Angels in - Pound Pup Legacy

families. The agency’s main focus is on African-
American children and children with special needs.
TRAC provides recruitment, information and referral
services, counseling, family preparation, postadoption
services, and parent and professional
education services to achieve and maintain
maximum permanency opportunities for adoptable
children and their families. Three Rivers Adoption
Council is truly worthy of the 2003 Angel in
Adoption.
Hanna D. Wallace
Representative John Murtha
Hanna Wallace is a founder of Adoptions
International (AI) which has been licensed in the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania since 1984. Her
professional commitment to adoption began after
she adopted her daughter, Bianca, from Honduras
in 1983. Prior to starting AI, Hannah worked as a
Social Worker and is also a certified family therapist.
Under her leadership, AI strives to meet the highest
standards of clinical and ethical adoption practices
in Intercountry adoption. AI was the first agency to
be licensed in Honduras and the third U. S. agency
licensed by the Peruvian government. In addition to
her work with families and children, Hannah has
been a strong advocate for ethical adoption
practices and developing adoption opportunities for
children. She is a past Board Member of the Joint
Council on International Children’s Services (JCICS)
and served as Vice President of JCICS in 1997.
Currently, she serves as Co-Chair of the JCICS
Country Caucus for Guatemala. Recently, Hannah’s
commitment to advocacy led her to form Focus on
Adoption - an Adoption Advocacy Organization,
which has been intensely involved with organizing
advocacy efforts to preserve adoptions in
Guatemala.
Rhode Island
Chris Cotatgis
Representative Jim Langevin
Chris Cotatgis carried a hole in her soul most of her
adult life because she was unable to bear children.
Even so, she felt blessed with her best friend and
husband of 21 years, Nel. After his devastating,
sudden death in 1999, Chris felt the need to fill a
huge void, so she returned to something she had
done many years before – she became a foster mom.
As fate would have it, two of the 15 children Chris
fostered were meant to stay forever – Chanel and
K.C., both now 3 years old, were adopted in 2001.
“I had the most wonderful husband in the
world,” Chris reflects. “Now, I have the most
wonderful children. God works in strange ways.”
As an “emergency care” provider who takes in
children that are removed from their homes
suddenly, often in the middle of the night, Chris
was bothered by the fact that the children’s
belongings were often toted around in garbage
bags. In response, she began to spearhead an
ongoing “backpack drive” in Rhode Island,
collecting new or slightly used backpacks to give to
Department of Children Youth and Families (DCYF)
for use in “emergency care” situations. Chris says
this helps bring some dignity to the process. In
addition to being an adoptive and foster mom,
Chris has twice served on the Board of Directors for
the Rhode Island Foster Parent Association and in
2002 received DCYF’s Child Protective Services
Foster Parent Award. She has also provided training
to prospective adoptive and foster parents and
remains active in DCYF’s recruitment activities.
South Carolina
Hal and Diana Stevenson
Representative Jim DeMint
Hal and Diana Stevenson have dedicated themselves
and their family of five children to the plight of
others by reaching out to the homeless, those in
prison and young pregnant women. They are active
in the adoption and pro-life community and have
served as a sheparding family for Bethany Christian
Services where they have both served as chairs of
the board of Bethany in Columbia, SC. They have
taken many young expectant mothers into their
home and supported them until their child was
born. These women were then able to return to
their homes. Hal’s most recent efforts to promote
adoption include devising a marketing plan with
other Bethany groups in the Southeast region of the
country. Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson work tirelessly to
promote adoption as a positive option for families
facing unplanned pregnancies. For their hard work
and support of the adoption community, it is my
honor to select Hal and Diana Stevenson as my
2003 Angels in Adoption .
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