The Lehr Family

Although my husband and I might have never chosen adoption as our first means of having children, we have been so blessed that God has led us on His path - which is much higher than our own. We tried to conceive a child for over 3 years and could not do so, unexplainably in medical terms. That was a special and very difficult time where we spent much time in prayer and clinging to the many promises found in God’s Word. It was out of that difficulty that God began to redirect our thoughts. We were a family of two desiring to share our love with a child, and we soon became aware of the many children in the world who have been orphaned and abandoned. We began discussing the idea of adoption and became excited at the possibilities.

In January 2006 we began to seek out other adoptive families and find information on various agencies. By August of the same year, we felt a clear leading toward international adoption, and we then narrowed our search to agencies that worked abroad. After reading the story of another CWA family in our university’s alumni magazine, we became very interested in CWA. We found CWA’s website very helpful, and we loved the idea of the planner which would guide us through each step with checklists and instructions.

In November 2006, after much prayer, we submitted our initial application to CWA online. From that moment on we were not alone in our journey. CWA took our hands and guided us the whole way. We spent many long nights filling out paper work and many afternoons on the phone or at appointments. Truthfully, I can hardly recall all of that now, and I can honestly say that it was well worth it. We received a referral in February 2007, and after accepting, we brought our 14 month old son, Matthew Marat, home in July 2007. Between March and July we got to know our son a bit through the DVDs and photos that CWA sent us. July 9, 2007 was our very first day together, and I’ll never forget how when we got back to the hotel, Matthew would look at me, look at Tim, and then look back at me … and just smile. What a smile!! He seemed as grateful to find us as we were to be united with him. Praise God!!

Spending time in Kyrgyzstan was a wonderful way for us to get to know a bit of our son’s birth country and culture. We really enjoyed shopping, seeing the people, and especially the mountains. We were also able to spend time in Kazakhstan, and we had such fun exploring mountains and cathedrals. Matthew proved to be quite an adventurer right from the start – we even took him up a summer scenery ski lift ride in the mountains at Chimbulak. It was all so beautiful!!!

Matthew means “gift of God” and we couldn’t find a name more appropriate if we spent the rest of our life searching. Another special memory from our trip was when I was awakened one sleepy morning in our hotel in Kazakhstan to happy sounds coming out of Matthew’s crib, which was right next to our bed. I opened my eyes, smiled and moved over so that my hand could just barely reach the outside of his crib. He giggled, rolled over, and reached through the bars to take hold of my out-stretched finger. I couldn’t help but think, “Yep, sweetie, this is a picture of your new life. No more walking through life alone. You’ll always have a hand to hold now.” We praise God daily for uniting these broken pieces to make us a family of three!

I can’t say enough about how helpful all of the CWA workers are! They not only care about being very accurate in their work, but they are also so excited to see your family united. We worked most closely with Anya, Michael, and of course Galia! They were all wonderful!! And we can’t thank them enough for helping to bring our family together!

Tim, Kim, & Matthew Lehr