Gov. Sam Brownback talks about his own experience adopting children during a training conference Tuesday for adoption workers. The Department for Children and Families has launched a new program, the Kansas Post Adoption Resource Center, to support parents who adopt children out of foster care.

Topeka ? The state of Kansas launched a new program Tuesday that officials say will offer more resources and support for families with adopted children.

The Kansas Post Adoption Resource Center, or K-PARC, will offer services like parent mentor training, support groups for adoptive parents and adoptive couples retreats for families with adopted children.

At an event kicking off the new program, Gov. Sam Brownback spoke about his family’s own experience adopting children, saying it was not an easy decision to make, and admitting that it hasn’t always been easy.

Gov. Sam Brownback talks about his own experience adopting children during a training conference Tuesday for adoption workers. The Department for Children and Families has launched a new program, the Kansas Post Adoption Resource Center, to support parents who adopt children out of foster care.

“We didn’t just come upon it. We had three children and it was going great,” he said. “But I was traveling a lot of different places around the world and was seeing all these kids in orphanages. And it was pulling at my heart to see all that and to wonder what’s going to happen to these kids.”

Brownback and his wife, Mary, have three biological children and two adopted children, one from Guatemala and one from China.

“We had three children, we adopted two more, and those two changed the rest of us,” he said. “And they changed the rest of us for the better. Not to say it was all milk and honey along the way, because it wasn’t. There are difficulties that go with it. I would think our adopted kids would say the same thing: It wasn’t all milk and honey for us either.”

Department for Children and Families officials said there are currently about 350 children in the state’s foster care system awaiting adoption. In the fiscal year that ended June 30, 755 children were adopted from foster care.

The K-PARC program is funded by DCF in collaboration with the Kansas Children’s Service League.

People wanting more information about K-PARC can visit its website, www.adoptkskids.org, or call 877-457-5430.