If you read Adoption Week E-Zine, you may have noticed the photo of Audrey Laxton Church and her adorable daughter in the Sponsors section at the top.

Audrey, who’s a friend of mine, came up with a cool way to support a medical mission organization that provides Chinese children with correctible birth defects surgeries. The surgeries enable the children to have a greater chance of being adopted by families from around the world.

Audrey, a mortgage broker, donates 5 percent of her gross profits to Love Without Boundaries, a humanitarian agency that sends volunteer medical teams to China.

Love Without Boundaries’ volunteers donate their time and pay their own travel costs to help children receive surgery. The most recent cleft trip included over 70 doctors, nurses and other volunteers. In 2005 the organization helped almost 300 orphaned children.

Audrey says, “I feel strongly that this is what God wanted me to do. It’s kind of like tithing.”

For Audrey, who started her mortgage business about two years ago, contributing 5 percent of her already-slim profit margin is a step of faith. “I don’t have 5 percent laying around. We’re scraping, especially since we’re also trying to raise $20,000 to adopt our second child.”

When she went public with her plan, some people told her it was a ridiculous gimmick. Audrey responds to the naysayers: “This is how I’m going to run my business. I’m learning to fully trust God with business, work, and finances.”

She views her contributions as a way to make a concrete impact on a child’s life. Audrey hopes others will share in her mission, either through refinancing their homes through Audrey’s company or through donating a percentage of their own earnings toward humanitarian organizations such as Love Without Boundaries.

If you’d like to learn more, E-mail Audrey at Audrey.Laxton@SSM.com or call her at Silver State Mortgage (Washington state): 206-778-9737.

Audrey’s husband, Scott Church, is a professional photographer who has written a detailed reflection/commentary, “My Beautiful Orchid,” about their journey to adopt their daughter and about China’s one-child policy.