Joel & Kiley Driscoll

Updates

• Update 7

  Running Through the Airport

  June 13, 2023

  Pressing "end" and hanging up the call at a quarter to five in the morning, I took a deep breath.

  I had just wrapped up a phone call with a cardiologist in America that confirmed what the cardiologist in Singapore had suspected. These tachycardia heart episodes I was having were showing up as irregular heart rhythms, and both medical professionals were concerned enough to advise that we fly back to America for further evaluation.

  In the midst of preparations for our trip back, I suddenly realized that we would be passing through Jakarta and could utilize this trip to have our fingerprints processed for the adoption.

  With less than forty-eight hours to arrange this with the embassy, I sent an urgent email asking to set up an appointment. For anyone that has had to work with a foreign government embassy, expecting this appointment to be scheduled and completed in less than two days was insane. Hilarious even. Still, I set to work emailing and calling until I reached the right department, and made my case to be seen on such short notice.

  That evening I received an after hours email with an appointment time. Score! I told my husband excitedly, only for him to look at our flight time and point out that there was no way we would make it to the embassy in time. "But we have a whole forty-five minutes!" I told him, and he gave me the look that was like, "Babe, if you could just live in reality for one second that would be greaaaaat."

  So I emailed the immigration department again and asked if they could adjust our appointment time. They explained that they needed to leave by a certain time so we would need to keep our standing appointment. I essentially held my breath our entire flight, and rushed the whole family to baggage claim.

  Round and round and round went the baggage carousel, our bags yet to be seen. Tap, tap, tap went my toe. Joel reminding me that this is how traveling works, which is why you add in buffer time.

  Suddenly, a bag! And then another, and another!

  We swoop up the kids and book a taxi, only to Google maps our time to the embassy and discover that due to traffic we are still forty-five minutes away.

  I email the embassy and let them know that we will unfortunately have to cancel our appointment, as we will be almost an hour late. However, they surprisingly email me back right away, and tell me that they can bump our appointment one hour later but they cannot stay a minute past three o'clock. Our flight back to America leaves the next morning, so it's really this afternoon or sometime in the future, our return trip yet to be determined.

  We burst out of our taxi, tell our four-year-old it's a race to the building, and I clutch our one-and-a-half-year-old to my chest and run while simultaneously realizing she has smeared her airplane snack on the both of us.

  2:57 P.M.

  The staff graciously usher us into the building, and while Joel is off getting fingerprinted, an immigration officer draws Carson an airplane and I do my best to converse in my broken Indonesian while trying to keep the kids contained. A sweet faced woman then ushers me back (I suspect she is the one that has been emailing me and making this miraculous appointment possible) and avoids looking at my stained top while showing me to the office for a quick round of fingerprints.

  After thoroughly thanking the staff (and apologizing for the spilled contents of one preschooler's water bottle), we step out of the embassy and look at each other while reveling in the goodness of God.

  Thank you Jesus.

  Flights may be delayed.

  Hearts might not be beating quite right.

  But You are in the details.

  And You continue to make a way.

• Update 6

  Adoption On Earth & In Heaven

  June 10, 2023

  We have had a deep sense of peace and joy moving forward in the adoption process, but we wanted to dig into Scripture and establish a biblical framework as well. Below you'll see a list of ten questions we asked ourselves pertaining to our faith and call to adopt, important distinctions we noted, and how the heart of God has inspired our hearts to pursue adoption!

  1. Why does God call us to care about orphans? Caring for orphans is a reflection of us being doers of the faith and not just hearers,
  
  "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27, ESV).

  2. What does God say about adoption in regards to our salvation? We are to relate to God as a child relates to his father, and we can have confidence in his love for us through the Holy Spirit,

  "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him" (Romans 8:14-17, ESV).

  3. What provision does God make for orphans? The Lord is the father of the fatherless and his heart is for the lonely to be settled in families,

  “Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. God settles the solitary in a home; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land” (Psalm 68:5-6, AMP).

  4. Did God have any commandments for Israel regarding orphans? God called Israel to depart from their rebellion and demonstrate their faith by defending the fatherless,

  “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.” (Isaiah 1:16-17, ESV).

  5. What kind of model does God give us in our heavenly adoption that we can apply to earthly adoption? Our adoption into God’s family is marked by a spirit of vulnerability as a child cries out to his father; we hope to build trust so our children feel they can be open and rely on us completely,

  “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” (Galatians 4:6, ESV).

  6. Does God hold anything back from His adoptive children? Through the power of Christ we are given every spiritual blessing, He holds nothing back from us,

  “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, with which He favored us in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:3-6, NASB).

  7. How can we be confident that the Lord will make a way when the adoption process is so challenging? We know the Lord can always make a way, and his purpose for the lives of our children will be accomplished,

  “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted" (Job 42:2, ESV).

  8. Looking at the family of God as a model for our family, is there a uniting factor among people greater than blood? We are children of God who have received and believed in Jesus’ name; the bond we have in Christ supersedes flesh and blood,

  “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13, ESV).

  9. Adoption carries a great deal of unknown, what gives us the courage to take the first step towards our children? The Lord was willing to take the first step towards us, this inspires us to take the first step towards others,

  “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19, ESV).

  10. What did Jesus have to say about how we should view children? As the disciples were concerned about who was the greatest or least among them, Jesus reminded them that welcoming a child contains a double blessing - we are welcoming both Jesus and His Father,

  “Anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes not only me but also my Father who sent me” (Mark 9:37, NLT).

• Update 3

  An East Avenue Rite Aid Miracle

  April 22, 2023

  As I stood in line at the pharmacy of a poorly lit Rite Aid, I felt slightly woozy and also a bit discouraged. My beautiful Bulgarian sis-in-law and I had stopped into the pharmacy to pick up a prescription for me, and she was also scouting out some protein bars and water down a nearby aisle. We were running some last minute errands before my sweet mama-in-law would drive us to the San Francisco airport, a car ride that would later be dominated by my teething toddler's screams for the majority of the ride. We were flying from California to Kalimantan (Cal to Kal as my husband loves to point out) and I was already exhausted.

  That morning I had woken up and vomited after a feverish night's sleep, and I had tested negative for COVID and Influenza A & B but still felt absolutely terrible from the combined nausea, congestion, and aches throughout my body. Gearing up to fly 8,000+ miles with two small children while fighting some mystery virus was pushing me close to the edge, and I was fighting feelings of inadequacy and low-grade panic during our final hours in the states.

  As Debbie and I chatted in line for the pharmacist, she asked me how our adoption journey was going. I shared with her that with our home study being approved and our paperwork being processed we were feeling excited in that regard, but the giant $32,400 balance staring back at us was daunting. As I was talking I felt my heart sink and my inner dialogue went something like, "What are we even thinking? This sounds so crazy as I'm saying it out loud..how are we going to come up with this money? Are we being wise in pursuing this adoption? God has been speaking to my heart and prompting me to pray over our adoptive children but what if the money doesn't come in? I always have such big dreams but I am feeling pretty foolish right now...We do not have the faintest idea how we are going to come up with this money!" Debbie was incredibly calm and reassuring, and after she left to find me some protein bars I continued standing in line and tried to fight off the dizziness and nausea. Suddenly I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket, and realized I had received an email notification.

  Pulling my phone out I discovered I had gotten an email from an adoption organization that awards grants to prospective adoptive families, and quickly scanned the contents of the email. The organization founder had written and asked to schedule a Zoom meeting, as they wanted to meet with us and learn more about our adoption journey. When Debbie joined me in line with her arms full of a week's worth of protein bars and water bottles (she's the sweetest like that) I excitedly told her that I had JUST heard back from one of the grant organizations we had applied with last month!

  It was like Jesus was whispering to my heart, "Why do you doubt me? I am so good and so faithful, and I am your provider. I saw your shoulders slump as your joy was replaced by uncertainty, and here is a small reminder that I am working and leading and guiding you." We would go on to meet with the sweet couple that runs the organization and they would miraculously award us a grant for thousands of dollars to help cover the initial round of fees before we are able to be matched with a child or two siblings. They were full of encouragement and affirmed God's calling on our hearts to love and reach His children, and I am just so grateful for an email from Jesus in a random Rite-Aid on a very stressful Sunday.

• Update 2

  Joel's Journey to Adoption

  December 18, 2022

  Our adoption journey began long before my wife and I met. Growing up, Kiley always had a heart for welcoming and loving on kids within her sphere of influence. People have always been drawn to her natural kindness, charming demeanor, and empathetic spirit. She would routinely volunteer in children’s ministry at her church as well as babysit for her neighbors throughout her growing up years. Kiley has had adoption on her mind for a very long time, knowing that someday she would hopefully be able to welcome a child into her home as her son
  or daughter.

  While Kiley has known about and welcomed the idea of adoption since her childhood, I was first drawn to the idea of adoption when I was in junior high, and my aunt and uncle adopted two young boys from Ethiopia. This was my real first exposure to adoption and it opened my eyes to just how incredible it is. It showed me just how life-changing adoption can be both for children and their families. Although I didn’t feel the need to pursue it personally, adoption held a very special place in my heart and it was wonderful to play a small role in welcoming my cousins into our family.

  When Kiley and I first got married almost seven years ago, she shared her heart to welcome lots of children into our home - both biologically and through adoption. My stance has always been that adoption — although a truly beautiful and incredible thing — isn’t for everyone, and that we should only seriously pursue it if we believed it was something God wanted for our family. Adoption is a huge responsibility that should not be taken lightly, no matter how noble or selfless it may appear to be to others. So when Kiley would ask me if we could pursue adoption over the years, my answer was always, “Yes, I think adoption is wonderful! I just don’t think we should seek that out unless it’s abundantly clear that it’s the right thing for us as a family.” As the years have gone by, we have revisited the idea of adoption here and there, and along the way have been blessed with two biological children: our son, Carson, who is four, as well as our daughter, Eliana, who is two years old.

  In June 2021, our little family moved to Indonesia. I work as a pilot for a non-profit organization called Mission Aviation Fellowship. We fly doctors, missionaries, translators, and equipment to people living in the most remote places of Indonesia. It has been a dream of mine for a long time to be involved in this ministry that empowers and enables work being done in the farthest corners of the world. Our family has been working towards coming to Indonesia with MAF for the last six years and it is an incredible privilege to finally be here. When we were in the height of our language acquisition in September 2021, Kiley asked me again if I might consider pursuing adoption.

  Despite the craziness that is associated with moving a family of four to the other side of the world, learning a new culture and language, and starting a new life in a brand new country, for some reason I felt the Lord tugging on my heart to move forward with seeing if this was the time for us to consider adoption. There is absolutely no reason why I should feel like this of all times was the best time for us. However, ever since feeling that inkling of a “yes, we should definitely do this” in my soul, I can’t help but feel excitement and eagerness to welcome a child who needs a family into our home.

  The adoption process is long, arduous, and expensive. Even for families living in the States trying to adopt, they have to navigate many factors that lie entirely out of their control…not to mention people like us trying to pursue adoption from a country outside the States! However, as the Lord continues to align all the requirements, all the timelines, and all the finances so that we can get matched with a child to welcome into our home, I have no shadow of a doubt that this is what He wants for our family. God has already opened doors that we didn’t think were possible, and we have rejoicingly walked through each one on our journey thus far. I’m so excited to continue down this road to adoption so that someday we can hopefully welcome a new child or two into our family and lavish them with as much love and care as we can give them.

  Since our living situation is different than the majority of adopting families, we knew that we had to find an adoption agency that could help us navigate the challenges we would face. Small World Inc. is an excellent agency that has experience helping expatriates like ourselves. We looked through their various programs in Bulgaria, Madagascar, China, Lesotho, The United States, and Liberia. Due to a variety of factors including travel requirements, lack of comprehensive health care to be able to care for children with severe special needs, and the fact that we already have biological children narrowed our search down to the adoption program in Liberia.

  As we have recently submitted our dossier, we are thrilled that Jesus continues to open doors for us to move forward with this adoption. We eagerly look forward to all that Jesus has in store for our growing family, and so appreciate your love and support on our adoption journey.

• Update 1

  Kiley's Journey To Adoption

  December 18, 2022

  When I was a young girl, I remember rounding up all the small children in our neighborhood and facilitating games and fun for hours on end. I have always loved children, and my mother remembers how I would tell everyone that someday when I was a mama I would have at least seven children of my own. I do not think at that point in time I even knew how the children would get there, I just knew that I wanted a house full of babies to love and teach about Jesus and how much He loves them.

  Growing up in a tight-knit, homeschooling, Christian community, there were several families that fostered children and I remember loving on those kids and helping watch them while our parents would meet for Bible studies in the evenings. This truly was the beginning of my adoption journey, as the Lord planted a seed in my heart to love on all children, including the ones that were in need of a forever home. I remember learning about adoption through my experience with these families, and being so excited to hopefully be an adoptive mama someday.

  Over the years I always kept the desire to adopt tucked away in my heart, and knew that it was something I would want to discuss with my future spouse someday. When my husband and I started dating my senior year of high school, I remember talking with him about the idea of adoption. He was very open to the idea, as he had cousins of his own that he loved and had been adopted from Ethiopia, but he said we would have to wait and see if it was something God wanted for our future family. He has always kept my feet on the ground as I tend to be the dreamer, so I was happy with his answer and knew that if this was the Lord’s will in the future that he would lead us down this road as a family.

  Joel and I were married in July 2015, and because we both needed to finish school we waited to get pregnant until Spring 2018. I was so blessed to give birth to a beautiful baby boy in November 2018, and we named him Carson. The following December we discovered we were pregnant again, and we were excited to welcome another little one into our family. However, at sixteen weeks pregnant we discovered that our baby no longer had a heartbeat, and we lost a baby boy that we named Calvin Josiah. This was a harrowing experience, but the Lord used it to grow us in our faith and appreciate the miracle and sanctity of new life.

  It was a bit stressful as we tried to get pregnant again, mainly because we were preparing to move overseas to Indonesia as my husband is a trained bush pilot and we had just been hired by a Christian aviation organization, Mission Aviation Fellowship. However, the Lord was so good to us and I was able to get pregnant and deliver our daughter, Eliana, in March 2021. She is a little ball of energy and fun, and we are so grateful to have her in our family. We left for Indonesia a few shorts months later in June 2021, when she was just three-and-a-half months old.

  In September 2021, my husband and I revisited the topic of adoption for what I thought would be the very last time. I remember us sitting in our living room, sweating in the Indonesian humidity, tired from a full week of language learning. It definitely did not seem like the optimal time to discuss such a heavy topic, but I turned to my husband and began the conversation. I shared that I was truly happy with our two babes on earth and our one in Heaven, but felt like there were more children for us to love. I asked him if he would consider the idea of adoption, and if it didn't seem like a possibility for our family that I would put it to rest and we wouldn't need to revisit it again. However, he completely surprised me and told me that he had peace about us pursuing it, and we could see where the Lord would lead. We both laughed and agreed that if God wanted us to adopt now, an American family living on a remote island in Indonesia, then it would be God alone that could make this dream a reality.

  This decision lead to hours of research, and many different avenues being explored. We initially wanted to adopt from America, as my husband felt called to adopt from our home country before pursuing an international adoption. However, we soon realized that as missionaries living overseas, it was basically impossible to facilitate a domestic adoption with our current living situation. We looked at many different organizations, countries, etc. and kept coming up dry. It seemed impossible, until I decided to reach out to a fellow missionary mama that I knew was also pursuing adoption. She connected me with the organization, “Small World Adoption, Inc.” and told me that they specialized in helping missionaries and expats adopt while living overseas. I looked up their website, and scheduled us for a free consultation with the director of the organization.

  We braced ourselves for the worst, as we know that just because an organization is labeled as “Christian” does not necessarily mean it is above reproach, well-organized, upstanding, etc. In fact, unfortunately, it can often mean the opposite. However, we were surprised and thrilled after our initial meeting with the director. He opened up the conversation by telling us how challenging it would be for us to adopt, and that he was not going to sugarcoat it but was going to be honest and direct with us. The director went on to later tell us how much their organization values honesty, and that it was expected to go both ways. We could not have been more pleased, as we only wanted to move forward if we could pursue adoption in an honest and legitimate way.

  We first needed written permission to adopt as American citizens living in Indonesia, and an Indonesian law firm initially quoted us thousands of dollars but then inexplicably lowered their fees to just a few hundred dollars. For the next step we needed to have our medical exams completed and a sweet Muslim doctor agreed to see us in the middle of COVID when she was not regularly seeing patients. She could not read English and so we were not sure what to do as she did not understand how to fill out our forms when we arrived. However, she called to the back of her office and her daughter came out to greet us, explaining that she had attended school in the States and spoke great English and translated the forms for her mother on the spot. Lastly, we just had our home visit completed last November, by a fellow missionary that was able to serve as our social worker and interview us and approve our home for our adoption agency. This was a huge miracle as he is working with another ministry on a neighboring island, and his flight to see us was extremely affordable compared to if we needed to pay a roundtrip ticket to fly a social worker from America to Indonesia.

  This brings me to the end of our adoption journey thus far. We are now sharing our hearts for adoption with our community, and applying for various grants and scholarships to help cover the costs for our adoption. We have seen the Lord work miracle after miracle, and have no doubt that He will continue to make a way even when it feels like there is no way. It is so exciting to be on this journey as a family, and we cannot wait until the day we can hold our Liberian children in our arms. The Lord has been moving on my heart to be praying for our future children and their mama continually, and we would be so grateful for your prayers as well!