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.
The DCA student body donated $3,648.43 to assist with our adoption expenses.
Here is my thanks….and my “why”…
Dear DCA students, families and faculty,
Although I may not be able put into words my gratitude for your efforts on behalf of our family, I am going to try anyway.
As a student at DCA from 1985-1998, I learned a lot about Jesus. Specifically, I learned the importance of being His hands and feet. The most impactful lesson I learned came from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. As a high school senior, I was asked to represent our student body in a mission trip with Small World Adoption Agency to do benevolent acts for orphans in Eastern Europe. Jim Savley, the founder of Small World, became an important mentor of mine as he unlocked my teenage brain to the plight of orphans in impoverished and war torn countries.
The commitment to choose to add children to my future family after their birth started that first day I saw orphans playing in spaces where their caregiver ratio was 30:1. I met a toddler with a scar on her head, and was told she was born, thrown in a dumpster to die, and was rescued by a dog, and nursed by a dog for at least 2 days before she was rescued and brought to the hospital. Her story became my pivotal reason to adopt.
Surely if God had resorted to annointing dogs to parent babies in need, he could use me as well for something.
Since that time, I have done my best to be the hands and feet and voice I believe Jesus asks me to be to move on behalf of the orphans among us, both here in our backyards and across our oceans.
Nothing could have prepared our family for adopting from Liberia. A leap of faith into one of the most impoverished places in the world took our entire family to the other side of the earth for 5 months as we were desperate to get to know our Liberian daughters and show our American born children their sisters’ country of origin. Saying goodbye and leaving them there was brutal to say the least. This adoption has been a roller coaster of unknowns and continues to create chaos in the lives of our young family. We know that we have been called to this road of international parenting, and that we will not be swayed by the obstacles before us or the uncertainties. We will continue to pursue all opportunities to bring our daughters home. We are so grateful for DCA showing up for us and our kids in what has become our most desperate and most defeated hour. The hope provided in just one Friday Dress Down Day has given us strength to believe that we can endure the next steps of waiting and the multiple trips across the ocean it will take to care for our children and keep this adoption process alive. As we continue to search for creative ways to keep this adoption process going and keep the doors of our daughters’ orphanage open, we are humbled by your encouragement and support to do that. Thank you for answering this need and standing with us for these little girls, who are just 8 and 6 years old. Thank you for reaching our hearts by being a school traditionally full of the hands and feet of Jesus. Thank you for inspiring us with your generosity. We hope to have good news for all of you in the coming months as we plead with God to through the mountains we need moved into the sea and let us have our kids. We appreciate your pleas to God on our behalf as well.
Sincerely,
Rachel Smith (class of 1998)
My dear friend, Allison Sanders, is hosting a Both Hands project for us.
To learn more, click here:
https://bothhands.org/Smith-1247/
Opening day of soccer season for my American daughters has me a mess. Because they aren’t here, and they should be here. They are so good at soccer, and they would love it. They are so close in age to my youngest American daughter, they would all be on the same team. I have cleats saved for them and I ordered 5 new soccer balls this summer just in case they made it home in time to start.
A pipe dream for sure, but still.
I want them to have trivial problems like finding their socks tonight for soccer and being excited thinking about scoring that first real goal in a real game.
I don’t want them to be in an orphanage today, playing soccer in the dirt without grass and without parents cheering them on and without a brand new jersey with their number on it that is just theirs.
Orphans rarely have things that are just theirs.
After soccer starts, then we have to face Halloween costumes and Thanksgiving break and Christmas.
I don’t think my heart can take another holiday season of international parenting. Wondering if they are ok, and if they feel abandoned and betrayed and if they will ever get to live out these trivial dreams of rec soccer and Florida theme parks that I have hoped they might see.
Instead, they face malaria risks and the same meals daily they have had for 3+ years and 30+ kid roommates with a handful of adults who love them and care for them, but are just a few people to manage so many.
I know we chose adoption and this is part of it. But if you are blessed enough to go to rec soccer tomorrow with your children together in one place, please don’t yell at them for losing their socks or dropping their soccer ball as it rolls across the parking lot… again.
If I see that unfold tomorrow morning I might not be able to make it through the morning with grace for those around me.
As we face this day tomorrow, opening day of rec soccer for kids, we are trying to be happy for the 3 we have and breathing through the grief of the 2 we don’t, and wondering if this season of waiting and fighting will ever end.
We are out of prayers. We are out of hope. We are out of optimism. We are out of ideas. We are out of anger. We are out of energy. We are out of everything we had within us to empty out.
At this point, all we have is endurance.
Thank you to those who continue to gracefully endure beside us.
We don’t know when this adoption will complete. At this point, when has changed to “if”.
We know we are powerless. We know we have exhausted all efforts we can. We know there are a handful of people who could resolve this in an instant. We know they have not chosen resolution for our daughters and their peers, and they will not tell us why.
Endurance is all we have. Endurance and commitment to those 2 little faces whose feet should be in soccer cleats tomorrow in Southwest Florida. Instead, they are in an orphanage in Liberia.
Keep…. ….going.
So many things….
Hi friends! We still have no news of any forward motion for our kids. We have heard positive feedback from our agency’s attorney and the government officials in Liberia that things should be resolved soon. “Soon” is such a curious word. We have heard the word “soon” and the word “hope” so much in the last 2 years.
We appreciate all of the support we continue to get from all of you. We are both back to working our regular jobs, plus teaching swimming lessons and selling Noonday, and collecting textiles for Phill the Box.
See the YouTube video below for further details.
Thank you for watching our Adoption story unfold.
I plan to visit our Liberian daughters in November to see how they are doing. Although we are ever hopeful for progress on our adoption case, we know this trip may just be a check-in with them, and no progress may occur. We appreciate any support for this effort. We know the separation from us for them is traumatic and detrimental to their emotional well being. This is why we plan to visit at least every few months so they can see one of us in person.
Number of Days Home from Liberia: 46
Number of Days we lived in Liberia: 139
Number of Days Adopting from Liberia: 872
Number of Days our daughters have been in Orphan Care: 1,213
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhvmF_X0zoUuAwUF7WzqlfZaskzIBmns2&si=0SE6xFYPJoXfkGIY
Shop Noonday to help with Rachel’s November visit to Liberia:
https://noondaycollection.com/rachelsmith-smithadoption
Click here to make a tax deductible donation to assist with our adoption expenses: https://bit.ly/adoptfaster
Venmo option to give to our travel expenses to Liberia:
@Rachel-Smith-964
Matched by Devon (Happy Birthday Sadie!!)
