I Want to Give Them All the Money for All the Things by Mary Beth Chapman

I say it almost every time we sit to review applications for Show Hope’s Medical Care grants:

“I want to give them all the money for all the things!”

And I mean it.

If you could sit in one of those meetings—if you could read the stories and see what these families are carrying—I believe you would say it too.

The idea for Medical Care grants was born out of a deeply painful season for me. After more than a decade of Show Hope’s work in China, our work at Maria’s Big House of Hope and the other Care Centers came to a close. The political landscape had made working in China more and more difficult, but understanding the reasons did not make the ending any less heartbreaking.

Maria’s Big House of Hope was not simply a big, beautiful building. It had been painted and named in memory of our daughter Maria. Within its walls, children with acute medical needs were seen, known, loved, and cared for.

We loved caring for those precious children in Maria’s memory. We loved being the hands and feet of Jesus. So when that chapter ended, my heart was shattered.

I kept wondering: What can we do now? How can we continue this kind of work?

And then, we looked at the families already in front of us.

We saw family after family who had welcomed a child home through adoption, only to step into a world of intense and sometimes overwhelming healthcare needs. Their child’s homecoming was not the end of their journey. In many ways, it was only beginning—appointments, surgeries, treatments, therapies, equipment, travel, and diagnosis after diagnosis.

Some of the diagnoses are things I cannot even pronounce. Yet these parents learn the language. They become advocates, researchers, nurses, therapists, and experts because that is what their children need. They keep showing up. They keep loving. They keep stepping into the hard.

So we thought, Why not begin there?

In the fall of 2020, Show Hope launched Medical Care grants to help families with medical expenses for children who had been welcomed home through adoption.

For me, the work will always be connected to Maria. Some days, I can feel it and see it so clearly—lives being changed in memory of one little girl and something beautiful growing out of our family’s great pain. Other days, the loss is still simply the loss.

It is grief and beauty. Pain and purpose. Heartbreak and hope. It is all of it.

Steven and I have never wanted Show Hope to simply go wider in order to make a splash—to have the world see us and applaud. From the very beginning, our desire has been to go deep with families.

Medical Care grants are one way we can do that.

It is a braille reader for a child who is blind.

It is a specialized wheelchair for a child athlete who wants to participate rather than watch from the sidelines.

It is a surgery, a hospital stay, a cochlear implant, a therapy, or life-changing medical equipment.

It is access to eligible mental and behavioral healthcare for a child and family who desperately need support.

These grants are not usually about fixing one thing and then moving on. Many of these precious children—each one made in the image of God—will have ongoing and even lifelong needs.

That is why families may apply for another Medical Care grant after three years, until their child turns 18. Show Hope understands their needs do not disappear after a single procedure, treatment, or grant.

We may not be able to remove every hard thing from a family’s journey. But perhaps we can make the load a little lighter. Perhaps we can make the road feel a little less lonely. Perhaps we can remind a weary mom or dad, You are not carrying this by yourself. We SEE you, and we want to walk beside you.

Because these families are the true heroes.

They are the ones who deserve our applause—not us.

They humbly ask for help because they are committed to doing whatever their children need. They keep staying the course, even when the course is long and the answers are uncertain. They continue stepping into the hard with courage, faith, and an extraordinary kind of love.

And so I am asking you to join us.

If you are parenting a child welcomed home through adoption, please learn more about Show Hope’s Medical Care grants and consider applying. Please do not think your child’s need is too small—or that someone else needs the help more. Let our team walk through that process with you.

If you know an adoptive family, please share this resource with them. They may be carrying needs you know nothing about.

Please pray for these children and families—for strength, wisdom, provision, endurance, and hope.

And if you are able, please consider giving. Your generosity can become something tangible in the hands of a child. It can become a braille reader, a wheelchair, a needed surgery, medical equipment, therapy, or access to care. It can help a family breathe a little easier and keep moving forward.

I wish you could sit in a grant meeting with me. I wish you could see what I see.

Because if you could see it, I believe you would want to give too.

You would want to give them all the money for all the things.

And together, perhaps we can.