I want to invite you to help me take MY meager $1500 gift last year and turn it into OUR gift of $5,000 by 10/31/08.  For every person that gives from my email, I’m offering to give more - $50 more - matching the first $50 you give to Bethany's Global Childrens Outreach Initiative.  If you’d like to make a large gift but need more time, just let me know and I will still honor my matching gift to your gift.

What is happening to children who grow up without the love & support of family - both here in the U.S. & Worldwide? 

• Targets for traffickers, gangs, etc.
• Waking every morning in the street where surviving depends on a life of crime, alcohol, & drugs
• Incarceration
• Significantly reduced rates of high school graduation

And right now?

• Waking in an orphanage where they’ve never celebrated their birthday
• Waking in a temporary foster care home where they can not trust someone who only intends to be in their life for a short time
• Crying themselves to sleep every night

 Growing up these orphaned children are developmentally way behind their peers, they hide in fear, they lash out in anger, they have great difficulty trusting people, and if school is an option it is a huge challenge to be able to focus on school work, get along with other students and submit to authority of teachers.

You can give hope to these children! 

We can help these children now with adoptive family and give them healing support they need.  With Bethany’s permanency planning, orphans are reunited with family where possible, making placements with Aunts & Uncles, & Grandparents.  Where no suitable extended family can be found, Bethany recruits other families who are willing to sacrifice to save the life of this orphan child.

Bethany also counsels children with healing from trauma (abuse & severe neglect) experienced prior to placement.  Bethany uses a custom Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder model that was developed with Boston University specifically for adoptive children & their new adoptive family.  Results?  A comparison of Pre & Post treatment measures show immediate improvements and sustained improvements at 12 months post treatment.  The visible outcomes are commonly - improved emotional regulation, new family attachments, peer friendships, and school performance.

Thank You for being ordinary like me...and letting God do extraordinary things for Orphans!

Love U! Sheila