Jeremy and Rachel Smith
are adopting 3 children from Liberia
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.
Adoption Status
Adoption Agency
Updates
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Update 13
Day 158. Adopt
September 3, 2022Cooperation and Intention
The THING I want most:
Less losses on childhood experiences.
Fundraising update:
Goal:
$71,100.00Paid:
$46,099.67Need:
$25,000.33We 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. :)
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Update 12
Day 150! We got a $25 k donation!
August 27, 2022https://adopt100morehappykids.wordpress.com/2022/08/26/momentum-day-150-adopt-my-2-liberian-daughters/
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Update 11
Day 148. Adopt from Liberia. Weather.
August 24, 2022https://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! -
Update 10
Day 147. Adopt from Liberia! Getting closer!
August 23, 202299 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 -
Update 9
Day 142. Adopt from Liberia. 4,258 pairs of shoes :)
August 18, 2022See the video !!!!
Matching Donors
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Devon (Happy Birthday Sadie!!) matched $500
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Devon matched $500
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Anonymous matched $1,000
