Letter

October 25, 2011

Dear Family and Friends,

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:18

Some of you know that we are in the process of adopting an orphan from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in Africa. We believe that we have been called by God to care for an orphan as our adopted child just as He has adopted us into His family. We are planning to adopt a child of either gender between the ages of 0-2. We will be matched with our child, Lord-willing, in the next 6 months and then travel about 4 months later to bring him/her home. We are very excited and cannot wait to bring our precious child home! Hopefully, he/she will be home by next summer.

Did you know that there are between 143 and 210 million orphans worldwide? Every single day, 5,760 MORE children become orphans! How sad would that be to grow up without the love and support of a family?! Here is a little bit of our story about why we are adopting.

We first began seriously considering adoption about 2 ½ years ago when our church, Immanuel Baptist Church, had an adoption emphasis month. We began to talk about adopting “someday” but we didn’t know what this would look like for us. Over the course of the past two years, we prayed about when and where we should adopt. We also read Russell Moore’s book, Adopted for Life, and it really helped us understand the doctrine of adoption. It also affirmed for us that God had indeed called us to adopt. You can read more of our story on our blog at www.koenigsjourneytoadopt.blogspot.com.

We estimate our total expenses for adoption fees, document preparation, home study, airfare, travel, attorney fees, etc. to be $23,000. We know that God is faithful and wants us to trust Him to provide these funds. By His grace, we have been able to pay about $5,400 so far.

LifeSong for Orphans (www.lifesongfororphans.org) partnered with our church Immanuel Baptist (www.ibclouisville.org), has graciously given us a $4,000 matching grant!! This means that everything that is donated to our adoption up to $4,000 will be doubled!! That is a total of $8,000, which is almost our entire referral fee! That is the fee we will pay when we are matched with our child. This money must be received at Lifesong by December 20, 2011.

We are making our needs known to you, our family and friends, because it is Biblical to do so. We appreciate your friendship and would like you to pray and consider helping us in our adoption. There are two ways you can help:

1. Prayer – Please pray that God would take care of our precious child until we can bring him/her home. Please pray that God would prepare his/her heart, as well as ours, to become a part of our family. Please pray that God would give us wisdom, discernment, and insight as we raise this child, along with Abigail, and Hannah, to know Jesus Christ.
2. Financial Support – Will you please consider making a tax-deductible donation to help us pay the remaining $17,600 to bring this child home?

If you would like to be a part of God bringing our child to Himself through our family, you can send your tax-deductible gift between now and December 20, 2011 to the address below. Lifesong is a trusted organization administering the funds on our behalf, and will pay adoption expenses out of funds received. 100% of all funds received by Lifesong for Orphans goes directly to cover adoption costs. Nothing is taken out for administrative costs.

• Please make checks payable to Lifesong. In the memo section of the check, please write “Preference Koenig/#2257 adoption” so the money will be designated to our account. *Note: In following IRS guidelines, your donation is to the named non-profit organization. This organization retains full discretion over its use, but intends to honor the donor’s suggested use.
• Mail checks to Lifesong for Orphans

                              Attn: Koenig/#2257 adoption

                             

P.O. Box 40

                              Gridley, IL 61744

Thank you for investing in the Kingdom through prayer and finances! We will give you an update with a picture and details as soon as we receive them. Please pray that this entire process will glorify God and fulfill His purposes!

In Christ,

                                                                

Joshua, Kristen, Abigail, and Hannah