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.
Day 551. Adopt from Liberia. Adoption Day.
Today is October 1st. It’s Original’s adoption day. The day we finalized her adoption and changed her birth certificate to list us as her parents. In Tennessee at that time, a child placed at birth with their adoptive family could leave the hospital with that family. The legal rights of the birth parents process of placement for adoption found its completion within 3 weeks of her birth. For 6 months following that completion, Original was in our custody as legal guardians as we were supervised by our placing agency (the one that does the home study) to make sure we were doing well and that she was doing well. After that 6 months, we were able to go to court and finalize her adoption. The judge that day reviewed our paperwork and met us and our baby girl. The social worker with our agency submitted her report of how we were doing and their recommendation to the courts to proceed with her adoption. Our lawyer was present, and had done the legal work to secure our daughter’s future with us.
So much on my mind and heart that day as my 6 1/2 month old baby on my hip rested her little feet just on top of her sister’s head, growing in my very round and wide person.
That day, I was convinced I had 8 weeks to go before juggling 2 infants became a reality.
In reality, I had 3 weeks before that challenge began.
In that moment, I cried when the judge said his blurb of what Original’s legal rights now were as our daughter. I cried happy tears, finish line tears, tears of fear of inadequacy, tears wishing for more time with just one, and tears of gratitude for the gift of our first baby girl.
Most of all, I cried tears of being the walking miracle story. It is hard to stand on that social stage of adoption and biological additions to our family simultaneously. It was challenging to listen to all of the inappropriate comments, although most were well-intended, and answer with grace and compassion, or remain silent with patience for those who just don’t get it, yet.
Infants born 7 months apart is logistically, emotionally, physically and mentally difficult. I would not have chosen that for myself and would not recommend it for anyone else. Sovereignty over my life is not mine.
God will do what He wants to do when He wants to do it. I don’t know why. I don’t know why not. I do know there are things about my oldest 2 daughters “twin dynamic “ that I will never understand, but will be eternally grateful for. Things they needed and will always need that I could not give them, and could not have been given by anyone else, but each other. Their friendship is an amazing thing to watch. Their bond is one that surpasses the level of typical or good. The ways my oldest 2 daughters conquered their world as toddlers together has served them well in their strategies to answer questions that don’t matter, and replace those spaces of conversation in time with questions that do matter.
I am waiting until I have good news to update anyone about our international adoption journey.
As I follow my daughters leads on tolerating questions that don’t matter, and replacing those spaces in time with questions that do matter, today I am struggling with what to say next.
One good thing I have today is a decade behind me of being the legal parent of Original. That job is one I pursued. I interviewed for it more than once, and a job that I am grateful to hold moving forward.
As we intentionally parent the 5 children entrusted to us today, we are hopeful to reach the 2 on the other side of the world soon. We enjoyed the 3 we have today a lot. Happy Adoption Day, Original. Thanks for starting our parenting journey.
Happy Early Birthday to our youngest daughter who is nearly 6. As we approach the grief of missing a birthday, we know we have done all we can do up to this point and it’s ok to just stop and celebrate her turning 6 with a big box of meaningful gifts that serve more than one meaningful purpose.
Thanks for reading our story. Thanks for helping us keep…. …going. If you are on a road of adoption, yourself or your family, we can help you along your journey.
Email me at [email protected] if you need more info.
If you are looking for a place to help an adoption, click her to help the Adkison family.
https://bit.ly/adkisonadoptfaster
If you want to help us make our Liberian daughters and their friends Christmas special, see below.
Click here to shop. You may purchase items on the wishlist and mail them to me at 3028 Lake Butler Ct., Cape Coral, Fl 33909.
Each purchase you make for yourself will help us pay the $350 shipping costs of a “birthday party in a box” to Liberia.
Shop here: https://bit.ly/noondaybirthdayinabox
Dear Smith Family Adoption Supporters,
These updates are difficult because I don’t have time sensitive good news about our adoption.
The political situation in Liberia is quite energetic as they prepare for their prepare for all elected office positions, including presidential, to be in the election process now, and voting October 10, 2023.
Elections…. Peace….. Politics….
The situation in Liberia at the moment is peace.
Elections protect that peace.
We want our kids to come home today.
We want them to start their lives with us physically as soon as possible.
More than that, we want Liberia to maintain their peace.
We are prepared that we will not hear anything about our adoption travel dates before March of 2024. That is my guess, based on everything that I know, from multiple sources.
We are not the rate limiting step. Our team at Small World Adoption Agency has exhausted all of their resources, as have we, to get our kids home this year.
It’s just looking like the Liberian government has their hands full with this time of transition, and they cannot release any more orphans for completion of their adoptions at the moment.
It’s not thought to be intentional or politically charged to hold these kids from us, it’s just about time and priorities.
To maintain the stability of their government, Liberia needs to focus on Liberia, specifically voting and counting votes.
To Liberia I say, keep…. ….going. Your country is young and peace is fragile and my kids are there. Take your time. Make good choices. Make hard choices. Don’t skip steps. Count each vote. Maximize integrity, even if it takes more time. Hear each voice behind each vote. Keep growing. Keep surviving. Learn to enjoy thriving in your freedom. Keep peace. Fight with weapons of principle and integrity and without impulsive emotion that reaches for a gun. Reach for resolution with actions that are non-violent.
While we wait, to all or our supporters, please consider helping other families we know that are still fundraising and still trying to complete those hurdles so that their kids can come home and stay home.
Spotlights for us this summer where the Adkisons and The Godfreys. Both have adopttogether profiles.
The Godfreys completed their fundraising goals and the Adkisons are still fundraising here:
https://bit.ly/adkisonadoptfaster
Our fall spotlight is the Hamilton family. They choose to adopt medically fragile or special needs kids before DCFS gets involved and after their parents have discovered they cannot parent these children safely themselves. They have 2 adoptions in process now, and their story can be found here:
http://www.jonathansplace.org
We are doing a Noonday show for the Hamilton family here:
https://bit.ly/hamiltonfamilyadoption
We are also doing textile drives for them starting next week.
We are heartbroken for every day River and Sadie wait in the unknown land of orphan care they currently face. We believe they are doing as well as they can be, amidst the circumstances for which they find themselves.
We miss them. We hope they know we are coming as soon as we can. We appreciate your prayers on our behalf to stay positive and peaceful in our actions and our words while we wait.
We believe we are created for eternity. We believe childhood experiences guide the person one becomes. We have fought for their childhood in peace and determination and with your help.
Please keep helping the Adkisons and the Hamiltons, as that is one of the things that maintains my sanity and keeps my “mama bear” side in the dark, as the elephant I choose to be keeps stepping into the light.
The differences in the mama bear and the elephant in me are extreme. Choosing to be the elephant is difficult. The elephant lives in a herd of good people with strong backs at my back and strong shouts of encouragement in my ears and an peaceful unified front that keeps the dark out.
The mama bear kills something and sets the woods on fire and walks away.
Thanks for making it easier for me to be an elephant. Thanks for keeping us busy when our hands are tied on so many situations with so many kids seeking peace that we love so much, and can’t reach.
Thanks for making it easier. Thanks for being my elephants. I hope one day every adoptive mom can feel as surrounded by good people as I feel today, even if I am not getting the miracle I asked for.
God is still God. My name is still written on His hand. He is listening. If I am nothing else I wish I could be, I know for sure, I am His,
Keep…. ….going.
-Rachel
Adopt from Liberia. Day 516. What that “more” is.
08/27/2023Adopt100more
It’s becoming increasingly difficult to blog about our adoption, because we are unaware of anything that has changed. We know we have exhausted all efforts on our part to make the days of our daughters’ childhoods count.
This whole intentional parenting thing can be all consuming. The bright spot this month has been the reconnection of a kid that used to live here. He is doing good. Regardless of the failures of the child welfare system, some things cannot be broken and other things cannot be fixed.
It is difficult to forge a friendship that has lasting capabilities on the worst day of your life. It is difficult to maintain consistency and unconditional love that protects and preserves anything long term. It is difficult to surrender any important moment with your child that ideally for them would be best for them for you to be in that moment.
We don’t live in an ideal world. We live in a continually falling world that continues to fail at so many things for so many people. There was this one day a few years ago where we got a call about a kid that needed a family that day and an unknown number of days to follow.
Bottom line truth, his parents were working hard, but could not be there that day, and did not know how many days it would be, but their intentions were clear. They are trying to get to him. Just had a whole lot of stuff to move out of the way to get there.
When I was finally afforded the opportunity to speak with his mother, I promised to keep him safe and guard him with all of the tools I have on hand, including my own life for as long as she needs. I also asked her to hurry because he missed her, and that she remains his ideal option, even if it does not look like it from her perspective on that day, because she is not just his mom, but she has done her best to intentionally parent him with love and protection from before his birth. He’s a great kid. I remain honored to be his friend and a friend of his parents.
Although we have done our best to adopt 2 little girls from Liberia as quickly as possible, today it just does not seem like we have done enough. We have intentionally pursued every effort and every open door and have carved out new doors and new pathways and made a lot of progress for lots of good things.
But today, another mother protects daughters assigned to me. It’s actually a team of mothers and people and other kids sustaining them today, in an orphanage on the other side of the world.
I wonder how many times other kids ask them “When is your family coming?”
I wonder if it makes them as nauseated as it makes me when people ask me when we are going to get them. I wonder if they want to throw things like I want to throw things. I wonder if it scares them to believe we are coming, for fear we may not show up. I wonder if they hope we won’t come, because the known is more comfortable than the unknown.
I can relate to my friend, who had to surrender to the child welfare system and choose to trust me with the safety of her son, on the worst day of her life. I can relate to her in terms of just not knowing how to take the next step and the next breath because it all just seemed too big and too far away. The problem was just so big and the solution so far away.
Africa seems too big and too far away and the unknown timeline is suffocating and defeating. Because as a mother, every day my kids wake up, I just want to know that someone is there. Ideally I would love for it to be me. But, if it cannot be me, it would be helpful to know someone good is there. Someone that cares about the details. It would be easier to keep…. ….going knowing that someone is meeting whatever needs they have today and making the days of their childhood good ones. Someone that makes sure they laughed today and had a moment to talk about their fears and their dreams.
I believe our children are as well cared for as they can be in the circumstances that they are in.
I believe that God is aware of them and values their sweet little souls the same way he values yours and mine.
In my head, I know stuff is happening in Liberia I am unaware of that is good for my daughters and good for our family and that this is a long journey and logistically and objectively, it is going better than expected in terms of international adoption.
But, in my heart, as I have accepted the assignment of being their mother, it’s hard to breathe on days like today.
Because it feels like I should be doing more. I just don’t know what that “more” is.
Pretty sure every mother that parents with intentionality relates to those 2 last sentences.
“It feels like I should be doing more. I just don’t know what that ‘more’ is.”
Wish that solidarity made me feel better.
It does not.
Selling Noonday and collecting textiles to continue to throw in on the #orphanismpanacea available for today in the US and all over the world.
Email me if you want to help: [email protected]
Keep…. …going.
The weight of the wait, lightened by a widow’s husband’s shoes. I think this moment that I wrote this blog on Day 104 broke me most and made me move fastest.
Copy this link to read it.
https://adopt100morehappykids.wordpress.com/2022/07/14/day-104-adopt-from-liberia/
Adopting 2 little girls like the ones we are pursuing is overwhelming. It takes my breath to think about these 2 little girls who faced death as babies and won that battle, then faced it again as toddlers and won again, then found themselves on the brink of starvation and were placed in an orphanage that promises peace and a future.
One thing I promised them when we threw our hats in the ring for the race to save their lives and protect their future, is they would not be waiting on me.
Not for paperwork or money or the ability to say yes or the ability to fundraise or ability to parent or ability to get on a plane, you will not wait for me. As daughters of mine, you will have every second of safety that I have to give. There are things beyond my control between me and those 2 little faces, but everything I could move out of the way, I moved.
I promised to move it, and we did. And I did it with a smile on my face and a grateful heart for the mountain movers that pushed with me. It gets harder and harder to find the courage to write these updates to you, the mountain movers that pushed with me and for us because of these little faces. People are good. Your intentions and actions have proven to be miraculous.
Now we wait.
And it’s awful.
And it’s a win.
Because the rate limiting step is not me.
Every day that passes that I have to say “I don’t know” when you ask “when can you go?” Is a painful one for me. Because I just don’t know. And there is no expiration date for that unknown.
My willingness to continue to be public about our adoption is a difficult one. The one thing I want you to know is God will fund what he wants to. Money is not a reason not to adopt. Obedience to God to prove to you that adoption can be free is somewhat exhausting at this point, but is still true. If we take cost off the table, then those considering adoption should just be signing up today.
Who has signed up?
It would help me to know while I wait that the process we have publicly publicized helped just one more kid have a family.
New pic, edited for their privacy. My Liberian daughters July 2023. Waiting for Liberia to sign off that they are orphans and we can adopt them.
We know Liberia is doing their best. We are proud of their progress. Keep…. ….going.
Thanks for waiting with us. Thanks for moving mountains with us. Thanks for being excited. Thanks for being what we asked for, and asking for nothing in return.
When this wait breaks, and becomes something else we can count, you will be the 2nd to know.
https://adopt100morehappykids.wordpress.com/2023/07/25/day-483-adopt-from-liberia/
