Meet the Staff - Amy Broussard

Amy Broussard, MSSW

Intrepid World Traveler - that is Amy Broussard, Adoption Counselor and one of Hope Cottage's newest employees.  Amy joined our staff in May where she works with parents waiting to adopt children from the Infant Adoption Program. 

Amy was born in Garland, but when she was one, she started on her "world tour" when he father worked for ExxonMobil.  Amy and her family spent five and a half years living in Indonesia followed by six months back in the U.S. living in Coppell.  Their next stop was Nigeria where Amy attended school from 2nd grade through her freshman year of high school.  Amy finished high school as a boarding student at The Hockaday School, while her parents moved to Equatorial Guinea, a small island on the west coast of Africa.  All this moving around has earned Amy the distinction of having visited five (North America, Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe) out of the seven continents in the world.

When she was growing up, Amy thought she would be a teacher. She used to "teach" her stuffed animals and use her bedroom window as a whiteboard.

After graduating from The Hockaday School, Amy attended SMU where she earned her Bachelors in Psychology.  She received her Master's in Social Work from University of Texas-Arlington.  While attending SMU, Amy had a mentor that helped her get a job in the children's room at the Dallas Children's Advocacy Center.  She played with and supervised the children while their parents attending group therapy or other appointments.  Her ineraction with the other social workers on the staff and her experience there, led her to see her master's.   Amy came to Hope Cottage from Refuge House where she was a Case Manager for foster care children.  She also did an internship with the Family Court Services while attending UTA. 

Amy shares her live with a crazy Boston Terrier named Parker.  He will be five in December and is still developing, shall we say, odd habits.  His latest trick is to jump in the dryer while the clothes are still warm.  Amy loves going to movies and keeping in touch with friends she made while living overseas.  Facebook has come in handy for that!

Amy's favorite part  of Hope Cottage is the positive work environment and the positive impact Hope Cottage makes on others' lives.  She loves being on the "happy" side of social work and seeing all the smiles. 

Hope Cottage is the oldest nonprofit, non sectarian adoption agency in Dallas. Since 1918 Hope Cottage has been building and nurturing strong families through counseling, education and adoption services.

If you have questions about adoption, please call Hope Cottage at 214.526.8721.

 If you are a woman facing an unwanted pregnancy and would like to talk to someone about adoption, please call Hope Cottage at 1.800.944.4464 or 214.404.4546.

When You Are Ready, Call Hope Cottage

If you truly want to impact the life of a child, consider adopting from the Foster Care System.  And when you are ready to do that, contact Hope Cottage at 214.526.8721.  If you need a little convincing, watch this video from AdoptUS Kids. 

Hope Cottage is the oldest nonprofit, non sectarian adoption agency in Dallas. Since 1918 Hope Cottage has been building and nurturing strong families through counseling, education and adoption services.

If you have questions about adoption, please call Hope Cottage at 214.526.8721.



If you are a woman facing an unwanted pregnancy and would like to talk to someone about adoption, please call Hope Cottage at 1.800.944.4464 or 214.404.4546.

A Tribute

Today's blogpost is a tribute to those twenty five people who, on Saturday, attended the first of six training sessions at Hope Cottage. These sessions, know as PRIDE training (Parent Resource for Information, Development and Education) mark the beginning of their journey to adopt their children from foster care. We want to say thank you to these people. If you are interested in changing the life of a child by adopting from foster care, please contact Linda Pouncy at 214.526.8721, ext 216. We and the children would love to hear from you! Just say YES!


Hope Cottage is the oldest nonprofit, non sectarian adoption agency in Dallas. Since 1918 Hope Cottage has been building and nurturing strong families through counseling, education and adoption services.

If you have questions about adoption, please call Hope Cottage at 214.526.8721.

If you are a woman facing an unwanted pregnancy and would like to talk to someone about adoption, please call Hope Cottage at 1.800.944.4464 or 214.404.4546

A Home for the Holidays

If you didn't watch the CBS program "A Home for the Holidays" last night you missed SOMETHING!  The12th Annual program (how did I miss this last year?  Oh yeah - I wasn't on Twitter yet - that is how I learned about the program - thanks tweeters) was hosted by Julie Chen and Holly Robinson Peete, sponsored by the Dave Thomas Foundation and focused on the availability of children for adoption within the foster care system.  The program also included followup on children featured last year who had found loving, permanent homes.  It was wonderful to see so many of the hosts participating whose lives had been touched by adoption - Melissa Gilbert, Ricky Martin, Melissa Etheridge.  Some of the celebrities shared their stories.  I could go on and on, but I urge you to take the time and watch the program on line by clicking here.

Before we leave, let's give a big thank you to all those who work to make lives better for children in foster care - the CPS workers who work tirelessly, non profits who support the children (props to Dallas CASA and Community Partners of Dallas  - just to name a couple) and Hope Cottage's own Foster to Adopt Staff, Linda Pouncy and Nicole Mahanay.  Big hugs to all those families who choose to adopt from Foster Care.  You all truly make a difference in the life of a child.

Hope Cottage offices will be closed from December 24 - January 2, so no posts until after the New Year.  We hope that each of you has a wonderful, joyous holiday season and the New Year brings you everything you desire and more!


Hope Cottage is the oldest nonprofit, non sectarian adoption agency in Dallas. Since 1918 Hope Cottage has been building and nurturing strong families through counseling, education and adoption services.



If you have questions about adoption, please call Hope Cottage at 214.526.8721.


If you are a woman facing an unwanted pregnancy and would like to talk to someone about adoption, please call Hope Cottage at 1.800.944.4464 or 214.404.4546

Celebrations and Musings

Hope Cottage  1923-1978

It is National Adoption Month - every day we celebrate adoption at Hope Cottage, but during November we will just rachet it up even more!  Help us celebrate by posting your adoption story.

And be sure and follow our tweets.  Every day we will tweet the name of  famous adoptees and adoptive parents.  Our Twitter name is LeslieatHope. 

In the midst of our celebrations, I read this blog post.   It it moved me to tears and I felt compelled to share it with you.  Steven Walker,  former foster child, adoptee, and adoption advocate, has called us to "be the answer" for Jason and children like him.  More than 7,000 children are in foster care in North Texas.  Since 2006 Hope Cottage has been working to reduce that number through our Foster to Adopt program.  When sharing about the wonderful work Hope Cottage has been doing since 1918, I like to close with this statement:

Thomas Jefferson said that as Americans we have three inalienable rights- the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  He forgot one very important right and that is the right for every child in this country to have a permanent, loving home. 

Let's make sure that Jason's story doesn't happen to another child. 

If you are interested in adopting a child from the foster care system, call Linda Pouncey at 214.526.8721, ext 216. 

Hope Cottage is the oldest nonprofit, non sectarian adoption agency in Dallas. Since 1918 Hope Cottage has been building and nurturing strong families through counseling, education and adoption services.


If you have questions about adoption, please call Hope Cottage at 214.526.8721.

If you are a woman facing a crises pregnancy and would like to talk to someone about adoption, please call Hope Cottage at 1.800.944.4464 or 214.404.4546. 

Interested in Adopting from Foster Care?

Since 2006 Dallas Adoption Agency, Hope Cottage, has been partnering with Child Protective Services to build forever familes for children in the foster care system.  At any one time, more than 7,000 children in North Texas in the foster care system are available for adoption.

 Adoptive Families magazine offers some great insight into adopting from Foster Care with these articles. 

Want to read about someone who has adopted from Foster Care?  In The Fost/Adopt Saga  Kathryn Reiss and Tom Strychacz chronicles in a special six part series,  the first year joys and challenges of adopting two older girls from foster care.  Kathryn Reiss is an award-winning author of suspense novels for children and teens. Tom Strychacz writes books and articles on American literature. They both teach at Mills College in northern California, and are the parents of five incredible kids. 

In this excerpt from her moving memoir, Another Mother, Sarah Gerstenzang relates her often painful, yet life-affirming journey as mother to a waiting child.
 

Kate McKee Robertson shares her discovery that adopting older children was right for her family. 
 
If you are interested in adopting from Foster Care, contact Linda Pouncey at Hope Cottage by calling 214.526.8721. 

Hope Cottage is the oldest nonprofit, non sectarian adoption agency in Dallas. Since 1918 Hope Cottage has been building and nurturing strong families through counseling, education and adoption services.