Many of you know Nancy and I are leaving the country sometime this Fall for a 3-5 week journey to bring home a little girl from Popayan, Colombia. Nola Mercy Damkoehler. We are blessed beyond words. Nola's story is a miraculous one. An abandoned little girl who almost died of neglect and multiple diseases at 4-months-old, only to make an amazing turnaround. You can read about it in our Nina to Nola post. It will give you a good idea of why we feel called to adopt again. We are absolutely blown away that we get to bring her home!
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| Nola Mercy at her 2nd Birthday at her foster home on July 29, 2011 |
The biggest challenge for us is not opening our hearts and home to another child, but it is in finding
the finances to make this happen. We estimate our total cost for adoption fees, document preparation,
home study, airfare, travel, attorney fees, etc. to be $36,000 - that’s certainly money we don’t have,
but we know God is faithful and is leading us to trust Him. By God’s grace we’ve been able to pay the
initial $10,000.
Honestly, it’s a little difficult (because of our pride), to make our needs known to friends around us, but we also know it’s the right thing to do. We appreciate your friendship very much and would like you to pray & consider helping us in our adoption. There are two ways you can help:
1. Prayer – Please pray God would tenderly care for Nola in Colombia until we are able to bring her home, that God would prepare Luke, Clay, Kole and Nina for the upcoming changes to our family, and that God will give us wisdom, discernment, and insight as we raise Nola and deal with any medical conditions she may still be battling.
2. Financial support - Will you please consider making a tax-deductible donation to help us pay the remaining $26,000 in adoption expenses, to bring Nola home? Again, hard to ask, but we could sure use the help. Feel free to forward or post this to any friends we may have missed :)
Lifesong (www.lifesongfororphans.org) has graciously given a Matching Grant of $3,000 to help jumpstart us and pay the “ransom” to bring Nola home.
If you would like to help out, you can send your tax-deductible gift between now and October 30th to the address below.
You can give right now through PayPal by clicking the link below. The fund are made immediately to our adoption agency to cover our expenses. EVERY gift is a big gift, regardless of the dollar amount!
Lifesong is a trusted organization administering the funds on Nola’s behalf, and will pay adoption expenses out of 100% of the funds received.
Or if you prefer:
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Please make checks payable to: Lifesong. You may preference how the donation might be used by
writing “preference Damkoehler #2217 Adoption” in the memo section of your check.
(*Note: In following IRS guidelines, your donation is to Lifesong which retains full discretion and control over its use.)
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Mail checks to:
Lifesong for Orphans
Att: Damkoehler #2217 Adoption, PO Box 40
Gridley, IL 61744
Thanks so much!
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Below is our confirmation letter from LifeSong:
September 5, 2011
Dear church, family, and friends of Jason and Nancy Damkoehler,
LifeSong for Orphans (www.lifesongfororphans.org) is a non-profit Christian ministry dedicated to help meet the needs of orphan children around the world, and obey God’s call to “visit the fatherless...in their affliction” (James 1:27).
The number of children worldwide without families to love and care for them is astounding... there are
over 143 million orphans in the world today!
God tells us in His word He has heard the cry of the orphaned and abandoned children (Psalm 10:17,18) and He has made a way for them to be cared for – through adoption. As believers, He adopted us into His family through Jesus Christ, and did not leave us as spiritual orphans!
We believe adoption at its core is evangelism; a vital part of the Great Commission is bringing the mission field home. God desires orphans from all nations to be adopted into Christ-honoring families so they may ultimately be adopted into His eternal family through Jesus Christ. God calls us to fulfill James 1:27, “visit the fatherless...” but not all are called to adopt. Some are called to pray, some to give financially, some to go on mission trips and some to adopt.
Jason and Nancy have sensed God’s call...and have joyfully stepped out in faith and obedience to adopt Nola Mercy from Colombia. As you may already know, international adoption can cost around $30,000 and prevents many godly families from adopting. Lifesong believes God has raised up the Damkoehler family “for such a time as this...” and we have committed an Adoption Matching Grant of $3000 to help raise the funds necessary to complete the adoption of this precious little girl. This means Lifesong will match “dollar-for-dollar” everything the Damkoehler family raise from their church, family, friends between now and November 15, 2011 up to $3000. We invite you to support them financially to make this adoption possible. As a 501(c)3 organization, your gift is tax deductible.
*100% of all funds raised will go directly to cover adoption costs, nothing will be taken out for LifeSong administrative costs.
Will you invest financially in the life of this beautiful child?... it will be an investment with eternal return.
God bless you for laying your treasures up in Heaven,
Andy Lehman
Vice President
p.s. I trust God will do great and mighty things through this, and all for His Glory!
Dear church, family, and friends of Jason and Nancy Damkoehler,
LifeSong for Orphans (www.lifesongfororphans.org) is a non-profit Christian ministry dedicated to help meet the needs of orphan children around the world, and obey God’s call to “visit the fatherless...in their affliction” (James 1:27).
The number of children worldwide without families to love and care for them is astounding... there are
over 143 million orphans in the world today!
God tells us in His word He has heard the cry of the orphaned and abandoned children (Psalm 10:17,18) and He has made a way for them to be cared for – through adoption. As believers, He adopted us into His family through Jesus Christ, and did not leave us as spiritual orphans!
We believe adoption at its core is evangelism; a vital part of the Great Commission is bringing the mission field home. God desires orphans from all nations to be adopted into Christ-honoring families so they may ultimately be adopted into His eternal family through Jesus Christ. God calls us to fulfill James 1:27, “visit the fatherless...” but not all are called to adopt. Some are called to pray, some to give financially, some to go on mission trips and some to adopt.
Jason and Nancy have sensed God’s call...and have joyfully stepped out in faith and obedience to adopt Nola Mercy from Colombia. As you may already know, international adoption can cost around $30,000 and prevents many godly families from adopting. Lifesong believes God has raised up the Damkoehler family “for such a time as this...” and we have committed an Adoption Matching Grant of $3000 to help raise the funds necessary to complete the adoption of this precious little girl. This means Lifesong will match “dollar-for-dollar” everything the Damkoehler family raise from their church, family, friends between now and November 15, 2011 up to $3000. We invite you to support them financially to make this adoption possible. As a 501(c)3 organization, your gift is tax deductible.
*100% of all funds raised will go directly to cover adoption costs, nothing will be taken out for LifeSong administrative costs.
Will you invest financially in the life of this beautiful child?... it will be an investment with eternal return.
God bless you for laying your treasures up in Heaven,
Andy Lehman
Vice President
p.s. I trust God will do great and mighty things through this, and all for His Glory!
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