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.
99 days until Sadie turns 5! Sadie lives in Liberia. She is my 5th daughter. We are hoping to get to her by her 5th birthday.
What can crazy for birthdays parents do in 99 days?
Cross oceans and move mountains and fly over international waters, is what we plan to do.
We invite you to join us in this effort if you want to, in whatever way you see yourself.
According to my spreadsheet, $22,066.92 away from permission to travel . So far, $20,570.08 has been paid for these 2 daughters of ours.
We paid everything we needed to for Liberia and the US Embassy to start our international paperwork. $5000 + $750 + $85 + $85.
Happy to share my spreadsheet to anyone at any time.
Thanks so much!! You all are setting records in adoption fundraising.
Day 147. Over $20k paid. That is $140/day of a team of adoption supporters who seem to be pushing back orphanism with great force and great grace.
Takes my breath to crunch these numbers and makes me so excited that people are still good, with good intentions.
Keep…. ….going!
Thank you!!
-Rachel
See the video !!!!
I would like to thank all of you for being available to help with our adoption expenses. It can feel like a monumental task to get across the finish line and bring our kids home. It gives us hope knowing there is help available.
My wife Rachel and I are originally from Tennessee and moved to Florida in August of 2019 with our 3 girls. Our US kids are currently 9, 8, and 6. Our oldest (of African descent) was adopted from a local domestic adoption and we have had her since the day she was born. We are in very close contact with her biological family and we try to visit them at least once a year to help our oldest understand where she comes from and to know more about her adoption story.
My wife and I always wanted to adopt. We were told prior to adopting our oldest that it would be unlikely we would have biological children. So that made it even easier to pursue adoption but prior to adopting our oldest we found out my wife was pregnant. Our two oldest children are only 7 months apart. We were blessed to have another biological child in 2016.
We have had the opportunity to foster 3 kids, a boy (3) and a sibling group of girls (6) and (4). The boy we had with us for 9 months and he was reunified with his mother. We are very proud of both of them.
The sibling group of girls we fostered were with us for 15 months and they had 3 younger siblings in another home. The Child Welfare system found a home that could accommodate all 5 of the kids. We are very happy for them that they can now be in a home with their siblings. Although we miss them daily, we are grateful they are together with their siblings.
We decided to move away from fostering after this and wanted to look for a more permanent parenting opportunity. My wife had been on mission trips with the founder of our agency, Small World Adoption Agency (www.smallworldadoption.com) , as a teenager. Because of that relationship, we looked into what adoption options would be available to us.l with Small World. We looked into Liberia, especially after friends of ours adopted from there, and were very excited for the opportunity to help a child from this country. Liberia is healing from a difficult past, and creating a hopeful future. We find Liberia inspiring.
We received an email from our agency with available kids and there it was. A picture of a sibling group. A set of girls, 6 and 4. We knew we had to give it our all to get them and provide a safe and loving home for them.
These financial gifts help us so much to move forward and provide permanency for these kids. We love them already even though we have not had the privilege of meeting them. With these financial gifts, we will get that opportunity faster.
We require financial assistance because international adoption is very expensive. With the rising travel costs that makes the journey even more expensive. We want to show publicly that adoptions can be done without leveraging your future by going into debt. We want to show that there are good people out there and families can help with the orphan crisis and to not be scared of the large bottom line on an adoption cost sheet. Our inspiration is to show that anyone can adopt. You can help a child and you do not have to do it alone.
These financial gifts are so very important to us because it gives us the chance to reach our children sooner. There is urgency in that because we want to parent them as soon as possible and address any issues they may have and the sooner we can do that the better. We hope they will not celebrate another birthday without us.
We are taking our 3 U.S. born children with us and traveling as a family to Liberia. We are excited for our current US children to experience other cultures, specifically the culture of their new sisters. When adopting from Liberia, you have to spend approximately a month residing in Liberia. This requirement adds another layer of cost to the adoption expenses.
When we return from Liberia with our family intact, we want to provide a blueprint for anyone interested in adoption to follow so that anyone can adopt. You are helping us write that blueprint today. Adoption is a beautiful thing, because every child should and could have a family.
Thank you for helping us bring our Liberian children home and providing a model to help make the bottom line of an adoption to be less intimidating.
Thank you!
Jeremy Smith
Picture is from 2014. I think it illustrates what Jeremy’s heart was like with 2 daughters 7 months apart, in our early years of parenting. This day, as a family we were learning about groceries and what “Original and Middle” might like. Jeremy googles Liberia grocery options often, even today. Thank you for helping. Thank you in advance for recruiting more help, as you might be moved to do so. My gratitude has become so overwhelming in the last 140 days, it takes my breath.
-Rachel Smith
Keep… … going.
GOODBYE SHOES!
We announced our intent to adopt by asking for old shoes.
The blessings from those old shoes continue to be more than we have room for in our house and in our hearts, and both overflow with shoes and gratitude, and more shoes, and more gratitude.
We finally know the truck from funds2orgs will be here this week. We are waiting for the specific loading time, as the truck is a bit south of us and picking up other shoes from other fundraisers and other adoptive families.
Since we began the "shoes in the news" project earlier this summer, our goal was to raise awareness on the adoption need, as well as give an assist to our peers, small business owners, selling shoes all over the world in developing countries, struggling, but succeeding, in protecting their children from becoming orphans, one pair of shoes sold, at a time.
The merchants are invisible. But, they exist in my mind and my heart, daily.
They buy the shoes for a fraction of what they sell the shoes for.
Our daughters, waiting in Liberia, are now visible (see profile pics) , and exist in your mind and your heart, today, as you read our update.
I hoped it would be possible to do something "free" to announce our intent to adopt from Africa, that would have a dual purpose in solving the orphanism pandemic, sweeping across our world.
It was not just possible. It was a record breaking success.
As we sweep behind that wave of despair of the increase of the orphanism pandemic, with our 4,231 pairs of shoes, and offer one meaningful and lasting solutions (like supply for shoes to sell) I am deeply grateful for all efforts to assist the shoe "merchants", who I consider my friends.
I appreciate each person that deviated from their routine, to get their shoes to us, and to help me with the pursuit of my 4th and 5th daughters, and to help the invisible merchants have a few more shoes to sell, to feed their families, and be leaders in their villages and communities, and pursue peace.
Shoes are a hassle to donate. I appreciate all of you tolerating the hassle, and pushing through.
Hunger leads to war.
War leads to violence.
Shoe sales provide safety at dinner time.
Safety leads to peace.
We don't know the final financial gain the shoes will bring yet. We have 25 pairs of shoes in each clear trash bag in the picture below. The bags we have weighed for fun have ranged from 22 pounds to 35 pounds.
We get $0.50/pound).
We chose to partner with funds2orgs for shoe donation drops early on in our adoption journey 138 days ago.
In that time, we have seen $15,615.67 cash find its way to the multiple adoption accounts set for our Liberian daughters, River (age 6) and Sadie (age 4).
In 138 days, our progress is $15,615.67 plus 4,231 pairs of shoes, plus an army of people helping with just these 2 little girls' adoption.
There are so many of you helping now, we are very worried we have not thanked everyone.
Thank you.
Thank you from me, thank you from Jeremy, thank you from Original, Middle, and Little, who sleep under my roof today. Thank you from River and Sadie, who sleep in Liberia, under the protection of Jimbo Savley with www.smallworldadoption.com at their children's home.
Thank you from the merchants who will sell your shoes, the nicest collection of shoes I think has ever existed in any adoptive family's garage and dining room.
Thank you from millions of orphans who still fight to survive, who see these adoptions happening more quickly, and have hope they may someday not just survive one more day close to starvation, but have a chance to thrive, as you and I do. If they don't find families, maybe they can grow up to sell shoes, too.
Thank you to funds2orgs.com and our coach, Cody, for providing this platform, that promotes peace and gets our adoption completed faster.
Charity lasts about a day. We love charity. We are charitable as much as we can be.
Capitalism conducted with integrity, has the ability to sustain multiple lives to thrive, for more than one lifetime.
Capitalism wins today, and every day we choose to work together to give a hand up, not a handout.
Thanks again for the shoes.
Keep.... ... Going.
See link below for an interview with our middle child “Middle”.
We need 799 more pairs of shoes to meet our goal!
We have paid $13,139.60 so far for our adoption expenses!
Thank you for your help.
Please give us one more round of shoes, if you can. The truck will be here in a few days.
(239) 220-6820 text for pickup
Adopt100more@gmail.com email for pickup
And ask us about or ink and toner cartridge fundraiser if you want to help in that way.
Thanks to Audrey Turner @ Audrey_turner_photography on instagram for editing this photo so we can share pics of our new daughters in such a beautiful way.
