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.
So Finn the whale and Fernando the turtle are traversing the world with lots of other toys and goodies plus letters and pictures and “I promise we are coming to get you as soon as we can” laminated letters. Specifically, Finn and Fernando are for our Liberian born daughters, who wait patiently for us. We have other friends with letters and gifts in this box as well.
Currently, there are 37 children residing at the orphanage where our kids wait. 37 kids without their families to celebrate Christmas. 37 little hearts of 37 little people who are waiting.
Waiting for government officials to do their jobs. Waiting for families to change their orphan status to sons and daughters.
For a few weeks, they will wait for this box of gifts that has toys and books and crayons and paint sets and more than anything else, this box has a lot of hope stuffed in.
Hope that all 37 kids need to feel before the year ends.
Hope that keeps us moving forward against the wave of obstacles and challenges of time.
Hope packed into a little box that gives us just a minute to be their parents.
Thanks to the guys at the FedEx store for your patience and understanding, and solidarity with our nausea on the price of shipping.
Dear future Liberian daughters,
We are doing all we can do. We hope you feel the hope we stuffed in this box. We miss you.
Jeremy and Rachel Smith
Every day we miss them. Every day we hope for news. If you know me, you are asking me each time you see me if I have news. Because you are hopeful and you are aware and you are sensitive and acknowledge my plight and my heart in this fight.
If you know me well, you choose silence on this topic unless I speak first. Because you know I am boiling over, right at the edge of losing it. Right at the cliff of screaming and crying in public. Right at the moment of holding my breath waiting for the courage to take the next breath and just keep…. …going.
Little problems matter too. Christmas is still coming and birthdays for the kids under our roof today are still fun and still important. The Noonday sales help me and others, so it is easy to pour into. The phill the box textile drives help me and others and is easy to pour into.
But what happens when I’ve poured everything I have out, and it is still not enough to bring them home. I am powerless here. The kingdoms and principalities of this world hold them hostage in a place I cannot reach.
That is more than maddening. It’s a criminal act.
An act that has no accountability and no resolution until one day the damn that holds back this paper pregnancy process just gives way.
And just like when in an actual pregnancy, water breaks and we urgently move. Because it’s a definite then. My husband told me when my water broke with middle as I stood in parking lot scared we weren’t ready, scared my unborn baby was not ready, the train was moving and we are on it, so let’s just go inside.
You have no idea how badly I need the water to break and the train to move for this international adoption.
I can’t do anything else anymore, that my thoughts are not on my Liberian daughters’ safety. I can’t be anyone else but the transcontinental mother of 5 failing as their mother, again, on day 587.
Every day they are not here is a day they are failed by me.
Every day they wonder if we are still coming, is a day their hearts doubt me.
In acknowledgment of that loss, all I can do is write.
Write something as a token of proof to myself and to them that I was willing to try anything.
I just don’t know what to do next.
Day 587, of adopt from Liberia, you haunt me. But I will not be overcome by you. I will not be paralyzed by you. I will still keep…. …going,
One day my counter will stop going up and these days of building something to make this adoption possible will cease. On that day, it will be like they were born.
And it will be like I have been delivered from this torment of helplessness and hopefulness.
As we wait for that deliverance, thank you for your words of encouragement. Thank you for not really understanding, but always maintaining a solidarity I depend on more than you know.
Thank you for your moments of silence. Thank you for your actions of support. Thank you for your nod of approval. Thank you for your grace extended to our family.
Thank you for the support we asked for and the encouragement we needed.
I don’t know if we are almost there or not.
I only know that no matter how many days are left on my counter of days to complete this Adopt from Liberia project, it is nice to not be alone.
Even if He does not…it’s a powerful verse and a powerful idea. It’s a sentence of submission from a man following God amidst captivity. It’s a calm surrender, but a determined one.
Even if He does not…
Can that phrase be honest in me? Can I speak those words as their mother and His daughter simultaneously and mean it?
Even if He does not….
But why would He not? What is wrong with my request to see my Liberian daughters by Christmas?
Even if He does not…
What if it is not safe for our family there, and that is why the timing changes? But could He not repair that as well? Could He that part the seas for Moses, not be fully capable to part these seas for me?
Even if He does not…
Who will I be, if He does not? Will I curse Him for abandoning us in this endeavor? Will I question His power and existence over this one thing? Will I be filled with hatred and grief and regret for all the doors we walked through to see these last doors close?
Even if He does not…
Will I question the task He asked me to complete? Will I change my resolve on the importance of adoption as it parallels the gospel?
Even if He does not…
It’s a scary verse. It’s an terrifying idea as a parent who is all in, waiting on the powers of diplomacy and control to permit my children to be claimed by the freedom we are giving them as our daughters. While we wait, with nothing left to complete but backup fundraising I hope we won’t be even need, all I can keep repeating is this 2 verses, and continually contemplate what each of them means.
But our citizenship is in Heaven…
“But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,”
Philippians 3:20 NIV
Even if He does not…
“But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.””
Daniel 3:18 NIV
As an American, I should be able to easily adopt these 2 Liberian orphans. There is a reason the evil forces in this world keep interfering with their safety as our daughters.
As we pray to God on behalf of our daughters for completion and rescue and travel dates and financial miracles and all the things we keep asking for, I want you to know that Even if He does not answer me the way I want Him to this week, in wanting to receive travel dates before the holiday season begins (and everyone on both sides of these international borders use that as an excuse not to work on adoptions), I will still be obedient to the Creator of the Universe and will still continue to pursue these children for as long as I am breathing.
Even if He does not, we will praise Him anyway.
It will not be easy to choose that path of obedience after every door for their adoption swung open so quickly, and the last 2 doors seem bolted shut.
But because our citizenship is in Heaven, even if He does not grant us this once Christmas wish we have held all year, we will keep…. …going.
Because it’s not about us, and it’s not about me. And my earthly maternal instincts do matter to God in ways that He created and He understands. I know He hears me.
And one day, He may move everything between us and these 2 little girls, but even if He does not, I will still praise Him.
Even if He does not…
Keep…. …going.
Update as of 10/15/2023—————
We are still adopting 2 littles from Liberia. We thought we were done fundraising, but delays in processing travel visas have increased our costs by $25,000.00. To help, donate textiles to us directly and shop Noonday Collection at the website below.
Thanks to my dear friend Devon, for being our inspiration not just to start this adoption, but to keep…. …going, no matter what.
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.
Shopping link: https://rachelsmith.noondaycollection.com/
adopt100more #noondaycollection #phillthebox #adopttogether #orphanismpanacea
Video update: https://youtu.be/OS8aen8_BOs?si=aiK3-RMV7qpTvWWa
Pinterest update: https://pin.it/7aczsyc
Day 551. Adopt from Liberia. Adoption Day.
Today is October 1st. It’s Original’s adoption day. The day we finalized her adoption and changed her birth certificate to list us as her parents. In Tennessee at that time, a child placed at birth with their adoptive family could leave the hospital with that family. The legal rights of the birth parents process of placement for adoption found its completion within 3 weeks of her birth. For 6 months following that completion, Original was in our custody as legal guardians as we were supervised by our placing agency (the one that does the home study) to make sure we were doing well and that she was doing well. After that 6 months, we were able to go to court and finalize her adoption. The judge that day reviewed our paperwork and met us and our baby girl. The social worker with our agency submitted her report of how we were doing and their recommendation to the courts to proceed with her adoption. Our lawyer was present, and had done the legal work to secure our daughter’s future with us.
So much on my mind and heart that day as my 6 1/2 month old baby on my hip rested her little feet just on top of her sister’s head, growing in my very round and wide person.
That day, I was convinced I had 8 weeks to go before juggling 2 infants became a reality.
In reality, I had 3 weeks before that challenge began.
In that moment, I cried when the judge said his blurb of what Original’s legal rights now were as our daughter. I cried happy tears, finish line tears, tears of fear of inadequacy, tears wishing for more time with just one, and tears of gratitude for the gift of our first baby girl.
Most of all, I cried tears of being the walking miracle story. It is hard to stand on that social stage of adoption and biological additions to our family simultaneously. It was challenging to listen to all of the inappropriate comments, although most were well-intended, and answer with grace and compassion, or remain silent with patience for those who just don’t get it, yet.
Infants born 7 months apart is logistically, emotionally, physically and mentally difficult. I would not have chosen that for myself and would not recommend it for anyone else. Sovereignty over my life is not mine.
God will do what He wants to do when He wants to do it. I don’t know why. I don’t know why not. I do know there are things about my oldest 2 daughters “twin dynamic “ that I will never understand, but will be eternally grateful for. Things they needed and will always need that I could not give them, and could not have been given by anyone else, but each other. Their friendship is an amazing thing to watch. Their bond is one that surpasses the level of typical or good. The ways my oldest 2 daughters conquered their world as toddlers together has served them well in their strategies to answer questions that don’t matter, and replace those spaces of conversation in time with questions that do matter.
I am waiting until I have good news to update anyone about our international adoption journey.
As I follow my daughters leads on tolerating questions that don’t matter, and replacing those spaces in time with questions that do matter, today I am struggling with what to say next.
One good thing I have today is a decade behind me of being the legal parent of Original. That job is one I pursued. I interviewed for it more than once, and a job that I am grateful to hold moving forward.
As we intentionally parent the 5 children entrusted to us today, we are hopeful to reach the 2 on the other side of the world soon. We enjoyed the 3 we have today a lot. Happy Adoption Day, Original. Thanks for starting our parenting journey.
Happy Early Birthday to our youngest daughter who is nearly 6. As we approach the grief of missing a birthday, we know we have done all we can do up to this point and it’s ok to just stop and celebrate her turning 6 with a big box of meaningful gifts that serve more than one meaningful purpose.
Thanks for reading our story. Thanks for helping us keep…. …going. If you are on a road of adoption, yourself or your family, we can help you along your journey.
Email me at adopt100more@gmail.com if you need more info.
If you are looking for a place to help an adoption, click her to help the Adkison family.
https://bit.ly/adkisonadoptfaster
If you want to help us make our Liberian daughters and their friends Christmas special, see below.
Click here to shop. You may purchase items on the wishlist and mail them to me at 3028 Lake Butler Ct., Cape Coral, Fl 33909.
Each purchase you make for yourself will help us pay the $350 shipping costs of a “birthday party in a box” to Liberia.
Shop here: https://bit.ly/noondaybirthdayinabox
