Wednesday, November 29, 2006

IN THE BEGINNING

Welcome to our website dedicated to realizing our dream of adopting a little girl from China. This all started for me 3 and a half years ago when I lost my mother, Nita after her 3 and a half year battle with cancer. My mother was my everything, she was my best friend, confidant and mentor. When I lost her I felt as though I lost a part of myself. I really began to search and seek God earnestly since it was the only thing I could do to relieve the insurmountable pain I was in. As I began to go deeper with God and pray about next steps in my life and the life of my family I really began to desire to have another baby. However, there was a little snag, since having a hysterectomy 4 years ago and Brian having undergone the BIG "V" and I am not talking about Venezuela, it was a physical impossibility. Anyway, my desire grew and grew and I began to consider adopting and immediately thought of China, mainly b/c my Grandfather has an adoption agency in St. Louis. (See sidebar) So, I called him and talked at length about what was involved. I have to admit, I was very overwhelmed and began to pray God's timing would be everything and if this was not His will my desire would diminish.

I missed my mother so desperately and longed to have that again. There is something so precious about a mother-daughter relationship and my mother and I had such a great one. Anyway, time passed and Brian and I just kind of stopped talking about it. It never really left me but I just believed God's timing was everything.

Since uprooting our lives 15 months ago and moving to another state there have been a number of exciting changes in our lives and now is the time. About 12 months ago my passion and desire to have another baby was once again heightened and this time I just knew it was right. Brian and I even sat down and talked to the boys (we have 3) about how they would feel if we had another baby. They were so excited about it and started talking about diapers and bottles and taking care of a little sister. It was so cute. We started to pray and researched adopting over seas and of course talked at length. About a month ago we decided it was the right thing to do and both of us have such passion about rescuing a child and giving her a life she wouldn't otherwise have.

We really wanted to name her b/c we had already been praying for her so long and we wanted to be able to pray for her by name. So one day I was sharing with my friend Alexis about how we had decided to pursue adopting a baby girl from China and how we were going to raise the money first by asking for donations via a website. Without hesitation she said "What about Grace? Saving Grace." I was just like oh my gosh, it's perfect. After talking to Brian and praying about it, it just made sense. Grace is so multi-faceted. I mean, look at what God's grace did for us and how His grace makes it possible for us to do things like this.

Won't you please join us on our journey to bring our daughter home. We don't, at this point have any information about her or if she is even born. Most of this process is simply having patience while we raise the money needed to fulfill this dream. There are several ways which you can support us. The first is to join us in praying for Grace. The second is to send us emails or leave comments of encouragement and support. The third, if you feel so led is financial. I can assure you the money is deposited into a secure interest bearing account for the sole purpose of this adoption and as money is raised we will publicly display how. We will be back regularly to update you on our progress and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for joining with us. God bless.

8 comments:

Scott Hodge said...

Wow... I am really looking forward witnessing this journey! Not sure if you know this or not, but I was adopted. Blessings on you guys on your steps forward!

Shannon said...

HOLY CANNOLI!!!! You need to call me right now!!!!!

Anonymous said...

We will be praying for you and your future daughter. I just watched a show the other day on adoption. I even went on a website they were promoting...adoptuskids.org. Looking forward to hearing the updates.
Love,
Jeanette

Unknown said...

I remember you dreaming about this in Tulsa. So happy to see your dream start to come to pass.

We'll pray for you and Baby Grace.

Whittaker Woman said...

Rachel and Brian, thank you so much for coming along with us as we got Losiah. I remember standing in your shoes and now I cant believe he is asleep in MY HOUSE right now. I just wanted to respond to the fundraising question. #1 From day one I have had a peace that if this is Gods idea then he is going to pay for it. And for some reason it has stuck with me and Never have i worried about where the money would come from. We pretty much raised $16,000 from our church and family. And then we got $4500 in grant money from Life International and Shohanna's Hope. And the rest we paid ourselves. The money we paid ourselves just came, we moved had extra to pay the I600, we got our taxes back for the initial $2000. Money just happened (God) to fall in our bank account right about the time we needed it. Now did things not get stressfull, because they did. We needed to pay off the Adoption Agency in Early August $15,000 but our fundraiser party was not until end of August so there were some tight times. But again God always had a path. Dont be blind to the money but remember if its his idea and call to your life he will give you what you need. H

Anonymous said...

My thoughts and prayers are with you all. As one who knew your Mum (and practically adopted her myself) I can understand why you would want to share that Mother Daughter love with another. Nita was a wonderful, strong, amazing woman and has raised an equally wonderful, strong and amazing daughter. I look forward to sharing this journey with you all and God willing...becoming Grace's, (British) Aunt Jo.

Anonymous said...

Brian and Rachel,
The fact that this website is up and running is a HUGE step. I am so excited for y'all and will most certainly be praying for you, as this requires very extreme patience now and in the future when Grace is a part of your family. I love you guys and want to be a source of encouragement in any way I can. This is such a great gift - you are saving a life in MANY ways!
Blessings...

Anonymous said...

Brian and Rachel,
The fact that this website is up and running is a HUGE step. I am so excited for y'all and will most certainly be praying for you, as this requires very extreme patience now and in the future when Grace is a part of your family. I love you guys and want to be a source of encouragement in any way I can. This is such a great gift - you are saving a life in MANY ways!
Blessings...