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New Beginnings’ International Adoption Social Workers

May 17, 2016

Your family is our first priority at New Beginnings. We’ve hired top-notch social workers to guide you through the adoption process. Many of our social workers have advanced degrees and all of them have a passion for placing children with their forever families.

Amanda and Victoria work in our international adoption department. They coordinate adoptions with representatives in other countries who meet the children living in orphanages. Since they have in-depth knowledge about adoption programs, they can help adoptive families choose the country that best works for them. They also help with the international paper work. Not only do they obtain information about the children, but they will be there to provide post adoption support for families after their child is home.

 

Amanda Ashcraft

Amanda Ashcraft has been working with New Beginnings since May of 2013. She has a Master’s of Social Work degree and has known since she was a child that she wanted to work in international adoption.

“In the sixth grade, a teacher shared her China adoption experience with our class. Since then, I have always wanted to play a role in placing children with their forever families through international adoption,” said Amanda.

Ashcraft has been with us for the entirety of her career and says that post-adoption support has been the most rewarding experience for her.

“Each time an adoptive family comes to visit us after they have returned home, it is very rewarding. If I were to pinpoint just one [memorable experience], it would be when we held a post-adoption support group. We had our Poland and Taiwan families in attendance. It was so rewarding to watch all of the children bond and know one another, as well as have all of the parents there to meet and share their adoption stories,” she added.

 

Victoria Kilpatrick

Victoria Kilpatrick has a Master’s in Social Work degree and has been working as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker for eleven years. Six of those years have been with New Beginnings. In college, she had trouble finding her calling, but the opportunity to serve others made social work very appealing.

“When I started college my major was Animal and Dairy Sciences…then Graphic Design…and then History…I just didn’t have a peace about a future in any of those fields. When I moved into the dorm my sophomore year of college I met a girl majoring in social work. I had honestly never heard of it before. She explained that it was “a helping profession” which immediately sparked my interest. Mission trips and volunteer opportunities had been a major part of my life and the opportunity to work in a field where I could help others was a fulfillment of what I felt God had called me to do with my life,” said Victoria.

Since determining God’s call on her life, Kilpatrick has helped place many orphaned children in their forever families.

“I have been in orphanages all over the world and seen varying degrees of care for the children that lived there. The common denominator is that all of the children were in desperate need of a permanent, loving family. With this perspective I have to say that my most rewarding experiences are when a family excitedly tells me that they would like to proceed with adopting a potential referral or actually meeting the family for the post adoption visit and seeing them as a forever family,” she added.