The Family Room (The Quest)

Jamie & Andy Oreffice, founders of Catholic Adopt Project

Jamie and Andy Oreffice are a couple on a mission - both were successful career people when they decided Jamie would leave the working world to raise a family. Two children later, they moved to Georgia and stumbled upon a strong Catholic community of people who loved living their faith. Their story is not unlike many in that they were born Catholic, but were picking and choosing what they wanted to believe rather than following what the Church perennially taught. One choice was their decision to limit their number of children. Later, God opened their hearts to adoption, and they now have two more children.

Adopting is a daunting process which can take over six years, and they realized that without a strong support system, adoption can be filled with roadblocks. Their ministry, Catholics Adopt Project, came from their desire to create a community whereby couples could find the support they crave when seeking to adopt. Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, the Catholic Adopt Project gathers resources to assist families with their adoption process.

Andy’s career spans the corporate and entrepreneurial world where he successfully managed companies and now consults part-time and works on their new ministry. Jamie traveled the world as a technology consultant, designing large networks. After retiring from the business world, she continued to apply her management skills through volunteer positions as a director of admissions at her children’s school as well as sitting on the boards of a foster care review board in Arizona, and an adoption agency, and an acting school. Their four children are ages 28, 25, 16, and 13.

Resources

• Catholics Adopt Project
• AdoptTogether - a non-profit, crowdfunding platform that bridges the gap between families who want to adopt and the children who need loving homes.