End of Year Giving

If you'd like to make an end of the year gift to our adoption, we would greatly rejoice at any amount you feel led to give! We still have thousands and thousands of dollars of travel expenses, referral fees, attorney fees, and more in the coming months as we get closer to bringing our precious children home.
If you would like to make a tax deductible donation to our adoption, you can donate through Lifesong.

To donate online, go to www.lifesongfororphans.org/bhProj.html. Look for the DONATE button next to our picture (Jonathan & Bethany Meacham). You can even read our letter we sent out to people about our Both Hands project if you'd like. Giving online allows you to give using a credit or debit card.

To donate by mail, make your check out to "Lifesong for Orphans" and write "preference Meacham Adoption #2036" on the memo line. Then mail it to:
 Lifesong for Orphans
PO Box 40 / 202 N. Ford St.
Gridley, IL 61744

Praying for our two soon-to-be children across the world! Lord, have mercy and execute justice for the orphan! Please place two lonely, orphaned children in our family!

We thank you in advance for your gift and want you to know that we praise and thank God for your generous giving!! We truly do praise God for the countless Christians who are a part of our adoption and who have each played a role in helping us rescue and care for orphans in the Congo! You are storing up treasures in Heaven!

In Christ,

New President and lots of Praises!

First off, the winner of the 2nd Presidential election in the Democratic Republic of Congo was finally announced today: Joseph Kibala, the current president, was re-elected by a majority of the vote. However, please keeping PRAYING for the DRC, because the opposition leader who ran against him is rejecting the results and has declared himself as president, according to the BBC.  This has a lot of people worried about violent protests. Your prayers for peace & God's protection of the innocent are much appreciated!!

In other news, we have been PRAISING THE LORD this past week or two for so much answered prayer in lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ!

*We're praising God with our friends Weyland and Katie who've been waiting years for their 2nd domestic adoption, and they are at this moment on their way HOME with a baby boy! They had around 17 birth mothers look at their profile and then change their mind and not pick them to adopt their baby. Heartbreaking. But our entire church family at Immanuel has been crying out to God on their behalf and He has answered in His timing! He has given them a son!

*We're praising God with another couple from our church who are currently in Ethiopia with their kiddos, hoping to bring their children home by Christmas. We are PRAYING God would do it and work out every single detail for His glory!

* We're praising God with our friends, April and Everett, who are in Ukraine right now hoping to rescue 3 precious children!! We're praising God for the way He has worked out the details so far and that they were able to meet their 2 boys just the other day!! (You can read April's super sweet post here.)

* We are also Praising God for the encouraging posts we've been reading on David Platt's (author of Radical) blog! We are rejoicing in their beautiful story of adopting a little girl from China! Their story and the pictures make me so excited for the day that we get to go to DRC to bring our children home!

We also have gotten little tidbits of information lately that help us know how to PRAY for our adoption more specifically. So if you are out their pleading with God on our behalf, (we are SO thankful for you) here is how you can be praying right now:
1. Pray that God would grant us a referral for a little girl before we get baby R's birth certificate!!!
(Our attorney is changing the way he's doing referrals slightly,so that he isn't giving a child as a referral until he has their abandonment decree in hand. This is probably wise, and will be better for families coming after us. So when we get a referral for our little girl she will already have her abandonment decree & we can hopefully get her birth certificate in time for court.)
2. Pray for continued protection of baby R and our little girl from harm, disease, neglect and hunger. And pray that we could bring them home soon! We're hoping by some time in the spring to be home as a family of 5. =)

"The Lord is righteous in all his ways
 and kind in all his works.
The Lord is near to all who call on him
to all who call on him in truth.
He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;
he also hears their cry and saves them.
The Lord preserves all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy."
Psalm 145:18-20

Calling on the Lord,

Pray for DRC Election results!

Please continue to pray with us for the DRC, that there would be peace throughout the country as the election results are supposed to be announced today.

According to this article by BBC news, about 3,000 people fled Kinshasa (the capital city) over the weekend in fear of violence and rioting once the results are announced.

Please remember the 4 million innocent orphans in this country as you pray, that God would protect them from harm, especially our baby R and all the other children matched with families!

Missing our baby girl

I am missing our baby girl today. Whose sweet little face we saw for the first time last May (and immediately fell in love with). We "officially" received a referral for her last July. We loved her and prayed for her constantly starting in May. We imagined her being home with us and part of our family, all the things we would do together. We even started decorating her room. We sent her a care package jam-packed full of clothing, shoes, toys, and anything we could think of that would communicate the LOVE we had for her.

 Then we lost her. Her short little life ended on August 19th at around 9 months old. (Just 4 days before her care package arrived at her orphange, hand-delivered by our adoption agency.)

 And today (and a lot of days) I just miss her. I wish she and baby R were home with us right now. I trust that God will give us a referral for another little girl very soon, but I will always be saddened by the fact that I never got to physically be her mommy on this side of heaven. That she died an orphan. I'm so thankful she had someone praying for her by name for months, but I so wish we could have loved on her like crazy. Hugged her. Kissed her. Snuggled her. Fed her. Told her about Jesus. Styled her head full of hair. She was a beautiful little girl made in the image of her Creator, my Creator, my God, my Redeemer. And although our adoption was not yet official on paper- in our hearts, she was, and will forever be, our daughter.

When I think of her I long for Heaven, where I hope I will able to hold her in my arms and love her and be her mommy for eternity.

Jonah, our almost 2 year old, saw her picture on the fridge just the other day and pointed and said, "baby sister."

"Yes, that's right buddy," I replied misty-eyed.

We miss you Leseli Joyce, our Audrey Joy, and we look forward to meeting you face to face one day in heaven, where I hope to spend eternity showing you the love that Christ my Savior has shown me. The love I longed to give you on this side of heaven. I pray that all of our children will see their sin and repent and believe in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation so that we can spend eternity with you as a family, in the presence of the Lord.

But I trust and take comfort in knowing that you were just a baby, and you are now in the presence of the Father of the fatherless, the King of Kings, the Creator of the universe, my Redeemer, who himself IS love.