“My husband and I write to you with the utmost appreciation, thanks and gratitude. We went forward on faith knowing that Zeke was meant to be our son and feeling strongly that the Lord was one the one who had orchestrated for him to be in our family. Zeke has a few more needs than we initially knew about but we are so happy that this boy is our son.

“Adopting a child who was four years old was different than adopting a younger baby. It has thrilled our hearts to be able to see so many of Zeke’s “firsts.” His first bite of ice cream, his first snow, his first real kiss back – all of these are such special moments to our family. We realize that affections from Zeke don’t come as they might from a baby simply repeating them back, but from him feeling trust and love enough to know it’s okay to give a kiss. He has made our lives better and we are thankful for the opportunity to teach him about our Lord who loves us even when times are tough. Thank you so much to the Show Hope sponsors who made this grant possible!”

-Jenne Redfern

“Scott and I had a perfect family, with 4 kids and a dog… big enough for lots of fun but small enough to fit in a minivan nicely. Why then did we feel that someone was missing in our family? I knew after having Evan, our fourth child, that I was happy to be done being pregnant and delivering babies, but I still wanted to have a sister for Clara. That small desire to have another girl was actually God’s desire for us to obey the call to look after orphans in distress. In my Bible, next to James 1:27, I wrote this date: December 4, 2007. That was when I heard the call to adopt and knew I had to do something about it.

“At the same time God was tugging on my heart about adoption, He was also tugging on my husband’s heart. We both felt a burden for the fatherless and clearly understood that as Christ followers our faith needed actions. After months of adoption research and talking with families who had adopted, we decided on an agency and applied for their Ethiopia program. Scott and I stepped foot on that adoption path, knowing the journey would be long, uncertain, exhilarating, rewarding, and so many other things yet to be discovered. We laid eyes on our precious Hana in Ethiopia for the first time just more than a year later. The long waiting was over and in my arms I held the very child God had ordained.

“Our family had become a debt-free a few years ago and we trusted that God would allow us to do this adoption without debt. Family and friends gave us generous amounts of money, blessing us beyond words. We sold some real estate and used a great deal of our savings to help pay. As we neared our travel dates, we wondered how we would pay for final expenses. It was then that we learned we received a grant from Show Hope! God wonderfully provided through the gifts of Show Hope sponsors.

“The monetary provision is just one part of how we saw God work. Saying ‘yes’ to Hana came after a soul searching week and hearing in our hearts that Hana was the one for our family. Hana had been a waiting child for almost two years, due to some unknown possible medical condition. The week we had to decide to accept Hana’s referral, our pastor preached on the Good Samaritan, asking the question, ‘Will you be the one to make a difference?’ Scott and I knew that God was asking us to be the ones for Hana and we said ‘Yes!’

“Now on this side of adoption, we continue to see God’s hand as He brings understanding to a little girl who was alone for too long. There have been struggles, but there have been great victories and blessings as well. This is what I cling to as we grow to be the family God called us to be: ‘What God calls you to, He will see you through.’ He has, He is and He will continue to see us through as we obey His call to put our faith into action.”

-Jena Cramer

“To all Show Hope sponsors and all those who have given, are giving, and will give generously to the cause of orphan care and adoption, our family would like to express our heartfelt gratitude for the Show Hope grant we received.

“My wife, Rebekah, and I knew we wanted to adopt even before we were married, but we formally began the adoption process in February 2009. As our heart for the nations prompted us to adopt internationally, Russia began to rise to the top of our list. After several months, the wait time only seemed to be getting longer, indefinite even. We became discouraged, but prayed each day that God would send us our referral.

“Unexpectedly, we received an email from an adoption network that a different agency was looking for a family who could travel immediately and accept the referral of a baby boy. This would require us to change agencies and go through much more paperwork. After prayer and counsel, we decided to switch agencies and pursue this little boy. This was a hard decision, as we had a high opinion of our first adoption agency. Committed to seeing orphans placed in forever families, our original agency encouraged us to go after this child. In a matter of weeks, we traveled to Russia for the first time, met Josiah, and fell in love with him instantly. We returned to Russia a month later to bring our son home!

“Our testimony is that with God, all things are possible. [God] overcame age barriers, income limitations, an unexpected agency change, and countless other obstacles of which we are completely unaware to bring Josiah home. Praise God for His sovereign grace!

“Josiah is a happy, healthy little boy and is adjusting wonderfully. This could not have happened in our lives had God not moved in the hearts of His people, particularly the Show Hope sponsors, to give generously. Again, thank you for your commitment to orphan care and for supporting us in our adoption.”

-Tom Allen

We are Chris and Christy, and we have been married for 9 years. In the spring of 2004, we were told our chances of having children biologically were slim. Although we didn’t know much about it at the time, we started looking into adoption. After finding an agency we liked and attending their informational meeting, we both knew this was what God wanted us to do! We got started on the paperwork right away. The next summer, as we were packing for vacation, our phone rang. It was our social worker, who called to tell us we were chosen to be the parents of a baby boy who was born that morning. Two days later, we met our son and brought him home!

Two years later, in the summer of 2008, we began to feel God leading us to adopt again. The road to Kati was a little longer and a little bumpier, but she is so worth it! This time it was a lot tougher to pull the finances together since Christy was at home with Drew. We knew God would provide, but there were times that we started to question whether or not we should be doing this. Every time He gave us the reassurance. We learned about Show Hope from our agency and decided to apply. When we found out we would be getting a grant from Show Hope, we were so excited!

Kati was born with an esophageal defect and spent two and a half weeks in the NICU after she was born. The grant we received from the generosity of Show Hope sponsors took away the stress of trying to figure out how to pay the remaining adoption expenses and allowed us to stay focused on our baby girl. Now she is a year old and is happy, healthy and adds so much joy to our lives!

Thank you, Show Hope, for assisting us in our adoption journey! Drew and Kati are such blessings to us and it has been amazing to see how God has worked to bring each of them into our lives and our family!

Dan Cruver, Chris Wheeler, Jason Kovacs at Together For Adoption

A few weekends ago, just before my first day in the office at Show Hope, I had the privilege of attending the Together for Adoption conference in Austin, TX. This is one of the largest adoption and orphan awareness conferences in the country! While I was there I ran the Show Hope booth. I also had the opportunity to represent Show Hope on a discussion panel about adoption fundraising. On top of all of this I was able to network with a lot of the other ministries and orphan care advocates!

I came away from the conference reflecting on the fact that we truly are all in this together (hence the conference title)! I’m so thankful for all of the other incredible ministries out there making a difference in the lives of orphans around the world. It was so exciting to hear from the other contributors about what they do and the creative ways that they do it. I was also struck with just how many people Show Hope has been able to help already! So many families and ministry leaders shared with me that they had received a grant and that it had made a huge difference in their stories! It was neat to meet so many excited families who are just on the verge of starting their own adoption journey! Encouraging them, praying with them and sharing about my own adoption was a special privilege for me as well.

Way to go “T4A,” you guys put on a great event! I’d love to especially acknowledge Dan Cruver and Jason Kovacs for their hard work in making this event so excellent! Well done gentlemen!

Are you looking for a fun, unique way to raise funds for your adoption? A great way to put your hobbies and creativity to work is by making homemade crafts! You could make pottery, jewelry, paintings, cards, photographs or whatever your creative passion includes. As you sell the goods to friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors, be sure to explain that the proceeds will go towards your adoption.

A great example of this is Rachel and Rob, a couple I recently met at the Empowered to Connect Conference. They are currently in the process of adopting. Rachel’s homemade crafts are amazing clay pottery pieces sculpted into the shape of a leaf. Each individual piece has its own unique character, and comes with a note explaining “a common symbol used for adoption is the tree of life and this leaf represents one life on that tree, the life of the child we hope to adopt.” What a fantastic way to not only share your family’s story, but to bring others along on the adoption journey as well.

It was a great privilege for Show Hope to present the Empowered to Connect conference here in our own backyard of Nashville, TN this past weekend at Covenant Presbyterian Church. The conference featured Dr. Karyn Purvis, a renowned child-development researcher, speaker and author of The Connected Child, along with Michael & Amy Monroe, who are adoption ministry leaders from Irving Bible Church in Dallas.

We were delighted to have about four hundred families, professionals, and church ministry advocates in attendance, representing 20 states. In addition, more than 150 child welfare professionals or adoptive families received Continuing Education Credits or Adoptive and Foster Parent Training Certificates for their participation in the event!

On Saturday, special guest Regie Hamm, who is a singer/songwriter and adoptive dad of two, joined us to share his joys and struggles in the adoption journey. He also sang the hit song he wrote, “The Time of My Life,” made famous by American Idol‘s David Cook.

Rob and Rachel Meyersohn are currently in the adoption process and had this to say about the conference:

“As a couple starting out in the adoption journey, we found the conference was insightful, educational, and encouraging. We felt we were given many basic tools and resources to be successful in bringing our future child into our family. We also saw that we were not alone on this journey, but had many fellow believers taking the same steps and asking the same questions as us. We were very blessed by our experience, and look forward to hearing more from Show Hope and Empowered to Connect.”

Thank you to all who participated and to all who volunteered their time to make it happen! We are especially grateful to Covenant Presbyterian Church of Nashville for donating the use of their fellowship hall and facilities for our event.

It is our hope and prayer that all who came left the conference blessed, equipped and encouraged to care for these precious children for whom we all advocate. Free resources are available for families, professionals and church ministries at empoweredtoconnect.org and child.tcu.edu.

“It is hard to imagine our lives without Aubrie, our little princess from Korea. Our son, who is 23 months older, absolutely adores her. Aubrie brings us unmeasurable joy. I learned many things in the adoption journey.

I have wanted to adopt since I was a child. I was surprised at how adoption parallels a pregnancy in many ways. The waiting is a different kind of labor. I realized in new ways God’s passion for the fatherless as I saw Him bend over backward over and over again to bring in the finances needed to bring our little girl home. I discovered it was more challenging than I expected and more rewarding than I had dreamed. Adoption is no doubt a miracle. Thank you to all of the Show Hope sponsors who allowed themselves to be used by God in our journey!”

-Heather Dickinson

It’s hard to believe the kids are already back in school and that summer will soon be coming to an end, but this means that the Empowered to Connect Conference, scheduled for September 10-11 here in Nashville, TN, is quickly approaching! Show Hope is excited to be hosting this conference, and we are thrilled with the response thus far. At this time, we have registrations representing 19 states, with adoptive families and orphan advocates coming in from as far away as the states of Washington and Massachusetts, with many more in between.

It is truly a privilege for Show Hope to host this event. Since its founding, Show Hope has provided grants to more than 2500 families who have adopted children from 45 countries around the world, including the United States. It is a joy to receive the testimonies and pictures of these precious children, knowing that God provided the means for us to be a small part in their homecoming. Yet, when a child comes home, the family’s journey is really just beginning.

The presentation by Dr. Karyn Purvis, and ministry leaders Michael and Amy Monroe, includes invaluable tools and resources to adoptive or foster families, professionals and church ministry leaders alike. I am particularly excited about the breakout sessions for church ministries. The body of Christ is a critical piece of the support structure for adoptive and foster families, throughout the adoption process and beyond. Families need a safe place to come and be “real.” They need a place to share their joys and setbacks; a place to be loved, encouraged, equipped, and empowered.

If you have an adoption and orphan care ministry in your church or are praying about starting one, do consider attending this conference! Click here to read a letter from Michael and Amy Monroe encouraging church ministries to be a part of this special event.

“Even before we were married, Sean and I knew we wanted to adopt a baby regardless of whether or not God gave us biological children. Several years after we were married, we were blessed with two biological children, Elijah and Jadon. When we were ready to grow our family again, we felt a leaning from the Lord that we should do so by adoption. We prayed and asked God to point our hearts in the right direction and provide.

“After our dossier was submitted to Ethiopia, we began waiting for our baby girl. When we received a referral for a 5-week-old girl, we began to cry tears of joy…they told us her story, and we were awestruck that God would entrust us with this baby. Even her name, Bethlehem, was a reminder of Bethlehem Baptist Church, where we first met multi-racial families with adopted children and began deeply desiring for our family to resemble them. We later decided to name our daughter Mercy Bethlehem, because “Mercy”  reflects the character of God in adopting us.

“The week that we found out we were receiving a Show Hope adoption aid grant was very humbling to us. God was showing us all along the way that He was the provider! As we have walked this road of adoption, we have been reminded of God’s pursuit of us, His undying love, and His matchless mercy.

“All of the months of waiting, the tears of longing, the fears when she was sick, the questions about what she was like…it all fell into place as God took us across the globe to meet our daughter. When they placed Mercy in my arms I felt like I had always been with her. She just fit!! Thank you, Show Hope sponsors, for being faithful to God and serving our family by helping make our dream of adoption a reality.”

-Dana Cordell