MOUNT WASHINGTON, Ky.- The goal to be adopted is shared by nearly 3,000 children in Kentucky, according to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. While there's such need across the Bluegrass, at least one employer is offering some unique benefits to its employees who adopt children; Norton Healthcare offers reimbursement up to $2,000 per adoption event, and four weeks of paid leave. 

Brittany and Thomas Jewell had long planned to adopt children, before even being matched with an expectant mother in Arizona a couple of years ago. They flew west to meet the new baby, AnnaLee. It was Brittany's dream come true. 

"We knew that's how we wanted to start our family, we wanted to grow our family," Brittany Jewell explains. 

She and husband Thomas still look back at their first family selfie together fondly. "I had tears," she said of holding AnnaLee for the first time. "We took our first family selfie and I have, I think, tears."

Thomas on the other hand, felt emotional but also sensed an added feeling of great responsibility: "Just...holding her and feeling all that really kind of responsibility, that you're her father."

It's something the couple will never regret. Just two years after taking AnnaLee into their home, her biological brother was born. Then, another trip later the Jewells were a family of four with the newest member, baby Asa. Brittany is grateful to be in a place to be able to adopt, overwhelmed at the great need there is for adoptive parents in Kentucky. However, adopting does come with a price tag; she says adoption fees alone for each kid hit nearly $30,000. 

There was fundraising the couple did at their church. Then, Brittany's employer helped, too. Norton Healthcare offers reimbursement to parents who've adopted, $2,000 per adoption event, plus a paid four weeks of leave. That helped make the Jewell family possible, they tell Spectrum News 1. They hope people can see it as an incentive to adopt, and also, that more companies can offer unique benefits to help the many children in need of forever homes in this way. 

The Cabinet for Health and Family Services explains the need this way: 2,920 children in Kentucky share the goal of adoption. Currently, 1,534 children are available for adoption because parental rights have been terminated. There are 867 kids whose foster parents will adopt them. There 667 kids who are available for adoption, but have no prospective adoptive parents as of yet.