Open Hearts for Orphans
Words by Elaine Tomski
THE WIDER WE OPEN OUR HEARTS, the more our love will grow. Lisa Murphy lives this reality daily, opening her heart to the vulnerable and inviting God’s love to flow through. Lisa, the mother of five precious blessings adopted from China, is also the founder of Open Hearts for Orphans.
Jim and Lisa Murphy’s adoption journey began in 2006 when an adoption agency matched them with a sweet baby girl in China. Jim and Lisa gave her a last name and called her Madi. “She opened the floodgates to new life in our souls,” says Lisa.
In January 2010, the Murphys returned to China to adopt their first son, Daniel. He was two years old, had cherry lips and soulful brown eyes, and lived with four heart defects. Only four months later, little Daniel faced the heart surgery he desperately needed. Coming out of surgery strong, he experienced a cardiac arrest the following day, and Daniel fought for his life for the next nineteen days. Moving into the arms of Jesus, Daniel left the hospital for his new heavenly home. He left behind seeds planted in Jim and Lisa’s hearts for children with special needs. Wanting to preserve and share every detail of Daniel’s life as a Murphy, Lisa began imagining and writing the memoir With an Open Heart: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Unexpected Blessings.
At times, an open heart feels like searing pain alongside the blessings of love. After a time of grief and healing—and with the Holy Spirit’s nudge to go back—the Murphys adopted a second boy, bringing Charlie home from China at the age of 18 months.
Yet again, Lisa felt the Lord calling her to open her heart to adoption. Her “Yes” was met with Jim’s “No.” He could not see a way to achieve another expensive international adoption. Lisa pledged to handle every detail of the fundraising, and the Lord provided through generous friends, family, fundraisers, and a couple of adoption grants. Five-and-a-half-year-old Joseph became a Murphy on his brother Charlie’s fifth birthday. Lisa says, “God matched these brothers perfectly as built-in buddies.”
A couple of years later, Lisa knew in her heart that there was room for another child in their family. Again, their finances and Jim spoke differently. However, “In typical fashion,” says Lisa, “with a heart the size of a planet, Jim changed his mind after he prayed and prayed about it.” In 2016, Lulu was almost six years old when her unique spunk enriched the Murphy family. After ten years of adoption, their family felt complete.
A New Job
Parents typically assign their children chores to teach them responsibility and discipline. However, little Daniel is a child who gave his mommy a job to do. In May of 2016, Open Hearts for Orphans was born in memory of their heavenly son, Daniel. Because Lisa had lived through the highs and lows of adoption, including finances, medical issues, and the process of incorporating children into a new family and country, she was uniquely prepared to assist other adoptive families. The non-profit organization was like a hobby when Lisa began, but soon, people came alongside her. The organization linked forces with trusted partners while donors magnified Open Hearts for Orphan’s mission. “Every year,” says Lisa, “it became more and more of a structured organization.”
Open Hearts for Orphans’ mission addresses three areas of need: medical intervention for orphaned children, meeting the basic needs of orphaned children, and providing financial assistance for adoptive families through their “Say Yes” adoption grant program. In the beginning, the grant program covered only the adoption application fee. “But as more donations came in,” Lisa said, “grants were increased to $1,000, then $2,000, and now most of our grants are $4,000 or more, based on need. It’s so mind-blowing to me that it’s grown that much!”
In 2018, Lisa collaborated with artist Cady Driver to create a t-shirt fundraiser called “Downright Lovable.” Cady is an adoptive mother of a beautiful son from China with Down syndrome. Three “Say Yes” grants were awarded from the funds raised in that campaign for orphans with Down syndrome and the families who adopted them. Marlin and Lisa Miller also partnered with Open Hearts for Orphans by donating the book sale profits from Extraordinary: Stories of Adopting Children with Down Syndrome. The adoption stories of the Miller, Murphy, and Driver families are just three of many included in the book compiled by Cady Driver and published by JPV Press. “Still to this day,” says Lisa, “our Downright Lovable grants account for about one-third of the grants we give.”
As of January 2025, Open Hearts for Orphans has given over 150 grants to families in 38 states, reaching children with special needs from 23 countries. In addition to their “Say Yes” grants, Open Hearts for Orphans created their ARISE program (Adoption Resources, Insight, Support, and Encouragement) to provide free one-on-one coaching to help families who are interested in exploring adoption.
Funding grants are part of their mission, but that’s not all Open Hearts for Orphans accomplishes to support adoptive families. Since the Murphy family experienced several adoptions, they also understand the need to serve in the post-adoptive arena. “Getting kids home is when the journey just begins,” says Lisa. Open Hearts for Orphans provides Welcome Home kits to support the adoptive families receiving grants. Each kit includes practical help, gift cards, books for the kids, and encouragement for the entire family. Lisa says, “We want to continue praying with them. We want to continue our relationship with them.” Some families find that their new son or daughter can adapt with little difficulty to a new home, while others need trauma-informed assistance. Adoptive families can remain connected, informed, and encouraged through quarterly training sessions with various trained practitioners selected by Open Hearts for Orphans.
New Opportunities
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, international adoption became limited for a time. However, from her Florida office, Lisa stayed in virtual touch with mission organizations around the globe. During this time, Open Hearts for Orphans learned what their partners in Uganda face. Orphans are defined differently there since the Ugandan culture creates more vulnerabilities for children. When impoverished parents cannot afford to care for their children, it is not unusual for them to abandon those children. Also, because there is no government safety net for widows, when a woman’s husband dies, it leaves her—and her children’s—entire financial support structure in jeopardy. “We realized if we don’t stand in the gap for that family,” says Lisa, “those [children] could land in an orphanage. We had an education on how it works in the world and realized we’re not just supporting orphaned children but abandoned children, as well.”
While the rest of the world shut down due to COVID-19, Open Hearts for Orphans discovered a reason to expand. When hearts swell, the outreach grows wider. Partnering with other ministries in Uganda, Open Hearts for Orphans has helped fund and build 50 homes for vulnerable families. Some houses were erected for single-parent families. Multiple homes were constructed for elderly grandmothers caring for as many as eight children. Still others were created for older brothers or sisters raising their siblings. It is common for families to care for abandoned neighbor children, as well. Finally, they built one home for abandoned girls living with a disabled aunt. Open Hearts for Orphans bought her a wheelchair and replaced their crumbling home with a fully furnished one, including a latrine, kitchen, solar panels, and rainwater catch system. These families now have hope and a home.
In 2021, Open Hearts for Orphans began supporting a Ugandan organization that seeks foster placement for orphans. Working together, these partners have emptied four orphanages, allowing approximately 100 children to live in homes with loving families. Sadly, Lisa reports that when a mother dies during childbirth in a Ugandan hospital, the first solution is to place the infant in an orphanage. Too many of these orphanages exist not because the people care about children but because they want to receive the funds. Now, through the efforts of Open Hearts for Orphans and their partners, babies are placed either with extended family or in emergency foster care until they are settled with relatives or secure an adoptive family. “The work in Uganda has been very rewarding and interesting to learn,” says Lisa. “It puts things into perspective. Keeps it real. I know we have poverty here, but they have poverty at a tragic level there.”
You may wonder how Lisa, the mother of four growing children, can juggle many tasks in operating and expanding a non-profit organization. She can’t. Lisa is supported first with guidance from the Holy Spirit, then a Board of Directors, and now two employees have joined Lisa at Open Hearts for Orphans. Mary Sammons and Ann Bartlinski came on board in 2023 and 2024. Lisa has loved these two mothers for some time because they have heart babies, Ivy Joy and Teresa, in heaven with her Daniel. Like Jim and Lisa, these women and their husbands returned to China to adopt more children even after their devastating losses. Lisa said, “They are beautiful moms to work with, and we all have the same heart for it.”
God gifted Lisa with a business mind, so she handles the operations, marketing, and finance from Delray Beach, Florida. A former board member of Open Hearts for Orphans, Mary manages the adoption assistance. Lisa says, “Mary could calm a stormy ocean.” From Arizona, she manages grants and coordinates with adoption agencies and families. By the end of 2024, Ann became Open Hearts for Orphans director of medical intervention and orphan care projects, operating from Orlando, Florida. “She did not waste any time and got on a plane to Uganda in January of 2025,” says Lisa.
The poverty Ann faced in Uganda was like nothing she had ever witnessed. Her first stop was an ill-equipped hospital in Masaka, Uganda. Ann met a tearful mother and her severely malnourished child. Ann heard God’s voice speak to her heart, “Stop and help this child.” Noting the infant was near death, Ann made phone calls to partners in the area and arranged to have the struggling child moved to a better hospital that day. “With the help of this better-equipped hospital and a miracle,” says Lisa, “this baby was unrecognizably healthy just two months later.” The attending doctor noticed something special about this intelligent, joyful boy and encouraged the team to take good care of him. Lisa says, “This child, so close to death, is destined for something big.” The team calls him Josiah (pronounced ho-sigh-uh).
Ann returned to where she had discovered Josiah struggling to assess the needed improvements. A nun had formerly directed the Masaka region’s St. Joseph’s Kitovu Hospital. “When she died,” says Lisa, “all financial functions seemed to stop. There is no medicine. No supplies.” The ceiling crumbles and falls on the children, so caretakers must move beds into small hallways. The only doctor servicing the hospital visits just once per week. Statistics indicate that pediatric needs in Uganda are significant since one in 13 children die before the age of five, mostly from preventable causes. In addition, 29 percent of children under five are malnourished, creating vulnerability to illnesses.
Ann came home to the United States with a mission to restore St. Joseph’s Kitovu Hospital’s Pediatric Ward in Masaka. Imagine how many more Josiah’s will survive when the hospital is safe and fully functioning again. The plan is to hire someone who can replace the nun, serving as both a nurse and manager. Renovations to the building are necessary, and updated equipment is past due. The estimated price tag for a modern facility, increased capacity, and life-saving care is $150,000.00. “The hospital is our big mountain to climb this year,” says a hopeful Lisa. “Josiah’s smile is our why. Every child deserves a chance to thrive.”
The Open Hearts for Orphans’ purpose is to provide hope for orphaned, abandoned, and at-risk children in the United States and abroad. In addition to meeting the needs of at-risk children in South Florida, they provide a sponsorship program in partnership with Love Without Boundaries, serving children in Uganda and Cambodia. In Uganda alone, more than seventy-five children who cannot afford to attend an African school can now go to school because of Open Hearts for Orphans partners and donors. One such at-risk child wandered the streets because his mother had died and his father preferred alcohol. The little boy roamed the village in only a t-shirt, playing in filth and fires. “This little boy graduated kindergarten last year,” says Lisa. “Talk about changing the story!”
Lisa’s greatest challenge is finding volunteers and donors with a global heart. “I find that so sad,” says Lisa. “God definitely brings us the right people with a global heart, but we find that many people only focus locally when it comes to missions. The problem is that vulnerable children are scattered across the globe, the majority without the material goods and services we take for granted. They need champions.” All children need to belong to families. All children hope for a home. All children long to be safe and loved to grow healthy and strong.
Although there are challenges to expansion, Lisa and her team are no strangers to growth from challenges, and they continue to serve vulnerable children with gratitude to God, generous partners, and donors. The Gratitude Report found on the Open Hearts for Orphans’ website documents what happens yearly with transparency as the goal. The current report tells of the hope, life, and love generous donors made possible. Gift cards gave hope to ninety children in foster care who graduated from middle school, high school, or college. A toddler in India received bowel surgery, which saved Serena’s life. Love funded twenty-four “Say Yes” grants approved in 2024. These are just three examples of all that Open Hearts for Orphans and their partners accomplished for abandoned and at-risk children across the globe last year.
When Lisa looks back on all God has done, and forward to all He will do through Open Hearts for Orphans, she knows her yes matters. She also wants to thank everyone who says yes to entering into these children’s life stories, whether that means adoption, foster care, orphan support, or medical care. “Not everyone is called to adopt,” says Lisa, “but we can all support it. We can all be part of that miracle. It’s the right thing to do, and we’re just grateful that so many people want to come alongside us.” However, Lisa won’t stop there. “I’m going to be praying God opens more hearts.”
Adopting five children from China has changed Jim and Lisa Murphy’s life and family for good. The reality of love and loss has humbled them before God and strengthened them. The lessons learned and the blessings received are immeasurable and easy to share. Concerning Open Hearts for Orphans, Lisa says, “It feels like such a gift to get to do this every day! We do it in memory of Daniel and so many other beloved warriors gone too soon.”
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:18 NIV
For more information, visit www.openheartsfororphans.org.
Open Hearts for Orphans | P.O. Box 8074, Delray Beach, FL 33482
Books Mentioned:
With An Open Heart: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Unexpected Blessings by Lisa Murphy with Marilyn Murray Willison
EXTRAORDINARY, Stories of Adopting Children with Down Syndrome, compiled by Cady Driver
Elaine Tomski is a wife, mother, grandma, and contributing writer for Plain Values and The Plain Pages. She and her husband, Jeff, appreciate the beauty of God’s creation from their hilltop near Killbuck, Ohio. Elaine is the author of Pregnant and Praying, a prayer journal for expectant mothers.