Benjamin and Terri

Married since 2002
Current children: 1
Residence: Colorado
Adopting from: Domestic
Occupation: Benjamin - Biochemist/ Terri - Homemaker
Church Denomination: Nondenominational

Church Involvement: We attend a wonderful Christian church called Flatirons Community Church in Lafayette, CO. We love participating in their «221 Couples» Events, volunteering in the nursery, & attending the small group Bible studies/ activities. Our interests include a love of the outdoors with running, biking, & hiking being the primary activities. Additional hobbies are raquetball (Ben), scrapbooking/ baking (Terri), & playing with playdough (Aiden).=)

We are adopting because we desire to expand our family in a way that blesses others, as well as ourselves, and above all, honors God! We believe that God hand-selected our son, Aiden, to be a part of our family through the blessing of adoption. We have a semi-open adoption agreement and maintain contact with Aiden's birth mother (which we hope will continue to blossom into a positive and lasting relationship.) Ben is also adopted and hopes that his loving adoption experience will help our children in the future with any questions or feelings they have in regards to their own adoptions. After a painful journey through infertility including 2 surgeries for Ben, we feel that our experiences can benefit and encourage others struggling with the pain of infertility. God has truly brought beauty from our ashes and comforted us in our time of need so that we can continue bringing comfort and encouragement to others.

The ABBA Fund has confirmed that this family's current need is: $5,000

Communication level: 3 - Two-way

Alan and Heather

Married since 2003
Current children: 1
Residence: Indiana
Adopting from: Russia
Occupation: Alan - Classical Radio Program Director / Heather - Education
Church Denomination: Christian

Church Involvement: Alan serves on the worship team at their church and Heather serves in the children's ministry. Alan enjoys playing the ukulele. Heather enjoys scrapbooking, writing,reading, and baking.

Alan and Heather are excited about sharing their love with a child from Russia. Looking back they see that God was “growing” adoption in their hearts before they even decided to pursue adoption. They welcome the opportunity to model Christ’s love to their little one and imprint God’s word upon his heart that he may come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ some day.

The ABBA Fund has confirmed that this family's current need is: $10,000+

Communication level: 3 - Two-way

David and Jenifer

Married since 1988
Current children: 2
Residence: Connecticut
Adopting from: Kyrgyzstan
Occupation: David - self employed owner of hardware store / Jenifer - stay at home mommy
Church Denomination: Evangelical Congregational

Church Involvement: David is a Trustee and Jenifer is on a number of different committees at church. For the past 3 years they have both been involved as AWANA leaders. They love to be with their children in the outdoors.

David and Jenifer have been called by the Lord to adopt and care for orphans. They are hoping to adopt two children at this time and maybe more in the future. They are very committed as active child advocates in their community. The Lord has provided a wonderful life for them and they have the ability to share it with others. They would like to expand their family through adoption.

The ABBA Fund has confirmed that this family's current need is: $20,000

Communication level: 3 - Two-way

Jeff and Krista

Married since 2001
Current children: 3
Residence: Indiana
Adopting from: Ethiopia
Occupation: Jeff - Senior Pastor / Krista - Homemaker
Church Denomination: Brethren in Christ

Church Involvement: Pastor, Pastor's wife, Sunday School Teachers, worship team, youth leaders, quiz coach. Their interests and hobbies include: playing with the kids and dogs, sports, running, playing games, reading, and movies.

Jeff and Krista believe adoption has become a means to grow their family and they believe it is in accordance with God’s desires for them. They have three biological children and were in agreement that they wanted more. Krista, has always had a heart for adoption. In recent years, they both have come to see adoption as not just as a favorable means to grow their family, but a preferred means. They have several reasons for choosing to do this. Perhaps the strongest motivating factor is the thought of so many children in the world who face growing up without parents. For the most part, these children also face growing up in a world that does not particularly care about them. They are choosing adoption partly because it provided a means of growing their family which would also help a child in this world who has no family. Love for these orphaned children, then, is one motivating factor.

A second, related reason for growing their family through adoption is that they recognize that God has blessed them with many things (a house, families of their own who raised and loved them, sufficient food and clothing) that many do not have, particularly in other parts of the world. They believe that what they have is not theirs but God’s and they are called to use what God has given them for God’s glory. They are drawn to adoption as a way to share what God has given them (including not just material things but the love and worth given to them by their families, the good news of Jesus Christ, etc.) with those who are in need.

The ABBA Fund has confirmed that this family's current need is: $18,000

Communication level: 3 - Two-way

Orin and Jill

Married since 2000
Current children: 1
Residence:
Adopting from: Ethiopia
Occupation: Orin - US Postal Service letter carrier / Jill - Therapeutic Foster Parent
Church Denomination: Baptist

Church Involvement: We enjoy going to services at our local church, bringing the kids to Sunday School and AWANA. So many of our foster children have come home from church talking about what they've learned about Jesus and asked to receive Him as their Savior! We love taking the many children that come into our home to church camp, VBS, camping, visiting the grandparents, zoo, beach, anywhere they've never been before! Seeing them have these new life experiences brings a smile to our hearts!

We have been trying to conceive a child for seven years. After the first year of unexplained infertility, we still felt a call to raise children to know and love God. So we embarked on the adventure of being Therapeutic Foster Parents. What a challenge, what a joy! One of our foster children became our forever son last December. Praise God! Last Spring we were at a crossroads in our lives. It was hard on us having children coming and going so often through foster care and hard on our son not having a permanent sibling. Do we try in-vitro fertilization or adopt? After much prayer, God has led us to adopt again and we are so excited!

The ABBA Fund has confirmed that this family's current need is: $22,000

Communication level: 3 - Two-way

Paul and Cherri

Married since 1989
Current children: 5
Residence: Kansas
Adopting from: South Korea
Occupation: Paul - High School Counselor / Cherri - Home Daycare Provider
Church Denomination: Free Methodist

Church Involvement: Paul- praise band, help with Angel tree deliveries, associate director of church adoption support group. Cherri-Adoption support group coordinator, children's church leader 2nd and 4th Sunday, women's Bible study leader, coordiator of new mom meals.

We have been praying for over a year about whether God was calling us to adopt again. This last summer (2007), Jintry (adopted from S. Korea) and Simon (adopted from China) began to campaign for a sister from South Korea. Jintry has been the champion in this cause. We continued to pray and seek God’s direction in this matter. We saw a little girl’s information on a waiting child site in January 2008. We inquired about her information and researched her diagnoses.

This waiting child was born in June of 2007 with several medical concerns that can sometimes be associated with long-term effects. Any one of the conditions could have proved detrimental or even fatal, but God obviously preserved her life for a reason. We have had a specialist review her information and we are comfortable with her development and progress. We believe that she was destined to be a part of our family. We have peace that this little girl is to be our daughter. We know that God is in control and that she is in His loving care, no matter what the future holds.

We have had moments of doubt, but in those moments, we were gently reminded of God’s plan for us. We have had the call to adopt this little girl confirmed repeatedly in our spirits through a variety of ways. We believe that our family was called to adopt and to give God the glory in it all.

The ABBA Fund has confirmed that this family's current need is: $12,000

Communication level: 3 - Two-way

Rich and Jill

Married since 1995
Current children: 2
Residence: Washington
Adopting from: Vietnam
Occupation: Rich - Engineering Technician / Jill - Stay at home mom
Church Denomination: Non-Denominational

Church Involvement: Rich and Jill host a small group, their children are in AWANA's and they enjoy spending time as a family, hanging out with friends, camping, hiking, kayaking, fishing, swimming, hunting, and being outdoors.

Rich and Jill feel in our hearts that this is what God has called them to do. They have a loving and caring home that they would love to open up to a child to love and nurture them.

The ABBA Fund has confirmed that this family's current need is: $10,000

Communication level: 3 - Two-way

Rob and Kati

Married since 1999
Current children: 2
Residence: Washington
Adopting from: 1 from Ethiopia and 1 from China
Occupation: Rob - Lead Pastor/Church Planter / Kati - Stay at home mom
Church Denomination: Non-Denominational

Church Involvement: Rob is the Lead Pastor of Redeemer, a church plant that had its first service February 2007. He preaches, teaches, counsels, leads mens groups, performs wedding and funeral ceremonies...etc. Kati coordinates Redeemer's childrens ministry, hospitality ministry, leads a womens' book study, and organizes service volunteers. As a family, we love to ride bikes, go on walks, read books, pray, go on runs, visit farms to pick local produce, and simply hangout together.

After being blessed with our two biological children, Emma(5), and Owen(2.5), we felt a call from God that we had room in our family for more kids, kids without a Mom or a Dad. This started our journey of adoption our daughter from China. After we had submitted our dossier and received our login date, and knowing that the wait is quite substantial we began discussing adopting a little boy from Ethopia. We began this process and this adoption will be completed in the meantime. We are adopted into the family of God because he loves us unconditionally and we know no better way to display this kind of love to our kids and our non-Christian friends then to show our unconditional love to two children in need of a mom and a dad. We can't wait for them to come home!

The ABBA Fund has confirmed that this family's current need is: $20,000

Communication level: 3 - Two-way

Vince and Julie

Married since 1999
Current children: 3
Residence: Kansas
Adopting from: Ethiopia
Occupation: Vince - Mechanical Engineer / Julie - Stay at home mom/teacher
Church Denomination: Evangelical Presbyterian

Church Involvement: Vince and Julie teach Wednesday night BLAST for the Kindergarten class. They attend bible study at their church and are on the local pregnancy crisis center board of directors. Julie home schools their children and is involved in the local Christian home-school co-op. They don't have many other hobbies besides spending time with their three daughters.

Adoption information: Vince and Julie have been praying about adopting ever since their oldest was a baby. They found out they were pregnant their freshman year in college and were married in the hospital chapel two days after Alexis was born. Facing an unexpected pregnancy opened their hearts and eyes up to the need of adoption and what an amazing opportunity to bless a child's life and grow a family. God has blessed them with this calling and they are excited to see it finally come to fruition.

The ABBA Fund has confirmed that this family's current need is: $6,000

Communication level: 3 - two-way communication with donor