Love hurts sometimes. Even with your best intentions to bring healing and restoration to your child, the pathway towards that healing can be painful. Worth it? Oh, yes. But painful, too. Be honest about your pain. Be curious about what the Lord is saying to you through your pain. And lean on His promises that will never, ever fail.

A baby abandoned in a roadside trash heap. A kindhearted boy who was family to him when neither of them had family. An imperfect, yet surrendered couple who answered God’s call with "yes"... twice. And now? A still imperfect, yet joy-filled family that radiates God’s extraordinary love — the kind that enables us to love beyond the borders of comfort, disabilities, and countries.

After 6 1/2 years of marriage and unexplored infertility, my husband and I welcomed our first “forever daughter” into our home. Underweight, underdeveloped and misunderstood, she transitioned into our home kicking and screaming—literally. This unexpected twister that kept sucking up our joy and tossing us around had a name: it was GRIEF.

At Lifeline, we very much want to support you every step of the way, from the first time you inquire about adoption to years down the road. We know that even though adoption is beautiful, it is a long, tough road. This article discusses different situations where counseling could be a useful resource for your family.

Meet the Johanson family. Jen and her husband, Brodie, have adopted four children through Lifeline. We sat down with Jen to ask her some questions about her adoption experience.

But of course, saying “yes” to adoption is not only saying yes once. It is an avalanche of yeses - starting with that one, single step and plunging you deeper and deeper into a story, a life, and an adventure - none of which, maybe, you were expecting. One “yes” turns into a thousand yeses, and with each one, we went deeper and deeper into this adventure.

A lot of families feel led to adopt. That was not the case for the Eaves family. They didn’t feel like they met the qualifications. They had just finished all the “toddler things” (let’s just say, they were over the diapers). They didn’t have the money. But when Torey saw the blurred face of a little boy from China and heard the Lord say “you have a son; you need to go get him,” everything changed.

As I sit at my computer on this rainy day in a foreign country I constantly hear our expressive child speak words that we don’t understand interjected with “daddy, daddy, daddy….I love you.” His mother and I began teaching him this very important phrase on the first day we met him. It did not take him long to understand it’s meaning as we would use it interchangeably with the native form.

It was a moment that had me transfixed. A moment I've replayed in my head dozens of times since. As I watched, I held my breath. Surely, we were on holy ground.

Meet Finley and Meagan Smith. Meagan lives in Birmingham with her husband, Josh, and daughter, Finley. They brought Finley home from India in 2017. We sat down with Meagan to ask her some questions about her adoption experience.

Brazil can be an amazing program for families who welcome stability in the process and who are being led to be a forever family for children from various racial and ethnic diversities. Brazil may also be a perfect program for families interested in older children and sibling groups!

Because of the impact that early life has on food and eating, children from trauma often have feeding challenges. We talked with Melissa Pouncey, a speech therapist, who specializes in children from hard places and has worked closely with Lifeline in training caregivers through (un)adopted® trips. She has given us a basic understanding of feeding issues and when therapy is needed.

Eating is an essential part of development, as our physical bodies need physical nutrition. But, food means more than just nutrition. Because of the impact that early life has on food and eating, children from trauma often have feeding challenges. We talked with Melissa Pouncey, a speech therapist, who specializes in children from hard places and has worked closely with Lifeline in training caregivers through (un)adopted® trips.

If we are fathers, the most important lesson we teach our kids is about a heavenly Father who will consistently pursue them with love, firmness, grace, holiness, compassion, mercy, and consistency.

Our adoption story is one being filled little by little, step by step, as God was quietly preparing us for a beautiful plan. And of all things, He used Facebook to put the final piece into place.

Today we had an appointment at the US embassy to receive Gabby’s visa. We had to hop around to different office windows gathering different documents. Each window gave us a slip with her given name at birth since her name has not legally been changed to Gabby yet. The slips all read: SINDHU UNKNOWN. Sindhu Unknown.

Gardendale First Baptist Church has long supported their local foster care community. It began when leadership noticed the need for stable homes for children in transition. Quickly, their church implemented support for foster care families on multiple levels.

So much of Beth and Randall’s story could be a very real reality for many of you in the same way that it has hit close to home for me. I know over the past several years we have been asked so many times "How do you let them go?” Another popular statement is, "I just don't think I could do it, I would get too attached." The realities of foster care are hard ones, but I am confident that this investment is so worth it.

At Lifeline, we believe that God created families and designed them to be permanent. When families are separated by necessity, children need temporary families to make sure they are safe and loved. Foster Care was established as a way to help families get back on their feet when permanency is disrupted. The goal is for their family to be whole again.

While Eden Westside was organizing Families Count classes, Chris and Treana’s world was being shaken to its core. Plagued with active drug addiction and a marriage that was crumbling, their children were removed from their home until Chris and Treana could show that they were a safe place for their children again.