How an Adoption Matching Grant Changed Our Family’s Story

Long before adoption became part of our story,

or before we ever needed an adoption matching grant, my husband and I knew about Lifesong for Orphans. I followed this beautiful, important ministry and loved seeing the Lord’s handiwork in knitting families together. I loved seeing the joyful celebration of adoptions within the family of Christ.

Our journey to adoption was long.

Looking back now, I see clearly the Lord’s provision in all things. He used seasons of heartbreak and waiting and longing to continue growing and sanctifying us. He graciously allowed us to love and pray for our son and his birth family, long before our son was even born!

We received an adoption matching grant through Lifesong.

But my husband and I are not good at asking for help.

In fact, I felt a mixture of both excitement and nervousness when we received notice about the adoption matching grant (but mostly excitement!) What an answer to prayer! But now we had to ask others to help us.

“To our surprise, we received an outpouring of love and generosity far above what we could have possibly imagined.”

Friends, family, coworkers, church family, and even complete strangers wanted to help us. They wanted to bless our family, to partner with us in our adoption, and to celebrate our son with us.

They gave generously and joyfully and we received a double blessing of both financial assistance as well as the gift of love poured upon us.

To see so many people contribute generously toward our adoption matching grant was incredible.

We were humbled by the generosity and outpouring of love, and we were encouraged by the reminder of God’s care and provision for our precious son. We continue to treasure in our hearts these outpourings of love toward our family and our little boy.

Lifesong’s impact extended far beyond the financial blessing. We were prayed for, cared about, and rejoiced with in our son’s adoption. The Lord really used this ministry to breathe hope and peace into our minds and hearts in an overwhelming and uncertain season.

“The generosity and provision through both Lifesong and the donors to our adoption matching grant felt like a tangible expression of God’s love for us.”

Just weeks after we were “home study ready,” the world shut down with COVID.

With little to no outreach during the years that followed, we had no calls from our agency.

As the years passed, we had to renew and update our home study and other necessary appointments and paperwork. And as the years passed, we began to think that maybe God was closing the door on adoption just as other doors had been closed in our hope of growing our family.

But then our season of waiting changed in an instant.

Very late one Thursday night, we received THE phone call from our adoption agency—a baby boy had been surrendered at a hospital under our state’s Safe Haven Law. He came home with us the very next morning.

While our hearts were more than ready, we were not prepared logistically.

We had no clothes for a baby boy. We had no diapers or wipes. And we had no baby formula (at the height of the baby formula shortage!) Every store in the vicinity had completely empty shelves in the baby formula aisle.

This was scary and overwhelming.

But we knew we served a faithful God and that He loved our precious baby even more than we ever could. We had seen His faithfulness and provision and knew He had brought us this far (1 Samuel 7:12), so we knew He would be with us and go before us.

By God’s grace—through our friends, loved ones, and church family—our support network rallied around us and helped meet these important needs. People gave us baby clothes, gifted us diapers, and made it their mission to locate and purchase baby formula (no easy task!)

We know this level of care and sacrifice was from God and is an extremely important part of our son’s adoption story!

Thank you for blessing our family and especially our precious son!