***Hi Friends and supporters!
***As soon as you are done this post which explains our beginnings and how our ministry was birthed into new life and hope for others, please be sure to hop over to this post HERE for our most recent big news and updates! THANK YOU!
You can donate to the Live Gia Grow Forever Foundation (GIAS HOPE) using the link below or emailing us to send a check to LIVE GIA GROW FOREVER FOUNDATION. Your donation is tax deductible and 100% goes to growing MORE HOPE for those who need it most!
Thank you for partnering with us to watch miracles of LIFE bloom!
Check it out! You can scroll to the bottom of this post for a glance at this past years miracles…..and thank you for coming alongside us to witness new miracles blooming from the seed of her great big life of brave!
The Story of Live Gia Grow Forever Foundation
There is a mason jar sitting on our school room shelf with about $12 in it. Just a month before Gianna went to heaven, she (along with Tahlia and Hudson) started a Farm Fresh egg business so they could raise money for babies in China to get surgeries…..and to be adopted. Each time they sold a dozen eggs, they would excitedly run their fist full of money to stuff deep down in the jar and pray for the orphans in China that the money would one day help.
My tiny missionaries knew that God could use their big hearts to change the world. That jar still sits there, but the $12 has multiplied in uncountable and unfathomable ways, even within the depths of our wilderness. It was Gia’s hand that was the last to place money in this sacred jar and I both ache and rejoice when I think of how many lives have been touched by Gianna’s BIG heart and her legacy of light. I see that jar as a visual miracle of fish and loaves that never stop being poured out from her life which points others straight to the gospel. God has multiplied that $12 with miracles of New life and hope that continue to grow in honor of our tiny missionary.
We ache deeply to have her back in our arms and will grieve forever until that glorious day when we hold her again on the shores of eternity and all that is wrong will be made right again. Living with her void on earth remains the worst pain imaginable. We lean everyday into our God who promises eternal life from death and we await, with HOPE, when He will make all things NEW!
While we wait on this broken earth, our prayer is that God would use our pain to birth new HOPE from her forever life! That God would bring new life from her life and new beauty from her beauty and new light from all her light.
The gift of our Gianna’s life ripped our hearts wide open from the first moment we saw her face! Her love wrecked our lives and we are changed forever. We choose, even through our grief, to always allow her life to grow our lives as she teaches us to live bravely and invest our treasures in heaven and not in earth!
Her life is forever remembered through her miracles that continue to bloom because of her radiant LIFE! She is eternally carried, spoken about, and forever loved.
You can scroll back to 2014 and read all about our journey to Gianna and how God used her life to push us off the comfortable shores of easy faith and out into the deep waters to experience what it means to truly trust God and surrender all and follow hard after HIS heart straight into her broken heart. Her broken heart rescued us from a comfortable safe faith. God gave us the grace to say a brave YES to her life, and we were able to see His glory through all our weaknesses. Even though our hearts are broken forever on this earth and shattered and grieving beyond comprehension, we would not trade this overwhelming pain if it meant never knowing the overwhelming radical joy to be hers forever. Loving will always ALWAYS be risky….but, LOVE always ALWAYS wins. Her life is a miracle and testimony to the greatness of our GOD! What an honor to be her family forever and ever….right into eternity!
For those new here to our journey and not familiar with her story, we adopted Gianna with a major heart defect (born with 1/2 heart anatomy) in 2014 when she was 2 1/2 years old from Lily’s House (formerly Harmony House) in China. It was truly a LOVE explosion at first sight…but not without much fear for the unpredictable and unknown road ahead. However, I am so thankful fear did not win…. oh how we would have been robbed of so much forever GOODNESS and beauty by staying safe! From the first moment we embraced her, our hearts fiercely wrapped around her broken heart and we knew we were changed forever simply by holding such a precious miracle. We blindly jumped off a cliff and trust fell right into her arms…. We knew that this holy crashing together of our lives and worlds was the beginning of a miracle that would completely change the trajectory of our lives forever. We knew this moment was sacred and would be marked on our hearts eternally and that there was NO going back….we would be changed forever…never the same again…never satisfied with the shore life….out in the deep seeing God bigger than we ever had. Her life wrecked our lives in all the right and radical ways….. Oh what a beautiful gift she is!
If you would like to read her story, her adoption is documented HERE and HERE and HERE really, just all over this blog! Because, her heartbeat is felt in each word and declaration of hope!
And, this is her adoption video…. SO MUCH LIGHT!
Gianna’s life points others to our Great Big God who is mighty to save! God’s hand was over Gianna’s life from the very beginning. Her life has been set apart to declare HIS glories. God sent a special team in China (Harmony House) to take Gianna in when she was very weak in a state run orphanage, and strengthen our sick baby girl back to health. Gianna was cared for and named after Lily Huang who was her foster mama who fought for her life and nursed her back to health when she nearly died from bacterial meningitis as an infant in China.
Lily is always China mama and family to us and we love her dearly. And, in honor of our Gia-Bia, We have come alongside Lily to support her work in China to care for and give hope to orphans.
And, because adoption is so close to our hearts, we also desire to help other families who want to adopt and give the gift of Hope to waiting Children. This foundation is born right out of Gia’s forever heartbeat! Our Gianna wanted to see all the orphans receive hope and find families and it is our hope to carry out that mission as a part of her legacy through this foundation that is being birthed from her life.
So, in honor of our beautiful Gia-Bia we have created the
LIVE GIA GROW FOREVER FOUNDATION!
This foundation will have a two-fold purpose and mission. (NOW A THREE FOLD PURPOSE!) SEE this post for our newest updates and visions!
- We hope to financially help fund Lily’s house and, in turn, help her care for the many children in their care, in honor of Gianna. You can read more about this ministry of love and hope here
- It is our hope and dream, in honor of our warrior, to award a yearly grant (our goal is quarterly one day!) to a family who is racing to bring their child home. If you would like to be considered for this grant, you can fill out the form here. Please email me (See Contact page in menu bar) for more information or if you would like to know more details.
- CHECK OUR OUR NEWEST DREAMS AND VISIONS FOR 2021 here
We are asking each family who is applying to the grant to send us their story of their adoption journey. Every adoption Story is a picture of what God has done for us. Every story is a story of faith, and Redemption and Hope and we would love to rejoice and pray over you and your waiting children….the honor to walk beside you is not lost on us!
Her miracles grow on FOREVER …
We got to visit our Lily and Gianna’s Foster home when we were in China adopting Eviemira.
Gianna’s heartbeat and her memory are alive through the care and love and hope given to each of the precious children in this anointed home.
But, help is needed to keep the miracles growing on!
We want to invite you to come alongside us as we bring HOPE to orphans in China in honor of our tiny missionary, our Gia-Bia.
Would you please consider and pray about donating to the LIVE GIA GROW FOREVER FOUNDATION and supporting both her foster home and/or families who are racing to bring home their babies and bring light to the darkness. You can donate at this link (scroll down) and you will have the option to allocate your gift to either the adoption grant fund, or to Lily’s house…. We are humbled to have you come alongside us in this mission! And, as a Thank You for your generosity… you will receive a special gift from our GiannasGardenofHope Etsy shop for your support! Out special etsy shop (launching very soon!!!) was created to help support this foundation, and all proceeds will go directly to her fund! This is also our way to be able to share the beauty of Gianna’s Victory Garden of Hope with the world! ( btw, this is a different printable art gift then the one you get for subscribing to our blog!). So that is TWO free printables!!!
Here is a small preview of just some of the beautiful digital garden prints that will be offered to purchase for download!
Each printable artwork was created and designed by our family and each print holds a special verse of TRUTH that has been crucial in carrying us through our darkest days and continues to carry us with each new day fighting forward in faith… These verses speak the language of Hope not in what is seen but what is UNSEEN. They can be printed at home and framed to hang on your walls as reminders of the TRUTH of God’s Hope within our own wildernesses when light and life can be so hard to see or feel. This is our way to bring the beauty of Gianna’s sparkly garden to others….and to allow her light to multiply into more HOPE for others! Also, each print holds at least one special GiaBia- butterfly to symbolize the promise that HE WILL MAKE ALL THINGS NEW and His story (no matter how painful a chapter is) is one of victory for those who trust in HIM! Heaven wins! Click here to buy your beautiful print!
Thank you for helping us multiply the mason jar of fish and loaves to be poured out into an overflowing feast of miracles! God can use each gift to grow and multiply into NEW LIFE and LIGHT!
God is using our brave baby’s life to bring more HOPE! An incredible Wild Hope born from the depths of a wasteland!
Here is the link to donate, and you will be taken to a page when you are done the transaction that will allow you to download your free printable art. This watercolor flowers were created, in love, by the hands of Gianna’s oldest sister, Isabella and inspired by Gianna’s miracles of New Life that God is blooming in our desert. A treasure that we want you to have.
Thank you for blooming LIGHT with us!
Thank you for being a part of the miracles…thank you for helping us honor our brave baby’s forever light and life!
LIVE GIA GROW FOREVER!!!
*** WAIT! Don’t forget to read the latest updates below this pic!!! ***
Updates
LATEST NEWS (in order of newest to oldest updates)
*** NOVEMBER 2021 read out latest update here
***April 2021! read our newest miracles of HOPE here!
***January 2021: READ all the beautiful miracles here
** November 2020 update HERE GIVING TUESDAY is coming and see our newest visions for this year!
**(HUGE NEWS FOR May 2020) :
1)We are so excited to announce that, because of generous donors and the awesome T-shirt fundraiser, 3 families received grants from Live Gia Grow Forever Foundation to help bring their child home. We are so thankful that Gianna’s miracles continue to grow and bloom! We look forward to sharing stories from these families so you can, with us, come alongside them and pray for them!
2) Also, we are so excited to announce that the Live Gia Grow Forever Foundation was able to make a donation in the sum of $1000 to LilysHouse.net to help care for Special needs orphans in China.
3) Such exciting news: Live Gia Grow Forever Foundation is now officially a Non-profit 501(c)(3) charity!! That means that all donations are now tax-deductible! We are so thankful for this huge milestone…. after so many months of paperwork and waiting on Government approvals! Gianna’s life grows more life, always! This news came with both sorrow and joy for us… We miss her so much and wish she was here and that the story was different. But, we know, even in our deep ache, that her miracles continue on and HOPE keeps shining through her! We love you, GiaBia…this is for you, sweet baby girl…. as we know God’s stories are never done!
3) We are still in the process of changing our donation button to re-route to the appropriate accounts… so, please let us know if you want to make a donation while we are in this restructuring transition! We will be getting a POBox as well for anyone who would like to send checks. Thank you for your patience as we navigate all this new territory of being an official charity!
4) Our goal is to fundraise over the next 6 months to be able to give out more adoption grants in January of 2021 (Gianna’s Birthday) and to make another donation to LilysHouse!
7) A HUGE HUGE HUG and THANK YOU to all our supporters and prayer warriors for helping us honor our daughter’s life and coming alongside us to grow HOPE and love and light for orphans!
You can continue reading our MAY update here: https://wildflowerhope.com/big-news-live-gia-grow-forever-foundation-and-why-we-are-choosing-thankfulness/
HAVE YOU FOLLOWED US?
Come follow all Gianna’s miracles here:
LGGFF INSTAGRAM PAGE
LGGFF Facebook page
To read the story of how our Foundation was born, click here
To Read Gianna’s story: click here
**(APRIL 2020 update) Because of the generosity of our beloved community, your donations, and those who bought T-shirts, we are able to award a grant/s!! We are currently accepting applications for the Live Gia Grow Forever Foundation for a grant(s) to be given at the end of April in honor of our Gianna Lilyfaith who went to be with Jesus on April 22, 2018.
Deadline is April 19 and winner(s) will be announced at the end of April
*We are accepting applications again to bless a families in Gianna’s honor! Link to donate is just above! (deadline is April 19th)
*As of January 10, 2020 update (our Gianna’s Birthday), because of generous donors and prayer warriors and our Gianna’s legacy, five families have been contacted who received a Live Gia Grow Forever Grant! We were also able to make a sizeable donation to Lily’s House to help support a foster home in China that cares for Special Needs orphans. We are so honored and humbled to see Gianna’s miracles through their stories! Only something God could do!
*We are in process of obtaining 501(c)(3) status for our foundation. Please pray for us in this goal!
*You can read more about the Live Gia Grow Forever Grant families here on this post and also learn more about our Facebook fundraiser that we have going on for the month of February to honor Our Heart Hero!
*We are also praying for the miracle to be able to give out another grant/grants to honor Gianna’s heaven day anniversary on April 22, 2020 in her memory! The Grant is open to families adopting special needs children internationally. You can apply here
*Please share this post and also pray for more warriors to come alongside us and donate and pray so we can continue to grow this foundation and bloom more HOPE for others who need HOPE! God’s stories are never done! We continue to believe for more miracles!
* December 20, 2019 UPDATE: We are so beyond grateful and humbled to be invited into each of the beautiful stories shared with us, from every family who has applied to our Live Gia Grow Forever grant. Our hearts ache and weep and rejoice with each family, as they’ve shared their story with us. Please pray for us, as we prayerfully seek God’s guidance towards which family(ies) to grant our Live Gia Grow Forever fund to, in honor of our precious and brave and beyond forever loved Gianna Lilyfaith Cannelongo. And if you feel God’s nudging to walk alongside and to help fund more miracles to bring such precious and unbelievably adored children home to their families, the link to donate to our Live Gia Grow Forever fund is in the link below. Thank you so much to all of you who have given, all of you who are walking alongside us, all of you who are praying for us and missing and remembering our Gianna with us, and all of you who have entrusted your stories to us. These gifts are not lost on us.
We will be making the decisions in the next couple weeks and awarding a family/families a grant on Gianna’s Birthday, January 10.
Thank you for helping us plant seeds of love and HOPE in honor of our GiaBia!
Her life is always growing more life and blooming more hope! #LiveGiaGrowForever