Dear wonderful friends of Brittany’s Hope,
As we celebrate 25 years of service, I’m filled with gratitude for the lives changed because of your compassion. When my family began this work after my sister Brittany’s passing, we hoped simply to help children with special needs find permanent, loving families. Thanks to you, that early vision has grown into a holistic mission to end the orphan crisis with dignity and hope.
Today, your generosity drives three core efforts:
Adoption Grants that remove financial barriers for children with the greatest needs.
Transforming Institutions into family-style children’s homes that nurture stability and break cycles of poverty.
Preventive Programs that equip vulnerable families and help prevent unnecessary separation.
As you explore this Gift Guide, I invite you to imagine the joy of a child receiving their first bike, or the relief of parents who can feed their children because of a simple gift of animals or seeds. Every choice you make builds strength, restores hope, and creates lasting change.
Whether you select a gift today or support in spirit, please keep these children and families in your thoughts and prayers. You remain in ours.
With heartfelt gratitude and hope,
Mai-Lynn Abel Sahd
Executive Director
Adoptee, Viet Nam 1995
P.S. We honor your trust. 100% of your gift uplifts children.
Please consider sharing this Gift Guide so others can join you in transforming lives.
Chi’s Story: From Despair to Dignity
A Home That Changed Everything
In Vietnam’s remote Khánh Sơn district, Chi and her young daughter were barely surviving. Forced out of school as a girl, Chi married early and worked long hours beside her husband, Quoc—until his tragic death left her three months pregnant, alone, and living under a collapsing roof that threatened to give way with every storm.
For five years, Chi held on. But when a violent storm finally destroyed what little stability she had, she feared she had no choice but to place her daughter in a nearby orphanage.
Brittany’s Hope Steps In
With support from compassionate donors, our local partners built a simple, safe, and durable home for just $6,000—transforming Chi’s life overnight.
Safety Restored: No more sleepless nights fearing the next storm.
Education Reclaimed: Her daughter now attends school without interruption.
Dignity Renewed: Chi can work confidently, dream again, and build the future she once thought impossible.
Her gratitude is profound: “After five years of worry, this home has given me confidence. It feels like someone said, ‘We believe in you… you are a good mother.’ I cannot stop smiling.”
Keep Families Together
Your generosity makes stories like Chi’s possible. When you give, you protect children, strengthen families, and offer women the chance to rise from crisis into hope. You can be the reason another family finds safety, stability, and a future filled with possibility.
Returning to Give Back
When Lucas Maina first arrived at the Ukweli Home of Hope in Nairobi, he was a bright and compassionate young boy determined to build a better future. With the care of his Brittany’s Hope sponsors, he embraced every opportunity—growing into a trusted leader among the younger boys and nurturing dreams far bigger than his circumstances.
Today, those dreams have taken flight. Lucas earned his accounting degree and now works for KPMG, one of the world’s leading professional services firms. Yet his heart never left Ukweli. Even while studying, he returned often to encourage the boys who looked up to him—boys who saw in him what was possible.
This past August, Lucas made his biggest dream a reality: reuniting former residents of Ukweli. He created a WhatsApp group, gathered 25 alumni, and organized the first-ever reunion—filled with shared meals, laughter, guidance, and pledges to support the younger boys’ studies. Since then, the boys have shown renewed motivation and confidence.
What began with one sponsorship has become a circle of hope reaching across generations. Lucas’s journey shows the profound power of saying “yes” to a child—and how that single act can inspire a lifetime of transformation.
Zion's Journey
Rooted in Possibility
At Brittany’s Hope, every story begins with a simple but powerful “yes.” In 2009, Heather—already a mother of four—felt an unexpected pull toward a little boy whose photo carried a Brittany’s Hope Adoption Grant. That boy was Zion. Guided by faith and fueled by courage, she opened her heart, and her family grew.
A Life Given Room to Flourish
Born with a rare genetic condition, Zion’s early years were shaped by casts, fractures, and hard decisions—including the amputation of his feet at age six. Yet with each challenge, Heather stood beside him—championing surgeries, celebrating the first steps he took on prosthetics, and instilling the belief that “no” was never the end of the story. Your generosity made their journey possible. Because donors said “yes,” the barriers to adoption fell away, and Zion’s path forward opened wide.
Branches Reaching Toward the World
Today, that once-tiny seed of possibility has grown tall. Zion became the youngest member of the 2024 silver-medal-winning USA Wheelchair Rugby Team, earned a spot on the 2026 USAWR National Training Team, and is now a first-year Finance major at Auburn University. Under Armour once called him “The Athlete No One Saw Coming”—now the world is watching his limitless rise.
Planting the Next Seeds of Hope
Zion and Heather embody the heart of Brittany’s Hope—proof that when children are uplifted and families are supported, the impossible becomes achievable. As we celebrate 25 years of transforming futures, we look to the next 1,617 children still waiting for a place to belong.
Your gift to the Adoption Grant Fund nurtures the next generation of dreamers, doers, and world-changers. Together, we can keep opening doors—one child, one family, one “yes” at a time.