Family Friday: Andrew & Jessica

Listen in as matching grant recipients Andrew & Jessica share their testimony of God's amazing provision as they adoption their little girl, Sophia Lynn, from China...

We had been to China several times on missions trips.  The most recent was before our adoption to a special needs orphanage where we agreed that God was leading us to pursue adoption through China’s special needs program. We knew that financially, we didn’t meet all their requirements. But we also knew if God led us to adopt, He would make a way.  

We were not intending to write support letters with our adoption. We had various fundraisers going and applied for several grants. Then we received the matching grant through Grace Church/Lifesong and we made a long list of friends and family who we could support letters to. We were overwhelmed and blessed at the response. We felt like we were able to keep people more ‘in the loop’ of our adoption journey through those letters and the follow up thank you’s.  We were also able to share what God was doing in our lives through our adoption process. 

We knew about our little girl from when we first applied to our agency, but were told she wouldn’t be getting her surgery or paperwork done in line with our process and it wouldn’t work to adopt her. We moved forward but kept coming back to her in our hearts. Six months into our process we were still feeling pulled towards this little girl so we asked about her again and our agency agreed to help us find a way to pursue her. They said it would be a miracle if it happened. After months of writing to her orphanage, praying, waiting, and more praying, we were a part of a miracle indeed! China not only said yes to us adopting but matched us with our little Sophia Lynn directly! We are still in awe of how it has all worked out. 

Grace Church/Lifesong, thank you for being the catalyst for us to bring more of our friends and family into the journey with us and let God be greatly glorified!  -Andrew, Jessica, & family

Family Friday: Kory and Megan

This Family Friday is a special one for me because it involves the addition of my 3 year old niece, Suhn Mikayla Rui to our family.  

My sister Megan and her husband Kory decided to adopt special needs from China and Lifesong had the privilege of helping bring Suhn home through fund raising support.  Here Megan tells a little bit about how God led them through the adoption process:

Frankly, if God had told me 3 years ago that I would be parenting a child with cerebral palsy, I would have freaked out. Thankfully, God didn’t throw us in head first. Instead he laid down a bread crumb and asked us to follow, one tiny step at a time.

We’ve been asked many times over our adoption process questions like “why China?”, “why now?” and “why special needs?” The answers do not come easy. I can go into logical explanations about how China’s adoption program seemed to fit us better, or how the long wait times made us start the adoption process earlier than we originally thought, or how Kory’s job working with kids with special needs made it seem like the obvious thing to do…

While these reasons make sense and allow me to contribute to the conversation, the more accurate answer is this, “It felt like the right thing to do.” There were many times we asked ourselves the same questions we were being asked, “Why China?,” Why now?” But through the questioning we never felt compelled to stop or change course so we kept moving forward. The cool thing is, the further we traveled down our adoption road, the more confirmations and open doors we received silencing most of our doubts. By the time we held Suhn for the first time we knew we were right where we were supposed to be.

I love the thought of God leaving us a trail of bread crumbs to follow... step by step.  Thanks for sharing, Megan!

Recently, Kory and Megan put together a video to send back to the foster home Suhn lived at in China, and we're going to share it with you!

You can find out more on Megan's blog, here.

thank you...

 We recently received the following email from the Severns family in Illinois -

As we approach the 1 year anniversary of our adoption of Ellie Shamei, I wanted to take the time to thank you again for the generous matching grant that Lifesong awarded us.  Thanks in part to you and all of the friends and family who donated, we completed our adoption. 

Ellie has been a blessing to our family, and the adoption process itself strengthened our faith in God. We are so happy to raise her in our family and in the family of Jesus Christ! 

Her future in China was bleak, but now her opportunities are endless. She started Kindergarten last week and is very happy here in her new life."

A HUGE thank you to our donors who make stories like this possible! May the Lord bless you for your generosity!