The turning of the year is often a time for reflection. This turning of the page in the calendar is one of many appropriate moments to pause and do the same with regards to the mission of Sacred Selections: removing the financial barrier to adoption for Christian families who will raise their children to know the love of our great Father. We look back on 2024 with hearts that are full to the brim with awe and gratefulness. What stands out are themes of incredible love, unfathomable generosity, and a glowing legacy.
Love:
Adoption requires sacrificial love. Sacrificial love as one set of arms lovingly places their child with another. Sacrificial love as another set of arms reaches out to honor the bravery in this choice, and commit to authentically loving the child being so carefully entrusted to them. Sacrificial love as they provide the physical, emotional, and spiritual care that is the heart of parenting and showing God’s love to a child.
Answering the call to adopt means intentionally stepping into that challenging, beautiful, chaotic, and joyful role of parenting. In 2024, 30 children were lovingly passed from one set of arms into another set as Christian families across the country answered this call. We celebrate with each of these families as they begin their journey together and honor their choice to make a place at the table for a child in need.
This year also marked the milestone of over 500 children having been placed into families with support from Sacred Selections! As more families prayerfully wait for the opportunity to do the same, we ask that you hold in prayer each of these children, the parents considering an adoption plan, and the potential adoptive families.
Generosity:
“God’s people are incredibly generous.” A phrase that was used many times throughout 2024. As each does what they are able, the impact of every gift grows to make it possible for the work of funding adoptions to continue.
There were 33 local fundraisers – including dinners, auctions, 5Ks, a Ladies’ Tea, book sale and more – all organized by local volunteers who see the value in supporting Christian adoption. Three of these were inaugural events for newly formed chapters in Colorado, Tennessee, and Texas. The Coast-to-Coast campaign invited children across the country to dedicate part of their summers to joining in the work and doing what they could to raise funds for adoption, too. And besides these, individuals held their own small fundraisers or made private regular donations to ensure funds are available when a family gets the call.
Every one of these efforts came together with generosity of time, skills, labor, and resources. From the volunteers that coordinated and ran everything to the craftsmen who donated their beautiful, handmade items and the guests who came to show their support and give as they are able. God gives the increase as every charitable act last year helped to continue building a culture of adoption, support, and giving.
2024 also saw growth in membership of the Future 500 and the introduction of the Sand & Stars Endowment campaign that are each designed to ensure the mission of Sacred Selections can continue for years to come.
Legacy:
Stepping back further, we recall that in 2023, a call to action was made. The theme: Here Am I, Send Me coincided with a message of planning for the future and a search for new members to the team who can carry the mission forward. That year – the final full year of Dana & David Carrozza’s work in leading the organization – saw a beautiful capstone to their work as a record-setting year with 59 children placed into Christian families, making a total of 479 adoptions from 2006 through 2023.
Their years of service to families and children built a legacy of heart, passion, and constantly recognizing God’s hand in every step of the adoptive journey. They have seen firsthand the theme used for 2024: God Gives the Increase. God has given the increase from a card table outside a lectureship in the early 2000s to local chapters across the US today; from the dream of partially funding a few adoptions to having supported over 400 families with over 500 adoptive placements; and from the Carrozzas’ kitchen table….to kitchen tables across the country.
In 2024, we celebrated and reflected on the growth of Sacred Selections throughout its history and how it is always true that God gives the increase. In 1 Corinthians 3:7-9, we read, “So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.” God gives the increase, and God calls us to be His fellow workers in His kingdom by planting and watering. He calls us To the Work.
This year we invite all to follow the admonition in James 1 to be “a doer who acts” as we “do with our might what our hands find to do.” As we come together in service of children and Christian families who open their hearts and homes to adopt, how are you called to care for “the least of these?” As the Israelites were commanded to care for the vulnerable in their communities by leaving the corners and edges of their fields, let us all seek to leave margin in our lives so that as we hope and trust, and as we watch and pray, we are able to labor for the Master until He comes.
“Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:58)
As we look to carry this legacy forward and step into 2025, we invite you to join us and get To The Work.
