Contact: Caroline Medlin
615-686-3250
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nov. 10, 2020
Jonah’s Journey from prison to private foster care
In 2005, Jesse found herself in the Tennessee Prison for Women for the second time in a six-month period. This time, she was sentenced to eight years. She was five weeks pregnant at the time. She knew her family would not be coming to bail her out this time.
Jesse recalled that often the church ladies (women from various churches in Tennessee) would come to visit the women’s prison each week. Jesse remembers the day that Jane Knotts came by her cell and asked Jesse to commit to pray for 21 days.
After the 21 days, Knotts returned and asked Jesse how she was doing.
“I feel sad. I’m pregnant. But also, for some reason, I feel hopeful,” Jesse recalled telling Ms. Knotts.
She remembers Knotts smiling and nodding her head. Knotts said that there was a family who wanted to foster Jesse’s baby for the duration of her sentence.
“You mean they want to adopt my baby?” Jesse asked.
Ms. Knotts replied that they wanted to care for the baby while Jesse served her sentence. They wanted her to maintain legal custody of her baby.
The Whittinghills are a family from Hendersonville, Tennessee. Their youngest was 5, and they had felt the Lord lay foster care on their heart, but they weren’t sure exactly what it would look like. Leallison knew she wanted to work with the moms as much as she wanted to work with the babies, which ruled out Child Protective Services. She also knew that at the time their family did not feel called to adoption.
One Sunday morning a woman ran into Leallison at church and they began talking about what was next for the Whittinghill family and how Leallison felt the call to provide temporary care to children in some capacity. The next night, that same woman Leallison spoke with at church got a phone call asking if she knew any loving, Christian families that would be willing to care for a newborn during the remainder of his mother’s prison sentence. The church immediately thought of the Whittinghills.
That following Tuesday, Jesse walked into the visitation room in the prison to meet Leallison and Billy Whittinghill. All three instantly felt a connection.
Billy hugged Jesse and said, “Welcome to the family.”
A month later, the phone rang. The hospital was calling the Whittinghills to tell them that baby Jonah had been born.
“I knew immediately that this baby was going to change the world,” Leallison said.
It was through Jonah that Leallison learned that state-run foster care was the only option for women who gave birth in prison. She wanted to give incarcerated mothers another choice. She began meeting with incarcerated mothers-to-be to help them find safe, healthy homes for their children.
Slowly, Leallison began connecting more incarcerated mothers and families at her church. They focused on building and maintaining a healthy relationship between the caregiver family, mother and child with the goal of reunification. In 2008, Jonah’s Journey officially became a licensed non profit. Since opening, it has successfully reunited over 100 families. To find out more information, visit jonahsjourney.org.
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Jonah’s Journey began in 2008 after one family felt the call and provided a caring, loving home for baby Jonah, whose mother gave birth to him while incarcerated at the Tennessee Prison for Women. The organization made it possible for Jonah to eventually reunite with his birth mother and also began Jonah’s Journey, an alternative to state foster care for mothers who are incarcerated. What makes Jonah’s Journey unique is the ongoing relationship between the caregiver family and the birth mother. For more information, contact 615-686-3250 or visit jonahsjourney.org.
