God moves in the waiting...

Last March Randy and Candice Wagenleitner received word that their long wait for a baby girl in Korea was almost over.  A few short months later Elliana Sa-rang was home, with parents and three older brothers to love her! 

Though their 5 year wait was hard and long, they learned a lot along the way and God used this time to share His heart for the fatherless with them.  In a letter to Lifesong they wrote:

…God has used this adoption to forever change our hearts and give us a huge passion to care for the 147 million orphans left in the world.  Like it seems to be for a lot of families, when we first started talking about adoption years ago it was mostly to add another child to our family- specifically a daughter that we had never had.  But somewhere along the way God opened our eyes and hearts to all of the children who are left without a mommy and daddy and without someone to share the love of Christ with them.  We began to see the bigger picture of God’s adoption of us into His family and how adoption is the gospel lived out.

Now we cannot seem to sit still because we want to advocate and be a voice for those who cannot speak up for themsleves!  It has started small, but we are faithfully praying that the Lord would use us in whatever ways He sees fit…

…We are SO excited that we will be attending the Orphan Summit in April- largely in part  because of Lifesong’ encouragement to attend!  We may not have even know about it if it weren’t for Andy’s email...  We checked it out… and just knew that it would be the perfect starting poiunt for the Lord to give us a clear direction of what to do next…

Check out Candice's blog here!

'Every chance I get...'

Every chance I get, I point adopting families (and those who think they might be) to Lifesong for Orphans. Our Christ Jesus is using this ministry to empower families to adopt children, and thus to point the whole church to the gospel that saves us and the mission that sends us.                                

--Russell D. Moore, author, Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches.

Dr. Moore is the Dean of the School of Theology and Senior Vice-President for Academic Administration at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He also serves as a preaching pastor at Highview Baptist Church, where he ministers weekly at the congregation’s Fegenbush location. Moore is the author of The Kingdom of Christ and Adopted for Life.

Thanks Dr. Moore for the significant part you are playing in raising awareness and equipping Christ-followers to participate in our Father's powerful plan for the fatherless.

The Local Church is Uniquely Equipped!

I must confess I’m blown away by all God has done through Tapestry over the last 5 years. They’ve made a profound difference for local families and the children those families have fostered and adopted." - Jedd Medefind, President of Christian Alliance for Orphans

Check out this post from Tapestry titled 'Three Things We Have Learned & Three Things We Would Do'! A glimpse at the depth of this post -

In the end, the growth that we have seen speaks far more to the needs of children and families in our community (and every community) and the power and reach of the local church, than it does to anything that we ourselves have done. We are humbled that God has used us to play a small part in the lives of so many, and we are excited about what He has in store for us as a ministry and a community.

During any given week, we receive calls from people across the nation wanting to start an adoption, foster care or orphan care ministry in their church. Many of them have very similar questions: How do you get started? What do you do at your small groups and events?  How do you handle this or that?   Three things we have learned in these past five years are that there are no easy answers (although there are some very accessible and available resources), there is no ’one size fits all,’ and there are no shortcuts (at least none worth taking)."

See you at Summit VI!

Adoption Has Changed My Kids

We are so excited that Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, WI has created a solution to the financial barrier many adoptive families encounter!

Elmbrook has an amazing ministry for foster/adoptive families and takes the word community to a whole new level! They are currently holding classes for families interested in adopting, raising funds for a church adoption fund, raising awareness for local foster care children in need, having weekly prayer meetings, and easing the transition for families opening their homes to children.

Check out their ministry blog here. I love this recent post -

Lincoln and I were driving home from Joe's work. We take lovely country roads and always enjoy checking on our favorite animals. Pretty close to home we pass a great country home with 20 or so sheep in the front yard. At that house we have a choice to drive right by the home or turn down another street and miss the sheep altogether.

Today, we decided to take the way of the sheep. We were giggling about how chubby the sheep have become over the winter. We noticed two horses hanging out with the sheep, which is a bit unusual.

Lincoln wondered why the horses were in with the sheep.

I replied, 'I don't know, Bud.'

Lincoln thought for a while and then said, 'Mom. I think the horses adopted the sheep. The sheep needed a mommy and a daddy so the horses decided to adopt them.'

Beautiful."

Advocacy in action... awesome!

The Big Build--Update

Check out this video from the Big Build fundraising event benefiting not only the orphan, but also the widow...

 Check out our previous post featuring the Big Build or visit their website.