Here is our Adoption Journey so far…
We started this process of adopting 2 little girls from Liberia in April of 2022.
After visiting Liberia for 5 months in 2024, we decided to additionally adopt a little boy. This little guy, already bonded to our Liberian daughters, also became very close to our entire family during our time in Liberia, and now, life without him with us is unimaginable.
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, which prompted our visit to bond with our kids and explore all avenues in person in February of 2024. We returned home in July of 2024 after exhausting all resources to unite our family permanently.
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.
As we continue to wait, we are committed to intentional international parenting. We will continue to visit as much as we can and continue to pursue every avenue to unite our family on one continent. We appreciate any encouragement as we continue to walk this road.
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!
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.
