Our journey in faith

A year ago today, we were content with our lives. We were the proud parents of three beautiful girls: Courtney, Shelby and Abby. We were beginning to look towards our future and things to begin settling down. We had no idea what was in store for us. We became aware of Reece’s Rainbow Down Syndrome Orphan Ministry at the December meeting of our DS support group (December 5th). Another mom presented the RR Christmas Angel Tree project and gave an overview of the mission of RR. We had been unaware of the many orphans and specifically, the orphans diagnosed with DS. In hearing the fate of these children, we were moved to action. However, at this point, our action was to select a child from the Christmas Angel Tree to support with a donation to their adoption fund. After spending the better part of the next day pouring over the children’s faces and reading their stories, we had narrowed down our choices to a few select children. The way we searched for our Christmas Angel was finding the ones at highest risk for being transferred to a mental institution who also had the least in their funds. We were hoping to ‘make a difference’ for that one child. After selecting and sponsoring our angel, we continued to be ‘bothered’ by the many faces we had seen. We were bothered that they were abandoned at birth because they were born with DS. We were bothered that they had 4 years at the orphanage before being transferred to a mental institution. We were bothered that many did not survive the first year after being transferred. It really hit home to us because we had been blessed 14 years before with Shelby, who was born with DS. We had experienced the joy of these children. We understood their innocence. We understood that this could have easily been our daughter had she just been born in another country and to different parents.

The two of us had begun to pray for these children. We started to pray about what God was trying to tell us. We came to the realization that regardless of how unlikely it may have seemed or how overwhelming it felt to us, God was asking us to go bring home his children. We felt we were being asked to pursue an international adoption of two children with Down Syndrome. We committed on Sunday, December 28th to adopt the children listed on RR as “Sonya” (5 years old) and “Darcy” (4 years old).

This is how our journey started and what followed was a series of events that continued to amaze us as God showed his faithfulness to us and to these children.
• Tim’s current position had been eliminated and he had been unable to find another position that he could fill at this base. The day after committing to adopt, Tim returned to work to find a job offer in his email.
• A person (who asked to remain anonymous) told us of their intent to contribute $6,000 towards our adoption. To us this was confirmation that God did intend for us to bring home two children. Why? Because the estimated cost of adopting as quoted by RR was $24K for the first child and an additional $6K to bring home two.
• After various delays, our completed home study was finally sent to DHR in May, then on to USCIS (Immigrations) in June. We were concerned that we would not make it to the girls before they were transferred since they were both 5 by now and we had been told they would most likely be transferred in August. The USCIS timeline was at best 90 days. Our file was approved in less than a week!
• Through a chance encounter we heard about Child’s Promise at HBC a few days before the Child’s Promise banquet. By now, we knew better than to believe in coincidences so we attended. We were able to hear more about the ministry and the work that is being done to help orphans. We were blessed with the honor of being a grant recipient.
• We received other monetary gifts given to our adoption through RR, handed to us personally or passed to us through others. All showing us God’s faithfulness as he continued to provide.
• Our pledged donor contribution came through for more than the pledged amount.
• Another donation came through RR from a donor wanting to remain anonymous… this time $5, 000.
• Things progressed rapidly from our USCIS approval in June and we were able to travel to Ukraine on August 1st, meet with the SDA on August 4th and meet our girls on August 5th.
• Through various circumstances our estimated time in country was drastically reduced from the expected 4-7 weeks to an amazing timeline of just 2 weeks. The girls were officially our children on August 11th. We were able to travel home on August 14th with the girls.
• Months after coming home, we received approval for a grant from Show Hope. This grant represented to us God’s fulfillment in providing for our adoption. Between the various gifts, donations, grants, the military adoption reimbursement and the savings we had from reduced time in country our adoption had been funded.

Our journey was not easy. We were tested repeatedly. We had stumbling blocks along the way. We continue to struggle at times as we work through the adjustment process. However, we are able to see how God moved mountains for us and helped us through what seemed unrealistic and overwhelming. Sophia and Anastasia are now part of our family. They continue to receive the medical care needed for the issues that had gone so long unaddressed. They just experienced their first Thanksgiving with family. Soon they will experience their first family Christmas. They do not yet and may never fully understand, but we know that God provided for our family and blessed us in many ways in our journey to bring home two of his children.