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Andy and Jill Lehman family

Entries in adoption (170)

Friday
Jun102011

Family Friday: Marc and Amy

Marc and Amy adopted their sweet 3-year-old Zoe June, who has Down Sydnrome, from Ukraine.  

We named her Zoe June to honor a time in June when God reached down in our lives and our marriage and began a great work of redemption!  Zoe June means "abundant life in June".

Little Zoe with her new siblings

Lifesong, through the funding of a private donor, was blessed to be able to provide this family with a matching grant!  Earlier this week we received this note in the mail:

Thank you, Marc and Amy!  We love you too!

 If you would like to read more about Marc and Amy's story click HERE!

 

Thursday
Jun092011

Adoption Resources

As we serve more and more families, we are often asked what resources are available for adoptive families to prepare their hearts and homes to welcome a 'child from a hard place'.

Check out our newly-renovated Adoption Resources page! Pass it along to anyone that you think it could be helpful to!

Please share any additional resources that have been helpful to you both pre and post-adoption.

LET'S ENCOURAGE THE BODY OF CHRIST AS WE WALK THIS JOURNEY TOGETHER!

 

Friday
Jun032011

Family Friday: meet Fred and Sarah

Meet Fred and Sarah, and their sweet little family!

Fred has agreed to guest blog for us as he recalls the journey to adopt their son, Lewie...

A year ago, we would have told you we were probably insane for thinking about adding to our family through adoption, especially since we had a two-year-old and a 13-month-old at the time, but here we are one year later, with three children, three-years-old and under. The journey of bringing our, now nearly six-month-old, son home has rocked our world in such an amazing way. It is the biggest miracle of God we have experienced. Lewie was meant to be a part of our family. It’s so obvious now.

We decided in April 2010 that we wanted to proceed with adoption due to complications with Sarah’s last pregnancy and our feeling that we were still missing someone in our family. We had heard the adoption journey can often be a long one with spontaneous roadblocks and a high price tag, and with our advancing age, we decided to look into many different adoption opportunities. We instantly fell in love with the African American birthmom’s story.  We learned that there were far less couples willing to adopt an African American child and, as a result, women were being turned away from many agencies.  Not seeing our own genetic make-up or our race in our baby’s face didn’t deter us from adoption in the slightest. We were, however, still anxious about the high price tag of adoption.

We prayed more over our adoption process than anything we have before in our life. We prayed that we would be spared any unnecessary pain of a fall-through, that our child’s birthmom would be guided to us specifically, that we would be able to show God’s love to Lewie’s birthmom, and that He would provide the funding for our adoption.

In September of 2010, our agency called us to tell us we had been chosen by a birthmother due with a boy in November, just less than two months after waiting for a call. It was so surreal to know that a birthmom really had chosen us to be her little one’s adoptive parents. Although we did not wait very long, those two months felt like an eternity, just knowing our son, Lewie, was out there but not with us.

During this time, we were very humbled to find out Hands of Hope and Lifesong for Orphans had reached out to us to give us an opportunity to fund our adoption through an interest free loan and matching grant. We were delighted to know that our fear of asking our friends and family to help support us financially had been responded with an overwhelming amount of financial support. Praise God!

We didn’t meet Lewie’s birthmom until we were at the hospital as she had made the decision to keep the adoption as closed as possible, but she invited Sarah into the c-section room, which was such an amazing privilege. Sarah got to hold her hand during the procedure, hear Lewie’s first little cry, and immediately know his birthmom was giving us the biggest gift anyone can give another person. Lewie’s birthmom never met him, but we were able to talk with her at the hospital for a couple of days to get to know her, why she picked us, and what she wanted him to know about her. We cried with her over her life story and self-sacrifice.  Most amazingly, the Holy Spirit filled our mouths with words to pray with her that God would come into her life and change it for the better. That still knocks us off of our feet. We now get to hold this beautiful, sweet, giggly, six-month-old boy who completes our little family because of her sacrifice and God’s guidance. "

What an amazing story!  Thanks for sharing Fred!

Friday
May132011

Family Friday: meet James and Ellen

It's time for


Meet James and Ellen... and their MIGHTY clan!
4th row (yes, this family takes up 4 rows!): David, Ryan, James, Ellen
3rd row: Christy, Molly, Emily, Will, Kelly
2nd row: Amy, Kate
1st row: Meg, Ahna

Hello! (Ellen speaking)

James and I prayed for a year and a half wondering if the Lord wanted us to adopt again.  We had already adopted seven children and five had special needs including hearing impairments, cleft lips and palates, ADHD, and a learning disability.  By the world's standards, we had already done more than our share.

However, after learning about the plight of children in Russia, we decided to pursue a sibling group of two children.  Long story short, the Lord had other plans.   

Another agency told us about a group of five children.  Five children?  Did they think we were crazy?  But James asked me to request the pictures, so I did.  The children were beautiful, but there were so many of them!  In addition, the eldest boy had Dandy-Walker Syndrome resulting in water on the brain.

Our process to adopt these kids was difficult from the beginning.  One of the boys wanted us to adopt him, but was afraid of America.  He asked us to move to Russia.  Though we couldn't do that we fought to adopt him, but the courts denied our request.   We knew, however, that God was the advocate for all of us, so we continued with the adoption of the other four.

Our adoptions became finalized six days before adoptions ended in Russia.  I ended up traveling to Russia alone, not knowing the language, and in an extremely frightening environment.   It wasn't a good situation.  The little girls also struggled with a lot of anger and would hit and kick me every chance they could.  It was an extremely difficult time and I couldn't wait to get home.

A few months after bringing the children home, our new son required emergency brain surgery for a failed shunt.  He should have gone blind, been paralyzed, or died.  But he didn't.  The Lord spared his life.  

Our great God provided a future and hope through the donations that you provided.  We were totally out of money and had no idea how we could have ever found $100,000.00 to pay for the expenses. 

We still have loans to pay off, but without your generosity, there would have been four more children dumped onto the streets of Russia. 

Together, we snatched children out of the hand of the enemy.  To God be the glory!!!"

Wow!  James and Ellen, you guys are amazing!  The journey you have chosen has not been easy, and I'm sure there will continue to be some great challenges in the future, but praise the Lord for His faithfulness and thank you for your obedience to His calling!  The staff here at Lifesong is blessed to be a part of your story!

Tuesday
May102011

See you at the Summit! 

Are you going to the Summit this week in Louisville? We hope so! If it's anything like the years past, it will be an amazing opportunity to be refreshed and connect with others!

Even if you can’t join us in Louisville for Summit VII, we invite you to join us in prayer.  Please pray especially:

  • That God would prepare each person coming both to give and to receive much at Summit.
  • That the countless details and the myriad of volunteers, speakers, exhibitors, and attendees would all come together smoothly.
  • That seeds sown and cultivated at Summit would bear much good fruit—for the fatherless, the Church and God’s glory for decades to come.