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.
Update!
Merry Christmas and I hope your day is good. I am thankful for the birth of Jesus and the promise of hope He chose for us.
I wonder if the following 33 years his mother, Mary, experienced, were happy or tormenting as she knew she would surrender herself, her son, her body and mind, to parent the savior of the world, and then watch his unlawful death occur.
My day was not as good as I hoped it would be. I did everything I could to keep myself together for the 3 kids under my roof and my physical protection today. I love them so much and am so grateful for their presence here. The number of days we have had them and the number of days we will likely have them here is not a huge number. That finite quantity of days is not lost on me.
Happy Birthday, Jesus, thanks for showing up for us.
Do you see me today? Are you disappointed in my lack of joy?
Do you count my breaths with me? Do you see my heart beating so fast in silent anguish? Do you feel this labor of time with me? Is there something I am neglecting to ask you for? Is there something I need to do to be worthy of their rescue? Do you feel this loss with me? Am I missing the final step to bring these little girls home?
We sent gifts and for a video of our kids holding their gifts and opening them. Then, the orphanage director took a separate video of our kids saying thank you. The little one just waved and blew a kiss. I don’t think she fully understands where the video goes or what it means. Her cautious skepticism warms my heart and makes me smile.
The older one seems to get it. But her words and her smiles broke me completely.
“Hello, Mom and Dad. Thank you for the gifts you sent us. We hope we see you soon. May God bless you. Thank you. We love you. Bye!“
I don’t know why the sound of her voice and the peace of her little spirit washed over me like a wave of grief feeling bigger than the ocean creates and just knocked me down.
Watching her stand in the dirt outside her orphanage for this photo opportunity and video message as she speaks the things we hope she knows. She knows we are her parents. She hopes we are coming soon. She knows we are coming. She is grateful for today. She is asking for God to bless us. She is doing good today.
The evil in this world holds her hostage there, and her little sister with her. To those that blockade adoption completions for political or financial gain or both, to be sure, I am glad I do not know your names. Because I would hunt you down and right your ship in creative ways, I promise.
As my daughters wait in Liberia, and I do my best to hold together some semblance of normalcy here, I just want to say that I am barely holding it together.
It’s like standing on a stage with lines to say, but no one will tell you what they are.
It’s like being on trial for a crime, but the only crime I have committed is the one to choose to save their lives.
Jesus knows about trials. Especially the unfair ones.
The only action I have left to take is one I have already taken so many times.
But, today, I will ask it again and claim these 2 little people as my daughters. Whatever evil powers hold my daughters in Liberia, and have stood over their release as guards of evil intent.
In the name of Jesus, I demand their release. May the legal channels of peace prevail today. May my plane ticket to go and get them be purchased tomorrow.
May the hope to see me soon as asked by my 7 year old Liberian daughter be a reality this week.
May God see fit to swing open doors and pour out floodgates of blessings for freedom of these orphans and their peers while they wait for rescue.
I ask for the release of my daughters’ investigative reports today. I ask for their court dates to legally become our daughters be scheduled for tomorrow.
I pray this with confidence and peace, and will start packing my things.
I cannot stand beneath the pressure of this process much longer without publicly losing my composure.
https://youtu.be/sLrHQDGgRyM?si=Snz6PcA_yJ8mnIo7
I keep listening to these songs “Crazy Love” and “Breakthrough” by Chris Mcclarney.
Here is what I have found.
There must be something more, beyond familiar shores.
Wake up my heart to see
Shake my soul to breathe
In what You ask of me
Whisper peace
Psalm 46
God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Come and see what the LORD has done,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.
He makes wars cease
to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
-nothing is impossible for God.
-everywhere I look, I see little miracles when my hope is floating up to the level of my eyes and I know that God is moving me towards my daughters with each beat of my heart that he hears and each tear that falls from my face that he sees.
-everything I know to be true logistically and historically says I will not see my Liberian daughters face to face before this year ends.
-but that is still my hope. It is still my deepest hope to rescue them from the clutches of orphanism and place their feet on the ground of safety and peace our family offers as soon as possible and before 2024.
-and I know that as the daughter of a King not moved by this world, He hears me on this hope. The God I serve who gave me the desire to adopt is not trying to make this harder for us. He knows my hope. He gave it to me on purpose, just as He gave the ferocity and tenacity to parent these children.
-as that hope remains, I remain grateful to God for this opportunity to be their mother from here, on this side of that big ocean that stands between my hands holding theirs.
Even if He does not grant this request of mine to stand on Liberian soil before this year ends, I will remain grateful. Grateful to be their mother from here. I will choose gratitude, even when I don’t want to and even when I am so angry and frustrated I can’t breathe. I will choose hope, even when the days of this year dwindle and the logistics of travel are near impossible. I will choose peace, even when the grief of time lost with no end in sight tries to consume me. In the face of the unknown and the uncertainty and the evil forces in this world that try so hard to break the childhood of these children, I will choose hope.
Hope that surfaces no matter what. I am their mother today, and their mother every day from here forward, and nothing changes that. I love them the way I love all of my kids, and nothing waivers that, breaks that, discourages that or minimizes that. The ferocity and tenacity of that love is a gift from God. It’s an ability He gave me and a promise He keeps. While we walk these valleys of cost and time and politics and corruption dividing our family on 2 continents, I have a confident hope that this is almost done. I have a confident hope that if God chooses to put us in Liberia in the next 30 days, He can. I have peace that if my feet are not on Liberian soil before this year ends, it is because God has his reasons.
My belief remains that any day that passes while my daughters remain legal orphans is an emergency that requires the rescue of adoption. My hope is that God chooses this one last miracle on my behalf to allow us to travel.
Even if He does not, my deference remains to His wisdom, as does my gratitude for the chance to be their mother today. As does my resolve to just keep…. …going.
I’m just saying that I know He can. Because nothing is impossible. The tenacity and ferocity by which God loves me is one that is capable of this one thing.
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Mark 10:27
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:21
This whole idea of overcoming evil with good is a piece by piece project that ends with death alone. I hope that I can continue to build with the pieces of this life placed in my hands, and that in doing so, hope continues to surface in miraculous ways as I have seen with our adoption process so far.
Thank you for being here.
Keep…. …going.
We got a $7500 grant from Help Us Adopt to assist with travel expenses! Yay! I dropped our overall goals down on this site to reflect this gift.
We are so grateful and so excited to get this news the day before Thanksgiving.
We have heard another family just received travel dates last week to go to Liberia on January 18th, so things are happening, even though the Liberia elections just concluded and the holidays are here.
We hope to get travel dates soon! It has been an “any day now” process for over a year. But we are hopeful it’s almost over.
Thanks for all of your encouragement and support. Stay tuned and Happy Thanksgiving!
