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Benefit Concert To Aid Freeman Couple’s Adoption Dreams
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| A benefit concert will be held in Freeman Jan. 1 to raise funds for the Aaron and Jennifer Thompson family. They are seeking to money to help defray expenses of adopting orphans from overseas. (Courtesy photo) |
By Shauna Marlette
shauna.marlette@yankton.net
FREEMAN — Music will fill the air of Freeman on New Year’s Night, in order for a local couple to fill some hearts with love.
A concert featuring the Christian rock group Remedy Drive will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 1, at Pioneer Hall, with the proceeds aims at benefiting an adoption fund for Aaron and Jennifer Thompson.
The couple is raising the money in order to adopt two children from overseas.
“My husband and I always wanted to adopt,” Jennifer Thompson said. “We just have a heart for orphans. We have talked about it for years, but this summer we started talking about it more seriously. We looked into different countries to decide what our options might be, and we decided on the Philippines because we wanted to adopt older children and they speak English in the Philippines.
“We were going to just adopt one child but once we got into the process and started looking at the pamphlets, we felt God was tugging at our hearts to adopt a particular family group.”
The Thompsons, who already have a 4-year-old girl and a 1-year-old boy, decided to adopt a sibling unit after praying about the choice.
“Because sibling groups are so much harder to place, we decided that was really what we wanted to do,” Thompson said. “We have been looking at this one particular sibling group, but we have not been officially placed yet.”
The Thompsons have discovered that adoption is not an inexpensive process. In order to help offset some of the costs, they are doing a benefit concert.
“Adoption is, of course, very expensive — we are looking at close to $25,000 in adoption fees — which is why we are doing this concert,” she said. “We contacted a few different Christian rock groups around the area and Remedy Drive responded. I guess the lead singer is very excited about adoption, so they have offered to come and do a concert here in Freeman. All they ask is that we pay their gas money to get here and home. The rest of the ticket sales go to the adoption.”
Thompson hopes her family will know for sure about an adoption placement before April.
“They keep changing the date on us. It looks like we won’t know for sure until April or later because of regulations on the Philippine side,” she said. “If for some reason we can’t adopt this family unit, we will find a different group of children.”
Admission to the Jan. 1 Remedy Drive concert is $7. The group has performed in Freeman before and is very popular with the community.
If you are interested in donating to the Thompson Adoption Fund, they have a Web site set up at www.thompsonadoption.blogspot.com where donations can be made.
A concert featuring the Christian rock group Remedy Drive will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 1, at Pioneer Hall, with the proceeds aims at benefiting an adoption fund for Aaron and Jennifer Thompson.
The couple is raising the money in order to adopt two children from overseas.
“My husband and I always wanted to adopt,” Jennifer Thompson said. “We just have a heart for orphans. We have talked about it for years, but this summer we started talking about it more seriously. We looked into different countries to decide what our options might be, and we decided on the Philippines because we wanted to adopt older children and they speak English in the Philippines.
“We were going to just adopt one child but once we got into the process and started looking at the pamphlets, we felt God was tugging at our hearts to adopt a particular family group.”
The Thompsons, who already have a 4-year-old girl and a 1-year-old boy, decided to adopt a sibling unit after praying about the choice.
“Because sibling groups are so much harder to place, we decided that was really what we wanted to do,” Thompson said. “We have been looking at this one particular sibling group, but we have not been officially placed yet.”
The Thompsons have discovered that adoption is not an inexpensive process. In order to help offset some of the costs, they are doing a benefit concert.
“Adoption is, of course, very expensive — we are looking at close to $25,000 in adoption fees — which is why we are doing this concert,” she said. “We contacted a few different Christian rock groups around the area and Remedy Drive responded. I guess the lead singer is very excited about adoption, so they have offered to come and do a concert here in Freeman. All they ask is that we pay their gas money to get here and home. The rest of the ticket sales go to the adoption.”
Thompson hopes her family will know for sure about an adoption placement before April.
“They keep changing the date on us. It looks like we won’t know for sure until April or later because of regulations on the Philippine side,” she said. “If for some reason we can’t adopt this family unit, we will find a different group of children.”
Admission to the Jan. 1 Remedy Drive concert is $7. The group has performed in Freeman before and is very popular with the community.
If you are interested in donating to the Thompson Adoption Fund, they have a Web site set up at www.thompsonadoption.blogspot.com where donations can be made.
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The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of yankton.net.
CPSD wrote on Dec 25, 2008 3:44 PM:
" I am from Freeman and never heard of these people. Who are they and when did they move to Freeman that the Freeman Academy asks for more money. I gave money over the years to the Freeman Academy and it all goes to anything but local efforts.
But I guess that the Mennonites for ya. "
But I guess that the Mennonites for ya. "
CPSD wrote on Dec 26, 2008 9:16 AM:
" Aren't there enough children in this Country that need parents?
Why would anyone raise money from someone elses pocket to send to some overseas adoption firm to adopt children.
I appreciate what they are trying to do, but why not give a child in our own Country a home and family?
Why rely on someone else to raise the funds for your "planned "family?
If they want a family then let them raise the funds themselves. If it's a legitimate adoption it shouldn't be that expensive or difficult to adopt. The Catholic and Lutheran Adoption Agencies are an alternative.
They don't have the funds to adopt these children, how ae they going to pay for the upbringing of these children. Next thing you know they'll have fundraisers to pay for the clothing and groceries because they can't afford that. They'll be on food stamps and WIC which is funded by taxpayers.
If you can't afford children don't have them. "
Why would anyone raise money from someone elses pocket to send to some overseas adoption firm to adopt children.
I appreciate what they are trying to do, but why not give a child in our own Country a home and family?
Why rely on someone else to raise the funds for your "planned "family?
If they want a family then let them raise the funds themselves. If it's a legitimate adoption it shouldn't be that expensive or difficult to adopt. The Catholic and Lutheran Adoption Agencies are an alternative.
They don't have the funds to adopt these children, how ae they going to pay for the upbringing of these children. Next thing you know they'll have fundraisers to pay for the clothing and groceries because they can't afford that. They'll be on food stamps and WIC which is funded by taxpayers.
If you can't afford children don't have them. "
ToddWR wrote on Dec 26, 2008 5:28 PM:
" Good for the Thompsons. Why would anybody would want to discourage or disparage an adoption like this when nobody is forcing anybody to donate anything to this good endeavor?
Seems odd that there would be any uproar about private donations to a 'planned' family when there are so many forced donations (taxes) to 'unplanned' families and even more 'planned' abortions. Speaking of taxpayer funding - some people whole-heartedly agree it's perfectly fine for government funding of killing future members of 'unplanned' families. That's true compassion to the 'compassionate progressives' that eagerly agree to use other people's money that have no say in the matter to butcher up unborn children.
If generous and charitable folks want to donate money to this family, they should, I would think it would be applauded. On the converse, why should someone else be forced by federal tax laws to fund somebody else's 'unplanned' infanticide?
Again, best of luck to the Thompsons and their pursuits. "
Seems odd that there would be any uproar about private donations to a 'planned' family when there are so many forced donations (taxes) to 'unplanned' families and even more 'planned' abortions. Speaking of taxpayer funding - some people whole-heartedly agree it's perfectly fine for government funding of killing future members of 'unplanned' families. That's true compassion to the 'compassionate progressives' that eagerly agree to use other people's money that have no say in the matter to butcher up unborn children.
If generous and charitable folks want to donate money to this family, they should, I would think it would be applauded. On the converse, why should someone else be forced by federal tax laws to fund somebody else's 'unplanned' infanticide?
Again, best of luck to the Thompsons and their pursuits. "
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53153 wrote on Dec 24, 2008 3:39 PM: