Christ is Able - A Story of Adoption
Hello May 27th, 2015
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In 2012, Shannon and Cameron VanKoevering felt a call on their heart to adopt, so they began to pray about the possibility of adopting one or two boys. However, they felt as if God was telling them to wait. A year later, they learned of a little girl in Ghana who needed surgery for spina bifida and bi-lateral clubfoot. They began contributing to her medical care expenses, but little did they know the impact this precious little girl would have on their lives.
That little girl was Christabel. The VanKoeverings remember seeing her name for the first time and immediately linking it to the phrase, “Christ is Able.” Even though it is spelled and pronounced differently, those words just jumped out to them.
Later that year, their oldest daughter, Tate, traveled to Ghana and had the opportunity to meet her. Upon returning home from Ghana, Tate and her sisters set out on a mission to convince their parents to adopt Christabel. Cam and Shannon once again prayerfully began to consider adopting, and by October they had submitted an application. Their application was approved by November, and they began the lengthy process of applying for grants, going through a home study and waiting…lots of waiting.
Almost another year later, Cam and Shannon arrived in Ghana to meet Christabel for the first time. After another couple months of paperwork, Visa interviews and medical appointments, Christabel came home to her forever family in Hudsonville, MI on January 1, 2015!
Now Christabel is on another journey – a journey to walk with healthy feet. Christabel has been receiving treatment for her bi-lateral clubfoot in the Ponseti Method, which uses a series of casts and braces to stretch and straighten the limbs. Christabel received her first set of corrective casts on February 25, 2015. Since then she has been through a series of 5 additional casts and finally, corrective surgery on April 9, completing her treatment. Beneath a picture of her beautiful new feet reads the verse, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” (Phil. 4:13) Christabel and her family are clinging to this verse daily as she continues to get stronger. They are constantly encouraged by the truth that they first saw in Christabel – Christ is Able – and they believe that someday soon she will take her first steps, walking with perfectly healed feet.
The Tim Tebow Foundation provides an $8,000 Adoption Aid Grant every month to families making the courageous decision to adopt a child with special needs internationally. To help unite a child with their forever family, please consider donating today www.timtebowfoundation.org/donate.php
The Tim Tebow Foundation exists to bring Faith, Hope and Love to those needing a brighter day in their darkest hour of need. The foundation fulfills this mission every day by making dreams come true for children with life-threatening illnesses through the W15H program, building Timmy’s Playrooms in children’s hospitals, providing life-changing surgeries to children of the Philippines through the Tebow CURE Hospital, sponsoring Night to Shine, a nationwide prom for people with special needs, providing care for orphans in four countries and adoption aid grants for families who choose to adopt an international child with special needs, and encouraging service to others through Team Tebow.
