In honor of our Gianna’s 14th birthday on January 10, I want to invite you into something that continues to feel both sacred and tender to our family.
Even though our Gia is in heaven… her life and her story is still bearing fruit.
This season, we are celebrating her life by opening the Live Gia Grow Forever adoption grant once again through giashope.org. These grants are designed to help children with special needs come home to their forever families through international adoption. It is one of the most meaningful ways we know how to steward Gianna’s legacy of love, courage, and joy.
_At the same time, _we are inviting our community into the $10 Birthday Gift Challenge. It’s simple, but powerful. A small gift, given in honor of Gianna’s birthday, helps us grow more hope, fund future grants, and walk alongside families who are stepping out in faith to bring their children home.
For the past six years, we have had the humbling privilege of doing this work through giashope.org. We have been given a front-row seat to God’s miracles as He moves in the lives of families who say yes to Him, often with trembling hands and courageous hearts. We have walked with families through waiting, uncertainty, and financial sacrifice, and we have rejoiced with them as children have come home, doors have opened, and prayers have been answered in ways only God could orchestrate.
It has been breathtaking to witness the ripple effects of Gianna’s legacy. To see how her life continues to grow life. To steward stories that are so much bigger than us, knowing all along that we are simply a vessel, a small part of what God is doing through His great love for His children.
Over the past six years, we have had the humbling honor of helping award 42 adoption grants to families pursuing international adoption of children with special needs. Each grant represents a child moving closer to home, a family strengthened in faith, and a miracle we have had a front-row seat to witness. These stories are sacred to us, and they continue to remind us that Gianna’s life is still growing life in ways we never could have imagined.
You can read more about our Gia’s story here
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And yet, beneath all of this work and celebration, there is still the ache of our family’s heart.
I wish we could celebrate her by singing in our kitchen, baking a cake together, and letting her choose her favorite family date and restaurant. I wonder what her laugh would sound like now. What music she’d be into. What dreams would be forming in her heart. She loved adventure and she loved seeing miracles happen in other children’s lives as they did in her own.
In fact, her last birthday (turning 6) on earth was celebrated in her beloved Nicaragua on a missions trip …(Just a few months before she unexpectedly moved to heaven), where she fed the hungry, cared for orphans, served the poor, played with her Nica family, smacked a piñata, splashed in the Pacific Ocean, and sang loudly on every van ride while playing her ukulele. I wish I could know my older GiaBia and all her teenage quirks. But, I am pretty sure she would have been the biggest advocate for children who needed their mommies, daddies, siblings and forever homes. She would always talk about how she wanted all the orphans to be adopted in the world. It was her dream… and it is our dream too. No child should live without a home and family to fight for them.
We miss her deeply…But, we know our God is not done. Death is never the end of His stories when Jesus is Lord of your life. Eternal life is our hope because He conquered death once and for all.
I’m so thankful to know Gianna is alive, healed, and whole, running through fields of wildflowers and singing on the shores of eternity.
And somehow, through God’s grace, her life continues to shine and bloom more life and hope for others.
This is why we do what we do.
The work of giashope.org was born from this hope. From the belief that there is more life to come, more goodness to be revealed, and more love to be poured out, even through grief. When Jesus is Savior, life always wins and He can turn the deepest heartache into the most beautiful gifts of love, hope and life… Our redeemer lives!
If you feel led to participate, you can apply for the Live Gia Grow Forever grant or join the $10 Birthday Gift Challenge using the links below.
How to Participate
Apply for the Live Gia Grow Forever Grant:
https://giashope.org/apply-for-a-grant
Join the $10 Birthday Gift Challenge or donate:
The Live Gia Grow Forever grant application will remain open through** January 18.**
Thank you for helping us honor Gianna’s birthday by choosing hope and helping more children come home. Thank you for sowing into this legacy of love with us.
Happy 14th birthday, Gianna Lilyfaith…
You make us brave. You teach us to fight for hope, sing loud, and love BIG no matter the cost.
Gianna’s life continues to grow life.
And together, we will keep choosing hope.
With love and gratitude,
The Cannelongo Family
