Leadership

Our U.S. Leadership Team

Le Ann Dakake, Founder and Board Chair

Le Ann currently lives in Frisco, Texas, and is a member of Prestonwood Church in Prosper. She is Mom to 10 children, who are now adults. Nine were adopted (6 as teens), from Russia, Latvia, and China. It was during her first adoption trip for an infant son from Russia, that allowed her to temporarily live and interact with many of the school-age children also living at the orphanage. This experience would soon change the trajectory of her life. This adoption introduced her to her next child, a 13-year-old teenage son, Taylor. The realization of so many school-age children being in orphanages, with less than a 5% opportunity of being identified for adoption once a child reaches the age of 5, and nearly 0% for pre-teens and teenagers. On that adoption trip, Le Ann identified an infant daughter and returned five months later to adopt her. By the third adoption trip to the same orphanage, a mutual trust and relationship with the orphanage director had developed. They discussed a mutual desire for more families to meet the school-age children who had such little chance of adoption. Over the next 18 months, continued discussion through her adoption translator resulted in the development of a dental team to travel during April 2002. On this trip, dental work was completed for more than 60 children with former Le Ann’s adopted son, and former resident Taylor, acting as the team’s translator. Several of those team members met school-age children, who they later returned to adopt using an accredited adoption agency. After seeing the positive changes in Taylor, a huge desire for more kids to somehow meet potential adoptive families was raised. Together with the orphanage director, her local church, the adoption translator, and God’s many miracles, they navigated multiple layers of the Russian government which resulted in an idea to bring a group of children to the USA, to visit with other families.  The entire process from conception, through an unprecedented approval process, to the arrival of 15 orphan children in Atlanta, Georgia, was less than 3 months, and nothing short of a miracle! The Atlanta Journal Newspaper picked up the story and ran it as front-page local news, which followed the children and their “host families” throughout the summer of 2002. Le Ann quickly realized this was something much larger than bringing her son’s friends to visit with local families, and with the help of founding host families, New Horizons for Children (NHFC) was conceived and created as a non-profit charity. Over the next 12 years, Le Ann and her team developed the model for what is known today as, “international orphan hosting programs”, from the countries of Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, China, the Philippines, Belarus, and Poland. First and foremost, Le Ann has seen the Hand and Spirit of God work through her and gives all glory to Him for leading, developing, and directing these programs where more than 3500 children were served during her time with NHFC.

However, in 2014, with multiple orphan hosting programs serving orphans from many countries in Eastern Europe and China, Le Ann felt called to continue orphan ministry in lesser-served areas of the world. With this, she made the decision to hand over the reins to a new director for NHFC, and founded Be Love! Orphan Outreach Missions, (BLOOM). This came from her initial vision to simply “Be Love!” to orphans and vulnerable children. The goal was to help children find ways to “bloom where they happened to be planted” and initiate ways and means for sustainable partnership programs with local Christian ministries already in place. With this vision, BLOOM’s first Uganda program was born with a group called Side by Side Ministries, which continues today with orphan sponsorship opportunities for many children in desperate need of education, clothing, food, and shelter in their existing SBS dorm. In 2015, Le Ann’s parents were both diagnosed with terminal illnesses, and she stepped down from BLOOM, to care for them. In 2020, after the passing of both parents, she was invited to return to BLOOM as a Board Member. In 2022, she became Chair of the Board and has since become more active in the day-to-day activity of BLOOM with new program development in both Ghana and Pakistan. She has also led mission trips to Central America, many countries in Eastern Europe, China, the Philippines, Uganda, and Ghana. 

 

Paula Chaffin, Executive Director and Duane Chaffin, Bloom’s First Board Chairman

Paula and her husband Duane have been longstanding supporters of BLOOM. Initially, Duane served as BLOOM’s first Chairman of the Board of Directors while Paula actively contributed as a Board Member. Today, they continue to play crucial roles and remain among our most dedicated supporters. They have two sons, and live in Lebanon, Missouri.

Lydia Rollins, Treasurer and Board Member

Lydia is a first-generation Ukrainian American, who lives in Acworth, Georgia with her husband, Lee. She is super proud of her two adult sons who are both commissioned officers in the US Air Force. She is also a  member of the First United Methodist Church of Acworth, Georgia. Formerly, Lydia volunteered for over 8 years with New Horizons for Children as a liaison, translator, and host family for adult chaperones who traveled to the USA from Ukraine and Russia. She coordinated between host families and their hosted children and the assigned chaperones throughout the orphan hosting programs. Lydia is currently the Treasurer and a Board Member with BLOOM. In February, she traveled as a representative for BLOOM on her first mission trip to help assess potential program development in Ghana, Africa.

Beverly Lense MD, Board Member

Dr. Beverly is a pediatrician currently living in London, KY. She was adopted as an infant and knew early in her married life that she wanted to expand her family through adoption. After adopting 2 children from Guatemala, she and her husband decided to host a boy from Latvia for a summer. She was so touched by the experience and knew this was what God had led her to do. She became involved in the program as a volunteer and has spent the last 15 years volunteering for different hosting programs and doing other mission work internationally. It has changed her life in ways she never imagined. She and her husband have since adopted 4 more children as tweens or teens that they met through the programs. They know God has called them to help the orphans in this world. When they started this journey, they thought they would help these children and change their lives. However, they feel they are actually the ones whose lives have been changed and blessed.

Our Program Leaders Abroad