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Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Helpful Information for Anyone Adopting or Considering it in the Future.

This was posted by my friends Jonathan and Christy Matias who just brought home their new son. You can learn more about their adoption story by visiting their blog: http://operationfirefly.blogspot.com/


Adoption–A Team Effort

We'd like to give a shout out to four organizations that have made our adoption possible. If you're considering adoption, and the financial cost seems staggering to you, take heart! There are Christian organizations that provide connections and partner with families like you to help you bring an orphan home and adopt them into your family.

Lifesong For Orphans
We met the good folks at Lifesong For Orphans at the Mid-Atlantic Orphan Summit in November 2010. When we were approved to adopt a baby, we applied for adoption grants or loans through Lifesong. They partnered with us in fundraising by setting up a fund where people could donate to our adoption in a tax-deductible way, a tax benefit we could not offer on our own. Very quickly most of the remaining funds came in.

ABBA Fund
When it came time to receive Jadon and make the final payment ($17,000) to our adoption agency, we needed a little help to have the cash on hand to make this happen. ABBA Fund graciously agreed to give us a small short-term interest-free loan to pull off the final payment.



Resources4Adoption.com
We'd also like to thank the folks at Resources4Adoption.com for the incredibly helpful ideas and resources they provide adoptive families. Through this site, we learned many creative options that made our adoption possible.


Christian Alliance For Orphans
Last but not least, we'd like to thank the umbrella organization for Christian orphan care groups in the United States, the Christian Alliance for Orphans. They initially connected us with Lifesong and with ABBA Fund, as well as told us about the Mid-Atlantic Orphan Summit, and a host of other resources that helped us along our adoption journey.

The Alliance has a great collection of audio talks about orphan care, adoption, and foster care, holds an annual Summit about orphan care for ordinary Christians and orphan care advocates alike, and hosts practical (free!) webinars every few weeks you can listen to from anywhere. We'd like to thank the Alliance's Director of Outreach who is a member of our church for connecting us with so many helpful resources and people.

A Team Effort
As you can see, we weren't able to adopt Jadon on our own. Our church family rallied around us. Friends and family across the country contributed. And faithful Christian organizations provided information, funds, and ways for people to donate. Truly, God is doing a powerful work of orphan care through the body of Christ, as it should be. "True religion before God and the Father is this–to visit widows and orphans in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world" (James 1:27).

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