We are so thankful for you, our donors. You make grants possible for adoptive families. But don't take it from us, here's a thank you from one of our grant recipient families!
"Daniel and I first started the adoption process back when we were 19 and 20 years old. We knew we wanted to be involved with orphans in some way or another before we even met. In our first year of marriage we realized God was calling us to adoption as a way of building our family and reaching out to children so desperately in need of loving families.
Everyone thought we were crazy and would say things like “Don’t you want to go travelling?” Our first adoption was through the Ministry of Children and Families and was of an adorable little 2 month old baby boy. Three previous families had all turned him down prior to us due to health concerns, but we knew he was meant to be ours. Even his name meant gift from God! Through the process we became aware of fostering, something we had previously known nothing about. We immediately knew this was what God wanted us to do next. Once again everyone thought we were crazy, still going on about us travelling! Haha, they really wanted us to travel for some reason! We knew otherwise.
A year after bringing home our darling son who is now 7, we became a safe baby foster home. We took in infants that had been prenatally exposed to drugs and alcohol. Through that process we ended up giving many of them a forever home and have adopted 3 more of our foster children since, a little boy who is now 6 and 2 little girls, 4 and 3, bringing our family to 4 munchkins! We also have a precious little 3 year old foster daughter!
Through all our encounters with adoption and fostering, we realized God was calling us to something so much more, so much bigger, than we had ever imagined. We started out small and started an orphan ministry in our church. From there we began an adoption support group and were so encouraged by like-minded individuals. We still felt like there was a piece to the puzzle missing. There were still many people we knew who were choosing not to adopt, and upon inquiry we discovered two of the main reasons were finances and fear (or lack of information). We decided the time had come to open a Christian adoption agency; one that offered significantly reduced fees and focused on children in foster care and international children with special needs. We gathered a team and started our process (which we are still walking through!).
It was shortly before this that we also knew it was time to begin another adoption. We have always felt that God has plans of a big family for us…with 5 kids already I’m sure many would think we are already there. There is something so wonderful about a big family though, and we still have so much love, space, attention and so much more to still offer, and with the millions of children still needing homes, we knew we were not done yet. Up until this point we had done all our adoptions through the foster care system. Since we run an adoption group and were in the process of opening an adoption agency, we figured an International adoption would be an invaluable experience and would help us help others.
We prayed about it and decided upon Jamaica. We were accustomed to ministry adoptions which were free, and were not sure how we were going to pay for an International adoption. It was about that same time that ABBA Canada had made their presence on the adoption scene, and were offering adoption grants to families in need. We were amazed such a needed resource had become available and were ecstatic to have somewhere to turn to for help!
We applied, praying that we would be approved, and hoping the help would come. We needed the grant to even get started on our homestudy. Shortly after applying we got the phone call. WE HAD BEEN APPROVED!! We couldn’t believe it! It was such amazing news that allowed us to feel supported on a journey that often feels alone. By their gracious donation we were able to pay for our homestudy and begin our adoption through Jamaica. Although there have been many bumps and snags along the way (as there usually are in adoptions) we are excited to be on this new journey and eventually welcome a new and precious child into our forever family!
THANK YOU ABBA CANADA!!