Home

Contact us!

Donate to CHASK

How CHASK Works

For Adopting Parents

For Birth Parents

View Waiting Families

Adoption Resources

CHASK Flyers

Waiting Children  

Statement of Faith

CHASK Update

    Getting to know some of you has been a wonderful privilege.  It is good to hear your stories about how God is blessing you… and of course the trials and hard things that He has brought you through, too. 

    Would you like to read some of the stories that families have sent in, telling about their experience with CHASK?  There is always so much to the stories between these written lines.  The families here cannot possibly write about all the moments of panic, confusion, sheer joy, and vulnerability that they have gone through in getting to the place they are at now.

    We trust you will pray for those who are adopting, and for those who are waiting for a child to bring home.  May the Lord grant you wisdom and peace when your turn comes.

    Kathy Fayhe, of The King’s Cleft in Wrightsville, GA, brought home a sweet little baby girl, two weeks old, born with hydranencephaly (absence of the cortex of the brain.) last year.

    The birth mom did not want to know where she went.  Little Charity Grace is such a treasure to her family… here is a letter from Kathy:

“...You asked if the little one placed with us a few months ago was still alive. Here is a picture of the little blessing that God allowed us to keep for a time.  Although we don't know how long, we cherish each and every moment.  Her health is very fragile.  She not only has the absence of the cortex of the brain ( hydranencephaly), but also diabetes insipidis, and the absence of the endocrine system (thyroid, adrenalin, pituitary, hypothalmys,etc). We love her so much and are so happy to have this opportunity to love her for our Lord until He calls her home.  We all hope that is not for a long time.

    I don’t know if I told you the story about bringing her home… We brought her home from Integrity Baptist Hospital in OK City, OK back in August of 06.  She is now 9 months old.  We started home on the 16th from OK, only to end up at an ER on the way home in Atlanta ,GA,  with a ruptured, infected incision from a very sloppy G-tube surgery done before we were able to be with her. 

    It was then 5 weeks in the hospital before we were able to bring here home.  She has undergone 8 more surgeries for various things, mostly shunt related.  She has red hair and a beautiful smile,  when she is feeling well. 

She has a lot of ups and downs.  Many days are hard.  The hardest time for us lately has been that our attorney keeps trying to complete the adoption, but the mom will not respond to phone calls or documents sent for her to sign and return.  We haven't even been  able to get her a birth certificate because of the legal stuff with her mom not being involved at the birth. 

    Please remember to pray for our family as we minister to God’s special treasures."

    Many of you may remember one of the first babies with anencephaly CHASK matched with a family. Her name is Aaliyah Tolin. Here is a note sent to us regarding her home-going-to-heaven from her mom, Sue.

              Aaliyah M. Tolin of Ruth left our hearts, arms and family into the arms of Jesus at 12:45 p.m. Friday Nov. 10th, 2006 at Hurley Medical Center in Flint, MI. 

She was born Oct. 29th, 2003 in Oklahoma City, OK, without a brain and with multiple medical issues.

Aaliyah was what most would consider severely disabled, yet she taught us so much!  She taught us about love, strength, resilience and most especially that people with disabilities are not scary, but wonderful.  Because of her influence, our family grew in amazing ways.

She was keenly sensitive to the Spirit and had a direct line to heaven.  She was given a grim prognosis at birth and was not expected to live more than a few days.  She gifted us with 3 years and 12 days.  She stayed with us through pain and difficulty over the first three years and has changed us all forever.  How we will miss her.

Here is a letter from another adoptive mom, Debbie Opalka:

              “On November 3, 2006 we received a phone call from you asking if we would consider taking in an eight-month old baby boy. I am writing this letter to give you an update and also to thank you for all you do for children and families.

              A couple from Long Island had recently (October 18, 2006) adopted little Juan Diego from Guatemala. Upon seeing a retina specialist for his crossed eyes (which they had hoped to have surgically corrected) they were told that the baby had scars on both retina and was without center vision. The doctor went on to say that Juan’s peripheral vision was fine but he would none the less be considered legally blind. Nothing could be done, the doctor said. This sweet, young couple had a two year old biological daughter, and felt that Juan’s medical problems were more than they could handle. They called CHASK to find another family for him.

When I received your call, I immediately sensed that Juan was to be apart of our family. One reason I thought this might be the case had to do with the timing of your call. My husband Dave and I had  just finished praying ten minutes before you called. We were supposed to be at our lawyer’s office at this time in order to close on our new home. However, the closing suddenly postponed for the third time! My husband had taken the day off from work, most of our possessions were in boxes, the U-Haul truck had been rented, all our helping hands were ready and our young adopted children were with a babysitter. Yet there we sat. We prayed for God to make “all things work together for good” on this confusing, disappointing, chaotic day. Then around two o’clock, when we should have been at the closing, the phone rang. As soon as I spoke with you, I realized that God wanted us home in order to receive your call. You said that this was an emergency and you needed a family A.S.A.P. I suddenly knew why these things that seemed so chaotic and disappointing happened to us. This call regarding Juan (whom we have renamed Jonathan David) was appointed by God and His timing is always perfect (Proverbs 16:9).

It is for this reason that I was ready to say “yes” to you about this very special baby. First I had to check with my husband. Dave had cold feet initially, but agreed to pray about taking such a young child, as we are both in our mid 50’s. Providentially, the next morning Dave was reading in the book of Luke and came across chapter one where Zechariah questioned God’s wisdom in choosing him to have a special son. Zechariah was an “old man” and his wife was “well advanced in years” and yet God chose them to be parents to John, the last prophet before Jesus’ ministry. My husband decided we should trust God and say “yes.” So we welcomed Jonathan David in to our home and we could not love him more. He is sweet, happy, calm, bright, smiley and cute as a button. Jonathan is our seventh child (in addition to our four biological children and two adopted children) and he is a blessing to us.

The two other adopted children came to us with special physical needs. Ben, age seven, is from the Philippines and has been with us for 3 and a half years. He came to us with a colostomy and has had several surgeries to correct problems associated with this. Kendy, age 4, is from Haiti and has been with us for 3 years. Kendy has mild cerebral palsy. Ben’s favorite activity now is to play “Rock n’ Roll Ball” with Jonathan and see how many belly laughs he can get from him. Kendy, who is very affectionate, likes to give big hugs and kisses to Jonathan. He also likes to be the first to introduce his “new brother’ to people who have not yet met Jonathan.”

    Over the last 5 years, CHASK has grown to be not only a place where birth parents can find hope and help, but also where parents who have adopted, but cannot parent a child for one reason or another, can find help.

    There are so many ways that children can be in a situation where they need to be placed in another home.  Even birth parents, with children who have special needs, occasionally need help in finding a new home for their child.  This is terribly painful. We do have situations like this several times a year.  CHASK gets calls from hospital social workers, or birth parent where the child is just born and still in the hospital.  So far, state social workers have respected CHASK’s role in matching babies.

    Did you know that in the United States, there are still babies that are placed in institutions? Aaliyah was almost one of them.  We are still thanking God for a caring hospital social worker who knew about CHASK.  The Tolin family dropped everything and flew to OK.  Aaliyah got to spend her 3 years cherished and loved by a mommy, daddy, brothers and sisters who felt she was a tremendous blessing.  Isn’t that just like our God to place orphans in loving homes.

    CHASK needs your help.  Would you like to be in-the-loop as far as what is happening here at NATHHAN / CHASK?  Every few months we send out an update letter to donors.  If you wish to be on the inside (other than just the magazine) simply be a NATHHAN /CHASK donor!!