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.
Just get on a plane…
No videos today, but just wanted to express a little gratitude and a lot of hope. Day 1000 is fast approaching, and I just did the math on what day will be day 1001.
Christmas Eve.
To be honest, when I started counting the days I had hoped it would be so quick, that more families would be encouraged to adopt. I planned to be public with our finances and our fundraising to give practical tactical solutions for the cost-prohibitive barriers that stall so many families at the starting gate. My obvious failure at these 2 tasks certainly turns on the lights to bigger problems.
There were so many things I wanted cast into the court of public opinion in hopes of modeling the solutions with our lives. I thought this would be so much easier. I thought I could find a way to make it easier. It is so difficult to see how wrong I was.
Because I see these kids currently living with orphanism in the same way everyone sees them. And I want to be their solution, as everyone wants to be their solution. Because I believe people are good. People are good, with good intentions. You, whoever you are, are good. Evil forces of this world plot the futures of children, especially children without parents. Some of these evil forces we can name, like human traffickers and child labor slavers. Others are more abstract to identify, like hunger and violence and prejudice and oppression. Still others are complacency and ambivalence, weaponized to battle on the side of these evil forces by doing nothing, and allowing yesterday to dictate the prognosis of tomorrow, without identifying the idea that they could be the part of the solution. They are so still in their actions, their lack of intervention protects the evil systems in progress and in perpetuity. When good men do nothing, we all know what happens. Evil prevails.
Christmas Eve is an important holiday to me. It identifies and reveres the birth of Jesus. Jesus matters to me. In the last 989 days, I have talked more to Him than anyone else. I have been angry and sad and happy and hopeful and depressed and disgusted and indignant and completely wrecked by the process that is our international adoption.
The feeling I get when I wonder what Jesus would say to me if it could be an answer out loud is, “You should be.”
“You should be angry when you see the obstacles of the innocent within your reach. You should be sad when evil prevails.
You should be hopeful when friends and strangers rally with you as I have asked them to do in this fight.
You should be happy that you can take action to change the trajectory of these little lives.
You should be indignant at the losses of the innocent.
Disgust and depression are normal reactions for someone who knows the fates of these children are in jeopardy, but also knows they don’t have to be in jeopardy.
You should be wrecked in the face of this situation. “
Intentional International Parenting is difficult. It takes more than a village and more than a support system. It takes supernatural, miraculous strength with indignation and anger and grief inspired by Jesus Christ himself. Over the last 30 days, I am no longer “wrecked”. I am on a mission for solutions. If we cannot emigrate our kids today, we will find other ways to be present in their lives. And we will help our friends do the same. I will also do my best to hold accountable those powers in governments all over the world to follow the law as it is written. Government officials, you need to conduct business without corruption, without prejudice and without personal interest. Your integrity as government officials is what maintains the fragile peace we have right now. Don’t jeopardize our peace for your own personal interests.
But even if you do not maintain the integrity of your profession, and continue to perpetuate the afflictions of these orphans, or continue to do nothing to protect them, I will still find a way to successfully be a mom to kids on two continents. Because my strength and resolve has nothing to do with you. I would not want to see the consequences you deserve for such atrocities, both in this life or the next. Do better.
So as I prepare to acknowledge Christmas Eve as day 1001 of our adoption process, I am so grateful for those who stand with us and excited to meet new people who will join us in our attempts to be the good men and women who did everything. This chapter of our story will end in miraculous ways. In the meantime, we need more good people. Because good people aren’t capable of just doing nothing.
Good people do everything. It’s just what they do.
We need at least one of us to be able to visit our kids in person every 4 months. This is a $5000 trip each time we do it. I’m going in January and Jeremy will plan to go in May. We will keep going until one day, they come home with us. Shame on both governments for putting us in this position. We look forward to both governments stamping our passports. We need more money. After the Both Hands Project, we currently have enough for 1 1/2 trips. (Thank you Allison)
Keep…. …going.
-Rachel
What could you do with $10,000.00?
Child welfare and tourism safety in Liberia.
Soccer tournaments and hope.
