Guest: Sierra Leone Pioneers
We are the Johnson family. God placed adoption on our heart in September of 2009 while we were in the beginning months of sponsoring a child from Sierra Leone, West Africa. Our sponsored child’s name was Kevin, he was 9 months old and had been abandoned at the hotel our American team was staying at. His father is a paraplegic and cannot provide proper care for him. To make a long story short we have been in the process of this adoption for a year now and finally have prayerfully gotten to the final stages of the adoption. We also just made the decision to also welcome a 9 year old boy that also lives in the same Orphanage Kevin lives at that both my husband and I feel in love with. His name is William.
The biggest challenge for us is not opening our hearts and home to more children, 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 $21,000 – 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 $8,200.
Lifesong (www.lifesongfororphans.org) has graciously given a Matching Grant of $5,000 to help pay the remaining adoption expenses. Every dollar received up to $5,000 will be matched!
Will you please consider making a tax-deductible donation to help us pay the remaining $12,800 in adoption expenses, to bring our sons home?
If you would like to be a part of God bringing Kevin and William home, you can send your tax-deductible gift between now and February 9th 2011 to the address below. Lifesong is a trusted organization administering the funds on Kevin and William’s behalf, and will pay adoption expenses out of funds received.
Please make checks payable to: Lifesong. You may preference how the donation might be used by writing “preference Johnson #1693 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.)
1. Mail checks to:
Lifesong for Orphans
Attn: Johnson #1693 Adoption
PO Box 40 /202 N.Ford St.
Gridley, IL 61744
2. You can also give directly thru Paypal thru this link http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/donation.html MAKE SURE to note in the comments section PREFERENCE JOHNSON #1693 ADOPTION or this will not be applied to our account.
Thank you so much for allowing us to share and partner with you in bringing our sons home to their forever family. You can follow our blog for adoption updates at www.johnsonlove5.blogspot.com
God Bless,
Rich and Tiffany Johnson
The more I read on your blog, the more I’m liking it. Some of your tips are really useful, though I’m not too sure that I want to try them all, lol. In any case, you sound like a really nice person 🙂
Hi, congratulations on your adoption. It would be helpful if you could share some of your experience in getting through the adoption process in SL as I an aware of a number of couples who wish to adopt from Sierra Leone(SL) but have not be able to do so. The government of SL put a moratorium on adoption in May of 2009 whilst they reviewed the procedures and the case of some “alledged” stolen children who were adopted by unknowing american parents without the consent of their birth parents. To date the moratorium has not been lifted. This month (August 2011) – the government was urged by the head of the bar association to speed up the process. The head of one of the orphanages who is currently visiting the USA -only last week spoke of her frustration that them moratorium has not be lifted and no one seems to have any idea when it will be. So if you could share your experience it would help = I know at least two couples that have been waiting almost two years to start the adoption process for the children that they are sponsoring.Thank you.