Choir's crooning raises money for adoptions
Members of the Heritage Learning Homeschool Academy choir are counting on love come Valentine’s Day.
The vocalists are splitting into quartets to deliver Valentine’s Day singing telegrams throughout the Flathead Valley in an effort to help Joshua and Jane Turner adopt two orphans from China. Jane Turner is in her seventh year as program director for Heritage Learning.
Freshman McKenna Flannigan, the enthusiastic organizer of the singing telegram project, said all proceeds from their efforts will go toward the costs of adopting the children. For $30, the singers will deliver a red rose, a slice of cheesecake and will serenade the chosen audience with a classic love song on Tuesday.
The Turners, who have seven biological children of their own between the ages of 2 and 14, weren’t planning to adopt a child, let alone two children, but last summer they helped some friends and heard about their story of adoption.
That prompted Jane to look at various adoption advocacy websites, and her heart opened to the possibility.
“It is really heart-breaking, knowing there is such a great need,” she said. “We started praying about it and felt called to it — for one child.”
Working through Lifesong for Orphans, they found Lian Grace, soon to be 11 years old. She was abandoned at birth in China but was found by a Chinese woman who raised Lian until she was 10. The woman died and Lian was sent to an orphanage.
“Kids age out of adoption at 14,” Jane said. “Children often are pulled into prostitution.”
Lian recently had surgery in China to repair some heart defects. She had the opportunity to spend a month in New York City as part of an advocacy effort for adoption, and was able to see an American doctor during her stay in the U.S.
“Having that credibility from an American doctor made us feel better” about adopting Lian, Jane said. “We’ve sent her some care packages.”
In November the adoption agency suggested the Turners adopt a second Chinese child at the same time as Lian or sometime in the near future, to preserve a connection to their Chinese heritage. That’s how the family came to find Wen Ye, an 18-month-old Chinese boy, who lives in a different orphanage in a different Chinese province.
“Our biggest hesitation was the finances,” Jane said. Even with some grant funding, it’s an expensive proposition.
THE TURNERS will need about $65,000 to complete the two adoptions. A dinner and silent auction in January helped raise some of the money, and the singing telegrams are another way to meet the financial goal. A matching grant will allow the choir students to double their fundraising.
“It’s been really amazing to see God providing in many different ways,” Jane said. “The homeschool group has been very generous.”
The Turners hope to bring home their new son and daughter in April.
“Our children are very excited. They’re really looking forward to it,” she said.
Anyone wanting to contribute to the Turners’ adoption fund can make online donations to Lifesong for Orphans at lifesongfororphans.com. Click the red “Donate” button and select “For Adoption, Give to an Adoptive Family.” Tax-deductible donations can be made to the Turner account number 6649.
Donations via check may be mailed to Lifesong for Orphans, P.O. Box 40, Gridley, IL 61744. Be sure to include the family name, Joshua and Jane Turner, and account number 6649, in the check memo line.
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.