Brandon & Michelle Burch
Children: Karis (8), Micah (7), and Asher (5)
Noam Burch is what we are naming our son in China (he turned 2 in January)
Church: Bartlett Hills Baptist Church in Bartlett, TN – We are serving as church planters in France
We married in September of 2004 and lived our first year as newlyweds in France. Michelle was teaching English. It was during this time that we were called to serve in France as church planters. Between our return to the states in 2005 and finally arriving on the mission field in 2014, we had three biological children. Raising our support to do full-time missions proved to be more difficult than we ever imagined. We eventually came to France on a mid-term (two year assignment) praying that God would affirm our calling and bring in the rest of the support that we needed to stay on as career missionaries. We had been here about two months when Michelle brought up the idea of adding to our family through adoption. We had long dreamed of adopting but never knew if it would be possible given our circumstances. Adoption is expensive and we were still in the midst of support raising for our ministry. We were not living in the States and had no idea if there were even agencies who worked with expats. We were still adjusting to life with three young children in France. There were so many unknowns for us.
After much prayer and discussion, we decided to move forward one step at a time, until God closed the door. We were not initially thinking about China or even International adoption for that matter, but God kept directing us and opening doors. We decided not to fundraiser for our adoption since we were still asking people to give towards our ministry here. We applied for many grants and Katelyn’s Fund was the first to set up an interview via skype. It was such a sweet time for us. They prayed for us, for our adoption, for our ministry, for our family. It did not feel like an interview at all, but like a support team encouraging us in this journey. We were blessed to receive a grant from them followed by several others. We are pleased to say that we will be traveling to China in 9 days to meet our son for the first time. God has provided every step of the way. Outside of $700 that we will pay off on a credit card, we are fully funded for this adoption, all glory be to God! We are still fundraising for our ministry and after a brief home assignment this summer, we hope to return to France as a family of six as career missionaries. God has grown us as a couple and as a family during this year-long process and we know that this is only the beginning of what He will teach us through this faith journey.
