Press Release

September 26, 2011
SENATOR CARDIN NOMINATES WASHINGTON COUNTY COUPLE FOR CONGRESSIONAL ANGELS IN ADOPTION AWARD

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD) has nominated Lisa and Charles Gerringer of Hagerstown, MD, as one of this year’s Congressional Angels in Adoption for adopting four children from the Maryland Foster Care Program. 

“The Gerringers saw a need and selflessly reached out to provide a permanent home to children who desperately needed a family’s love and support,” said Senator Cardin.   “They opened up their home and their hearts first by becoming foster parents and then by adopting four of those children to become part of their family. They are an inspiration to all of us who want to make a difference.”

 

After having three biological children, the Gerringers joined the Maryland Foster Care Program with the intention of adopting children.  Neither race, nor disability, nor trauma has prevented the Gerringers from parenting a child.  Ultimately, they adopted four of their many foster children. 

In addition to raising seven children, the Gerringers have become a FACT (Family Assistance through Community Teamwork) family and provide mentoring and life skills training for families in need.  Lisa is a speaker for the Washington County Department of Social Services PRIDE training program for foster and adoptive parents. 

The Gerringers believe that humility is the best approach to being foster or adoptive parents.  It is a humble heart that allows them to selflessly work to have their foster children reunited with their birth families.  And it is with humility that the Gerringers seek to develop and maintain relationships with their adopted children’s birth families even when the families are resistant and hostile.

The Congressional Angels in Adoption program is sponsored by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI), which is a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to raising congressional and public awareness about the tens of thousands of foster children in this country and the millions of orphans around the world in need of permanent, safe, and loving homes.  Senator Cardin is a member of the CCAI’s Advisory Board. The Angels in Adoption program was created in 1999 to raise public awareness of the many different ways that committed individuals can help children and families through adoption.   

 

This year’s nominees will be honored at a national ceremony in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 5 sponsored by CCAI.

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