CHRISTIAN FAMILY SERVICES, INC.
GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA

Jerry serves Christian Family Services, Inc. as its Executive Director. He served three years as a Christian Family Services contract worker, working with moms pursuing an adoption plan while still in church ministry before being asked to be its director in 2003. Jerry is a licensed clinical social worker with over 30 years of experience in ministry working with families. Jerry continues to work personally with many of the birth parents in exploring an adoption plan. Debbie began working for CFS as a contract worker in N. Florida in 2000. After moving to the Gainesville area in 2003, she became a full-time caseworker counseling with clients as they face a crisis pregnancy. Debbie works with those who choose to parent in a social work capacity – providing resources, referrals and encouragement. For those parents who choose to make an adoption plan, her training as an adoption specialist aids them with knowledge and compassion. She is the adoption training coordinator who helps adoptive families prepare for their adoption journey. Debbie helps coordinate the interaction between birth families and adoptive families. Donna joined the CFS staff in 2014 following seventeen years as a small business operator. She is married to Don Brooker, whom she met in Chapel at Harding University over 30 years ago. They have two grown sons. Donna received her business degree from the University of Florida. With a heart for the Lord and His people, Donna is a Christian serving in several congregations of the Church of Christ, and is part of the Women’s Jail ministry at University City (Gainesville). Donna has been humbled by the plight of Birth Mothers CFS works with as well as honored to work with those choosing to take on the role of parents through adoption. No, CFS is simply here to help you look at all of your options and to make an informed choice regarding you and your baby. We will meet with you and discuss all of your options. We want you to understand every aspect and not feel pressured from anyone, including family and friends. We want to be a "safe place" where you can talk and explore your options without fear of judgment or shame. We will show you profiles of prospective families that come closest to meeting your criteria. Once you and the family are in agreement in regard to pursuing your adoption plan with them, we will help you determine what level of communication you want for the remainder of your pregnancy. We will help you design your own hospital plan. You will be able to decide who you want to be there and when. You will determine how much or how little time you spend with your baby and how much time you want the adoptive family to have. We will also help construct a Communications Agreement so that both you and the adoptive family will have a written reminder regarding the level of communication after placement and what it will look like. You can specify the frequency of pictures and updates. These may come through the agency, or there may be agreement to have direct contact via email, social media, Skype,etc. There may even be an understanding about potential future visits. However, some moms don’t come to that conclusion until they are at the hospital and the baby is already here. In that case, normally we can still accommodate mom’s wishes and make everything happen before she and the baby are discharged. That means we can still help her to choose the family and normally she can meet them before she leaves the hospital. Sometimes a mom takes her baby home, only later to discover that she isn’t able to make it work, or she may simply decide that she wants a better life for her child than she can currently provide. She makes that sacrificial choice by putting the best interest of her child above her own wants. She knows that she is making a loving choice to give her child both a mom and a dad in a good Christian home, and that she will be able to still see and know (through pictures and updates, etc.) that her child is growing and happy. That is again why we want to work with that mom to help her be absolutely certain that this is what she believes is in the best interest of her child. For more information on this subject, we would like to sit down with you and first learn the details of your particular situation. This will help us to give you a more accurate picture of your case. Please call: 1-800-226-2367. No, CFS is simply here to help you look at all of your options and to make an informed choice regarding you and your baby. We will meet with you and discuss all of your options. We want you to understand every aspect and not feel pressured from anyone, including family and friends. We want to be a "safe place" where you can talk and explore your options without fear of judgment or shame. We will show you profiles of prospective families that come closest to meeting your criteria. Once you and the family are in agreement in regard to pursuing your adoption plan with them, we will help you determine what level of communication you want for the remainder of your pregnancy. We will help you design your own hospital plan. You will be able to decide who you want to be there and when. You will determine how much or how little time you spend with your baby and how much time you want the adoptive family to have. We will also help construct a Communications Agreement so that both you and the adoptive family will have a written reminder regarding the level of communication after placement and what it will look like. You can specify the frequency of pictures and updates. These may come through the agency, or there may be agreement to have direct contact via email, social media, Skype,etc. There may even be an understanding about potential future visits. However, some moms don’t come to that conclusion until they are at the hospital and the baby is already here. In that case, normally we can still accommodate mom’s wishes and make everything happen before she and the baby are discharged. That means we can still help her to choose the family and normally she can meet them before she leaves the hospital.