Adoption Excitement!

May 16, 2019

Thank you so much for joining together with us as our family follows where the Lord is leading and begins the process of adoption. We hope that as we share this journey with you, it encourage you to consider where you and your family fit in when it comes to caring for the unborn (and birth families), for orphans, and for foster children. We know that not every family is called to adopt, or to foster children, but we do think that we, as believers, must consider our part in caring for vulnerable children. 

For Jordan and I, adoption has always been something we have thought about, but we never had peace about moving forward with the process until March of this year. Both Jordan and I, during our individual times with the Lord felt Him calling us to move forward and begin the official process of adoption. For me, I got to the point where I felt the Lord so clearly calling us to adoption that I knew that if we did not move forward and obey this calling, that we would be directly disobeying the Lord. It is so amazing to look back and see how God spoke to Jordan and I both individually and as a couple, giving us peace and excitement. Our children are also so excited. In fact, they all pray each night that God would give us a baby through adoption. It has been so fun to see how even at their young ages, God has placed an excitement, love, and care for adoption in their hearts. 

After attending an information meeting, we submitted our preliminary application and just received word today that we are officially accepted! The timing of our acceptance is just another testimony of the Lord’s kindness and love. Maybe I will share more about that later, but already throughout this process, we have seen, more times than we can count, the Lord at work in the little details, encouraging us as we go along. I think of the Israelites when they were wandering in the desert for forty years. God didn’t leave them to wander alone, in silence. “The Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to lead them on their way during the day and in a pillar of fire to give them light at night, so that they could travel day or night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night never left its place in front of the people” (Exodus 13:21-22). God didn’t have to care for the Israelites like this, but He did out of His magnificent grace. We are so thankful for the way we have seen God lead, guide, and work in our adoption journey so far. 

The thing we know will carry us through this often unpredictable journey of adoption is prayer. We would love it if you will lift our family up in prayer throughout this whole process. I will be posting prayer requests as we go along and we would be honored if you would support us in that way. If you would commit to praying for our family, would you mind sending me a Facebook or Instagram message, or just leave a comment below this post? I would love to compile a list of names of all the people that were praying during this time to give to our future son/daughter. I think it will be such a blessing and encouragement to see how loved they were by so many people even before they were born.

What follows next will be for us to gather all the paperwork and documents needed for our home study. During this time, we are going to begin fundraising. We knew going into this, that if this was the Lord’s will for us, that He would provide everything we needed. Domestic adoption right now costs approximately $35,000. Looking at that number, it is easy for us to feel discouraged, knowing that we do not have that kind of money laying around, but because we are so sure that the Lord is calling us to adoption, we are confident that He will provide what is needed to welcome a new baby into our home through adoption. We know that He wouldn’t call without providing what we need to follow in obedience, so we are stepping out in confidence knowing this. 

The first way we plan on raising adoption funds is by hosting a Yard Sale for Adoption on Saturday, June 8th from 6am-12pm at our house. This is where we would love your help! First, if you have any yard sale items you would like to donate to the yard sale, we would love for you to bring them to our house anytime on Friday, June 7th. We will have your items for sale at the yard sale and anything that doesn’t sell, we will donate to Injoy Ministries. We would also love to have help the day of the yard sale.  Following the sale, we will have a hotdog lunch as a way for us to thank you all! We hope that it will be a fun day and a great way to kick off our adoption fundraising. 

Another way we will be fundraising is through “Rooted Designs”. I have been hard at work creating hand-made bracelets and earrings that I will have for sale. Be sure to check out and “like” my Rooted Designs Facebook page and share with your friends! There, I will post the things I have available to purchase. The name “Rooted Designs” is taken from Ephesians 3:14-22, which are some verses I have been praying over this adoption journey so far. It says, “For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with the power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith-that you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him Who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the powered at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever, Amen.”

We will also be accepting tax-deductible donations through the website: www.purecharity.com/jordanandcarolynreesefamilyadoption. The money raised here will go directly to our agency to fund the expenses of our adoption process.

If you have made it this far, thank you so much for listening to a little bit of our heart for adoption and how we plan to move forward in our journey. I hope to keep this blog up to date as much as possible, so that you can journey along with us. We also have a family Instagram page that we will keep updated (@thereesefamilyadventures) as well as our family Facebook page: The Reese Family Adventures. Thank you so much, for your prayers and support friends! We are excited to see all that the Lord is going to do in and through this adoption journey!