Waiting For A Father

Waiting for a Father tells of the heart-wrenching cry of orphans to belong. For over two decades, Gary Stephens, his wife Helen, and their four biological children lived in Hong Kong, working with Vietnamese refugees. By 1991, they had founded several homes for orphans and were involved in local and international adoptions. In 1992, their work spilled into mainland China, when they learned of baby girls being abandoned in alarming numbers, innocent victims of the one-child policy. Gary and Helen acted, founding an orphanage in a city in southern China.

The need to empty orphanages became personal for Gary when, in 1996, Gary and Helen met two-year-old Jacob, a Hong Kong Chinese boy who was born without eyes and had been abandoned. They brought him to their home for children with special needs, and Gary and Helen became Jacob’s foster parents. Two years later, in a quiet moment before God, Gary heard a simple command: Change Jacob’s status from foster son to son.

Gary and Helen filed the paperwork, and on October 31, 1998 his name was officially changed to Jacob Lok Chi Stephens-and he became the youngest of five children in the Stephens family. Now 18, Jacob is still non-verbal and developmentally delayed. Despite this, Jacob brings much joy to his family and even skis with his father.

Written with Carmen Radley, Waiting for a Father is a story of hope-of people who did not look away, but instead opened their hearts to a child who needed them. It’s an inspiring message and a call to action to help empty the orphanages of the world…one child at a time. Waiting for a Father reveals a place where nationality, language, and color do not matter-that place in the heart of every orphan across the globe.