About Miriam’s Promise

HaleyandJillinHospitalMiriam’s Promise has over twenty years of experience in pregnancy counseling and adoption services.

The biblical story of Miriam inspired the name Miriam’s Promise. Miriam’s Promise has a history of serving families and children in Middle Tennessee for over twenty years. Please click on the links or read below to learn more about our agency, our staff, and our accreditation and professional memberships.

The Story of Miriam
The name Miriam’s Promise is based on a story from the book of Exodus, Chapter 2, verses 1-10 in the Bible. The new Pharaoh of Egypt was alarmed at the growing number of Israelites in his country and was worried that they might side with Egypt’s enemies. He ordered the Hebrew midwives to kill all the baby boys they delivered, but the midwives feared God and did not follow the Pharaoh’s orders. So then the Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile.”

Facing the infanticide of all male children of the Hebrew slaves in Egypt, Moses’ mother, an Israelite woman, made a plan to save the life of her son. Placing him in a basket, she hid him in the Nile and sent his sister, Miriam, to watch and see what happened. The Pharaoh’s daughter discovered him and decided to adopt him as her own son. Miriam stepped forward and offered their mother’s services as a wet nurse for the baby. And so, through a birthmother’s loving choice, a sister’s brave advocacy, and an adoptive mother’s acceptance, this tiny baby, a child of God, grew to become the leader of his people.

This agency does the work of Miriam, bringing together the birthmother and the adoptive family for the sake of the child. Like Miriam, the agency provides a safe place for women who must make difficult decisions about the future of their children. We give them hope for new life.

History of Miriam’s Promise
Miriam’s Promise: Pregnancy, Parenting & Adoption Services was originally established in January, 1985, by the Tennessee Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church and Holston United Methodist Home for Children, Inc. of Greeneville, Tennessee. The program operated under the Tennessee child-placing license of Holston from its inception until June, 1988. Originally intended to be a small satellite office for the middle Tennessee area, Miriam’s Promise quickly grew in response to the need for services. In 1988, Miriam’s Promise received licensing through the State of Tennessee to operate independently.

In January 1996, the Board of Directors voted to change the name of the agency from The Tennessee Conference Children’s Services to Miriam’s Promise: Pregnancy, Parenting & Adoption Services. The new name is based on the biblical story of the baby Moses, his sister Miriam, and his adoption by the Egyptian princess. Like Miriam, the agency provides a safe place for women who must make difficult decisions about the future of their children.

In 1997, the Board of Directors underwent an intensive long-range planning process. Our desire to increase existing services as well as to expand services to older children in foster care and foster-to-adopt programs, to provide family counseling, to expand international adoptions, and to provide other services led the Board to investigate possibilities for making those dreams come true. The result of that process was a re-union with Holston United Methodist Home for Children. The re-union was accepted and Miriam’s Promise became a program of Holston on July 1, 1998.

In January 2000, Miriam’s Promise moved from their small office in Glendale United Methodist Church to a historic home in downtown Nashville. After four years of productive partnership, Holston scaled back its operations to concentrate in East Tennessee, and Miriam’s Promise became an independent non-profit agency again on January 1, 2003. In the spring of 2006, Miriam’s Promise moved to a renovated space at historic Tulip Street United Methodist Church.

Accreditation and Professional Memberships
Miriam’s Promise is licensed by the State of Tennessee Department of Children’s Services to place children in the state of Tennessee. We are also affiliated with GivingMatters.com.

In addition, Miriam’s Promise is a member of the following professional organizations: