information Clearinghouse, a U.S. government website that provides a variety of general information on all aspects of domestic and intercountry adoption, including adoption from foster care
  • www.embracetexas.org
  • www.empoweredtoconnect.org — an adoption & foster resource website using Biblical principles for parenting. A leading resource for families, churches, and professionals in providing deep connections with the children that God has placed in our home.
  • www.tapestry.org
  • www.pactadopt.org — deals exclusively with transracial and transethnic adoption issues; PACT’s adoption book guide, however, is a great resource for virtually every adoption book ever published (including children’s adoption books) site also contains information about hundreds of Texas children who are currently waiting to be adopted

You may be able to receive a tax credit of up to $13,570 for qualified expenses paid to adopt an eligible child. See Topic No. 607 Adoption Credit and Adoption Assistance Programs for additional information.

Several states have tax credits for adoptive families, which are sometimes restricted to those families adopting from that state’s public child welfare system. Contact your state adoption unit for more information.

Families who adopt from the public system may be eligible for reimbursement of adoption-related expenses, such as home study, travel, and attorney costs. In addition, children with special needs may qualify for a subsidy to help parents pay for ongoing treatments. For more information see North American Council on Adoptable Children.

Active-duty personnel are reimbursed for one-time adoption costs, whether adopting an infant, a waiting child, or a child from abroad. Find out more at Child Welfare Information Gateway.

More employers are offering adoption benefits for employees, and the dollar amounts of these benefits are growing, with the average expense reimbursement now approaching $4,000. Resources for help in lobbying for these benefits:

FAQ

Do we have to use the money we receive from our federal adoption tax credit to reimburse Pathways for Little Feet?

You may use any means available to you to reimburse Pathways for Little Feet. The adoption tax credit is a convenient source of funds to use for loan repayment, making more funds available sooner for other adoptive families waiting to bring their children home.

Although you must honor your Loan Agreement, Pathways for Little Feet will work with you through your financial hardship.

No. The family must use their own resources to start the adoption application process and proceed through the pre-placement assessment (home study) stage. A copy of the approved home study is required to be submitted with the loan application.

Pathways for Little Feet will make payments directly to the family.

Pathways for Little Feet is a 501(c)(3) charitable not-for-profit organization, and donations are tax deductible as allowed by law.

According to the IRS guidelines, in order for the donation to be tax deductible, a donor may not retain control over how a not-for-profit organization ultimately uses the donated funds. However, the donor may make a request that his or her funds be used in a particular manner. The organization is permitted to consider the request, while the ultimate authority regarding the disposition of the funds is in the discretion of the organization.

No there are no special income requirements. We do require a current credit score on both applicants. Should there be any history of bad credit, we ask the family to provide a letter explaining the circumstances.

We do not charge any interest on the loans we provide.

Monthly repayment terms are based on each individual family application. Pathways for Little Feet and the loan recipients will mutually agree upon an amount through a loan covenant agreement.

Family is not defined by our genes.

It is built and maintained through love.

Adipo Family

For us, adoption is first and foremost a calling. As a Christian, it’s a calling from God. And, it’s a privilege to serve Him in this way.

We are both from Kenya, our daughter is from Ethiopia and our son was born in the United States. We are truly an immigrant family. When we adopted our daughter, we made a promise to her that we would stay connected with her friends from the orphanage. In our hometown, there is an adoption agency who has helped many families adopt children from the same orphanage. We reached out to these families and have begun to get together regularly. As we built our community, we came up with ideas for building tighter relationships, such as an annual family camp. We are up to 100 families!

Through social media, we discovered the resources which were available for the adoption of our son. Out of those discussions, we found out about Pathways.

We want you to know how thankful we are for organizations like yours who stand up to help families like ours. We hope you know how important you are to us. We would not have been able to adopt our son had it not been for Pathways. You do important work for which we are very grateful.

Day Family

“We both came into our marriage with adoption at the forefront of our minds, especially with Derek having been adopted as a young child. After a financially devastating failed adoption we selectively searched for guidance from adoption non-profits. We found Pathways for Little Feet whose faith core values matched ours. We were referred by Faithful Adoption Consultants, a faith-based referral service. Pathways approved us for a $7,500 loan and without it, we would not have been able to afford the adoption. The help from Pathways was clearly a miracle and enabled us to say yes to our baby.

We were told not to make any big plans around the birthmother’s due date, near the end of January. Despite this advice, Derek left town for a convention a day early. I recall asking him several times if he was sure he wanted to leave early. Sure enough, the call came in the middle of that night. Derek had to race home from the conference, three hours away to pick me up so we could begin our 12-hour drive from Tennessee to Houston. We arrived soon after Landyn was born. We had been in contact with Landyn’s birthmother for the two months leading up to her birth, which proved to be such a blessing. When we arrived at the hospital and walked into the room, we were not complete strangers, and we wanted to spend as much time as we could, getting to know her more intimately. There was an instant connection between us and we could even picture ourselves being friends with her. Six months later, I still text her 3 or 4 times a week and a relationship of love and insight has developed between us. Landyn has three siblings belonging to her birthmother that she will want to meet someday. I find myself on numerous occasions telling others how important Landyn’s birth family has proved to be.

We remember how isolating it felt to not know anyone in Houston. We decided to call Pathways as we left the hospital in Houston. Pathways had provided amazing emotional support the previous six months. We asked Sandy if we could run by the office with our loan agreement. We could tell she was confused as to why we could not mail it from Tennessee. We told her we were in Houston and had our newborn daughter with us. We could hear the shock in her voice. Landyn was two days old!

Sandy, Rob, and Kelli came down to the truck to meet us and our new baby girl. There were lots of hugs and tears. And praise God, lots of pictures. And most important, before leaving, we all prayed together.

Our advice to anyone considering adoption is, ‘do it, do not get discouraged, do not give up’. Any doubts we ever had were forgotten instantly when we held our daughter for the first time. Had we not stayed faithful to where God was leading us, we would not have Landyn with us now. You have to know who you are and what your limits are and what you are capable of providing. It is all about the child. You must have a calling and you must have conviction. Thanks for letting us be part of the Pathways Family!”

Majewski Family

Lawrence and Sherry Majewski are self-described, “common, everyday people.” But to the 8 daughters, they have adopted over the past 17 years, they are anything but “common.”

God initially formed a picture in our minds of our future as adoptive parents. Through much prayer, study, and counsel, we finally settled on adopting internationally from China. Our first 3 daughters came from their non-special needs program. In 2006, we sensed God might be prompting us to adopt a special needs child, so we began to pray, and after a period of time, it was confirmed in our minds and hearts. I saw on the agency’s website a beautiful child who had spina bifida. We knew from experience that adoptions were costly, and now we would be taking on the additional medical expenses of a special needs child who would require unknown amounts of money, emotional energy, and patience. We didn’t know how we were going to pay for it all, but we trusted God. That’s when Pathways for Little Feet entered our lives.

Each adoption brings its own challenges. For us, it was always financed. We are common, everyday people. We are not wealthy, but God provided in the financial realm. I remember when Pathways for Little Feet called us for the first time to tell us our application had been approved, asking if they could pray for us. That prayer put chills down my spine. It was as if those words were my own: the exact things for which we needed prayer. Pathways not only helped us financially, but it has come alongside of us in other ways as well. We could not have asked for more. Pathways’ help with 3 of our 8 adoptions has been irreplaceable. Pathways joined with us and helped us. They allowed us to adopt Aneyah, Brynn, and Bailey, who did not have a mom or dad, by providing us with 3 separate zero-interest loans, one in 2010, one in 2014, and one in 2017. Pathways is our saving grace.

The interest-free loan for Aneyah not only allowed us to finalize her adoption, it freed up money to pay for critical medical procedures necessary to keep her alive. She suffered with her intestines being wrapped around her stomach, a hiatal hernia, the need for an appendectomy and the removal of her gallbladder. The Pathways’ loan for Bailey, whom we adopted at age 4, also had a dramatic effect on her life. She also has spina bifida, which means she has to be catheterized. Bailey was a little girl who had been in foster care her whole life, and when she arrived at her new home, she threw temper tantrums every day for two weeks, struggling with the abrupt changes in her world. We loved her as much as she would allow, and little by little, she began to trust us, and now we have a phenomenal relationship with her. All 3 girls are a wonderful part of our family.

Peters Family

“After a long struggle and finally bringing one son home from Ethiopia in February 2011, we thought adoption #2 would go smoother. Well, it didn’t.

After investing lots of money with an adoption agency, we found out in February 2013 that they were going bankrupt, taking our George Washington’s with them. Now, with a new adoption agency that graciously moved us closer to the front of the line than to the rear, we had a referral in the Fall of 2013.

However, in May of 2014, we found out that this young boy would never be ours, based on an in-country decision from the Ethiopian government.

In the fall of 2014, we got a referral for Silas. And, after another long wait (“long wait” and adoption seem to be too close of kin) we brought him home in November 2015! Today, Silas is doing great!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to Pathways for making this adoption possible with your interest-free loan. Without it, Silas might not be in our family. We spent nearly 8 out of 10 years adopting our two sons, with so many people and agencies helping us along the way! God has blessed us, and uses our family to grow us into the likeness of His Son, Jesus Christ.”