Built by Grace
Story: Danielle Luebbe
Photos: Courtesy of Rev. Marty and Amanda Strohschein
A chance visit to Concordia set Marty and Amanda Strohschein on a lifelong journey of faith, ministry and family shaped by grace, community and God’s provision.
When Rev. Marty Strohschein ’02 took a detour off I-80 during a college visit trip with his dad, he had no idea that the stop would forever alter the trajectory of his life.
“My dad talked me into stopping at Concordia Seward on our way from Minnesota to visit colleges in Colorado,” Marty said. “I didn’t want to stop, but my dad was persistent, and we were driving by. As I look back on that little detour…I am amazed at how much good my dad’s persistence brought into my life.”
Marty’s time at Concordia didn’t begin as smoothly as he hoped. After his first year, he transferred to a state school in Michigan “in search of more of a party scene.” It was a choice he quickly regretted. “I found what I was looking for, but at the end of my first semester there I ended up in a bad place. Jesus’ grace found me there,” he said. After heartfelt conversations with his parents and former roommate, Harlan Anson ’02, Marty returned to Concordia.
“My friends welcomed me back. The golf team welcomed me back! They gave me a vision of what the Christian life could be in how they lived out their faith, and they taught me the importance of Christian community,” he said. “It was around that time God started me thinking about becoming a pastor.”
Marty credits mentors like Rev. Dr. Kenneth Block and Dr. Mark Meehl ’79 for nurturing that calling. “God brought me from partying in Michigan to sitting in Professor Block’s office reading the Greek New Testament with a small group of pre-sem students in the course of a couple years. I’m still amazed at how gracious God was to me.”
His return to Concordia also brought him to his future wife, Amanda (Franzen) Strohschein ’03. Amanda was a communications major and volleyball player at Concordia, and they were married after Amanda graduated. They launched into life together with hopeful plans: seminary for Marty, a family of their own, a future in ministry. But the years that followed would test their faith in deep and unexpected ways.
A New Direction
Years later, the Strohscheins were joyfully parenting their first two children, Lucy and Sam, when their world changed.
“A few months after our second biological child was born, we found out Amanda had uterine cancer,” Marty shared. Amanda underwent a hysterectomy and chemotherapy. Though the treatment was successful, it ended the possibility of having more biological children.
Yet God was already planting seeds for what would come next.
“As we moved on to life after beating cancer, we thought of some ways we could look into adoption,” Amanda said. “I remember reading blogs about being a foster parent and at first it sounded really tough. Then there was a family that started coming to our church that had two foster kids and getting to know them and their family actually helped me see that it wasn’t that dramatic, they were just kids that needed a little extra love and attention…I could do that.”
They attended a foster care and adoption event at a local church and felt called to open their home. It wasn’t long before they received their first placement: a 10-month-old boy.
“He was part of a sibling group where the older siblings got placed in another home,” Amanda said. “He was with us for a month before they were able to find a home where they could all three be together. It was hard to say goodbye even after just a month.”
After a two-week break, the Strohschein’s put their name back on the foster list. Shortly after, they were contacted about a baby boy named Caeden.
God has walked with us and reminded us often that these are His children; He loves them even more than we do.
“He was brought by a caseworker to our home, Wednesday of Holy Week, while we were eating dinner,” Marty said.
“He came as a four-month-old, very neglected, under cared for baby,” Amanda recalled. “Caeden’s bio-mom and grandma were regular about doing visits and being involved in the case, so it looked like it was possibly going to reunification until mom started to slow down in participation.”
Caeden had been with the family for about a year when they received another life-changing call: Caeden’s birth mother had given birth to another son, and the state needed to know by the end of the day whether the Strohscheins could take him.
“We weren’t ready,” Marty said. “We spent that afternoon talking and praying. How are we going to do this?”
But God made their path clear. Within 48 hours, newborn Gabe joined their family.
“We didn’t have a vehicle that fit six people, so someone from our church loaned us their minivan,” Marty recalled. “Our crib was already in use, so someone else from our church gave us a second crib. They gave us boxes of diapers and gift cards and meals and offers to babysit, all within the next couple weeks.”
That support was critical in the early days of parenting four children under the age of five.
“We needed all the help we could get,” Marty said. “And God provided it.”
A Family Formed by Grace
Over the next few years, it became clear that Caeden and Gabe would not reunite with their biological parents, and the Strohscheins were able to adopt both boys.
“They are both such a gift of God,” Marty said. “We love how this is a story of His grace, in that we could have never done this without our church and family coming around us to support us.”
Perhaps most touching is the way their biological children, Lucy and Sam, viewed the unfolding of their family. “It’s beautiful to me that our kids see it as normal to be a family who opens their home to someone who needs one,” Amanda said. “They’ve always just loved each other like siblings. That’s it.”
“They didn’t know anything different, other than that their brothers needed a family and God arranged for them to become part of ours,” Marty added.
Today, their children are 16, 15, 12 and 11. Though they’ve seen God’s provision time and again, the family doesn’t shy away from the truth that adoption comes with complexity and pain.
“Foster care and adoption is not an easy journey,” Marty said. “Though one of our sons was four months old when he came to our family, and the second came to us right out of the hospital, there is a pain that lingers from being separated from their biological parents.”
“We’re learning from them about what that’s like, and how it affects them,” he added. “We’re so proud of how they face significant challenges with courage and strength.”
A Life of Ministry and Hope
Today, Marty serves as associate pastor at Cross of Christ Lutheran Church in Phoenix, Arizona. He oversees family ministry, preaches regularly and helps lead outreach efforts in the community. “My day-to-day life is filled with conversations, meetings and visits where I get to bring God’s Word into people’s lives,” he said.
He finds deep fulfillment in watching God’s grace flow through the church into people’s lives. “I love the stories where the church follows Jesus to be the family someone needs but doesn’t have.”
Amanda, who recently earned her master’s in marriage and family therapy, serves as a counselor and high school youth leader at their church. In every aspect of their lives, they are channels of grace for others, just as others were for them.
Standing Firm
From a detour off the interstate to a diagnosis that changed everything, from the heartbreak of infertility to the joy of adoption, the Strohschein family’s journey is a powerful testimony of what it means to build your life on the rock of Christ.
“It isn’t always neat or easy by any means,” said Amanda. “But God has walked with us and reminded us often that these are His children; He loves them even more than we do. We can trust that He has them and isn’t going to let go.”
It’s not an easy path. But as the Strohscheins’ story reminds us, it is a path lined with grace, shaped by community and strengthened by a God who provides exactly what we need.