The Vision for Medical Care

In 2003, we founded Show Hope with the mission to care for orphans by engaging the Church and reducing barriers to adoption. Through our own personal adoption journey, our hearts had been quickened to the needs of children who had been orphaned. We had quickly identified a financial barrier that stood between waiting children and loving families, and our aim in those early days was to award Adoption Aid grants to families longing to welcome home children through the miracle of adoption.

Nearly 15 years ago, Show Hope’s second programmatic area of work was launched when we began supporting the work of New Hope Foundation and the Care Centers in China. We felt a deep desire—a tap on the shoulder from God—to try and care for little ones in China with acute medical and special needs. In 2009, after our daughter Maria went to be with Jesus, a “Big, Blue Building” with white clouds and Maria’s beautifully drawn flower began shining in the Luoyang, China, sky. Because of Show Hope and loving family, friends, and even strangers, Maria Sue Chapman’s legacy was standing tall and caring for vulnerable children.

In that nearly 15 years of love and support, more than 2,700 children received care at the Care Centers in China with more than 800 of those children being welcomed home into the love and permanency of family through adoption.

At the beginning of 2020, Show Hope announced that after much prayer and careful consideration, it would be ending its financial support of New Hope Foundation and the Care Centers in China at the end of our fiscal year, June 30, 2020. And while this has most certainly been a deeply sad time, we know certain things have to be set aside—planted deep into our hearts—in order for new things to grow.

Knowing the heart of how Show Hope’s Care Centers program began—with a desire to address the medical needs of children who had been orphaned—we took a step back to listen, dream, and hope. What if we could further journey with children and families, once adoption has been finalized, by offering Medical Care grants to help offset healthcare expenses?

Casting this vision with Show Hope’s Executive Director—our daughter—Emily Chapman Richards and the team as a whole has been a beautiful process. Building on our expertise and the intricate processes involved with Adoption Aid grants, Show Hope is positioned well to also offer financial assistance toward Medical Care. In doing so, Show Hope is, once again, addressing head-on not one but two barriers to adoption: financial and medical.

After diligent research, numerous conversations with healthcare professionals, and Show Hope’s own years of experience, we are convinced that families would certainly benefit from additional support accessing quality medical care for their children impacted by adoption. And so our hope is: As families come to know these financial resources are available, they will feel more supported in their journeys to love well the children who have been entrusted to them through adoption.

So where do we go from here? Well, the Show Hope family, as a whole, is growing—with more children and families coming to be a part of this masterpiece God is painting. As we cast the vision for Medical Care, we continue to wonder, Who is the next precious child we will meet? How many families can we reach? and even on our wildest days, we dream, Could there be a “Big, Blue Building” here in the U.S. … covered with white clouds and Maria’s flower? We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves, but we do know just how big our God is! And so, we continue to lean on Him, trust in Him, and look to Him to guide us on this “Great Adventure.” It’s been the wildest of rides, and we can’t thank you enough for your part in this story!

But it doesn’t end here! In the words of my (MBC here!) favorite songwriter, “Saddle up your horses, we’ve got a trail to blaze.” Will you join us in the next chapter of Show Hope’s “Great Adventure” by considering how you might be a part of Show Hope’s Medical Care grants program?

Moving Forward,
Mary Beth and Steven Curtis Chapman
Founders
Show Hope