As an adopted son, Newt has an appreciation for families who choose to adopt.  He has contributed a copy of his New York Times Best Seller, To Save America, signed by Newt specifically for this event! If you cannot attend but would like to make a bid, email me directly.

Agape Strings – Michelle Nagy, Lauren Carr, Scott Brown, Catherine McCintire – is a String Quartet based in Kansas City. They are offering their services to benefit The Zoe Foundation. They will play your wedding, your formal party, your reception, or simply set up in your living room and flood your house with sound, for the cause of adoption!

Find out more about Agape Strings on their Facebook page.

Bids are being taken via email and will continue to be taken through the July 31 fundraiser. Bid now! ($600 value, minimum bid of $200).

In most cases, they are struggling on several levels and can use a helping hand. It’s not usual to find a woman who has made the hard choice to carry her baby full term only to lose the support of her family, her friends, and the baby’s father. Having done the brave thing, she is terribly alone.

A good way to help them with the basics is to give them gift cards to chain stores like Walmart or Target. We want to insure that the card gets used in the most practical way possible, so we usually give it to a social worker, a host family, or someone who can help her with a ride and some shopping.

If you’d like to help us replenish our depleted stash of cards, here’s your chance!

Mash the gift card below and you can buy a $25 gift card that will go directly to a birth mother for her personal expenses. Want to buy multiple cards? Email me directly!

We’ve just recently posted a new video on the homepage of The Zoe Foundation site.  It is a video that was compiled by the organization called Together for Adoption (www.togetherforadoption.org) of children in an Ethiopian orphanage.  At first glance, seeing all of the faces together in front of the camera, one may think “We’ve seen this before.  Another video of orphan faces”.  That may be true, but more than likely, we’ve never seen these faces before.  There’s a few shots where the camera catches a child’s eyes, and only the eyes, and there it is.  My heart did that thing where it wishes it could do more, and bring them all home to be with me right at that very second.  It gets even more intense when they smile.  And then I heard the Lord speak in that faint whisper “This is how I see my children.  I don’t see them as faces, I see them as individuals…and I want them all.”

Oh that we would break out of our self-preservation and begin to cry out to God, asking Him to help us see what He sees in these little ones!  I hate that I have ever felt and thought that the orphan crisis in this world was too big that nothing I could do would put a dent in it.  Ever feel that way?  Friends, we can’t believe that lie.  No more.  End it right now.  Go ahead, press delete.  Let’s see these ones as individuals and let the Father take care of the “big picture”.  We have no idea what would happen in the life of a child if we would stop quoting James 1:27 and started walking it out.  Let’s stop dragging our feet on home studies.  Let’s ready ourselves to receive a child–regardless of age or what their health looks like or their background.  Let’s do away with the idea of saving up for a nice cushy retirement and store up treasures in heaven.  Let’s stop trying to figure out what translation of James 1:27 we should be following.  I’ve heard a few conversations regarding whether or not the scripture means to “just visit” the orphan, “care for” or “look after”.  I have  a feeling that once we put ourselves in the position to visit the orphans, we’ll be motivated to care for and look after them permanently.

132,000,000 orphans in the world.  All it takes is one “yes” at a time.  You in?

“This is so cool. Families who have adopted within the last year qualify for a “Celebrating Adoption Session” which includes a free parent&child session, a small set of proofs.  Because there are many different photographers across the nation that are involved–terms&conditions may vary.  If there is a participating photographer in your area (the list is bigger than I imagined), you just contact them and make your arrangement. Proof of the date of adoption is necessary.”

So many times we hear the James 1:27 verse and think to ourselves, “Where do I even begin? What can I do?”  To refresh your memory, James 1:27 says this:

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

I have read that verse many times, heard it in sermons over and over.  While living in the IHOP community, this verse is pretty much something that everyone on base has memorized.  I’m pretty sure that my 2 year old will be able to recite it in a year.  But something that struck me the first time that I heard this verse was the “Yes!” in my spirit followed by the “But where do I even begin?”

When we hear those sermons that rock our world about the orphans and widows, we can get pretty motivated in the moment to get our passports ready, pack our bags, and hop on a flight to pick up an orphan who so desperately needs love.  Now, I’m not saying that is bad.  On the contrary, we need more action instead of cheerleading.  But I don’t want us to forget the simple things.  Don’t forget that you have gifts and talents for a purpose, and maybe, one of those purposes is to bless a family that has taken in either one or a baker’s dozen of children that need a family.

I don’t believe we are all called to adopt, but I do believe that we are all called to do what we can to care for these children and the families that can take them in.  Good at baking?  Offer to bake a birthday cake (or a few) for a family that has taken children in.  Can you spend hours on end with little ones and not get exhausted?  I hear date nights are quite fun–especially when it’s a father and mother that have more children than fingers.  I think you get my point…

So, big kudos to all of those photographers that are taking part in celebratingadoption.org  You are answering the call to use your giftings for the glory of God in a mighty awesome way.  Well done!!

Now, what will you do?

Join us on Saturday, June 12th for two important meetings at Shady Grove Church in Dallas, Texas!

Saturday morning (time TBA) we’ll have a “How to Adopt” session with practical steps you can take to embrace the fatherless.

Saturday evening at 6:30pm, we’ll be doing a Zoe Foundation / Shady Grove Fundraising and Vision banquet. Funds raised will go to furthering the vision of adoption as a positive alternative to abortion in the DFW community!

Register online for the banquet here.   There is no charge to attend.

Shady Grove Church is located at 2404 N. Carrier Pkwy, Grand Prairie, Texas.

This website is, for lack of a better word, phenomenal!  It is called Almost Aborted (www.almostaborted.com).   I have seen many pictures of babies that have been aborted.  Many times, sadly, I feel like seeing one picture is seeing them all.  They are all so helpless, innocent, and the life has been snuffed out of them with no way of regaining a single breath.  Those pictures have always struck a chord in my heart that needs plucking every now and again when life takes its toll and I have those days where I offer no prayer up to the Father for help for those little ones.  But this web site has given me new perspective.

“The idea behind the Almost Aborted Project is to present survivor stories and to get people thinking about the impact they have made.  It’s a little bit like a series of dominos where one life touches another and so on.  One of the survivors featured on the website (Yuehua) has led over 170 people to Christ!  The Almost Aborted Project is about telling the stories and sharing the images of those who may have never been.  Our mission statement says (in part) that Almost Aborted, “…challenges the assumption that legalized abortion is simply a medical procedure with little consequence.”  We aim to gently remind those around us how precious and powerful life is.”

Almost Aborted was started by a man who has a love for photography (and quite the gifting for it I might add) and a love for LIFE.  In these photos I am confronted with a person that has history, a story.  I am confronted with people who have been told to abort their children for whatever reason, or who found themselves in a seemingly hopeless situation and still made the choice to lay down their lives for the sake of another.  Though I will never forget or lose sight of the pictures of the lifeless babies that we may all be too familiar with, the pictures and stories on AlmostAborted.com remind me of this:  God sees what we do not.  He sees farther ahead than my nearsightedness will ever see.  And what He sees, is quite beautiful.

Even more so with foster care, as families open their homes for months or even just weeks to children that they may never hear from or see again.

Recently we ran across a story about a woman from Newton, Kansas, who had fostered Crystal, a 3 year old girl, for a few months back in the 80’s.   She was only in their home briefly, then bounced between other foster homes before they lost contact.  Crystal went on to be adopted at fifteen, but they never saw her from the time she was 3 until that day when a wedding invitation and a photograph arrived in the mail.

The foster mother was shocked that after all those years the little girl would remember her, much less track her down.  She made some phone calls to her social worker…

“I asked how Chrystal had been able to identify and find me. The worker said she had received a phone call from the adoptive mother, who had made many calls to locate her. The mom said Crystal had said she wanted her foster mother to come to the wedding. Since she was only 3 and 4 when we had her and she had had several foster moms, the mother told the worker all Crystal remembered was there was a mom and a dad and a boy and a girl, black dogs and kittens.”

The story goes on to say that she remembered one more thing, and that was why she wanted this woman to come to her wedding. 

“She remembered that when she was three years old, for those few months she was in their home,  the woman would rock her and sing to her.”

In almost twenty years, after being bounced from home to home, she still remembered that rocking, singing foster mom and wanted to share her special day with her.   Read the whole story here.

And so we care for children.  We wipe noses and we read books.  Our bodies grow weary but our hearts resonate with the words of Garrison Keillor – “Nothing done for a child is ever wasted.”

That was certainly true in Crystal’s life.

If your church in the Dallas/Fort Worth area would like a speaker on Sunday, June 13, let us know!

If you’re in the upper midwest – or can find your way to an airport – we highly recommend the Christian Alliance Orphans Summit IV, April 29 and 30 with John Piper, Steven Curtis & Mary Beth Chapman, and others.

This conference features a host of practical breakouts for churches and leaders working in orphan care. It’s an amazing resource – don’t miss it.

It’s not a Zoe Foundation event, but it’s all part of the revolution….