Wayfinder Blog

Category: Foster Care and Adoption

Meet Dave Wraa

Member of the Community Council and former member of the Wayfinder Board of Directors Fifteen years ago, friends asked Dave and Grace Wraa if they knew about the foster-to-adopt program to find permanent homes for children in the child welfare system. Admittedly, Dave and Grace didn’t know much about the program, but that would change…

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Meet Erica Fernandez

Secretary, Board of Directors and Wayfinder Community Council member “All children deserve to be in a safe, loving home” says Erica Fernandez. This belief drives her ongoing commitment to Wayfinder. Erica has a demanding job as a senior vice president and region manager for California Bank & Trust in Northern California, plus two sons of…

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Meet John Nicolaus Member of Wayfinder’s Board of Directors and Chair of the Wayfinder Community Council

John Nicolaus came to Wayfinder for the landscaping and stayed for the children.  Five years ago, Wayfinder received a grant to upgrade the exterior of its Citrus Heights office to improve access for people with disabilities. “Every ADA upgrade requires a landscape architect to fix it up at the end after the sidewalks have been…

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Meet Jean Minton, member of the Wayfinder Community Council

Professionally, Jean Minton is Sutter Health’s neuroscience service line executive. Personally she is passionate about helping children in foster care find their forever families. As a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi during the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Jean witnessed the plight of orphaned children whose parents had died of AIDS. After returning to the…

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A Match Made in Heaven

Alex wanted to be a mom, and Rob wanted to be a dad. With Wayfinder’s help they now have the family they longed for. And their children have the loving home they deserve. The couple approached Wayfinder to adopt through foster care. “I’d seen so many sibling groups be split up between separate homes over…

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We are 100 Percent In

Elizabeth was in Nebraska for work when she got the call. “We have a baby in the hospital,” said Monica, a Wayfinder social worker. “Can you pick her up tonight?” This was the moment Elizabeth and her husband, Bryan, had longed for. They were going to become parents. After struggling with fertility, they decided to…

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Love At First Sight

The beautiful thing about families is that they can form without any biological ties—just love. Missy and Chris had two biological sons, David and Tim, and an adopted daughter, Lilly. When they started thinking about a second adoption, Lilly asked for a sister. Missy and Chris went to a Wayfinder family fair for prospective adoptive…

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