Contributors

andreaEmail: aolson@littleheartsmedical.org
Blog: Little Hearts Medical
Facebook: Andrea Duke Olson

 

With her husband of 19 years, Andrea is the stay-at-home mom to six precious children and serves as Executive Director of Little Hearts Medical. She and Eric began building their family through adoption when their biological daughter was four years old. They adopted a daughter from China in 2007, followed by sons in 2010 and 2011, and two more daughters in 2012 and 2013. Their eyes were opened and their hearts broken by the plight of children born with medical conditions, particularly congenital heart disease, leading to Andrea’s current role at LHM. Andrea enjoys serving the underserved, mentoring families and cooking, all with little arms wrapped around her.


 

amyEmail: andreapierceyoung@gmail.com
Blog: The Young Family Farm
Instagram: @andreapyoung

 

Andrea is a stay-at-home momma of five who loves homeschooling her kiddos. She’s orphan/widow advocate giving of her time to Wiphan Ministries and ministering to adoptive mommas through Created 4 Care which she started 5 years ago, after their first adoption, to connect moms to one another and more deeply to The Lord. You can find her on her blog and on Instagram.


 

BrandieEmail: mommyandthemessmakers@gmail.com
Blog: Mommy and the Mess Makers
Facebook: Mommy and the Mess Makers

 

Brandie and her husband Kevin met in college in Mississippi, and they will soon celebrate 18 years of wedded bliss. Since their “I dos” they have called five states home, but a part of their hearts will always remain a little homesick for China. A few years ago, Brandie and Kevin were exceeding the American dream with their three children living in the suburbs when God began whispering that there was more to life than organizing soccer carpool and coordinating outfits for the annual Christmas cards. They adopted a son from China in 2015 and quickly returned 13 months later to adopt another son, their “surprise baby.” In the not too distant future, their first born will begin college the same year that their youngest starts kindergarten. While the child spacing has presented its challenges at times (like when the two year old repeatedly shouted at the middle school athletic director to “STOP TALKING!” during a mandatory parent meeting), it has made for excellent use of hand-me-down clothes, snow boots, and baseball cleats. Although life as a mother of five is sometimes crazy and chaotic, Brandie devotes intentional time to one of her biggest passions —adoption. God wrecked her heart for orphans on her first trip to China and, ever since, she has been educating others about special needs adoption, advocating for those left behind, mentoring families throughout the adoption process, and sharing her family’s adoption experience through her blog Mommy and the Mess Makers.


 

CarrieEmail: carriemckean@gmail.com
Facebook: Carrie McKean
Instagram: @carriemckean

 

Mama to two bursting-with-life little girls who are quick to tell you they were both born in China. (But only one was adopted.) Married to Jacob, a wise, quiet, and wickedly-smart engineer who likes dirt bikes. Favorite human of one dog, LeLe, who was also born in China and doesn’t obey commands in either Chinese or English. Enjoys writing, reading, and a really good cheese tray. Lover of Jesus and people (and food!) from all corners of this beautiful world, with an extra-special-soft-spot for refugees.


 

chrisEmail: chrisberinger17@gmail.com
Blog: The Layers of Life
Facebook: Chris Beringer

 

​Chris and her husband, Dave, have been married for quite some time now. Their oldest child is 30 years old and their youngest is 3. They started out married life just like like everyone else – with lots of love and big dreams. ​Soon some of their dreams came true with the births of their three children. Then many years later, in 2006, another dream came true – they brought home their first daughter from China. Who knew that they would go back to China two more times? The Lord graciously blessed them with another daughter and then a son. Altogether they have six children, two in-law kids, another soon-to-be in-law kid, and one grandchild. Together, they make up quite an amazing family. Chris is so grateful to be a part of NHBO, helping others who have adopted or who hope to adopt is her sweet spot. Beside all of this, Chris teaches middle school Spanish and is usually late to just about everything because, you know, she is always trying to do that “one last thing”.


 

jenniferb.Email: jennifer2217@icloud.com
Blog: 5 Potatoes

 

Jennifer has been married to her high school sweetheart, Jason, for fifteen years and together they are raising five amazing kids. Their journey to adoption began as foster parents, and shortly after God led them to China and their two youngest blessings who came home in 2014 and 2015. Jennifer is a teacher by profession, but now spends her days as a stay home mama and teacher to her five favorite students. Besides her family, Jennifer’s two biggest passions are homeschooling and adoption, and she divides her time between serving on their homeschool group’s leadership team and volunteering for No Hands But Ours and Love Without Boundaries. Jennifer loves giving families resources and tools to help them on their adoption journeys, and coordinating the NHBO mentor moms program and site resources allow her to do just that.


 

KellyEmail: kraudenbush@sparrow-fund.org
Blog: My Overthinking
Facebook: My Overthinking

 

Kelly has a passion for supporting adoptive families, specifically to encourage and empower parents to be intentional and understand their own hearts more clearly as they seek to care for their hearts of their children. Kelly founded The Sparrow Fund along with her husband Mark in 2011. While she serves alongside Mark in his full-time purposeful work to serve students in China and comes alongside adoptive families as a therapist at the Attachment & Bonding Center of PA, Kelly has a particular interest in encouraging parents who are struggling with attachment, helping parents walk with their children in understanding their own stories and guarding those stories, helping couples continue to pursue each other and grow together while they parent their children as a team, and training and supporting orphanage staff in China to build relationships with children and each other. Kelly and Mark have been married since 1998 and have 3 biological children and 1 daughter who was adopted from China in 2010. You can learn more about their journey and many ongoing trips to China on Kelly’s blog My Overthinking.


 

libertyNHBOnewFacebook: Liberty Joy

 

Liberty considers herself a very blessed mama! She and her husband have three daughters, one son who was adopted as a newborn in Alaska, and three little ones who were adopted through the China special needs program (2013, 2014 and 2016). Liberty is a Registered Nurse by profession and works part-time in home health. However, she considers her full-time job to be the one in her own home, bandaging the physical and emotional ouchies of her children. Several years ago she prayed that The Lord would break her heart for what breaks His, and her life has never been the same. She loves adoption and advocating for children who are waiting for their family. Liberty has relied upon No Hands But Ours during her own adoption process, especially while researching special needs. She is delighted to be coordinating the Advocacy portion of NHBO and hopes it brings awareness in regard to the precious Children Who Wait.


 

amyEmail: APlaceCalledSimplicity@yahoo.com
Blog: A Place Called Simplicity
Instagram: @placecalledsimplicity
Facebook: Linny Saunders

 

Linny’s lifelong dream was to be the mom of a pile of kids adopted from Asia and Africa. Now married to her best friend Dwight for over 40 years, they have 14 treasures with 11 lovingly gathered from around the world. The three bio are all mixed up in the pile and Linny says that she can’t seem to remember who came home how. The five oldest are married and she is Mimi to 13 – five of the 13 are also adopted from around the world. She loves knowing that her big kids have pursued adoption which is their quiet stamp of approval on growing up in a large adoptive family! Burdened for the plight of the orphan, eight years ago Linny and Dwight founded a 501c3, International Voice of the Orphan. IVO has served over a million meals to orphans in four countries, provides emergency medical care and oversees fundraising for The Gem Foundation. The Gem is a home for special needs orphans founded by their daughter Emma who moved to Uganda at age 19. She founded and now serves as Director of The Gem Foundation which cares for 44 special needs orphans. Linny is in her 31st year of homeschooling and has published two books: Rescuing Ruby and The Memorial Box. For “therapy” she writes regularly on her blog.


 

mikeEmail: mandykaymoore@gmail.com
Blog: Moore to Love
Facebook: Professor Mandy

 

Mandy married her college sweetheart, Bryson, over 15 years ago. For the first 12 years of their marriage, Mandy was busy finishing graduate school and her doctorate while working as a college professor. Throughout that busy time in her life, there was always a longing in her heart to be a mom — but she wondered if the Lord was directing her to become a mom biologically or through adoption. And so, for over 10 years, she and her husband asked the Lord to direct their paths, to shut doors He needed to shut to direct them to where He wanted them to be. When their doctors told them they have a 0% chance of having a biological child together, they understood why those years of longing to adopt were there. During both of their childhood and teen years, adoption and foster care had a significant impact on both of them. The Lord in His goodness began planting the seeds for adoption so many years before. Mandy is the proud momma to Lydia Grace and Barrett FanFan, both adopted from China. Mandy is a business professor at a university in Oklahoma.


 

meganv.Email: vos9000@comcast.net
Blog: Me Being Real
Instagram: @MeganVos

 

Megan is mama to six, four biological and two who were born in China. She lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan on a little slice of heaven in the country. She’s been married for 22 years to her high school sweetheart, with whom she planned to have three children. But God’s ways are always better and she’s learning that with every chaotic day. You can find more of her on her blog and on Instagram.


 

nicoleEmail: photogramommy@gmail.com
Blog: Living Out His Love
Instagram: Photogramommy

 

Nicole is a daughter to the King and a wife to an amazing man. She is a classical homeschooling mama to four, by birth and adoption. She is a part-time newborn photographer, a founder and adoption photographer at Red Thread Sessions, a board member of The Sparrow Fund and an advocate of orphan care and adoption. When she’s not with her family, homeschooling, or behind her camera, she loves to blog, create, give life to old furniture, spend time at the beach and read. She strives to live her life to glorify our Heavenly Father. With His love, all things are possible.


 

randallEmail: randallnichols@mac.com
Blog: Cocentricity
Facebook: Randall Nichols

 

Randall and Kelley live in Coastal Virginia with their five children. They are the founders of ECHO Orphancare Partners and Randall serves as a staff pastor at a local church. Together with other adoptive veterans, Randall and Kelley have co-authored the Prayers of a Village devotional series. In between homeschooling, doctors appointments, and the rest of the daily grind, they love hanging out with the neighbors and restoring their old coastal cottage.


 

rebeccaEmail: radicchis@gmail.com
Blog: Rebecca Radicchi
Facebook: Rebecca Radicchi

 

Mark and Rebecca are the parents of four little people, three of which are gifts from China. God has used adoption to expand the borders of their hearts. Each journey has been filled with beauty and challenges, laughter and weight, each showing them the heart of their Father in a new way. He’s drawn them closer to Himself, and never seems to stop pushing them to step beyond their comfort zones to serve the fatherless in new ways. For years she has followed NHBO, and have been so inspired and challenged. If she might “pay it forward” and offer encouragement to others, she’ll call herself abundantly blessed. She’s so grateful for this opportunity to serve, this creative stretching, and this way to connect with families who share a heartbeat for adoption and orphan advocacy.


 

SharonEmail: shayankerich@gmail.com
Blog: Everything Beautiful
Homeschool Blog: Growing Whole Hearts
Instagram: @sharonankerich

 

Sharon and her husband, Scott, left the Atlanta area about ten years ago to raise their children in their childhood hometown of Hartwell, Georgia. With three grown daughters, seven children from China, and two grandsons, their lives are full. Twelve years ago, adoption was laid on their hearts, and they have witnessed miracle after miracle as God has grown their family from three to ten children. Scott works full time at Cisco while Sharon is found homeschooling their seven younger children. In her spare time, she loves to walk, read, sew, blog, photograph, and occasionally podcast. There is nothing she would rather be doing than loving her family and schooling her children. May God be glorified in it all!


 

StefanieEmail: stefanie@nihaoyall.com
Blog: Ni Hao Y’all
Facebook: Stefanie Hanen
Instagram: @ni.hao.yall

 

Stefanie and Chris were leading relatively “normal” lives as parents to four kids – he flew for the Air Force, she stayed home with the kids – when God laid adoption on their hearts in a mighty way. And the impact has colored everything in their lives since. They began the paperwork immediately and in 2005 they brought Isabelle, 11 months old with a heart defect, home from China. In 2006 they brought home Sophie, followed the next year by Jude, then Shepherd, Vivienne, Poppy and, in 2012, Tallula. Clementine came home in 2014 and a little sister, Magnolia, became the caboose of their family in May 2016. Their daughter Esther was to join their family in 2011, but she passed away two months before they could bring her home. Chris retired from the military in 2012 and now they are settled in Birmingham where Chris works for Lifeline Children’s Services. Stefanie also works on behalf of the fatherless, but does it from her desk at home, in sweats. She began No Hands But Ours in 2008 as a way to encourage others to consider special needs adoption and continues to advocate for orphans in any way the Lord leads. Stefanie loves her Savior, her family and anything with frosting. She also enjoys chasing her kids around with her camera, and writing about their anything-but-normal family on her blog Ni Hao Y’all.


 

 

WhitneyEmail: wbr1980@gmail.com
Blog: Life into Likeness
Facebook: Whitney Ramsey
Instagram: @lifeintolikeness

 

Matt and Whitney went on their first date in June of 1996 when she was sixteen! Six years later, they tied the knot and a few years afterwards, started a family that grew by three precious kiddos rather quickly. Adoption has been a part of their story for a long time in various capacities. She and her husband, Matt, always knew they had a role to play in caring for orphans, they never suspected that God’s plans for them extended beyond financially supporting and encouraging those on their adoption journeys! In January of 2015, their family grew by one more when Julianne (age 6) walked into their lives to join sister Rachel (9), and brothers Eli (8) and Brady (6). Life has never been the same, and they wouldn’t have it any other way.Things she cannot live without on a daily basis are: coffee, Jesus, Almond Joy miniatures, and, according to the DMV, her glasses.