The Race Is On!

How appropriate is the title to this blog?! This journey is nothing short of the Olympic version of adoption. This race started out at my speed:a leisurely walk just taking in the events as they came along when all of a sudden an event triggered things into world record motion. And next thing I knew our family was no longer on a walk set at a comfortable pace. Time became the beast to beat. Now the craziness in all of this is that I absolutely despise running!! In fact, I always tell people that I am saving up all of my running just in case someone chases me then I will have all that running saved up and will be able to take off like no other Olympic champion has done before. Now before you say anything, I know that is not how it works but it helps me know why I don't run. Anyways, we now have been thrust into a race like nothing we have ever known. We are now in a race to save a life, to bring our daughter home to her siblings, and to give her a chance to become all God has intended.

Without further adieu, I want to introduce you to our family's story to race to save our little girl, Reagan Faith. When those of us at RR were asked to help advocate for orphans who had grants and were ready to travel to their forever family our family poured over the countless beautiful pictures when all of a sudden we just stopped on Reagan's face. She is the one we are going to advocate for, to find a family for, and pray for. We put the word out what we were trying to do but nothing happened. NOTHING. And I became discouraged and really turned to God to ask Him what was I supposed to do. I felt like I was letting this little girl down. Tragedy struck the RR family when we all learned of the passing of a sweet little angel who never should have been where she was much less without a family. This really rocked our world and our whole family began to pray and ask God what could we do to make sure this never happened to this little girl. I really think God had been speaking to me but I was not willing to listen because I simply was scared of what I was hearing. Soon several people were advocating for this precious little girl. Sending out messages on all those fancy computer things (I have no clue what they all are) and some even began holding fund raisers for her. Imagine, people who have never met this girl, are not able to adopt her yet they step out of their comfort zone and begin to share with the world the plight of this little girl. Every day I opened my emails and would see the love of a community,RR, coming together united by a common thread:LOVE FOR ORPHANS. God was working overtime with me but again I was content with my life with our newly adopted triplets and our other 2 children. Certainly God must be speaking a foreign language, right?! Wrong!! God was answering my prayer with His answer. He had a mission and wanted our family to fulfill it.

But God there are too many obstacles: who will take care of our 5 children while we are gone? Answer: In steps a friend who says "I will move into your house and take care of your children if you go. " Uh, ok well there goes that obstacle. Obstacle #2: Where will $24,000 come from? Answer: Many fundraisers from those who care and an amazing donation of $20,000 by someone not seeking glory or attention but by someone who has a heart for these children. Second obstacle blown out of the water. At this point, God was truly reaching into our hearts and we no longer could deny His calling and we answered. Soon the world was to know that there was going to be one less orphan in this world and of the story of how God brought forth another miracle.

Ok so race day finally was here and the event was going to take every bit of strength and endurance we had. The most critical part was to get a completed dossier done in crazy time: one month or this little girl would be lost in a system and perhaps to this world. We did not know how that would be done since our last dossier took 4 months to complete and that was with extreme diligence. Well, once again God equipped the called just as He promised. People were put in our path and a miracle happened: our dossier was completed in only 13 days. Completed with approval from the U.S. government! We sent our dossier over to Reagan's country and now can rest for this leg of the race is over. The only thing we can do is wait to be called to the next leg of the race which would be to travel to her country and begin an adoption that is the first from this institution. Yes, that is right! Reagan is in an adult mental institution and she just turned 5 years old. God has a purpose and it is our hope that we not only bring our daughter home but that we form a positive relationship with people of this institution so as to open doors and hearts for future adoptions.

Our family certainly is not special. We are just like so many other families out there who have been called by God and answered that call. I remind people every time they comment that we must be special since we adopted our 3 little ones who have Down syndrome that we are not special just blessed. Not every one is in a position to adopt nor have received the calling to adopt but we all are commanded by our God to make a difference in the life of widows and orphans. Prayer is perhaps the most powerful tool known to man only some choose to not utilize the very tool God has given us. If it weren't for the prayers and efforts of so many of you out there I believe there may be a different result in this race. I am happy to announce that the winner of the race set before us all is a family living in Texas who will soon be blessed with a beautiful new sister and daughter. Thank you to everyone who prayed, advocated for, and fund raised for our little Reagan! We chose Faith as her middle name because this was a true journey in faith that God would work things out just as He had planned, and that He would knock down what seemed like insurmountable obstacles just as if they were grains of sand in the wind.