Free Adoption Resource

 

Adoptive families of all kinds can benefit from the support of their church, family, and community. Will you be a part of the support network for an adoptive family you know?

Take the pledge today and commit to serving an adoptive family. You'll receive a free download of the booklet, "Wrapping around Adoptive Families," with practical advice and ideas on how to help. Invite others to join you, and make serving an adoptive family a fun part of your day!

Click here to download your booklet today!

Adoption: Jody Cantrell Dyer

 

What follows is an excerpt from the book The Eye of Adoption.

 

Kerri and I sat, she in her wheelchair, I in the hospital’s hardwood rocker, between the single bed and the window. I had opened the blinds earlier so sunlight could warm Room 32.

 

The metal-molded window framed a mundane view. Three floors below the window, a long sloped sidewalk sat parallel to a two way street. Across the street, trucks and cars dotted a charcoal parking lot. A graveled afterthought of a parking area lay above the more formal spaces. I saw no people. The only life and movement came from a row of trees planted equidistantly along the sidewalk. The scene looked uninteresting and ordinary. But the events inside the building supported by the parking spots, street, and sidewalk were extraordinary.

 

Kerri and I faced one another in front of that bright hospital window on that beautiful May morning and talked for a long time. Isolated and insulated by the hospital, I felt secure as I observed my son and his birthmother together. I also felt compelled to witness to Kerri, remembering that Mark said I was the closest thing to Jesus that Kerri knew. I could have seized that moment to share scripture with the frail girl in front of me, but I thought, Who am I to tell this angel about sacrifice? She loves Scotty, unconditionally, infinitely, by nature’s default. She has given up a life with him, for him. She is the closest thing to Jesus I have ever known.

 

I cannot remember what we said to one another but I do remember that, as I watched Kerri hold, talk to, and kiss Scotty, I thought of the hymn lyrics, “There’s a sweet, sweet spirit in this place.” Those moments with Kerri were a sacred privilege.

Jody Cantrell Dyer is an adoptive mother, teacher, and author in East Tennessee, USA. In her novel, The Eye of Adoption: the true story of my turbulent wait for a baby, Dyer directly addresses the sorrows of infertility and the demands of adoption while consistently word-weaving a life-rope of assurance, optimism, and humor for her readers.

The Eye of Adoption is available on Amazon.com and through Jody’s website: www.jodydyer.com. Free Kindle downloads are available November 15-17!

Read Jody’s blog, Theories: Size 12, Musings from a Mountain Mama at www.jodydyer.blogspot.com. 

Email Jody at jdyer415@yahoo.com.

Adoption: The Connor Family

 

 

John and I married in November of 2003. After a little over a year of marriage, we began trying to having a baby. Seven months went by with no pregnancy. Then John joined the military which led to a 14 month geographic separation since I was also in the military and unable to be stationed near him. We hadn't been able to try for the full year, so finding out whether there was a problem had to wait until we could be reunited. Once we were back together we began trying again, but still no baby came. After going through all the infertility testing, the doctor told us our only chance of getting pregnant was IVF with ICSI (you can read more here). I wanted to pursue adoption right away, but John wanted to try treatment first, so we decided to do two rounds of treatment and then move on if it was unsuccessful. Our first cycle resulted in pregnancy, but ended in miscarriage at 10 weeks. Our second cycle was negative. Nothing about that cycle went well. God had given us a clear no.

We took some time to mourn this loss and let go of the dream of having a biological child together as God prepared us for the next step. What many people don't realize is that there are losses associated with infertility that adoption doesn't solve: creating a child together; announcing your pregnancy to your husband, friends, and family; the experience of pregnancy and childbirth; breastfeeding (I know adoptive breastfeeding is possible with hormones); and parenting a child from birth (possible only with domestic infant adoption). These are very real losses that must be dealt with and accepted before you can move forward with adoption with an open heart. What I realized is that for me the pain of seeing a pregnant women was less about the experience of pregnancy and more about the child that would come. I wanted to be a parent more than I want to be pregnant.  What I wanted most was to be a mom. I see adoption as an alternate path to parenthood, but one that is equally as good as parenting a biological child. It is not second best. I wrote about our journey to deciding to adopt here.

Initially, we thought we would pursue domestic infant adoption, but the Lord directed a change in course and led us to adopt from South Korea through a little girl that needed a family. You can see from our picture that the little girl did not become part of our family (praise God she was able to stay with her mom!), but we were now on the path that led us to both of our sons. We brought our first son Joshua JoonSeo home on September 3rd, 2011, almost seven years from when we first started trying to have children. It was a long and difficult wait, but Joshua was so worth it. I seriously can't believe I get to be mom to such an amazing little boy. He is so full of life and joy.

We had moved to Arizona three months before bringing Joshua home. Because AZ requires home studies to be certified by the court, we had to completely re-do ours. It was a little frustrating at the time since we were so close to having Joshua home. But it turned out to be a huge blessing because just four months after Joshua came home, we received a phone call from our new adoption agency asking us if we were interested in adopting another little boy. She had a referral for a little boy, but no family that was paperwork ready except us. He was born right when I was doing all the paperwork for our home study! Our second son Jonah RiYoon came home just over a month ago on October 1st, 2013.

Psalm 130:5 says, "I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope." His word says the Lord "settles the barren woman in her home as a happy mother of children" (Psalm 113:9). There was a time when I doubted whether I would ever become a mom, but ultimately I decided to believe God is who He says he is and does what He says He will do and He did.

Through adoption, the Lord has made me a joyful mother of children.

Adoption: Debbie Michaels

Debbie and her son Roma, adopted from Russia 11 years ago.

What is the first step in the process of adoption?

As an adoptive mother for over eleven years now, I remember my first unexpected step very vividly!  Already the proud and very comfortable mother of three older children, I was NOT interested in taking any steps that might disrupt my status quo.

God obviously had other plans for me!

In a rare moment of heightened awareness of God, my heart heard one troubling, unwelcome word—"adoption."  The relentlessly  recurring theme of "adoption" would soon morph into "adoption of an older Russian boy."  

"But God," I would argue, "haven't You noticed I have three kids already?" "But God, don't you see how busy I am?"  "But God, I don't want to."

Tiny, reluctant steps eventually led us to Russia two years later, in 2002, to bring home seven-year-old Roma, a child who had been relinquished to an orphanage at the same time God had first whispered "adoption" to my heart. It didn't take long for us to recognize that God had Hand-picked this funny boy especially for our family. I am so grateful that we didn't miss out on the wonders and the glory God had in store for us!

Last fall I published But the Greatest of These is Love about our journey of following God to adoption. I learned God's will for our lives is infinitely richer than the safe, comfortable lives we plan for ourselves. My prayer is that our story makes Him visible.

All profits go to orphan care. Free download through Amazon, Nov 22-24.

Adoption: the Kahler Family

Deanna: "I'll never forget the day our daughter was born. It was winter and there was fresh coating of snow on the grass and trees. As my husband and I gazed out into our backyard that morning while eating breakfast, we were filled with many emotions - hope, fear, excitement, anticipation and a touch of sadness. We wondered, Was our dream to become parents finally going to come true? After two miscarriages and more than two years waiting to adopt, it was sometimes hard to imagine finally having a child. We also knew that our daughter's birth mom would be experiencing many emotions as well, and didn't know for sure if she would ultimately decide to parent or not. We were putting our hearts on the line. But we knew it was worth the risk.
 

Later that afternoon as we held our daughter for the first time, it was a overwhelming experience. She was so beautiful and precious. And although we knew the adoption wasn't a sure thing, we loved her immediately and knew that our lives would be forever changed just by meeting her. Our lives did indeed change. We did become her parents. She has amazed us, blessed us and enriched our lives with her enthusiastic personality, her zest for life and her compassion. We love her with all our hearts and feel lucky everyday for the wonderful gift of adoption. All of the pain and struggles we went through finally led us to our precious daughter -- the child who was meant to be with us all along."

For more information about Deanna, please visit www.deannakahler.com. You can also read about her journey to motherhood in her book, "From Pain to Parenthood." 

Adoption: the Lipscomb Family

  

We started our journey together from very different places. I grew up in the Netherlands and he grew up in the United States. When I was twenty-two, we both found ourselves in Canada doing relief work and desiring to serve the community. Needless to say, we fell in love and made every effort to end up together.

After a year of mostly being apart, writing letters back and forth, endless chat conversations and paperwork a mile thick filed with the government, I was able to move to America and marry the man of my dreams!

After moving, we found a wonderful church together and got plugged in while Thomas finished up school. After finishing, Thomas was offered a job as a graphic designer at the church and I have been working as a K-1 teacher at a private school.

We bought our first home in 2011 with a big backyard in a quiet, friendly neighborhood. We love animals and rescued a cat as well as a puppy from local shelters.

We always wanted children and did not wait before we started trying. It was exciting, fun and for a while was “our little secret”! We talked about adopting very early on in our marriage and knew that even if we would have gotten pregnant right away, we would adopt.

Now we’re four years down the road, still unable able to conceive, and have finally put down our plan for God’s plan and decided: We’re adopting a baby!
I have to say that it’s a little overwhelming to think of all the things that need to happen before we will hold our little one in our arms but we know that it will be worth it! God has been brought us together despite the immigration and a long distance relationship and we know with Him, we can overcome this as well.

So, why are we telling you guys all of this? Because we know that we can’t do this alone. But, we also know that great things can happen when a community comes together! So far we’ve experienced amazing things but we are still far off from being able to hold our little one in our arms.

So how can you help? Here are a few ways you can be a part of our journey:

• Pray that we can raise the money to bring our baby home, for a birth mother to select us as parents for her child, for patience during this journey and wisdom to be great parents.
• Donate through GoFundMe.com/LipscombAdoption
• Purchase any product from our website today! I make handmade jewelry and my husband is also offering services. All profits will go towards funding our adoption.
• Like us on Facebook, heart my Etsy shop, pin us on Pinterest, or even BETTER – tell your friends about us!

When we began we needed 2000 people to donate $20.00, now we only need 1850 more people to join us in our journey! Will you make your donation today?

Etsy shop: lousje.etsy.com

fb: www.facebook.com/Lousjedesigns

Instagram: @marlouspot

Blog: www.lousjedesigns.com

Adoption: the Rabens Family

This is our story of God's unique plan for our family. 

Clay and I were told that we might have difficulty conceiving a biological child. Once we decided to start trying though, I had a dream that I was pregnant. I woke up and immediately took a pregnancy test and was shocked that it was positive.  

I had bleeding throughout the pregnancy, but overall felt great. I loved being pregnant.  

To make a long story short, my delivery did not go well at all. It seemed like anything that could go wrong did. I eventually had to have an emergency c-section. Click here to read the complete story of Madison's birth and see pictures. Although the day Madison was born was one of the happiest of my life, it was also one of the saddest because that is the day that I had to have an emergency hysterectomy. I spent 3 days in the ICU and was not able to hold my sweet baby girl. 

Clay and I always knew that we wanted more children and just prayed that God would reveal His plan for our family. We have always been open to adoption and had planned on adopting even before we knew that I was no longer going to be able to carry children of my own. When we moved to Florida, we discovered an Adoption Center right around the corner from our house. We contacted them and began the adoption process. Later we found out that we began the process almost to the day that Jocelyn was born.  

After waiting six months, we got a phone call from the adoption agency on a Thursday asking us if we would like to submit our information to a birth family that had a 6 month old baby girl. I called Clay and we decided that we would submit our information and prayed that God's will would be done for this little girl. We got a phone call the following morning telling us that the birth family selected us and would like to meet us on Sunday. 

We met Ms. Keisha (Jocelyn's birthmother), Grandma Cathy (Jocelyn's birth grandmother) and Brittani Ann (Jocelyn's half sister). The birth family signed the adoption papers that day and after waiting the 72 waiting period, we got to bring Jocelyn home that Thursday.  

We now have two beautiful girls that are only a year and two weeks apart in age.  They are best friends and sisters forever.  Click here to read a letter that Jocelyn's birthmother wrote us following our meeting.  God has blessed our family through the miracle of birth and adoption. We can't imagine our family without both of our precious girls. One grew in my tummy and one grew in my heart. 

Thank you Lord for your perfect plan for our family.