The Shepherd's Crook Ministries was founded by Scott and Kathy Rosenow. What follows is their story in their own words.

"We are Scott and Kathy Rosenow. We live in Cincinnati, Ohio, and we have fourteen children. The first four are ours biologically and the other ten were adopted. The seeds of The Shepherd's Crook Ministries actually were planted many years ago. We will first offer some background that led to the planting of those seeds.

"Our second child, Erin, was born with severe learning disabilities and communication disorders. She spent approximately twelve years in speech and language therapy, as well as extensive time in physical and occupational therapy. Also, she was born with a condition called VCU reflux, which caused severe kidney infections and badly damaged her left kidney. Thus began our adventure with the medical community. At the age of three and a half, she underwent major surgery to repair the malformed valves in her bladder, a harrowing experience for her parents. But it also served to break the ice for us in the area of operations and hospital stays. Furthermore, her continuous physical/occupational and speech/language therapy and her educational testing requirements kept us constantly stretching emotionally and spiritually. Most aspects of life continue to challenge Erin, but, although her future is uncertain for us, we are confident that God will reveal each step of His perfect plan for her life at the right times.

"Our fourth child, Ryan, was born without his right hand. After five or six doctors told us there was nothing that could be done, we met a very special team of hand surgeons in Louisville, Kentucky, who said they might be able to construct a helper hand for him. Ryan had his first surgery at the age of ten months and has had approximately twenty surgeries in all. His surgeon has told us that the reconstructive work will continue until he's an adult and possibly even after he's fully grown. As with Erin, God has stretched us emotionally and spiritually through all of these procedures and experiences with Ryan.

"Our other two biological children are Kristen and Allan. The children's ages now are: Kristen, 24; Erin, 22; Allan, 20; and Ryan, 15. We now come to what we call the beginning of our story. About eight years ago we as a group began to realize the benefits that Erin and Ryan derived from being in the same family. They could each relate to the pain the other was feeling, and they seemed to draw comfort from that relationship. We started thinking that we might be able to offer similar benefits to other special-needs children.

"We learned of a program that brings burned children from other countries to Cincinnati, where they receive much-needed medical attention. The program, Healing the Children, needed families willing to allow such children to live in their homes and to assist with the required therapies and attention for as long as two years after corrective surgery. We decided that this was an area in which we could use the gifts God had given us, and we signed up for the program. Within a few months we welcomed into our home Raiza, a seven-year-old girl from La Paz, Bolivia. She spent about ten months with us for her first visit, followed by a brief second visit, and later she spent two years with us during her final visit.

"Indirectly through having Raiza in our home during that first visit, we learned about a handicapped infant abandoned in Bolivia. Because he had been born without one of his feet, orphanage officials felt that he had no chance of being adopted, and he faced a bleak future if he remained in the country. We felt certain that God was leading us to make this baby ours, even though we lacked the money needed to cover his very expensive adoption. It was amazing and humbling to see how God brought those funds to us as we needed them. Nathaniel Jeremiah, as we named him, has now been in our family since June of 1998. He has been fitted with a prosthetic leg and is a happy, active, normal little boy, and we can't imagine life without the joy he brings into our home.

"Observing Nathan's life in the months following his arrival, and watching him thrive and flourish in a loving family, we felt a sense of awe that God had allowed us the privilege of making such a difference in a child's life. We wondered if God might allow us to make a similar difference in the life of another child. When we learned of an almost-four-year-old girl in China with congenital deformities in her hands and feet, we were more than interested. After a frenetic period of about six months, we completed another adoption and welcomed Meghan Alyssa into our home in October of 1999. She has had four successful corrective surgeries and now enjoys the life of a normal, happy little girl.

"Through this long process, we realized that for at least fifteen years God had been preparing us for a ministry. We therefore committed to taking in as many special-needs children as God brought to us, trusting Him to provide for all the needs involved in caring for them, including adoption costs, medical expenses, and physical and emotional strength.

"If you would like to know more about the ten children we have adopted, you can read about them on the Meet the Rosenows page. Any new children who are added to our family in the future will be introduced on that page.

"As we learned more and more about the world of adoption and the tremendous needs of children all over the world, we became convinced that God was leading us to do more than just adopt as many of them as we ourselves could do. In August of 2000, we planted the seeds of what was to become The Shepherd's Crook, and in January of 2002, we officially formed The Shepherd's Crook Ministries, Inc. as a non-profit corporation devoted to promoting the cause of special-needs orphans throughout the world. Our specific focus is to find devoted Christian families to unite these children with, to provide loving and safe homes in which they can grow up 'in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.' We've chosen Ezekiel 34:15-16 as our banner verse: 'I will feed my flock and I will make them lie down... I will seek what was lost and bring back what was driven away, bind up the broken and strengthen what was sick.' Our heart's desire is to expose each one of these children to the love of Jesus and the gospel, and our prayer is that we will be able to join the angels in celebration when each of them comes to saving faith in Christ. We have been thoroughly delighted as we have seen our little dream expand to include other families with a similar calling from God. This has begun to happen as we are now watching numerous other children's adoptions in progress with families who have contacted us. You can read their stories by clicking on Happy Endings. There are many other children we are trying to find families for, from Central America, Asia, and Eastern Europe. Learn more about them by clicking on Waiting Children."