Our Mission

Stephen’s Hope Foundation, Inc. is a 501C3 corporation that:

• Teaches unconditional love by sharing the stories of our lives, both through spoken and published words.

• Advocates for and mentors to families, especially those living with special-needs children, through congressional testimony, ministry and community education. 

Stephen’s Hope was incorporated in Illinois in 1999. The founder of Stephen’s Hope, Chrissy L. Nelson, fostered, and then adopted a medically fragile, Native American, beautiful boy, named Stephen M. Rondell. They met in 1988 as a single, fun-loving nurse and a premature, alone, little boy.  Stephen’s biological mother died when he was eight months old.

Instead of love and guidance from the medical and political systems which were created to assist them, they battled prejudice, rejection and isolation.

Ten years later as they persevered and continued their journey, Chriss was amazed that families still had to find resources, prevent system short-cuts, self advocate, and fuel their passion the hard way, thus, Stephen’s Hope was born. 

Stephen’s Hope was born to teach unconditional love, one story at a time and declare that all life is valuable, whatever the wrapper looks like.