Cochran Extols Booneville Couple for Work to Promote Adoption

Jason and Nicole Russell of Booneville meet Senator Thad Cochran, who nominated the couple as Mississippi’s 2014 “Angels in Adoption.”
They met the Senator with their adopted children Kason and Breanna, infant daughter Madelyn, and parents Bobby and Estelle Russell.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release) — U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) today praised the work of Jason and Nicole Russell of Booneville for their work to improve the lives of Mississippi children through foster care and adoption programs.

The Russells were nominated by Cochran as Mississippi’s 2014 “Angels in Adoption,” a program sponsored by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI) to advocate eliminating barriers to adoption and to increase awareness about children in need of permanent, safe, and loving homes.

“Jason and Nicole Russell are outstanding representatives for the benefits of adoption, foster care and families. They inspire us by demonstrating a deep commitment to children in need,” Cochran said. “I’m pleased that their efforts over the past 10 years are being recognized by the Angels in Adoption program,” Cochran said.

While in Washington this week, the Russells will be honored for their work and attend a gala sponsored by CCAI. They met Cochran with their adopted son and daughter, Kason and Breanna, and infant daughter Madelyn.

Nicole and Jason, a computer programmer at BancorpSouth in Tupelo, became licensed as foster parents in 2004 when they were newlyweds. Since then, they have broadened their involvement from fostering a child to promoting foster care, adoption and restoring families.

Over the years, the Russells have fostered several children, worked closely with birth relatives, and provided shared parenting with the birth families when possible. As foster parents, they have encouraged the goal of reunification and worked with officials to reunify children with their birth family when possible. In addition, they work to inform the public of the need for foster/adoptive homes for children in care of the Mississippi Department of Human Services.

The nonprofit, nonpartisan CCAI advocates for increased awareness about children in need of a stable home environment, and supports eliminating barriers to adoption. CCAI, which does not receive government funding, was established in 2001 as an outgrowth of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption. Cochran and Senator Roger Wicker, along with Congressman Alan Nunnelee, are members of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption for the 113th Congress.

Cochran is an original cosponsor of The Adoption Information Act (S.1539), which would require the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to prepare, distribute, and update annually pamphlets that list all the adoption centers in each state along with associated contact information. Family planning organizations that receive federal funding would be required to provide HHS with their plans to issue adoption promotion literature to all their clients. Introduced in September 2013, the measure has been referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.