We are Chris and Colleen Hollis, founders of Embraced By Hope. We were both born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee and met as teenagers. We married on August 19, 1989. We were living the American dream – two beautiful children, a nice home in a great neighborhood, a dog, a hamster, two cars parked in the driveway and we spent warm summer days on the lake in our boat. We seemed to have it all yet we both felt that something was missing.

What could it be? The deep longing seemed to be focused on children. While we had peace that we would not be having anymore biological children, we knew that more children were somehow in our future. We just didn’t know what the face of that looked like. We began to pursue our options. We attended informational meetings on Foster Care, we worked with inner-city kids, we worked as volunteers with children at church and in our community and at one point we filled out an application for domestic adoption. These were all worthy causes but somehow they weren’t the answer to the void we were feeling.

On October 12, 2003 we attended a Family Life event called “If You Were Mine”. During one of the sessions at this adoption workshop the answer came to our 7 year question. We were supposed to adopt a child from Russia. We began immediately interviewing international adoption agencies, filling out mounds of paperwork, home study visits, doctor examinations and much more. Each step drawing us closer to our new son and opening doors of opportunity to help the children we would leave behind.

Embraced By Hope was birthed the moment we took our first steps on the grounds of the Artym Baby House. This is an institution in Vladivostok, Russia. It is home to approximately 100 orphaned children from birth to age 4 and the only home our soon to be son had ever known.

There is no way to describe to anyone who has not been to an orphanage the haunting expressions the children wear on their faces. The longing in their eyes for something they’ve never known but were created to experience . . . LOVE, PURPOSE & HOPE.

The joy we felt when we left Russia to bring our son to his new home was accompanied by a true sadness for the children left behind. We still see their faces when we close our eyes at night, hear their voices as they chanted “mama” and “papa”, and feel their touches as they brought their shoes to us to help them get dressed – all a silent cry for a personal connection.

While adoption offers hope for a small percentage of the children, most will never be adopted for a variety of reasons. In response to the need, Embraced by Hope was established in January 2006.  Embraced by Hope is a 501(c)(3) non-profit fioundation that aims to help these children gain self-esteem, confidence and to better prepare them to survive and thrive in their world outside the orphanage walls.  Our desire is for these children to understand that they are wonderfully made by God and that He desires to give them a future and a hope.  

Sincerely,

Chris & Colleen
Founders