DID YOU KNOW? In 2003, Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife Mary Beth started an organization called ShowHope to help care for the orphan by engaging the Church and reducing barriers to adoption. The couple also founded a care center for medically-frail children in China, in honor of their adopted daughter Maria who went home to be with Jesus at age 5 in 2008. ShowHope has continued to expand, not only providing adoption aid and grants, but also medical care grants and pre+post adoption support.
Our time in San Antonio began with a sentimental evening at a Steven Curtis Chapman concert, where we watched and met the man who helped my parents bring home their first adopted child a little over 17 years ago!
Right around the time that my parents began to consider adoption, they learned about a relatively new foundation attempting to help care for the orphan through grants for families who otherwise might not be able to adopt. They applied, and were one of the early applicants to receive a sizable grant that allowed them to bring home my awesome (mostly, LOL) little sis, Maleah!
When Mom learned a few weeks ago that Steven Curtis Chapman was going to be doing a free concert at a church in San Antonio at the same time that we were going to be in town, we decided we needed to go. Additionally, a few days before the concert, Mom (being Mom) boldly reached out to ShowHope to see if it would be possible for Maleah and the rest of us to meet the man who started the organization that helped bring Maleah home 17 years ago this Christmas. The ShowHope folks put Mom in touch with SCC's tour manager, who helped us arrange to meet Steven Curtis after his concert. It was such an honor to meet him and thank him for how his organization played such an integral role in setting my parents on a trajectory to adopt not only Maleah, but three more children as time went on. We are so grateful to God for this man, and his passion for the orphan.
And yes, the concert was fun too. Third row seats, lots of good music, and some amusing "Christmassy" takes on a few of his oldies :)
Please check out ShowHope and consider supporting them in whatever way you can, whether that be through prayer, advocacy, fundraising, or sponsoring: Showhope.org
Until next time, God bless!
"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." James 1:27
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