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Andy and Jill Lehman family

Entries in adoption (170)

Friday
Oct122012

Family Friday: "...Nothing is by chance..."

Phillip and Elaine were first called to adoption in 2000 as they sought to grow their family. They now have five daughers (three through adoption). After attending an "If You Were Mine" conference with the intent of starting a church adoption ministry, they were convicted that the Lord was calling them to adopt again.

Please listen is as they share God's almighty hand as He worked through their 4th adoption of Lily Rose from China with the help of Jeeah's Hope, one of Lifesong Church Adoption Fund Partners.

Our Lifesong grant was probably the biggest God-thing that occurred during the adoption process for Lily Rose. We met a couple, Skip & Ashley, via an online adoption community several years before beginning our adoption for Lily Rose. Ashley followed our blog during our adoption of our 5th daughter. Unbeknownst to me, she and a friend had began an adoption ministry called Jeeah's Hope, and were praying about who to award their first grant. Upon reading my blog about our financial plight, she contacted Lifesong.

I had no idea this was going on behind the scenes when we applied for our grant. Through Lifesong, they awarded their first grant to our family. That grant gave our Lily Rose, also a "critical heart child", a chance at life. By the worlds standards a coincidental meeting several years before began the process that would ultimately bring our daughter to her forever family. Of course, we knew that with the Lord, nothing is by chance and He had it all orchestrated before the foundation of the earth. We stand in awe of how He unites His families!

-Phillip & Elaine

 

Friday
Oct052012

Family Friday: "...confident in His ultimate provision..."

Meet Wes & Kellee.

Their adoption story began in Kellee’s prayer group. When a woman in her group came home from a mission trip to an orphanage in Beijing, China, she shared with their group about a special little boy with Spina Bifida who had captured her heart.  She asked for their group to pray that he could find a “forever family.”  Kellee and the rest of the women prayed diligently for this little boy for two years. 

During this time Kellee began to feel that God was telling her that they were to become his forever family.  She brought home a picture of him and as a family they prayed for him every night.  Over time, Wes & Kellee knew God was leading them in this direction. 

Three months ago, they were able to bring home 7-year-old, David, home into their forever family!

Listen in as they share their hearts...

God used a number of resources including Lifesong to enable our family to bring one of His dearly loved children into our home. We were aware of the financial burden of the adoption process when we started our journey, but we were confident in His ultimate provision for every expense every step of the way. Through His clear calling and faithful provision, we are also resting in the peace that He will continue to provide EVERYTHING we need. Not just monetarily, but perhaps more importantly, spiritually and emotionally.

We have faced many challenges since arriving home 3 months ago with our newest member: a (now) 7 year old boy with special needs. We are learning to love each other as we overcome a difficult start to this precious boy’s life. God is making Himself know to us in ways we never could have known Him had we not been obedient to His call on our family. We have been blessed to see Him work through friends, family, and even strangers. It has also been incredible to hear stories from other people who have reported being blessed and challenged as they heard the story of our adoption journey.

--Wes & Kellee

 

Monday
Oct012012

Celebrate Advent, Love Orphans

Ad·vent 

noun \ˈad-ˌvent, chiefly British -vənt\

Definition: the period beginning four Sundays before Christmas and observed by some Christians as a season of prayer and fasting; the coming of Christ at the Incarnation; a coming into being or use

(http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/advent)

I'm sure many of you have celebrated "the countdown" in various different ways from eating a candy a day to daily acts of kindness to reading a portions of scripture. 

This year, I invite you to read the letter below from Jenna and Jessica Metcalfe, daughters of our Program Director, Rich Metclafe.  Jenna and Jessica used their creative hearts to come up with this special advent calendar. Listen in...

Over three years ago, our family felt God calling us to adopt.  The process has been long and crazy, but God has opened our eyes to the huge orphan crisis around the world.  We learned of the need for Christians to step up and be God’s hands and feet to reach out to His children.  So often it’s easy for us to think, ‘Oh, I’m just a teenager… I can’t do anything about a big problem like this.  Maybe when I grow up God will call me or show me how to help orphans.’ 

But God has told us as believers to help the fatherless, and there is no good reason why we shouldn’t start now.  First Timothy 4:12 says, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.”  We have the opportunity and the responsibility to use our time, energy and enthusiasm for God’s kingdom and for His glory.  So let’s do it! 

We’ve put together an advent calendar that counts down to Christmas from December 1st-24th.   Each day there is a little instruction saying something like "Give 2 cents for every pair of shoes in your home".  Also, there are two Bible references each day – one about orphans and one telling the Christmas story. We hope to raise awareness about the plight of orphans and God’s heart for them. And that from an increased awareness, we all would not only realize how blessed we are in America, but also be motivated to share from those blessings to bring physical relief, joy and purpose to orphans. 

Thank you for prayerfully considering this opportunity to show the love of Jesus to so many vulnerable children.

In His love,

Jessica and Jenna

This is where you, your family, church, youth group, college group, office team, and whoever else can come in! How to get your calendar(s):

  1. Contact us at info@lifesongfororphans.org & order the number of calendars you need
  2. Lifesong will send you the Advent Calendar Kit which includes letter, instructions & calendars
  3. Get your group together to introduce Calendar (feel free to use Lifesong videos) and assemble (1-step process) 
  4. On Orphan Sunday, November 4th, present idea to church and pass out calendars
  5. After Christmas, collect money and send in to Lifesong for Orphans

100% of the money raised will go straight to the orphans that Lifesong helps care for (that’s more than 3,500 orphans!).

Advent Calendar
 

 

ORDER YOUR CALENDAR TODAY -- info@lifesongfororphans.org

Friday
Sep282012

Family Friday: "...more & more in love..."

Thankful to share yet another story of God's faithfulness of setting the lonely into a family.

We were blessed to partner with Greg & Angie as they organized a Both Hands Project to raise funds for the adoption of their new daughter Joy, from China.

Please join us in prayer for this family who chose to grow their family through adoption! Thank God for his steadfast love in adopting each of us!

There have been many challenges throughout our adoption process. We are finally moving past survival mode and are growing more and more in love with our daughter, Joy, every day. We cannot imagine going through the process without the help of Both Hands and Lifesong and the many, many prayers of our friends and family. We are so thankful for Joy and we can’t imagine life without her in our family. We are thankful for the help we received to bring her home.

--Greg & Angie

Friday
Sep212012

Family Friday: "..sew him into our family, Lord..."

Meet Justin and Jaymi...

Because of their involvement in their local church's adoption ministry, God began to work on their hearts and lead them towards adoption. Through this ministry, Jaymi saw a picture of a little boy from Taiwan that captured her attention.  She says, “I had looked at a number of photos of waiting children before, but this time was different.  He stole my heart and I took this experience as a green light for our family to being the process of adopting.”

We at Lifesong felt blessed to partner with this special family as they brought home little Zac from Taiwan this spring. Please join us in listening in to their testimony of God's faithfulness...

We prayed specifically for God to "sew" our son into our family, even before we met. People who didn't even know us prayed those exact words over our adoption! That could only be from the heart of our loving Father who knows us all! We have been home with Zac for 6 months and it feels like he has been with us forever. He is sewn in!

--Justin & Jaymi