First Family Story: Sarah and Justin Oberndorfer

The First Family

Sarah and Justin Oberndorfer are foster parents in the State of Kansas.

They have had numerous foster children in their home, along with their five children.

Through their vocations, (Sarah is an attorney and Justin is a pastor and high school teacher), they saw the trauma that the broken family can have and also the trauma to those who try to help. The Oberndorfers have had long-term foster placements, short-term, emergency custody, and the “one-nights”. They saw sibling groups moved multiple times just because home weren’t available that could keep them all together when they initially came into foster care. They saw children being driven up to five hours each week for a one-hour “sibling visit” in a KVC office and then they were scattered back to homes all over the state. They personally felt the burnout of foster parents from the isolation of working with these kids from hard places.

Over a decade ago they had a dream of starting some type of foster care community where foster parents could help each other so they could find joy even in the midst of these heart-breaking stories. After researching such communities across the country and visiting those who were finding success, they decided that God was leading them to create a foster care community in Leavenworth County, Kansas, and the time was now. 

Justin serves as the Executive Director. Sarah serves as Director of Programming.

The First House.

The Oberndorfers moved to the Joy Meadows property as the first family in a home in the community. They served in this capacity for two years to help build the next three homes and launch programs on-site at Joy Meadows, fostering a sibling group who was previously placed separately and moved to multiple homes due to difficult behaviors resulting from trauma.

In August, 2022, a new foster family moved onto the property to live in the first home. A second family moves in November 2022 when new construction is completed.