***Please note that all donations will be matched dollar for dollar For as long as I can remember, I have always wanted to be a mother.  As a teacher, I always told each of my students that they were "my kids".  For over 20 years, they were. When my nieces and nephews were little, I took them all the time.  The joke was when I asked to take one of them for a night, my siblings and their spouses always knew that meant the "whole weekend".  It was great because it gave my siblings and their spouses a break.  It was fun taking the kids places, but I always wished that I had a child of my own to have those experiences with. I have always wanted to go through the adoption process, but felt the timing was never quite right.  Many things have happened lately to lead me to start this process now. The last couple years were some of the best years of my life, but also some of the hardest.  On February 9, 2022, I welcomed my first foster daughter, Briana into my life.  She was the most wonderful and precious 5 year old from El Salvador.  She lived with me for 10 amazing months.  On April 5, 2022, I welcomed my adorable and loving little 4 year old, Kimberly from Guatemala into my life.  Kimberly lived with me for the best 15 most memorable months of our time together. I will never forget the phone call I received with the news that Briana was leaving me in three days. My heart was broken.  I was her mom and now my "daughter" was leaving me.  I miss her more than she will ever know and pray that someday she will find me to reconnect.  I saved some very special things to give her in hopes she will find me. On June 30, 2023, it was time for my sweet Kimberly to leave me.  My heart was once again broken.  How could I have the two most precious girls in this world leave me? It was everything I ever dreamed of and now it was over.  I also saved a special box in hopes that my Kimberly will find me some day in the future. It took a while for me to see that God brought those girls to me at just the right time and my job was to help them heal and prepare them for their next journey.  I have never loved two little girls more than my Briana and Kimberly. I know that I have a little girl who is waiting for me and only God knows who she is.  I want nothing more than to be a mother to that sweet little girl. This journey is going to be one of the most challenging but rewarding journeys I will ever take.  It will most likely take 3-4 years until I can bring my sweet girl home.  I will pray each day for her until she is safely in my arms. Although I have been saving for this in hopes that it will happen, I chose to use Adoption Bridge because a lot of the funds are due right away as each process takes place and that can be challenging.  All donations go directly to my adoption agency, Nightlight for my account.  I truly believe that if this is God's plan for me, then He will send the right people to be a blessing and help me with this cause. I will be so grateful for anything one’s heart is willing to give. Your support and prayers mean so much to me! The total cost of the adoption will be approximately $40,000-$50,000. This page is just one way to begin raising money.  Any amount raised above the goal will continue to go toward these costs. If you would like to support me bringing home my little girl, please use the link to donate.  The funds will go directly to my adoption agency and be used toward my adoption.  And all donations are tax deductible. Blessings and thank you! “To adopt a child is a great work of love. When it is done, much is given, but much is also received. It is a true exchange of gifts.” – Pope John Paul II A SPECIAL note from an amazing friend and HUGE supporter, Brian Reid:

• I have known Amy Slagboom for over twenty years. She is one of the most loving, generous and caring people I have ever met. She just adores children. In addition, Amy has dedicated her entire life by being an amazing special needs teacher and reading specialist. Not only did Amy dote on all of her nieces and nephews, she was an absolutely wonderful foster mother to Briana and Kimberly. In addition, Amy also takes great care of three children and their family she met when they were homeless, 4 years ago.

• I am so confident that Amy Slagboom will be such an amazing mother, that I will be matching, dollar for dollar, for all of these tax deductible donations made. I hope my dollar-for-dollar matching offer motivates you to give generously and often. It truly takes a village to raise a child. I pray that everyone will do their part to make this dream a reality. The little girl from Latin America who ultimately gets adopted by Amy will become absolutely the luckiest kid alive! The adopted child will feel such unconditional love from Amy everyday of her life.

This summer we had the special opportunity to host Ryan for 3 weeks through a program between  China and Nightlight Christian Adoptions.  God wove our hearts with Ryan's  as he lived with us.  Ryan is a Farley.  He was thriving in our home and it broke our hearts to have to send him back to the orphanage. God's ways are greater than ours and even though Don and I knew that another adoption may be in our future, this timing caught us off guard financially.

We are overjoyed that God brought Ryan into our lives. Ryan is an 11 year old Chinese orphan. He was abandoned in his first year of life and has been living in orphan care since that time.  Ryan was born with bilateral microtia (malformed external ears).  He does not have openings to his ear canals and is diagnosed with bilateral conductive deafness.  However, he could hear us and communicate with us this summer.  With new options in hearing aids, Ryan should be able to have near normal hearing. Ryan is very athletic, smart, and loving.

We are Kevin and Cherad Cloran.  We have four biological daughters and are in the process of adopting a daughter (yes, that's right...another girl!) from China.  Our decision to adopt began before we even got married, over 12 years ago! We met in college and dated for 3.5 years before getting married in 2003.  We quickly realized we shared a desire to adopt a child one day.  Cherad's love for orphans began on a mission trip to India in 1998 and Kevin has worked with kids in crisis for more than 15 years. Often, these kids spend years in foster care or group homes. Together, we spent time in Cambodia working at an orphange in the summers of 2005 and 2006. We are still in contact with many of those kids and they have had a tremendous impact on both our lives and in our kids lives. Many of them have spent time in our home with us and our children have been able to get to know them. We have prayed for many years now that God would guide and direct us concerning the timing and provision for adoption. Through a series of recent events, we felt it was time to begin the adoption process!  We are so excited to be on this journey and are so thankful for the support of family and friends like you!  Through AdoptionBridge.org, we hope to alleviate some of the financial burden associated with the adoption process.   

Our time overseas led us to our two beautiful special-needs daughters, one whose condition is life-threatening and medically complex.  We have a special place in our hearts for these extra-special children and feel we have been equipped and called to serve those with the greatest needs - those who are often "too complex" for others to consider.  There is a precious little girl who has just such a need.  Her situation is urgent and fragile.  We were not planning to adopt again anytime soon, but God had other plans.  My husband is working overtime as much as is available in order to offset the unexpected expense of agency and lawyer's fees.  It is because of the love and support of our friends, family, and community that we were able to bring our daughters home, and now we need your help again.  We have only a few short weeks to meet this financial need.  Would you join us in supporting this precious girl?

We also have an etsy store if you can help support us through a purchase!

www.myyellowdandelion.etsy.com

*Due to the nature of the situation, we are unable to post her picture or greater detail about her at this time.  Thank you for your love and support!

We are excited we are about to become a family to a young orphaned boy living in China. We long to see this little boy who is currently without a family in the world become a son to us and a brother to our daughters. We delight in changing this little guy's future and making him part of the Martin family. That is exactly what God has done for us -- he has adopted us, changing our lives forever, giving us a hope and a future!

Our hearts were stirred for adoption early in our marriage and we feel like now is the time for us to pursue it. We have always loved adoption and have seen such beauty come from it in the lives of close friends.  We moved around a few times in the beginning of our marriage but once we were settled and established in one place we decided to move forward with adoption.  We didn’t know what that would look like but we began praying for wisdom and guidance.  After a couple of month we began to feel pulled towards infant adoption mainly because of our love and admiration toward birthmothers who choose life and adoption for their babies. We already have 3 kids but can't wait to add another to our crazy family.

Hey there! We're excited to share with you our adventure of adopting two little boys from China.  We're the Henderson family and we live in the Pacific Northwest, where Brad pastors at our local church and Lisa tries to corral the chaos of our large family. We've been blessed with eight children, including our kids who came to us the old-fashioned way, as well as children from Ethiopia and India who joined our family through adoption.  We've chosen to trade-in the "American Dream" for the Grand Adventure of following Jesus Christ.  Our latest assignment is the adoption of two children from China. We can't wait to share this journey with you and would love it if you would consider partnering with us. There are a few ways you could do this: 1) Would you pray with us and for us, that God would supply our needs, equip us to parent these children, prepare our family for this new assignment, and prepare our waiting children's hearts for the dramatic transition ahead, and protect them in the meantime? 2) Would you consider sharing our adventure financially? We've tried to be good stewards of the resources we've been given and have used our savings, tax refunds and inheritance over the last fourteen years to fund previous adoptions. At this point, we have the resources to care for two more children, but the necessary funds to complete the adoptions are out of our reach. Our first adoption cost approximately $10,000 in 2001, but currently, the adoption of two children from China will cost between $30,000 to $40,000. Without the help of people like you, we won't be able to adopt again, and the reality is that two children won't have forever homes. The funds raised on AdoptionBridge will be the initial $12,000 we need to begin. 3) Would you consider sharing our story and our AdoptionBridge link on Facebook, Instagram, or by email with friends and family who might like to join our adventure as well? Please check back frequently as we update this page, so that you can "meet" the children we're adopting and follow our journey over the next several months, until we're able to bring our children home.  Thanks for partnering with us and making our family a part of your own adventure!

Here's another fun way to learn more about our family and adoption...Check it out!