Wendy’s Wonderful Kids

and Post Adoption

Lutheran Family Services believes that every child deserves a family and through its foster care adoption programming continuously works toward ensuring that every foster child in Nebraska finds a loving, permanent home prior to aging out of the foster care system.

  • On any given day, over 391,000 children are living in the U.S. foster care system, and within Nebraska there are over 6,500 children in care. Nationally over 113,000 of these children are eligible for adoption. In 2021, 19,130 children aged out of the U.S. foster care system.

    Children who are most at risk of aging out of foster care without a permanent family include children 9 years old and older, large sibling sets, and children with special needs. These youth and young adults are more likely to experience behavioral, mental and physical health issues, housing problems and homelessness, employment and academic difficulties, early parenthood, incarceration, and other potentially lifelong adversities.

  • LFS partners with the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption – Wendy’s Wonderful Kids and Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.

    LFS is the only agency within the State of Nebraska that collaborates and receives funding from DTFA-WWK to provide a child focus recruitment model with the goal that every child achieves adoption and permanency with a family. LFS has held this award since 2010 and since that time has expanded services with additional direct staffing to work with youth. LFS in the only agency within Nebraska that utilizes an evidenced based child recruitment model that successfully addresses these challenges.

    A five-year national evaluation revealed that a child referred to this programming is up to three times more likely to be adopted.

  • LFS recognizes that legal adoption and guardianship finalization is not the final hurdle for achieving adoption or guardianship stability, particularly for children with special needs. Adoptive and guardianship families undergo stressors and adjustments unique to the adoption and guardianship experience that last throughout the life cycle. Often, they face these challenges with limited financial, community, and social resources. We also recognize that families formed by adoption and guardianship have unique challenges that can span their lifetime.

    LFS currently offers support groups, training, education, and access to mental health care to post-permanency youth and families. LFS provides continuing education opportunities for families to acquire and expand their knowledge of best practices in adoption, guardianship, post-permanency, and parenting.