Orphan Sunday | November 8th

 

Church Adoption Funds | more than just "our church"...

The Church at Battle Creek in the Tulsa, OK area has luanched the Adopt(ed) Church Adoption Fund, as they live out the culture of orphan care & adoption. 

Battle Creek has an abundance mentality in the way they've set up their Church Adoption Fund - the funds are available certainly for couples from their congregation who feel the call of adoption, but didn't stop there. They had the wisdom and abundance mentality to use this Fund to come alongside other committed Christian adoptive families in the Tulsa vicinity (regardless of where they went to church).

That's exactly what they've done with the Baker family, providing them with an Adoption Matching Grant, out of the Adopt(ed) Fund @ TCABC...

 

Larry and Ahna Baker have felt the calling to adopt, Ivan, from Eastern Europe. Their pastor writes “They are devoted to the task of raising their children in a positive and God-honoring way; and they have each shown a willingness to sacrifice personal material comfort in order to provide and care for their family.”

After a six-week Bible study at their church, Larry and Ahna became certain God was giving them “details of His plan and purpose for our lives, and adoption was a major focal point”.   Larry says, “I believe that Ahna and I are uniquely crafted to adopt Ivan and be his parents, and that he was uniquely crafted to ultimately be our son, regardless of the geography or earthly circumstances involved.”

Click here to view pictures from a banquet and golf tournatment held to raise money for funding adoptions.

Click here to Start an Adoption Fund @ Your Church!

Choosing Thomas

(excerpted from Matt Donovan's post @ AdoptiveDads.org)

I watched [this video] and was not really prepared for the emotional sucker punch. So, be warned – Choosing Thomas is poignant and very raw. Every father and mother should see it.

T.K. and Deidrea Laux’s son, Thomas, was born with Trisomy 13. Well before his birth, they knew he would not live long, if at all. The Dallas Morning News is doing a series on this story and this video is the first installment. There are two things that’ve really stuck with me since watching it yesterday.

1. Love in spite of loss.

It made me think about the foster children we had hoped to adopt. The days – sometimes weeks or even months – of uncertainty about their permanence in our family made us feel helpless. “The phone call” from the case worker informing us they’d be leaving. It could be days or weeks before they were gone, but eventually they’d be taken and we’d probably never see them again. But we still loved them like crazy because it wasn’t about us. When asked why they chose not to terminate, the couple said,

We didn’t not terminate because we were hanging onto some sort of hope that there was a medical mistake or there was gonna be some medical miracle. We didn’t terminate because he’s our son.

2. Loving a person instead of an ideal.

There’s a scene where they are picking out a casket while Deidrea is still pregnant. The sales woman is explaining the differences between various selections in such a way that they could be purchasing anything – like a car seat or a crib. No parent plans on that. Nobody gets married and thinks about picking out their unborn baby’s casket. Similarly, no one daydreams about choosing not to parent a child, or about learning they’re infertile, or about losing a nearly-adopted child to a birthmother who has decided to parent.

It’s difficult to say whether any of these similarities quite matches the degree of pain the Laux’s must have experienced, which is why I think we have something to learn from T.K. I don’t know him, but everything I saw in that video is a hardcore example of fatherly love. If you have ten minutes (and a private place to have a good, ugly cry), you should definitely watch it.

 

the James Fund - Greater things are yet to come!

Family Christian Stores is a leading specialty retailer with nearly 300 locations and over 4,000 employees in 36 states who are being intentional in caring for orphans!

Watch this video for a great glimpse of the awesome things God has done through the James Fund (charitable foundation of Family Christian Stores) and....

- sponsoring Employee Mission Trips (Mexico, Dominican Republic, Guatemala)

- Funding employee & non-employee Adoption Financial Assistance Grants/Loans (through Lifesong)

even greater things are yet to come!

Next time you BUY...BUY from Family Christian Stores (and help orphans) next time you need to buy Bibles, Books, Music, Childrens, Gifts, Apparel, Software, Cards, Church Supplies, DVD's, etc.

How can you use your Company/Corporation intentionally....to care for orphans?

Love will help her grow....

“I WILL MOVE AHEAD, BOLD AND CONFIDENT, TAKING EVERY STEP IN OBEDIENCE...”

On July 20, 2009, Randy and Candice held their baby girl for the first time. The journey to Korea to meet their daughter was a long road filled with surrendering and obedience to their own Heavenly Father. Read more...

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