Waiting, hoping, and praying for HER

Stephanie Bingel
Stephanie Bingel Carmel, Indiana

A smile we have not yet seen…but God sees. A laughter we have not yet heard…but God hears. A face we have not yet beheld…but God beholds. A name we do not yet know…but God knows for His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and our little girl, whomever she is, is somewhere in China under the Lord’s loving eye and tender watch. He fearfully and wonderfully made her, knitting her together, to, someday, bring her home to us, her family.

God has had her on our hearts for many years. Since I, Stephanie, was 14 years old, I wanted to adopt a little girl from China. As the Lord does, he grew the desire to adopt in Kyle’s heart as well. When we were first married, almost 13 years ago, we knew we wanted to adopt at some point. In early 2017, after our 5th child was born, we excitedly began the adoption process- a process we thought would lead us to bringing a little girl, our little girl, home in late 2018 or early 2019. However, only a few short months later, China changed some of their adoption rules, and we found ourselves with an additional 18 months tacked onto our already long wait. And yet, we trusted that God’s ways are higher than our ways. Next month our daughter, our 5th child, will be turning 3 years old, and, with that, we hope to be sending off a box of paperwork to China to start additional waiting to be matched.

Adoption is both a lengthy and costly process. It will cost us over $40,000 and yet, the Lord has already provided abundantly as he often does! In May 2017, we had a garage sale in which we prayed for $3,000. God provided $4,000! In December 2018, we had a Christmas market at our home in which we were only expecting $1,000. God provided $3,000. God’s ways are higher than our ways. God knows the cost of adoption more than we will ever know as it cost him his son’s life to adopt us. We will never come close to paying the price He paid for us. Therefore, we rejoice at the opportunity to adopt! We share these costs with you so that you will know how to pray for us and what this journey looks like for us. We share these stories of God’s provision so that you too will be reminded of God’s faithfulness!

We are so grateful for Lifesong for Orphans and our church, College Park Church, who has provided us with a $4,000 matching grant. This means that for every $1 you give towards bringing HER home, using the link below, College Park Church will match every $1 up to $4,000! We are so grateful for this generosity! We know that everyone is not able to adopt, and so we are humbled by those of you who have and will come alongside us, either through financial gifts or prayers or both. You are helping us bring HER home!

We covet your prayers for HER, HER safety and protection, for HER caretakers, and for God to bring HER home to us soon! We will update you as we are updated. We cannot wait for the day that we can replace all the words HER with a name that God already knows. In the meantime, we trust in Him and remember that “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9)

For payment options:

Checks should be payable to “Lifesong for Orphans.” In the memo, note family name (BINGEL) and family account number (8224) to assure it goes to the correct account. Please mail to Lifesong for Orphans, PO Box 40, 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.

To pay online, click the DONATE button on this page. NOTE: Your donation is processed by STRIPE with a 2.2% + $.30 (3.5% for AMEX) per transaction fee. 100% of the donation received by Lifesong will go directly to your account. *If using the mySTORY platform, please direct online donations to your specific mySTORY webpage.

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 “Bingel 8224”, 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.
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Raised to date by 27 people
 of  $10,000
11 days left

My Story

A smile we have not yet seen…but God sees. A laughter we have not yet heard…but God hears. A face we have not yet beheld…but God beholds. A name we do not yet know…but God knows for His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and our little girl, whomever she is, is somewhere in China under the Lord’s loving eye and tender watch. He fearfully and wonderfully made her, knitting her together, to, someday, bring her home to us, her family.

God has had her on our hearts for many years. Since I, Stephanie, was 14 years old, I wanted to adopt a little girl from China. As the Lord does, he grew the desire to adopt in Kyle’s heart as well. When we were first married, almost 13 years ago, we knew we wanted to adopt at some point. In early 2017, after our 5th child was born, we excitedly began the adoption process- a process we thought would lead us to bringing a little girl, our little girl, home in late 2018 or early 2019. However, only a few short months later, China changed some of their adoption rules, and we found ourselves with an additional 18 months tacked onto our already long wait. And yet, we trusted that God’s ways are higher than our ways. Next month our daughter, our 5th child, will be turning 3 years old, and, with that, we hope to be sending off a box of paperwork to China to start additional waiting to be matched.

Adoption is both a lengthy and costly process. It will cost us over $40,000 and yet, the Lord has already provided abundantly as he often does! In May 2017, we had a garage sale in which we prayed for $3,000. God provided $4,000! In December 2018, we had a Christmas market at our home in which we were only expecting $1,000. God provided $3,000. God’s ways are higher than our ways. God knows the cost of adoption more than we will ever know as it cost him his son’s life to adopt us. We will never come close to paying the price He paid for us. Therefore, we rejoice at the opportunity to adopt! We share these costs with you so that you will know how to pray for us and what this journey looks like for us. We share these stories of God’s provision so that you too will be reminded of God’s faithfulness!

We are so grateful for Lifesong for Orphans and our church, College Park Church, who has provided us with a $4,000 matching grant. This means that for every $1 you give towards bringing HER home, using the link below, College Park Church will match every $1 up to $4,000! We are so grateful for this generosity! We know that everyone is not able to adopt, and so we are humbled by those of you who have and will come alongside us, either through financial gifts or prayers or both. You are helping us bring HER home!

We covet your prayers for HER, HER safety and protection, for HER caretakers, and for God to bring HER home to us soon! We will update you as we are updated. We cannot wait for the day that we can replace all the words HER with a name that God already knows. In the meantime, we trust in Him and remember that “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9)

For payment options:

Checks should be payable to “Lifesong for Orphans.” In the memo, note family name (BINGEL) and family account number (8224) to assure it goes to the correct account. Please mail to Lifesong for Orphans, PO Box 40, 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.

To pay online, click the DONATE button on this page. NOTE: Your donation is processed by STRIPE with a 2.2% + $.30 (3.5% for AMEX) per transaction fee. 100% of the donation received by Lifesong will go directly to your account. *If using the mySTORY platform, please direct online donations to your specific mySTORY webpage.

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 “Bingel 8224”, 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.
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Adoption Update

May 31, 2021
Family and Friends,
 
I apologize for not sending an update earlier, but in all honesty, this last year and a half of our adoption journey has been very difficult and in a way, I didn’t even want to write an update. I know so many of you have asked and prayed for us over the years. I know many of you have given financially to our adoption. For those things, we are so thankful! 
 
When we started this journey back in 2016, we expected we would be matched and home with our little girl by 2018. When China changed their rules in 2017 and our adoption was on hold until 2019 (when our youngest at the time turned 3), we expected to have our little girl home by the end of 2019 or early 2020. We were then notified in early 2020 (before COVID) that our adoption agency, Bethany Christian Services, would no longer be doing international adoptions come March 2021. Our wonderful caseworkers encouraged us though and thought, as we did, that surely we would be matched and home with our little girl in late 2020….And then, Covid. No one expected that, right? And since then, China has been nearly silent. Adoptions came to a complete pause, and our hearts began grieving once again the pause on our expectations and our hopes that we would be matched and have our girl home in 2020. Now about half of 2021 is over, and we are still unmatched with no change in sight, at least not this year. We are now with a new adoption agency that we absolutely love, Lifeline Children’s Services out of Birmingham, Alabama. They are doing all that they can do, but in the end, we are waiting for China to begin matching children again and allow waiting families to come get their children who have medical needs. Will you join us in praying for that to happen?
 
We are grieving, and yet choosing to trust that God is in control and that His timing is always best. He is doing a work we cannot see. Some days it is easier for me to believe that then others. My children often ask when “she” will come home. We pray for her daily, even though we don’t even know who she is yet as we haven’t been matched. There are days I wonder if this will ever happen, and I become weary in heart. But recently I have been studying Elijah, specifically in 1 Kings 17. Just after God had him announce to the evil King Ahab that there would be no rain for 3 years, God told Elijah to go and hide by a brook, a brook, not a lake or a river, but a brook – one that would certainly dry up without rain for 3 years. And yet, Elijah trusted God because God had promised that Elijah “would drink from the brook.” God did the impossible and sustained Elijah despite what made “sense”. While we have not been promised this adoption will go through, I have been encouraged by Elijah’s example to press on and keep trusting God’s promises even when things don’t make sense. He will work out this 5 year journey (and most likely longer) for our good because He promises to. (Rom. 8:28). 
 
How you can pray:
1. Pray that China will allow waiting families to travel and pick up their children.
2. Pray that China will begin matching children and families again and that we would be matched soon.
3. Pray that the Lord will continue to provide the finances when needed. (While we were fully funded, each year we continue to wait, we have to pay $750 to keep our home study updated.) 
4. Pray for endurance, patience, and trust for us as we continue to wait and believe that waiting is never a waste.
 

 

We are grateful for all of you, your prayers, your care and encouragement. Have a blessed Memorial Day!
 
Love,
Kyle and Steph
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Our China Adoption Update and a HUGE thank you!

October 9, 2020

Friends and Family,

 We wanted to send you a very overdue update on the adoption. Many of you have been praying for our family and this adoption over many years and for that, we are so grateful. Although this whole process has not always gone to our plan, we know and trust that God’s plan is so much better. (Some days that trusting is harder than others). While we, and our agency, thought for sure we would be matched, traveled, and home with our little girl by the end of this year, no one anticipated the effects Covid-19 would have on everything in our world, including adoptions. To add another wrench into the situation, our agency, Bethany Christian Services, decided during the winter of 2019-20 to no longer be an acredited agency for international adoptions. Long story short: they will be transferring us to another agency in the next several months. We don’t know how this will affect our placement in line or our already very long wait. We don’t know when China will allow travel for adoptive parents. We don’t know when we will get matched with a little girl. There is lots we do not know, but we also do know a few things. We know that God has called our family to adoption. We know that God’s timing is perfect. And we know that without your help, prayers and financial support, we would not be able to walk this journey that is looking a lot different than we expected. 

We want to thank all of you SO much for your continued prayers and your financial gifts. Because of your generosity, we have wonderful news: we now have all the money we need to adopt and bring home a little girl! Thank you so much for helping us make this dream a possibility. We can’t thank you enough! Every financial gift, from $25 to a gift of $4,000, was a huge blessing to us. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Going forward, we would love for you to continue to pray with us for the following:

Pray that we would match with a little girl from China before we have to change agencies. (we don’t know the exact timing of our transfer to another agency other than our current agency’s accreditation expires in March 2021).

Pray that China would open travel for adoptive parents to go and get their children. (So many families have been matched for many months and cannot go to pick up their children.)

Pray that our place in line and our waiting time would not be affected by transferring agencies.

Pray for us to remain patient and trust God as we continue to wait.

 

Thank you again, friends and family! We are so grateful for your continued support and care and love for our family, the 7 of us as well as a child we haven’t even met or been matched with yet! 

 

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Dossier Submitted!!! Now the wait begins…again :)

May 21, 2019

Family and Friends, 

We are excited to share that after many months of paperwork and various appointments, our dossier (AKA huge stack of very important documents) is submitted and will be on its way to China very soon!! We have had our openness call with our agency which means that at this point we could potentially be matched with a little girl as early as next month. However, we have been advised to expect a much longer wait. While we have been informed of the current average wait times, we know that God is sovereign and over all things. We know that God invites us to pray and ask and so we are! We are praying, and would love your prayers as well, that God would match us with our little girl sooner rather than later. 

Here are a few ways you can be praying as we continue to wait…

1. Pray that our agency would have wisdom as each month they carefully and thoughtfully try to match children to the waiting families. 

2. Pray that whenever we receive a referral (a little girl they believe is a good match for us) God would make it very clear to us if it is the right match.

3. Pray that we would be matched with our little girl soon! 

4. Pray that the Lord would continue to provide financially. We have about $4000 left to raise in order to reach our goal! God has been so gracious to us by using many of you to generously join us in this journey so thank you God and thank you to all of you!

5. Pray for our little girl! Most likely, she has been born already and is across the world from us. Pray for her protection and for loving caretakers to watch over her and care for her. 

 

Thank you so much for your support and all your prayers. We will keep you updated! 

Love,
The Bingel Family

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Comments

$620

Hidden

Jan 12, 2023

$500

Linda

May 31, 2021

“Praying for her and for your patience and perseverance. As you said-God’s timing is perfect.”

$2,040

Hidden

Aug 17, 2019

“Love you guys!”

$1,500

Tim

Aug 13, 2019

$250

Ryan

May 21, 2019

$200

Aaron

May 15, 2019

“Love you guys!”

$500

Eric

Mar 25, 2019

“Praying for Her!”

$150

Chris

Mar 24, 2019

$100

Michael

Mar 24, 2019

“Hey Kyle - so happy to have come across your Facebook post. We love that you guys are expanding your family through adoption and pray that God will continue to bless your family!”

$100

Sarah

Mar 22, 2019

“❤️”

$50

Hidden

Mar 22, 2019

$700

Bryce

Mar 18, 2019

“Bingel family: We love you and are praying for you all! Thank you very much for updating us and allowing us to support you. We are incredibly grateful for you being in our lives and we will wait, hope and pray alongside you for your adoption opportunity. God is good and his timing is perfect. Love, The Pruitts”

$100

Paul

Mar 16, 2019

$100

Hidden

Mar 15, 2019

$500

Nathan

Mar 14, 2019

“We are praying that you reach your goal and that the adoption process goes very smoothly. Thank you for all you do for our small group and God's kingdom! Love, The Payne Family”

$100

Hidden

Mar 14, 2019

“Praying for this sweet girl to come home very soon!”

$100

Hidden

Mar 14, 2019

“Blessings on your family! God is good!”

$50

Hidden

Mar 14, 2019

$550

Brian

Mar 13, 2019

“love you guys!! praying for you all in this journey!! - brian and emily”

$500

Ryan

Mar 13, 2019

“Bingel Family - I’ll say some prayers for all of you as you go through this process. She will be a lucky child to be in such a loving family. I hope all is well!”

$500

Kevin & Lorie

Mar 12, 2019

“Many blessings to you all as you wait!”

$185

Hidden

Mar 4, 2019

“So grateful for your family and raising incredible children who love Jesus!”

$100

Hidden

Feb 28, 2019

“What a beautiful story God is writing for your family and your little girl!!!”

$25

damian

Feb 27, 2019

“We'll keep you in our thoughts and prayers during your journey.”

$1,000

Hidden

Feb 26, 2019

$500

Hidden

Feb 23, 2019

“Beautiful story! Looking forward to holding our newest granddaughter.”

$100

Giampiero

Feb 23, 2019

“A small contribution from your Italian friends! JP & Vale”