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.
Day 160. Adopt from Liberia. NOONDAY show!
Image September 4, 2022Adopt100more
Today, I am getting excited about NOONDAY!
Sad as an adoptive mom and basically #1 groupie of all things Adoption, how did I not hear about Noonday sooner?
One of the casualties of me not being on social media…things slip through the cracks….
So what the heck is Noonday?
Where generation X and millennials collide! For an explosion of resources and fair trade and success.
As a generation X’er on the cusp of the millennial way of life, I love noonday.
Video infomercial (but it is not just jewelry).
https://vimeo.com/165013970
(6 word explanation : buy, sell, share because it helps.)
3 sentence explanation on this fundraiser:
1. Noonday was started by an adoptive mom, who adopted from Africa, so she could fundraise her adoption.
2. Noonday gives a large percentage of all of its earnings to an adoption, with each sale, each dollar, every time. (shop our show, we get the noonday percentage).
3. Noonday supports the village merchants! Fair trade for high end hand made items that have the artisan quality we all crave.
https://bit.ly/noonday4thesmiths
Bonus: our noonday ambassador (Ivonne) gives her commission to me, the adoptive mom, to put immediately towards my daughters coming home.
Ivonne has her noonday company set up as a nonprofit. So she can help adoptive families. So she can help me, a stranger. She is a college professor with a bunch of kids herself!
Our adoption agency, Small World Adoption , sent us an email with Ivonne’s contact info. Thanks!:)
Our show is 9/15/2022 at noon.
Our show is open for purchases between now and 9/18/2022.
Back to the generation X and Millennials collide comment:
Gen Xers, therefore, appreciate the value of independence and informality and are also technologically savvy, more educated than their parents, and are a more flexible generation. Gen X is attributed to generating a balanced work-life trade-off and is also synonymous with a higher entrepreneurial tendency.
(From Wikipedia)
Millennials are good at accepting change.Millennials have witnessed a massive shift in technologies, the economy, and business throughout their lifetime. If life has taught them anything, it’s that things don’t stay the same for long. Millennials are curious. If there is a faster, better way of doing something, millennials want to know. They’ll take advantage of the tools available to them to be more effective. Researchers say that this quality makes them valuable employees. Millennials value teamwork. This generation tends to enjoy collaborative work environmentswhere they can seek out alternate viewpoints and input from others.(from familysearch.org)
Generation Xers : born between 1965 -1980 (age 42-57)
Millennials : born between 1981-1996 (age 26-41)
Together, we are the majority of the working class purchasing power today, online, with the most resources.
I was born in 1979. I was born after my husband, Jeremy! His birthday wish is to sell noonday stuff and go to Africa faster. (9/16/22 Jeremy will be 43)
As a generation Xer, I am exhausted with more systems and just want to get to the source of the solution now, and then do it next time faster and better and bigger (my millennial side).
This company does BOTH! And we can do it without ever leaving our couches.
So meet me on your couch at noon and eastern time on Thursday, 9/15/2022.
If you can’t come then, that’s totally fine! Our show is open 24/7 from now until 9/18/22. Come late, come early, show up at 3am, leave me a note if you want, and thank you.
Thank you for loving my future kids. Thank you for supporting my merchant generation Xer peers. The hard working generation Xers all over the world who just want to go to work, and can do that easily today, without worry about their products selling.
Charity lasts about a day. We love charity. Capitalism lasts a lifetime, if conducted with integrity. Capitalism generation X-style with millennial advertising and global effort = the adult global workforce that exists within my reach today, is the cure for orphanism.
Not just for 2 little girls who are our reason to gather at high noon on 9/15/22, but for hand up we can give each other to make one choice today, that changed things for us tomorrow. One product purchased.
Last month we celebrated 4,258 pairs of shoes. Of all the countries those shoes could go to, our http://funds2orgs.com driver, Garcia, said those shoes were going to Africa.
Africa.
Same place I’m going.
Same place my daughters wait.
Same place the chance of death before reaching your 5th birthday is 78%. I am so happy there are village merchants in Africa that will soon receive your shoes, our shoes, new shoes, Amazon shoes, life saving shoes. Life changing shoes.
Sadie is our youngest. Her sister, River, is 6. River is in the 22% of Liberian children who celebrated a 5th birthday.
Next year, when we recheck the stats on Liberian children surviving to the age of 5, I promise to have better statistics. This is not something I plan to let go. I suggest distancing yourself from me, if this is not something you want to talk about, hear about or help with.
Sadie is 4.
Her 5th birthday is on 12/1/22. I want to see it. I want to be there. We have 86 days, and $25,000.00 to go.
94% of US born children celebrate a 5th birthday. That is an amazing accomplishment as a developed country. It was not always that high. Sadie is on track to be a part of the 22%
When you buy a noonday item, you help Sadie and River Smith with the mountainous cost their safety requires. You also help a business merchant leader in a developing country make a sale. You complete a deal on something with them that is honest and good and useful. It is not charity. It is capitalism. Choose noonday on 9/15/22. And you choose to look at that 22% survival rate and move it the direction of survival.
Middle is 8. She is my daughter, my middle child. Deszoe is 7. He is the son of my dear friend, Devon Crews. Middle was born in the US. Deszoe was born in Liberia. They became friends this week. They will not probably grow up and lead a war against each other. They are childhood friends. Childhood matters. Those friends matter. Peace matters.
Buy an item from noonday, and join me as we, the collision of generation Xers and Millennials collide our work ethic, global non-discriminatory advertising super powers, with our purchasing power. As a team, we can look at orphanism and cure it.
Moving forward, let’s bury less kids under 5. Instead, let’s give them a chance to thrive, as we do, in our 94% survival rate accomplishment.
Noonday. Thanks!
9/3/22
Cooperation and Intention
The THING I want most:
Less losses on childhood experiences.
Fundraising update:
Goal:
$71,100.00
Paid:
$46,099.67
Need:
$25,000.33
We chose to drive 1800 miles to give hugs and high-fives to Blessing and Deszoe Crews. We needed to see the “wins” in person.
The THING I want most:
Less losses on childhood experiences.
I also unexpectedly found more examples this week on why American children in the US foster care system have less legal rights honored than our children in Liberia do. More on that when I have more professional words on my thoughts.
For now, click this link if you want to be a part of the child welfare system solution. This is a good start.
http://abideu.thinkific.com/
I’ve thought about a lot of THINGS this week.
THINGS that are intentionally good. (Bulletproof type good.)
THINGS that need fixing.
THINGS that can’t be fixed.
THINGS that can be better today.
THINGS that need more time to improve. THINGS that will never be better, ever. THINGS that are emergencies.
THINGS that could become emergencies. THINGS that are accidentally good.
THINGS that are unintentionally bad.
There are a lot of THINGS on my mind.
The THING I want most:
Less losses on childhood experiences.
This picture is of me, my daughter, “Middle” and Deszoe.
Middle and Deszoe spent the last 7 years living on different continents. Fighting different battles, experiencing different losses and different wins.
Middle and Deszoe are both great kids. They have a lot of THINGS in common. They have a lot things NOT in common.
One THING they have the most in common is their wish for River and Sadie to come home soon.
The THING I want most:
Less losses on childhood experiences.
In all of the fun the last 2 days, River and Sadie are missing. And Deszoe and Middle know it. They talk about it. River and Sadie lost 2 days of fun with them today.
Deszoe lived in the orphanage where River and Sadie are now. He knows them. He was there when they entered small
world’s children’s home (www.smallworldadoption.com) on 11/1/2021.
I asked him if he thinks they will like me. He says “yes”. He had some advice for me, and I took it to heart. THINGS I would not have thought of. THINGS I won’t share here.
THINGS that are on my mind most.
The THING I want most:
Less losses on childhood experiences.
I can’t put into words right now how proud I am of Devon Crews for staying her course to Liberia, to adopt 2 children. It took 7 years to adopt Blessing from Liberia, because at the time Blessing needed adoption, Liberia and the US were not cooperating. They weren’t fighting, either. Just not pursuing adoption. We are grateful for the charted path to our children. We hope to make it a highway for other children needing families, and other families wanting children.
The THING I want most:
Less losses on childhood experiences.
Childhood experiences matter. Deszoe’s first 7 years of life had life threatening daily dangers. He had a 78% chance of dying before he turned 5.
That percentage drops to 6% for Middle, born on American soil.
Deszoe will always be a kid that survived 5 years in Liberia. His skill set to do that must be incredible.
Middle has been the older sibling of foster children in the child welfare system in the U.S. that have been through the worst documented traumas that exist in Florida, that literally destroyed their lives, but did not take their actual life. Middle knows loss. She knows all of their traumas well. Middle (and her sisters) effectively taught the fosters how to be siblings in a healthy way, and learn for the first time the strength of the sibling bond, and the healing offered within it. Siblings weaponized against each other rarely heal to the point of cohabitation. Ours did. Middle helped them build something new from the wreckage they found themselves in. Her skill set to do that must be incredible.
The THING I want most:
Less losses on childhood experiences.
Middle and Deszoe both have zero biology in common with each other, or River and Sadie. What they do have in common is siblign bonds. Siblings that can find THINGS in wreckage. Siblings are defined as required relationships under one roof at a point in time, chosen by adults. Siblings are not usually voluntary.
Middle and Deszoe represent 2 large sibling groups. They are not the oldest or the youngest. They are elementary school kids, who have parents that are friends.
As we parent our children, we all do it in all different ways and styles that hopefully protect peace.
I hope and pray that our trajectory remains as peaceful as the moment of this photo. In a random moment on a Saturday afternoon with the world spinning around 2 little kids of 2 ambitious adoptive families, I got a voluntary and genuine smile out of both, easily, in the same frame of picture.
We intentionally drove 1800 miles with our young family and our dog in a long weekend for one thing:
The THING I want most:
Less losses on childhood experiences.
Adoption represents great loss.
Adoption gives an avenue for the back up plan. It is never the first choice. Adoption is never the ideal. Adoption is because of an emergency. Usually multiple emergencies.
Experiences we had with other families experiencing adoption this week are proof it works. Proof we can be consistent. Proof our goals and promises at the beginning remain apparent as our family grows. We signed up to be the backup plan. Interviewed for it. Honored to remain successful in that position.
Proof it is not just what is best for one kid finding themselves in situations where adoption is the only viable option left. It is also what is best for Middle, and kids like her. Middle was able to remain with her family of origin. Middle was an alarming unintentional addition to our family. We celebrate that with her.
Middle knows all the bad and all the good and all the in between that her siblings have experienced. She battles it with them. She pushes back the bad and pulls out the good, because she is well practiced at it.
The THING I want most:
Less losses on childhood experiences.
Middle’s ideas to fix the child welfare system and make adoption accessible when needed are developing, now. Just ask her.
We drove 1800 miles in 4 days for proof. Proof my kids can experience first hand. Proof that helps me just
Keep…. ….going.
“When will they be here with us?”
On day 158, WHEN depends entirely on 2 THINGS:
Cooperation. Cooperation between the US government and the Liberian government as it pertains to the best interests of Liberian children.
Intention. People are good, with good intentions. They have plans for their intentions. They have plans for all the stuff they possess. We need their plans to change just a little bit. We need the adoption of River and Sadie to become an “intent” of every person we know that possess money, ink cartridges, clothes, shoes or clothing textiles, or any other idea that brings down the cost to travel and live in another country.
We are powerless beyond that.
The power of intentional cooperation between the adults in our world who have made our adoption efforts so record breaking fast over the last 158 days, demonstrates what intentional cooperation can do.
If we continue along this trajectory, we might be in Liberia ahead of schedule.
As we run this race of hope and are honestly dependent on our peers to finish it for us, we have 2 little girls in our sights, but we have the weight of the orphan crisis as a whole on our hearts.
Thanks for the help so far. Thanks for the solidarity.
Thanks for proving people are good, with good intentions, and there will always be enough good intentions for just one more kid to complete their adoption. No matter what.
Days since finding adopttogether crowdfunding: 39.
$4935.00 in 39 days.
Adopt together was founded by a guy named Hank. His family dynamic growing up was like the families Deszoe and Middle, Hank is a sibling. Many Thanks to Hank!! We’ve been in the adoption world for 10+ years, and this is the most effective way to fundraise.
If this is what Hank did, with the tools at his fingertips, imagine what Middle and Deszoe could do…. have done…will do….
The THING I want most:
Less losses on childhood experiences.
More happy birthdays.
Days until Sadie’s 5th birthday: 88
Keep…. ….. going. :)
Cooperation and Intention
The THING I want most:
Less losses on childhood experiences.
Fundraising update:
Goal:
$71,100.00
Paid:
$46,099.67
Need:
$25,000.33
We chose to drive 1800 miles to give hugs and high-fives to Blessing and Deszoe Crews. We needed to see the “wins” in person.
The THING I want most:
Less losses on childhood experiences.
I also unexpectedly found more examples this week on why American children in the US foster care system have less legal rights honored than our children in Liberia do. More on that when I have more professional words on my thoughts.
For now, click this link if you want to be a part of the child welfare system solution. This is a good start.
http://abideu.thinkific.com/
I’ve thought about a lot of THINGS this week.
THINGS that are intentionally good. (Bulletproof type good.)
THINGS that need fixing.
THINGS that can’t be fixed.
THINGS that can be better today.
THINGS that need more time to improve. THINGS that will never be better, ever. THINGS that are emergencies.
THINGS that could become emergencies. THINGS that are accidentally good.
THINGS that are unintentionally bad.
There are a lot of THINGS on my mind.
The THING I want most:
Less losses on childhood experiences.
This picture is of me, my daughter, “Middle” and Deszoe.
Middle and Deszoe spent the last 7 years living on different continents. Fighting different battles, experiencing different losses and different wins.
Middle and Deszoe are both great kids. They have a lot of THINGS in common. They have a lot things NOT in common.
One THING they have the most in common is their wish for River and Sadie to come home soon.
The THING I want most:
Less losses on childhood experiences.
In all of the fun the last 2 days, River and Sadie are missing. And Deszoe and Middle know it. They talk about it. River and Sadie lost 2 days of fun with them today.
Deszoe lived in the orphanage where River and Sadie are now. He knows them. He was there when they entered small
world’s children’s home (www.smallworldadoption.com) on 11/1/2021.
I asked him if he thinks they will like me. He says “yes”. He had some advice for me, and I took it to heart. THINGS I would not have thought of. THINGS I won’t share here.
THINGS that are on my mind most.
The THING I want most:
Less losses on childhood experiences.
I can’t put into words right now how proud I am of Devon Crews for staying her course to Liberia, to adopt 2 children. It took 7 years to adopt Blessing from Liberia, because at the time Blessing needed adoption, Liberia and the US were not cooperating. They weren’t fighting, either. Just not pursuing adoption. We are grateful for the charted path to our children. We hope to make it a highway for other children needing families, and other families wanting children.
The THING I want most:
Less losses on childhood experiences.
Childhood experiences matter. Deszoe’s first 7 years of life had life threatening daily dangers. He had a 78% chance of dying before he turned 5.
That percentage drops to 6% for Middle, born on American soil.
Deszoe will always be a kid that survived 5 years in Liberia. His skill set to do that must be incredible.
Middle has been the older sibling of foster children in the child welfare system in the U.S. that have been through the worst documented traumas that exist in Florida, that literally destroyed their lives, but did not take their actual life. Middle knows loss. She knows all of their traumas well. Middle (and her sisters) effectively taught the fosters how to be siblings in a healthy way, and learn for the first time the strength of the sibling bond, and the healing offered within it. Siblings weaponized against each other rarely heal to the point of cohabitation. Ours did. Middle helped them build something new from the wreckage they found themselves in. Her skill set to do that must be incredible.
The THING I want most:
Less losses on childhood experiences.
Middle and Deszoe both have zero biology in common with each other, or River and Sadie. What they do have in common is siblign bonds. Siblings that can find THINGS in wreckage. Siblings are defined as required relationships under one roof at a point in time, chosen by adults. Siblings are not usually voluntary.
Middle and Deszoe represent 2 large sibling groups. They are not the oldest or the youngest. They are elementary school kids, who have parents that are friends.
As we parent our children, we all do it in all different ways and styles that hopefully protect peace.
I hope and pray that our trajectory remains as peaceful as the moment of this photo. In a random moment on a Saturday afternoon with the world spinning around 2 little kids of 2 ambitious adoptive families, I got a voluntary and genuine smile out of both, easily, in the same frame of picture.
We intentionally drove 1800 miles with our young family and our dog in a long weekend for one thing:
The THING I want most:
Less losses on childhood experiences.
Adoption represents great loss.
Adoption gives an avenue for the back up plan. It is never the first choice. Adoption is never the ideal. Adoption is because of an emergency. Usually multiple emergencies.
Experiences we had with other families experiencing adoption this week are proof it works. Proof we can be consistent. Proof our goals and promises at the beginning remain apparent as our family grows. We signed up to be the backup plan. Interviewed for it. Honored to remain successful in that position.
Proof it is not just what is best for one kid finding themselves in situations where adoption is the only viable option left. It is also what is best for Middle, and kids like her. Middle was able to remain with her family of origin. Middle was an alarming unintentional addition to our family. We celebrate that with her.
Middle knows all the bad and all the good and all the in between that her siblings have experienced. She battles it with them. She pushes back the bad and pulls out the good, because she is well practiced at it.
The THING I want most:
Less losses on childhood experiences.
Middle’s ideas to fix the child welfare system and make adoption accessible when needed are developing, now. Just ask her.
We drove 1800 miles in 4 days for proof. Proof my kids can experience first hand. Proof that helps me just
Keep…. ….going.
“When will they be here with us?”
On day 158, WHEN depends entirely on 2 THINGS:
Cooperation. Cooperation between the US government and the Liberian government as it pertains to the best interests of Liberian children.
Intention. People are good, with good intentions. They have plans for their intentions. They have plans for all the stuff they possess. We need their plans to change just a little bit. We need the adoption of River and Sadie to become an “intent” of every person we know that possess money, ink cartridges, clothes, shoes or clothing textiles, or any other idea that brings down the cost to travel and live in another country.
We are powerless beyond that.
The power of intentional cooperation between the adults in our world who have made our adoption efforts so record breaking fast over the last 158 days, demonstrates what intentional cooperation can do.
If we continue along this trajectory, we might be in Liberia ahead of schedule.
As we run this race of hope and are honestly dependent on our peers to finish it for us, we have 2 little girls in our sights, but we have the weight of the orphan crisis as a whole on our hearts.
Thanks for the help so far. Thanks for the solidarity.
Thanks for proving people are good, with good intentions, and there will always be enough good intentions for just one more kid to complete their adoption. No matter what.
Days since finding adopttogether crowdfunding: 39.
$4935.00 in 39 days.
Adopt together was founded by a guy named Hank. His family dynamic growing up was like the families Deszoe and Middle, Hank is a sibling. Many Thanks to Hank!! We’ve been in the adoption world for 10+ years, and this is the most effective way to fundraise.
If this is what Hank did, with the tools at his fingertips, imagine what Middle and Deszoe could do…. have done…will do….
The THING I want most:
Less losses on childhood experiences.
More happy birthdays.
Days until Sadie’s 5th birthday: 88
Keep…. ….. going. :)
https://adopt100morehappykids.wordpress.com/2022/08/26/momentum-day-150-adopt-my-2-liberian-daughters/
https://adopt100morehappykids.wordpress.com/2022/08/24/day-148-adopt-from-liberia-weather/
Please click this link for our update today. The update has more pics than this space allows.:)
Thanks so much!
