We are Ben and Angie Englerth and we have three beautiful children. We have felt called by God to adopt a child into our family. We are adopting a little girl from Bulgaria and will be matched with a specific child, prayerfully, soon. (International adoptions can take a year or longer to match at times). Then we will travel to Bulgaria to bond with her and begin the court process. A few months later, we will travel back to Bulgaria to bring her home.
As a family, we have been excitedly praying for our agency, the orphanage or foster family caring for our child and our little girl. We’ve even started discussing possible names.
What has prompted us to adopt? Primarily, we have felt so clearly directed by God to adopt that we want to obey Him. God desires for orphans of all nations to be loved, cared for, and adopted into Christian families—ultimately so they can become saved and adopted into His eternal family through Jesus Christ.
There are over 147 million orphans worldwide. While the overall number of children living in institutions in Bulgaria has greatly diminished, Bulgaria still has the highest rate of institutionalized children in Europe. Tragically, over 50% of Bulgaria’s orphans are of Roma descent—a group that has been heavily discriminated against throughout Europe.
The biggest challenge is not opening our hearts and home to a child, but it is finding the finances to make this happen. The estimated total cost for the adoption is currently just over $53,000. That is certainly money we don’t have, but we know God is faithful and is leading us to trust Him. He has already shown us so clearly that He’s got this! In fact, we really want to share a little story about the past couple months with you. We’ll try to keep it brief.
Within the course of a few weeks, we realized that both of our vehicles had major problems and our septic system needed replaced. We felt so defeated. We prayed on it and decided to try to fix both vehicles. After spending thousands of dollars on each vehicle, Ben’s car was finally back in working order, but Angie’s car was unfortunately still having problems. We were feeling broken. We have never had to fully trust God as much as we have in the last couple weeks. There was nothing we could do but surrender. We decided to unload the car that was still causing problems. We then were left without a tow vehicle so we made the difficult decision to sell our camper. There were plenty of emotions and the kids were super bummed. However, we sold the car and camper within 3 days of our decision. God orchestrated all of it to fall together and we were able to get a good deal (especially in this market) on a van that will fit our new family of six very well.
Now let’s rewind to the middle of all of this. We had the septic crew in our yard digging our test holes. They gave us news that we were hoping not to hear. Ben was coming home from work in his newly repaired car when it started losing power on the highway. He did is best to make it home and by God’s grace he did. Our garage sent someone out to look at it and it turns out it was an alternator issue. It was frustrating for sure after just spending so much money to fix the car, but we were so grateful that’s all it was and not anything worse. This same day – one of our most challenging days – we received a letter in the mail from Show Hope. They were awarding us a significant grant for our adoption. When I shared the news with Ben, tears flowed from both of us. When we felt overwhelmed by the finances and defeated by nothing going right, God showed up in a way only He can. We both felt so seen and cared for. He was easing the burden of the financial aspect of the adoption.
He wasn’t done yet. We recently received a phone call that Lifesong was awarding us a $5,000 matching grant for our adoption. Insert more tears. In order to fully fund this grant, we need to raise $5,000. Our goal is to raise $10,000 total to get us to the end of our adoption. In the course of weeks, God showed up and almost completely removed the burden of the financial aspect of the adoption. We know he will get us to the end. God is so good.
Your support is appreciated, and we would like you to pray and consider helping us in one or two ways with our adoption.
1. Please pray God would tenderly care for our child until we are able to bring her home; that God would prepare Ben and I for the upcoming changes to our family; and that God will give us wisdom, discernment, and insight as we raise our child to know Jesus.
2. Will you please consider making a tax-deductible donation to help us cover the remaining amount needed for our adoption expenses to bring this child home? Our current goal date is October 30, 2023, but funds will be accepted towards our adoption until the child is in our home and/or our adoption is complete.
Thank you for investing in the Kingdom through prayer and finances—it will be an investment with an eternal return! We’ll give you an update with details as we receive them.
Please pray this entire process will glorify God and fulfill His purposes.
With Gratitude,
Ben & Angie Englerth
STRIPE charges an online processing fee (2.2% +.30 USD per transaction)*. Your donations will be decreased by this amount. You may also send a check payable to “Lifesong for Orphans”. In the memo line please write “Englerth 10471”, to ensure it is credited to our account. Please mail to Lifesong for Orphans, PO Box 9, Gridley, IL 61744.
Lifesong has been blessed with partners who underwrite all U.S. administrative and fundraising costs (TMG Foundation and other partners). That means 100% of your donation will go directly to the adoption.
- In following IRS guidelines, your donation is to Lifesong for Orphans. This organization retains full discretion over its use, but intends to honor the donor’s suggested use.
- Lifesong is a 501(c)3 tax exempt organization. Individual donations of $50 or more and yearly donations totaling $250 or more will receive a tax-deductible receipt. Receipts for donations under $50 will gladly be sent upon request.
- *3.5% fee for donations given with an American Express card