A Child Waits Foundation
Adoption Grants & Adoption Loans
International and Domestic Adoption
Family Stories
International Adoption 2019
In 2019 we awarded grants to help 183 children to be adopted from 21 different countries and 6 states in the USA. Some of their wonderful pictures and adoption experiences are recounted below in the family's own words.
Trey - China 2019
Things are going well, and Trey has settled in nicely with our family. It feels like he’s always been a part of our family and we have all just fallen so much in love with him already. He’s very smart, and very kind, and seems so happy to be with us now. He’s very eager to learn English, I can not believe how much he’s already learned in less than a week. We are almost done with the official appointments and all that’s left is our visa appointment tomorrow at the consulate. We will get his visa on Wednesday and then fly home Thursday morning at 7:30am as a family of 4!
Thank you all again for your generous grant to help make our adoption possible.
Priyanka - India 2019
We wanted to reach out now that we are home with our 2nd daughter Priyanka and say THANK YOU to everyone at A Child Waits for the amazing work you do! We couldn’t have done this without you all! I will never forget getting the phone call from you guys that we were awarded a grant and crying my eyes out in joy!
We left for India on Thanksgiving Day & got home right before Christmas! Christmas was very magical this year; needless to say! These spicy sisters are only 10 months apart and it’s so fun to see them bonding more and more each day!
God bless you all!
Tihamer - Hungary 2019
Dear A Child Waits,
We are so excited to finally be home and adjusting to a new normal. Thank you so much for providing us with a grant. We are so grateful and glad we can finally share pictures with you and everyone.
Last July is when our story began and we set out to adopt. We didn't know a lot about adoption, but we knew it was going to be expensive. We took a giant leap of faith and here we are. So in July of 2018 we reached out to Lifeline Children's Services and started the process. We knew we needed to come up with about 4000 dollars right off the bat, so we washed cars, had a yard sale and sold thousands of doughnuts. I think we did a fund raiser almost every weekend for the first two months. We did our homestudy and then began the wait for our 800 A and a match. Out of the blue we got a call from our social worker that we were matched with Tihamer from Hungary. He was the sweetest 5 year old I have ever seen. So then there was more waiting to be approved by the ministry to get our official referral. Finally we got it and were so excited, but knew it was going to take all of our savings to get there. Three weeks before we were ready to leave, we received the news from A Child Waits that we were awarded a grant. I cried, I was so happy and thankful.
As we prepared to meet our son there were so many emotions going on in my mind. On Sept 3rd we met him, he was such a sweet and brave little boy. On the 10th he came into our custody for 30 days of bonding. Some days were tougher than others but the hugs and kisses more than made up for it. October the 11th we had the final adoption decree and he became Tihamer Allen. We are so happy to have him as our son, he is such a joy.
Thank you so much for helping our family to get our little boy home.
Lily & Mya - Bulgaria 2019
Our adoption journey started approximately 7 years ago. After the birth of our son, Noah, we felt God clearly calling us to adopt our next child to ensure we fulfilled what God had laid on our hearts years before. Our initial journey took us through a domestic adoption program. We invested 4 years in the program. Unfortunately, not all adoption stories are smooth, and they don’t always end in adoption. We were a waiting family for about 3 years with no end in sight.
Given another opportunity, we went to some of our friends who had adopted for recommendations for an agency. God pointed us to one choice; one that neither of us would have contemplated when we started the process. God led us to adopt from Bulgaria, a nation that we had to double-check on the map to make sure we knew where it was.
Our dossier was sent to Bulgaria, and we became a waiting family in November 2017. When we updated our home study the following year we felt God leading us to be open to adopting 2 children. We trusted God and prayed that if He wanted to give us 2 children that He would provide the additional necessary financial resources to close the significant gap. After traveling to Bulgaria in May 2019 to meet our girls, we knew we had a lot to do to prepare our home, our family, and our finances to complete this adoption. We had 4-6 months to do it. As God always does, he provided in a big way through those of you who support A Child Waits. The grant money that came late in the process couldn’t have been more of a relief as we were making those final payments.
In September 2019, we got to return to Bulgaria to bring our girls home. On the 28th of that month, we landed in America where they instantly became US citizens. They’ve been home with us about 9 months and the change is huge. Those early days having 2 non-English speaking kids that were going through the trauma of significant change was very hard. The good news is less than a year later, it’s incredible how quickly they learned and how well they are adjusting. Don’t be discouraged by the hard days because it gets a lot better.
God knew all along and timed it out perfectly for our family. In the same way, God knew we needed the additional financial help late in the process and A Child Waits was there to help with that part of God’s plan
Benjamin - China 2019
Adoption first became a serious topic of discussion in our home in January of 2018. I (Brooke) had begun reading The Best Yes, by Lysa Terkerst, and while doing so adopting a child came to the forefront of my mind. My original intent in reading Lysa’s book was unrelated to adoption so when instead adoption became a recurring thought, I felt compelled to begin seriously considering it.
Over the next year we began the process of adopting from China, and we officially met our son, Benjamin An Xia Yang on March 24th of 2019. Benjamin is an active, expressive, all-boy, 2 1/2 year old. While he has a heart condition, aside from the scars you would never know. We were blessed to be able to adopt him from an orphanage with wonderful nannies who loved him very much (we're still keeping in touch over WeChat) and his needs were provided for beyond what we expected. Because of their hard work and gentle love, a little boy who, while still overcoming a language barrier and grief, is adapting exceptionally well to our family.
Our days have been full of sign language, smiling, laughing, tickling, teaching, loving, caring, hand-holding, trying new foods, learning to recognize emotion, sharing, rocking, and more. It's been a whirlwind of a month and with so many things still yet unknown about adoption one thing we know for sure, is that, because of A Child Wait’s generosity, we came home with zero adoption debt. We've seen the biggest success comes from the closest possible one-on-one attention, and one-on-one attention requires A LOT of time and preferably zero distractions. Had we needed to focus on generating money to pay off debt for our adoption, much of the above wouldn't be possible (at least not to the degree it should be).
Thank you, thank you, thank you. My husband has had to raise his own salary and operating funds for the last 14 years and we know that it is no easy task. To think about raising the kinds of funds you do on such a large scale for so many people is jaw-dropping. Thank you for all the work you put in to changing lives every single day - including ours.
With the deepest gratitude,
Brooke (and Brad, Abilene, Andrew, and Benjamin)
Rivera - Colombia 2019
We wanted to email you and formally thank you and A Childs Waits for the extremely generous financial assistance in our adoption process. The grant we received from A Child Waits was critical to us completing our adoption process. We were officially approved to adopt in January of 2019 and were told it could be 12-18 months before we were matched with a child. However, less than 2 months later, we were matched with a 7-month-old baby boy in Bogota, Colombia. We were thrilled, but at the same time it was the most life-changing phone call of our lives and the most overwhelming emotions to follow. Within a few seconds, we learned we had a son, we learned his age, his birth-given name, the health challenges he had gone through, the stated health challenges he had ahead, and the details of his heartbreaking start in life. There were many unanswered questions. But amongst the unknowns, we both knew fully in our hearts that this was our outstandingly precious son and our hearts were bursting with love for him. In the days that followed our minds naturally drifted to finances. How were we going to come up with the funds we needed to travel in less than 2 months?
A Child Waits was unique in the fact that an expedited review was available for situations such as ours. Also, grants were able to be used for travel which we found to be rare. For many couples, including us, securing funds to travel is the hardest part of fundraising. Travel costs can be significant. Many grants don’t allow for funds to be used for travel. Further, knowing when you’ll need to have travel funds raised is often extremely unpredictable.
The grant we received from A Child Waits was just what we needed. It provided us the last minute funds we needed to secure our flights and lodging to travel to Bogota to pick up our son.
Now, December 2019, Rivera “Riv” has been with us 7 months. God has blown us away as we watch him grow, hit milestones, and his health's incredible turnaround. This year will most importantly be remembered as the year God redeemed that heartbreaking story we first heard in March, and the year our family was made complete with the most incredible little boy who is an absolute dream come true. He just started walking, and now we can fully say he's a walking miracle! He truly is the picture of God's faithfulness and goodness. There is no way we can ever doubt God's unmatched expertise in miracles, provision, sovereignty, grace and love when we look into the big brown eyes and bright smile of our baby boy.
A Child Waits placed a crucial and special role in bringing Riv home and we can’t thank you enough for providing families such as ours with the resources needed to follow the call God places on the hearts of adopting families.
Savannah- China 2019
Dear A Child Waits,
Thank you so much! My wife Cassandra, and I, Logan, agreed that we wanted to try to have children immediately after we were married. From the beginning we had both shared a passion for adoption, however we wanted to first have children in the traditional way. That way turned into seven difficult years of struggles with infertility along with three depressing diagnosis between the two of us. All chances were against our ability to grow our family through childbearing. After much prayer and heartache, we decided to follow God’s model for the growth of our family and His plan for us, from the beginning. In truth, didn’t He adopt all believers as His chosen children?
My wife sped through the paperwork as only she knows best, while we both continued working, saving and fundraising. The cost of the adoption was daunting, yet with prayer, time and budgeting, it was attainable. We knew that if this was God’s plan for us, He would pave the way. When we learned of the possibility of a grant from A Child Waits, we applied and when we were gifted such an amazing gift it only continued to assure us that God was in full control of how and when.
The grant that we received from A Child Waits allowed us to adopt our beautiful daughter, without having to put ourselves in more debt and allowed us to travel sooner. A Child Waits is a definite Godsend! We can’t thank the donors enough for the gift that they have helped us enjoy; our daughter Savannah, is our dream come true.
The amazement and awe that we feel every time we look back at the photos and videos of our first meeting with our precious Savannah is mind-boggling. She came to us as a timid, shy and quiet little girl who looked at everyone and everything around her with a cautious face. She was straight faced and subdued and the nannies told us she was a very quiet child. We also learned she had just recently acquired the ability to walk without support – she could walk only a couple of steps before falling down.
Now, just six months later, she walks and runs on her own, with less tumbles! She loves to dance and yell and has begun babbling; A LOT!! She adores the water and loves to run through the yard. She finds great fascination in climbing up and down stairs and ladders and loves tickle time. Her favorites are listening to and dancing to music, playing on slides, and spending time hugging and kissing the family dog. She is very headstrong and opinionated and absolutely loves to learn!
Thank you so much for your generous heart in helping people like us attain our dreams. We’re immeasurably appreciative to all those who are gracious enough to donate.
Logan, Cassandra & Savannah
Martin - Colombia 2019
Dear A Child Waits Foundation, We are writing to express our gratitude for your generosity in helping us fund our adoption. I think there are few ways to give money that can impact a life so directly as giving to support adoption. Your gift has made such a difference in our lives. Thank you.
We have been home now with our son Martin for about 3 months. He is a happy and silly little boy who loves playing with his cars, bouncing balls, and running anywhere he can. Looking at him you wouldn't know that he has had significant hurdles placed in his path. He has been through more in his first 2 years of life than most people will experience in a lifetime. I can only describe him as resilient. He is so resilient that often I look at him and feel inspired simply to know him, let alone be his parent. He truly is one of the strongest people I know and he can't even talk yet. God has used you to complete part of his plan and I thank you for that.
Going into this adoption we had asked for a child with some sort of hearing loss because we felt uniquely equipped since my wife is a teacher of the deaf. We were told that a hearing impaired child was unlikely. We adopted Martin about 6 months later. Today 3 months after we retumed from Colombia with him, we found out he has severe bilateralsensorineural hearing loss. God knows each one of us so intimately. This is just one story in a giant web of events that lead us to Martin and that web includes your financial gift to us. Thank you for your generous gift to our family! lt means more than you can know
Jonah - Bulgaria 2019
There were several influences throughout our adoption journey, however, we believe the person God used most to influence our adoption journey was our son, Christian Elijah. Our son was born on December 28th, 2012 and changed our lives forever. Born with severe disabilities that included cerebral palsy, epilepsy, strabismus, torticollis, central sleep apnea, and global developmental delay, we watched our beautiful baby teach us what it is to be brave and gentle and persevering. Through him, God poured forth the fruit of His spirit. That of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23). We watched our son as he battled through tests, surgeries, and unending therapies. All the while with a gentle spirit and quiet demeanor. He was so very strong and innocent. On October 2nd, 2016, during an afternoon nap after church on a beautiful Sunday, he passed away unexpectedly in his sleep. It has been a most difficult last four years living life without him and surely a part of our hearts went with him when he went home. But God has been ever so faithful and has slowly renewed our strength as we have waited on Him (Isai. 40:29-31).
We never imagined the Lord would call us to venture out in faith and adopt a child from Bulgaria. Many have asked, “How did you find Jonah (our adopted son)?” We didn’t find him, rather God lead us to him. It was His plan, not ours. His story, not ours. After losing Christian, we had searched online for somewhere to volunteer our time with children with special needs. Instead God lead us to a website called Rainbow Kids. This website contained the profiles of children all over the world who were least likely to be adopted because of their disabilities. And not long after being led to that website, we came across Jonah’s profile.
Of course, adopting was never part of “our” plan. This was news to us. Adopt? After we’ve lost our beautiful son? Why would we do such a thing? Will people think we are trying to replace our son? We could never do that, nor did we want to. There was only one Christian, and he was in heaven with the Lord. We knew that, but what would others think? And were we in any condition to adopt? How would we cover the costs? We didn’t even know the process or the first step. So, we prayed.
We prayed for several months about adopting. And in those months God continued to move and place a burden within our hearts to adopt (Neh. 1:4). On Monday, June 18th, 2018, we received word back from our inquiry of Jonah's profile via email, allowing us to see a video of him and read his medical file. As we watched Jonah's video, we both began to cry. God pierced our hearts with an affection for him that we did not anticipate.
On September 5th, 2019, Jonah came home and was received with loving arms into his forever family. When I look at him I am reminded of how much God loves him, and every one of his children. I look at the miracle God did for my little Jonah, and I know with full assurance that God is powerful and able to do ALL things.
Today Jonah is thriving. He is loved and cared for and nurtured. He is held when he seeks comfort. He is soothed when he is scared. He has his mommy and daddy’s hands in his whenever he goes to his doctor appointments. He’s not alone. He has a family. He is our son, our heritage, our reward. I thank God for him. For his life. For the purpose God created him for. And we would encourage any families who are feeling the call of God to adopt to pray and to seek God’s confirmation and guidance. Then move forward in faith and surrender to the plans and purposes of the Lord who loves you and this child or children who are in need of a family.
May God bless you, keep you, and continue to work through faithful organizations like A Child Waits Foundation. We will always remember how God used you to be a part of our journey! THANK YOU TO ALL WHO ARE A PART OF A CHILD WAITS FOUNDATION AND WHO GIVE TO THEIR CAUSE!
Evelina - China 2019
We are so incredibly thankful to A Child Waits and all their donors for the grant that we received to help us bring our daughter, Evelina home!
She is doing very well and has made some amazing progress since coming home this July. When we met her in country we found that on top of the issues that she will face for mobility from her hydrocephalus and cerebral palsy she also had very low muscle tone as well. She has started physical therapy. Her therapists and physicians are very hopeful that with therapy, hard work and practice she may walk independently one day! Her amount of determination amazes us daily!
She has also made a lot of progress in speech especially considering that English is an entirely new language on top of her having a speech delay. She has learned to speak and sign multiple new words since being home and is even starting to speak in a few short sentences!
We have been adjusting well as a family. She fits in perfectly and we all love her with our whole hearts. Our biological children absolutely love having a little sister and she loves playing with them and asks about them every morning when she wakes up. She also recognizes pictures and videos of her big brother in heaven and likes to tell you about her “ GēGē ” Obi. She has learned that we are all a family unit and loves to make sure that we are all together. One of her favorite things is to say that we are going “home” after we have been out somewhere.
The process of going back and adopting again has been very different this time after our son Obi passed away. It has certainly been much more emotional, we miss him daily and every step of the process reminded us of him. We know he is celebrating finally getting to be a big brother in heaven because having a baby sister is something that he really wanted. But we still selfishly want him here with us. Even though it has been hard in some ways for our family to adopt again we are so glad that we did! Obi’s time with us here taught us just how worth it these children are! The thought that we may have missed out on having Evelina be a part of our family if we had let our sorrow and fear win is terrifying! She brings so much joy into our lives and we know without a doubt that it was the Lord’s plan for her to be in our family. We feel that we needed her just as much as she needed us.
Words cannot express how thankful we are to all who helped us get our precious girl home!! We will be forever grateful!!!!
Christian - China 2019
Thank you so much for blessing us with a grant to adopt our 3 year old son from China! Christian Lu has brought us so much joy and laughter. We have been home for one week now. He is an amazing child connecting with his new family and home. We are blessed to have him.
We are grateful for your ministry again. You blessed us with a grant to adopt our daughter in April 2015. We love both of our children very much! We couldn't have completed our adoption financial obligation without you!
Blessings
Ishy - India 2019
Travel and Transition:
We traveled to India and arrived home with Ishyta, or Ishy (Ee-shee) as we often call her, in July 2019. We really have only fond memories of that trip. The travel was smooth, we loved the country, the people were wonderful to us, our time at her orphanage was sweet and sobering altogether, and the logistics fell into place. One of the things we are most grateful for was our ability to take our older boys with us; it was a life-changing trip for all of us in many ways. They were great with Ishy right from the very beginning, and I believe they helped her transition with us emotionally. Ishyta had a very hard time with Bjorn while we were in country. She cried around him and did not want to be held by him. From our adoption preparation, we knew this was not abnormal. We do not think she was around men much in the orphanage, and possibly never held by a man, so she was very shaken by Bjorn. However, she took to me almost immediately. I was her safety. While it was tiring and exhausting to be the only one who could calm her and care for her, we were all quite grateful that she felt safe with and would settle with me.
Once we arrived home, we began to see Ishyta relax and settle in with our family. Our youngest son didn’t travel to India with us, so when we got home to Lars (our 2 ½ years old at the time), we had another transition to make with both of the little ones. Ishy and Lars had to both learn to share Mommy and brothers. Amazingly, within a day or two of arriving home, Ishy’s fear of Bjorn dissipated. It felt almost miraculous! It seemed as if her observing Lars with Bjorn, allowed Bjorn to feel safe to her too. To this day, she prefers Daddy the most. It’s quite swee
Family update:
It is truly hard to believe that we’ve been home nearly ten months. Ishy is doing great and has been a relatively seamless addition to our family. She fits right in. As the only girl and the youngest of four, she can absolutely hold her own. She is sassy and feisty and sweet and silly altogether.
Thank you to A Child Waits for gifting us with a much-needed grant so that we could go get our little girl after a long 7 year wait.
Knox - China 2019
I just wanted to update you all on our completed adoption! We have been home about three weeks with Knox and it has been incredible! Knox is adjusting well and transitioning to life in our family and in the US very smoothly. He is a sweet, smart, and typical 7 yo boy! He loves puzzles, coloring, playing, and most of all, he loves his siblings! Our immediately plan is for Knox to start school next Wednesday in 1st grade. Our local school is absolutely thrilled and supportive of his starting school and have many neat ideas how best to integrate and accommodate Knox and his needs. I’ve attached a few photos for your enjoyment.
Thank you again for your financial help in our adoption process! We will be forever grateful!
Josiah - China 2019
We wanted to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for being a part of helping to bring home our son- Josiah Xin Yang.
He has been a part of our family for almost 2 months now and we are loving seeing his personality unfold! He is a sweet, curious, and full of energy little boy. We are so blessed that he is our son!
Thank again for your grant and all you do for bringing together families!
Matt and Heather
Ruby - China
"Just wanted to let you know that we arrived home from China with our daughter Ruby in March and we are doing well adjusting to being a family of 7! She has done amazing and attached almost immediately. We are so grateful to A Child Waits Foundation for helping us bring our sweet girl home!"
Adelaide & Addison - Bulgaria
"Hi I wanted to reach out and let you know we are home. It’s been two weeks Saturday. They are absolutely perfect. He is smart and such a little character. He listens well and is quickly learning all his brothers and sisters names. She is a little doll. I mean she is captivating! My heart is in a big ball of mush over her.
I wanted to tell you thank you so much for love, support and most generous offerings you gave for my babes. Words will never be enough!"
Zaharra - St. Vincent
"We were finally able to bring Zaharra home in Sept 2019 after a battle with the US Embassy. Our family is complete and we want to thank you again and again for your generous gift to get us to this point. You guys came through for us at a huge time of need! Thank you and God's Blessings!"
Winnifred - China
"Thank you one and all for being a part of our daughter's story! Your generosity made it all possible. Thank you thank you!!"
Sammy & Abbie - Bulgaria
We are all doing great. Sammy and Abbie have adjusted wonderfully into our family. They are both 2 years old and love being in a family. They bring so much joy to our lives everyday. Thankyou so much to everyone who made this trip possible and for blessing us along our journey!
Suzie - Taiwan
"We are very grateful to A Child Waits. Everything is going wonderfully and we are overjoyed to finally have our daughter home. If it wasn't for this organization, our trip to pick up our daughter would not have been possible. We reached a point in our adoption journey where we didn't know how we were going to afford to travel back to Taiwan to bring our daughter home. This is when we got call from A Child Waits telling us that we were approved for a grant to assist in our final trip to bring Suzie home. This phone call was one of the greatest gifts we have ever received. This gift to our family will never be forgotten and we will always remember that it was this organization who made it all possible. If we could we would give everyone there the biggest hug and the most sincere thank you. We are so humbled and grateful."
Susanna - China 2019
We are coming upon a year since we adopted our daughter, Susanna TongMei, from Shenyang, China. It's been good year, a busy year, and a difficult year for several reasons.
Susanna was adopted at 8.5 years old and has complex Scoliosis and Spina Bifida Occulta, the later of which we weren't aware of upon her adoption.
After our province required 25 day stay in China, we arrived home in early November 2019. We were immediately overwhelmed with the lack of language, close in age sibling issues, and a daunting amount of necessary medical appointments, not to mention our new daughter's nervousness about animals, the dark, and different foods. Our holidays were quiet and the early months of 2020 were taken up with consulting specialists and vetting surgeons for Susanna's upcoming major surgeries.
In March, our area instituted the mandatory stay at home order due to Covid 19. Even though there was concern as to the dangerousness of Covid, this break was a welcome relief for our family. We were relieved of our busyness and our doctors appointments. We found ourselves being able to take a breath and recoup. We were forcibly moved into a season of much needed rest. While there were still large emotional, relational, and adjustment issues to work through, the extended home time played a part in rejuvenating and restoring our patience and our joy.
In early June, Susanna underwent the first of two major spinal surgeries to correct her spine. She did well in surgery and had an amazing recovery in the hospital. For 48 hours after surgery, she was required to lay on her back or be rolled side to side. She wasn't allowed to move her legs much either. She handled this extremely well and was content with the little bits of entertainment that we could provide. By day 3 post surgery, she had sat up, stood up, and taken a few laps around the hallways. She had no complications from the surgery and retained all of her bodily functions. Five days after surgery, she was discharged and has had no issues.
Overall, Susanna has adjusted beautifully to our family and we to her. She is mostly fluent in English as far as every day conversation goes. She is on par educationally in Math and is reading on a first grade level. She lost most of her Chinese but is rediscovering it through the help of a tutor. In many ways, she is caught in between. She loves us yet she misses her foster mother and siblings greatly. She enjoys many American foods but yearns for the spicy flavors of her homeland. She is glad to be here and wants to return to China. As a whole, we are glad to have her as a member of our family and we think she thinks the same. She is a joy and a blessing.
Thank you for your work in helping children find families. We are grateful to have received a grant from your organization.
Pasha & Valentyn - Ukraine 2019
We want to thank you again for your generous donation towards our adoption expenses. We mean it literally when we say you brought our boys home! Our time in Ukraine was incredibly special but we are very thankful to be back home, together, as a family.
Our boys are doing so well. We are often in awe of how smoothly they have settled into their new lives. Valentyn is 12, loves Legos, hiking, dreaming of car designs, and playing on his tablet. Pasha loves all things music, collecting flags and bells, and being chased around the house. We have already seen great strides in their English and learning how to be in a family. What a special blessing this journey is! We love our sweet, silly boys.
Thank you again!
