Here is our Adoption Journey so far…
We are adopting River (age 8 and her little sister, Sadie (age 6) from Liberia, Africa.
These 2 precious kids will complete our family of 7.
We chose Liberia because we are impressed by Liberia’s resilience and progress as a war torn country that is healing from so much. Liberia works hard to allow adoptions when necessary and to reunite families whenever possible. We are grateful Liberia is allowing us to adopt our daughters, and hopeful as we watch Liberia grow as a country.
We started this journey in April of 2022.
In May of 2023, with the help of our friends and family, church, community, and organizations like Noonday Collection, Phill the Box, Funds2Orgs, and Adopt Together, we reached our fundraising goals to make our adoption possible. At that time, we anticipated our Liberian daughters would be joining our family in 3-6 months time.
We did not get any solid updates for months, until November of 2023, when adoptions for multiple agencies, including our agency, were suspended in Liberia.
There are multiple political conflicts that brought adoptions to a halt in November of 2023. Although these political conflicts put Liberian children at risk, the layers of the conflicts are multifaceted and complicated beyond the adoption process itself.
At this time, there are no adoptions (domestic or international) progressing in Liberian until these political conflicts are resolved. This was a decision made by Liberian governmental leadership.
In February of 2024, we decided to travel to Liberia as a family and do some real-time fact finding on what barriers prevent our family from being together.
We have met with multiple Liberian government officials and multiple individuals who play a role in working in adoptions here. We have spoken with multiple US congressional offices, and have reached out to anyone in the adoption realm that can give insight and advice in a way forward for our children. We continue to hope the US embassy in Liberia will assist us, but have not been able to get a meeting with them to discuss our concerns.
We have visited our children’s orphanage multiple times a week. We have done multiple fundraisers to keep the doors of our daughters’ orphanage open, keep the children’s needs met, and support the staff that cares for them. We have physically done all we can to assist the orphanage in maintaining quality, safety and health for the children. We have discussed our case with experts near and far.
We have been in Liberia for over 3 months, and are sadly running out of funds to remain here.
We fear if we leave, our encouragement and our persistence to represent American families will be lost with our departure. We fear if we leave, the support we have recruited for the kids here will fade. We fear if we leave, the Liberian government will be less motivated to remember our children’s case.
Thanks to each of you and the words of encouragement, financial donations, textile donations and actions of noonday purchasing power to move mountains this past year. We hope you will help us push one more mountain of money out of our way to complete our family.
We continue to humbly ask for any assistance that can be found to support our family in this quest for safety for more than just our 2 Liberian daughters, but a quest to provide a safe way home for them and their peers that wait in orphanages in Liberia.
Hi friends! We still have no news of any forward motion for our kids. We have heard positive feedback from our agency’s attorney and the government officials in Liberia that things should be resolved soon. “Soon” is such a curious word. We have heard the word “soon” and the word “hope” so much in the last 2 years.
We appreciate all of the support we continue to get from all of you. We are both back to working our regular jobs, plus teaching swimming lessons and selling Noonday, and collecting textiles for Phill the Box.
See the YouTube video below for further details.
Thank you for watching our Adoption story unfold.
I plan to visit our Liberian daughters in November to see how they are doing. Although we are ever hopeful for progress on our adoption case, we know this trip may just be a check-in with them, and no progress may occur. We appreciate any support for this effort. We know the separation from us for them is traumatic and detrimental to their emotional well being. This is why we plan to visit at least every few months so they can see one of us in person.
Number of Days Home from Liberia: 46
Number of Days we lived in Liberia: 139
Number of Days Adopting from Liberia: 872
Number of Days our daughters have been in Orphan Care: 1,213
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhvmF_X0zoUuAwUF7WzqlfZaskzIBmns2&si=0SE6xFYPJoXfkGIY
Shop Noonday to help with Rachel’s November visit to Liberia:
https://noondaycollection.com/rachelsmith-smithadoption
Click here to make a tax deductible donation to assist with our adoption expenses: https://bit.ly/adoptfaster
Venmo option to give to our travel expenses to Liberia:
@Rachel-Smith-964
We have been back in the US for 27 days. It feels like an eternity away from our Liberian daughters. We appreciate all the encouragement and support we have received from so many people. We hope to have good news soon.
Number of Days Home from Liberia: 27
Number of Days we lived in Liberia: 139
Number of Days Adopting from Liberia: 853
Number of Days in Orphan Care: 1,194
Shop Noonday Collection for Hope of Blessing International (HOBI) orphanage:
https://bit.ly/noondayforHOBI
Venmo option to donate to HOBI orphanage:
https://www.venmo.com/u/HOBICHILDREN
YouTube link to subscribe:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhvmF_X0zoUuAwUF7WzqlfZaskzIBmns2&si=0SE6xFYPJoXfkGIY
Click here to make a tax deductible donation to assist with our adoption expenses: https://bit.ly/adoptfaster
Venmo option to give to our adoption expenses:
@Rachel-Smith-964
To learn about other matched families whose children wait with our daughters in their orphanage, click a link below:
Bruce Family:
https://adopttogether.herokuapp.com/families/the-bruces
Butler Family:
http://adopttogether.org/families/the-butlers-1
Coffman Family:
http://www.adopttogether.org/families/the-coffman-s
Godfrey Family:
https://adopttogether.herokuapp.com/families/the-godfreys
Lipe Family:
https://adopttogether.herokuapp.com/families/the-lipes
McGafee:
http://adopttogether.org/families/the-mcgaffees
Smith Family:
https://adopttogether.herokuapp.com/families/the-smith-s
Whitney Family:
http://adopttogether.org/families/the-whitneys
We have been back on US soil for 8 days. Still no change in Liberia.
Number of Days Home from Liberia: 4
Number of Days we lived in Liberia: 139
Number of Days of Daily Videos: 187
Number of Days Adopting from Liberia: 830
Number of Days in Orphan Care: 1,170
Venmo option to donate to HOBI orphanage:
https://www.venmo.com/u/HOBICHILDREN
YouTube link to subscribe:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhvmF_X0zoUuAwUF7WzqlfZaskzIBmns2&si=0SE6xFYPJoXfkGIY
Shop Noonday AND assist with our adoption expenses by just clicking here: https://noondaycollection.com/rachelsmith-smithadoption
Click here to make a tax deductible donation to assist with our adoption expenses: https://bit.ly/adoptfaster
Venmo option to give to our adoption expenses:
@Rachel-Smith-964
To learn about other matched families whose children wait with our daughters in their orphanage, click a link below:
Bruce Family:
https://adopttogether.herokuapp.com/families/the-bruces
Butler Family:
http://adopttogether.org/families/the-butlers-1
Coffman Family:
http://www.adopttogether.org/families/the-coffman-s
Godfrey Family:
https://adopttogether.herokuapp.com/families/the-godfreys
Lipe Family:
https://adopttogether.herokuapp.com/families/the-lipes
McGafee:
http://adopttogether.org/families/the-mcgaffees
Smith Family:
https://adopttogether.herokuapp.com/families/the-smith-s
Whitney Family:
http://adopttogether.org/families/the-whitneys
