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.
The Lament of Jeremy..
Things we have seen on a motorcycle…
Number of Days of Daily Videos:130
Number of Days Living in Liberia: 86
Number of Days Adopting from Liberia: 772
Number of Days in Orphan Care: 1,113
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://bit.ly/livinginliberia
Click here to make a tax deductible donation to assist with our adoption expenses: https://bit.ly/adoptfaster
The Lifeboat
We met with Albert today, the Liberian director of our children’s orphanage, and he was encouraged by progress within the multiple government offices involved in this process. He also is saddened by the lengthy wait times for us and for all of you. He says he is pushing as hard as he can for a resolution and believes we will have more info next week that will be positive.
He also appreciates all the extra help many of you have given to SW, as they have had many budget cuts to remain open and are doing all they can to keep things running.
The assistance of the waiting families is much appreciated by Albert and his staff.
It was nice to sit down with him and listen to the inner workings of different government entities. He answered a lot of questions. He does not foresee SW shutting down. He is looking to the future and based on the conversations he has had, he believes we are close to resolution and progress.
He did ask that we continue to pray for people to work together on this process for the sake of the kids.
He also appreciates each of you and hopes to meet you all soon.
Albert has a lot of experience in this arena. There have been barriers in certain government offices that caused delays in the past, specifically those of us waiting from 2022 to today. The barriers and political -ish conflicts from the previous MOG staff seem to have been resolved by certain staff members moving on from those positions.
The case workers who do the work on the case history reports and know each of our kids’ stories intimately appear to have the children’s best interests at heart.
Their leadership echoes the same from what we have seen.
I have been devastated emotionally this week to see our Liberian daughter spend another birthday in an orphanage. It is brutal to live here as an American citizen and be misrepresented by the U.S. embassy and isolated from my former life.
It is heartbreaking to watch our hard earned bank account drain and watch the money fundraised and shared in effort by so many people continue to dwindle.
As an American daughter of this age, I am not accustomed to this life of waiting and watching with no voice.
As a mother, I cannot sleep when I consider the children in Liberia who will die on the streets today, unreachable by anyone, but so close to everyone that could help, specifically me.
It’s not a culture shock I am enduring, it is a war.
There is another family here with us in Liberia, and we both started with the resolve to not leave without our daughters.
Answering a call by God to show up here and refuse to leave is a leap our families took. Not just for our kids, but for the principle of what is right and what needs to be heard from the parents.
As both of our families continue to endure this process, I appreciate any encouragement we can receive from any of you.
The brutality of going to the orphanage and greeting all 35 kids, then leaving them a few hours later has become a ritual that has placed a hole in my soul that I cannot put into words.
I see these kids and they don’t belong there. They are safe, but it’s like a lifeboat, and it is long past time to reach the shore of the families that wait for them.
It is exactly that. I visit them on a lifeboat and abandon them there and then visit them again. And each time we fail to bring them to shore, a piece of my heart remains on that boat.
There is a lot about me that will never recover from this experience.
There is none of me that regrets one second of one visit to that lifeboat.
We need more help. We are barely surviving the spiritual warfare that we agreed to enter by keeping this lifeboat afloat.
I don’t know what that help is. Whether it is emotional, spiritual, intercessory, financial, legal, political, physical or just external words of hope.
I just know we need more help.
There are mountains that should be thrown into the sea for the sake of these small souls drifting in an ocean of uncertainty in a lifeboat I seem to only be able to visit, yet am unable to bring to shore.
Sorry for the length.
-rachel
Number of Days of Daily Videos:128
Number of Days Living in Liberia: 84
Number of Days Adopting from Liberia: 770
Number of Days in Orphan Care: 1,111
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://bit.ly/livinginliberia
Click here to make a tax deductible donation to assist with our adoption expenses: https://bit.ly/adoptfaster
Number of Days of Daily Videos:127
Number of Days Living in Liberia: 83
Number of Days Adopting from Liberia: 769
Number of Days in Orphan Care: 1,110
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://bit.ly/livinginliberia
Click here to make a tax deductible donation to assist with our adoption expenses: https://bit.ly/adoptfaster
