Renee Gelin, President

After losing her son to a devastating unnecessary adoption Renee discovered her purpose to help other mothers avoid unnecessarily separating from their newborns. Renee started speaking to other expectant mothers and realized that many of the reasons that they were considering adoption were similar to hers – temporary. She started explaining the lifelong trauma that maternal separation causes both mothers and their newborns and the mothers listened. The adoption community began to see moms with their babies and began to support Renee’s efforts of family preservation.  Others online began to direct mothers considering adoption to speak with Renee and the concept of Saving Our Sisters became a reality. Renee married her son’s father and together they parent their daughters in Florida.

Barb Thavis, Vice President

Barb Thavis lost her oldest child to adoption in 1980 because she believed the adults in her life who told her that her child could be better off with strangers because they were married and established. After being reunited with her 29 year old daughter in 2009, she realized she was coerced with the biggest gun of all. They took her love for her child and told her “If you love her you will give her up.” Today, Barb works tirelessly to help mothers keep and raise their children. Adoption is too often a permanent solution to a temporary problem and the problem with coercion is by the time you find out it happened to you, it’s often too late. She wants every mother to know how desperately important they are in their child’s life, and that mothers are not interchangeable.

Linda Crisafulli, Treasurer

Linda was a young teen in 1973 when her son was born. She was presuaded to sign documents releasing custody of her son to the Children’s Home Society because the hospital staff refused to let her see her son once he was born. She was unaware that as his mother she could have insisted. A week later she was allowed an hour with him and told to sign a document relinquishing her rights as his mother. She was not informed of any revocation period. Like many other mothers from the Baby Scoop Era, she was told she should just forget about him and go on with her life. She did manage to go on. She married, raised three additional sons and built a successful 40 year career in tax and business management. But she never forgot her first born. She looked for him continuously, checking adoption registries and cross matching various information with the California Birth Index for every boy born the same day as her son.  In May 2012 she submitted her DNA through Ancestry.com and a parent-child DNA match in September of 2015 finally reunited her with her son after more than 42 years. She and her son are happy to be in each other’s lives now, but nothing can replace the missed memories. Reunion is painful even in the joy. She is determined that no other uninformed mother will have to unnecessarily lose her child to adoption. Her involvement with SOS began with her being a “Sister On The Ground” and she also facilitated the documentation required for SOS to obtain its 501(c)3 non-profit status.

Lisa Woolsey, Director

In 2010, Lisa was convinced that the narrative she had heard her entire life was true and that her unplanned pregnancy could be “someone’s blessing”. As a recently divorced mom, raising 3 boys, the idea of another child was overwhelming. Resources were already stretched thin. She was emotionally spent every day and she couldn’t imagine what adding an infant to her seemingly crazy world would be like. The father of her unborn child was vehement that he was NOT going to raise another child and begged for Lisa to end the pregnancy. As a devout Christian, that was not an option. However, since she had lived her entire life hearing how amazing, brave and loving mothers are who choose adoption when they cannot provide the ‘ideal’ two parent home that a child ‘deserves’, Lisa did what she believed was the very best, most loving thing for her daughter. She placed her through a private adoption that allowed prospective adoptive parents to be matched with her for the majority of her pregnancy. Because the adoption experience was so traumatic for Lisa, she started her blog Living through today, to express her feelings and give words to the pain. It was through the online community that Lisa met Renee as they found themselves leading parallel lives hundreds of miles apart. Their virtual relationship became a friendship based on their mutual loss. Lisa and Renee vowed they would never let this happen to another mother in crisis. Today, Lisa works intensively supporting them through their pregnancy and after their baby is born. She is diligently working to change the Christian church narrative towards family preservation. 

Katie Burns, Resources Coordinator

Katie is a first mom from Atlanta. While a freshman in college, Katie experienced firsthand the coercion and emotional manipulation that is so prevalent in the adoption industry. She was denied resources to help raise her daughter and felt adoption was her only choice. For many years to come, she believed she was alone in her pain and regret over the loss of her child. She and her husband began the process of international adoption in 2015. While researching, she began to read studies on adoptees and first moms and realized she was not alone in her pain. She began to correspond with adoptees and first moms regularly. It was during this time that she started to understand that the coercion and manipulation she had experienced was standard practice. She and her husband stopped their adoption process and began to focus solely on family preservation. Katie has become a family preservation supporter and board member at her local crisis center. She has participated in podcasts, blogging and legislative lobbying on behalf of family preservation. In response to expectant mothers lacking resources, she created the page The Family Preservation Project, which works in conjunction with Saving Our Sisters and is a resource for mothers. She is also a co-founder of Adoption Surveys.

Dr. Linda Russell, Director

Dr. Russell is a native of Oklahoma who holds her bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees from Oklahoma State University in education.  She also holds a second master’s degree in Human Relationships with a counseling emphasis and she is also a licensed professional counselor (LPC) and in 1989 graduated from Victory Bible Institute. Linda has dedicated over two decades to researching and helping others in the area of adoption. She founded Levigram Ministries, a 501(c)3 in 2001 and Family Perservation Outreach in 2011. Dr. Russell has also written a book on open adoption titled Blended Hearts Broken Promises and has authored several audio series on various life improvement issues. Linda works full time as a counselor and is a nationally known lecturer and presenter. She presents on many core mental health topics using motivational tactics and a positive, healthy approach. She is a frequent guest on Health Talk and an authority on various mental health issues. She is a private pilot who enjoys running and Bible study. Linda is an entrepreneurial spirit who owns several different real estate and business entities.

Dr. Beth Jarrett, Director

Dr. Beth Jarrett lost her eldest son at 16 to a closed adoption in 1985 through Catholic Charities. After reuniting with her son in 2015, Beth’s eyes were opened to the reality of the effects of maternal-infant separation on both first mothers and their lost children. Learning the truth about the great losses her son has suffered as a result of living his life as an adopted person and recognizing the significant negative impact on her own life experience, Beth is invested in the prevention of unnecessary infant adoption. She believes that the current model of private open adoption practices takes advantage of the medical community who unwittingly participate in coercive tactics used to separate mothers and their babies through adoption. As both a first mother and a doctor, Beth is dedicated to educating the medical community on its role in preventing the coercion and undue pressure on pregnant and laboring women that too often leads to maternal-infant separation and unnecessary infant adoption. Dr. Beth Jarrett, MD, MS, FACS is a general surgeon practicing on the beautiful island of Maui. She lives there with her husband, dog, two goats and the revolving presence of her three adult sons.

Chelsea Greco, Secretary

Chelsea Greco is a family preservation enthusiast and educator who lives in Florida. She lost her daughter in 2011 after experiencing a series of unfortunate, but temporary, circumstances during the last few months of pregnancy including coercion and emotional manipulation. The open adoption that she was promised during her pregnancy was promptly closed after she gave birth and she decided to fight in court for her daughter back the day after her birth. After 18 months of court, she lost her case and did not have any contact with her daughter for many years despite reaching out annually. In an adoption retreat in 2014, Chelsea learned that her experience was not so unique and that many other women had experienced this treacherous, unnecessary loss at the hands of people preying on vulnerable pregnant women for their own financial gain. At that same retreat, Chelsea met Renee and they discovered their stories had many similarities. Chelsea immediately resonated with Renee’s mission of keeping vulnerable mothers with their babies and wanted to join the cause. In 2020, Chelsea was reunited with her daughter and they have maintained a good relationship ever since. Reunion does not erase the past and it can be painful even during its happiness. She hopes to prevent unnecessary adoption loss by advocating for mother and adoptee rights. Chelsea appreciates learning from the adoptee’s perspective and educating others on the complexity of adoption from the perspective of loss.