It’s a word both adults and children alike despise: wait

We tend to want things instantly. And in our modern, fast-paced culture, that’s not an unreasonable expectation. 2-day shipping. Instant streaming. Microwave dinners. If only adoption was that simple…

A family we supported with an interest-free loan recently sent us their adoption story. They know what it’s like to wait. From start to finish, their journey to parenthood through adoption took five years.

But their waiting had purpose—because their daughter wasn’t even born when they first started the process. 

In Vanessa & Kris’ words…

We started our adoption journey in 2013 but didn’t bring our daughter home until 2019. And looking back at the experience, we can see how God was working His purpose throughout the entire process to ensure that we were matched with our daughter.

Our journey took over five years. While it seemed long, we know that it allowed us to be matched with our daughter. We received CARA (Central Adoption Resource Authority) from the Indian government in only three weeks during a time when many families were waiting 5-8 months for approval!

We know it was God’s hand moving us through the system because our daughter was placed in the system only a few weeks after our approval which allowed us to be matched with her.

She was born in April 2017, nearly 4 years after we started our journey. She is from India—a country that wasn’t even on our radar when we first started the process. Through all the challenges and bumps in the road, God brought people into our lives which guided us along the way to ultimately be matched with our daughter.

Early on in the process, my husband had told our social worker that it didn’t matter to us if our daughter had any medical challenges. We just wanted a “happy baby.”

Well, that is exactly who our daughter is as a person. People tell us all the time how our daughter is so happy and seems to enjoy life to the fullest. We know God heard that simple request early on in our process, and we’re so fortunate to have been blessed to have her as a part of our family.

Partnering with Lifesong

Our adoption was taking years. And when the Zika outbreak became an issue, we switched countries from Jamaica to India. We fronted a lot of costs for our adoption. At that point, our savings were exhausted, but we still had several large payments due to finalize the adoption of our daughter. We had no option other than to take out a higher-interest loan or a cash advance on a credit card.

But then we received news from Lifesong about the interest-free loan. Getting the loan gave us the peace of mind that we were able to meet all of our financial obligations without having a negative impact on our credit. It was one less thing to worry about during a stressful time of making plans to bring our daughter home from India.

Pursuing Adoption?

We can help. We offer matching grants, interest-free loans, fundraising support, and a FREE fundraising platform to help families like yours overcome the financial barrier of adoption.