I am so excited to introduce you all to the Farley family: Ash and Danielle, with their children, Prestin- 10, Tatum-8, Avery-7, Madeline-5, Ainsley-4 and Sadie-2.
Our story started with seeing a little baby boy on a blog. His name was Cliff. The blogger was raising money to help ease the financial burden for a future family to come and claim him. My heart broke as I read the story of his sad, short little life. ” How can one have endured so much before the age of two?” I thought to myself. So our family got together and prayed for him every day, our kids got their piggy banks out and donated all they had to his fund. He was on my brain every minute. I prayed for him and looked daily to see if a family had come forward for him, all the while praying that he could be ours.
The day a family came forward for him it was bittersweet for me personally, but how could I not praise God for answering my prayers. By now He had planted a seed in my heart that had blossomed into a love for these children and I continued to pray for the children on Reece’s Rainbow.
I started following adoption blogs and families who had children with Down Syndrome, including Adéye’s blog. It was during that time that I was praying and contemplating the possibilities of adopting that the Lord showed me over and over the miracles that He was doing for the orphans and their families. Again and again I saw children being rescued with only twenty days to spare before they were never to be adopted again, thousands of dollars being raised just in time for the families to travel to get their child and the support of perfect strangers coming together to help bring a child home.
God had calmed all my anxious thoughts and worries and showed me that He would provide what we needed. I knew in my heart that this was what God was calling us to do. So that’s great–I was convinced–but now I had to tell my husband what I felt the Lord was calling us to do:) My worries came back really quickly. LOL!
After speaking to my husband he definitely had some reservations although he was not opposed. We had agreed that we were going to start the new year off with 21 days of praying and fasting and decided that we would use that time to pray for God’s will regarding adoption. During that time we had fallen in love with a little boy named Sergey. It was seriously love at first site for me, as if I had just given birth and was looking at my son for the very first time.
After praying for a couple months for God’s will to be revealed in our lives, and also asking that if it wasn’t His plan for us that He would take this desire away completely, we were able to confidently contact Reece’s Rainbow to start the adoption! We are going on eight months now and it has not been the easiest road but it is definitely worth all the hard work, tears and what feels like endless waiting to aching arms that want nothing more than to hold their baby boy. In that time the Lord has helped us raise over $19,000.00 where we were able to see complete strangers come and support us… God is so good!
And I have to say this to those of you who have considered donating or helping in any way to families in need but think that your small donation won’t help–we got to $19,000.00 by most people donating on average $10.00 at a time. That is amazing!!!! God can use your little bit and make it grow, so don’t ever think that you aren’t making a difference. We have also made wonderful, meaningful relationships–people who I believe will be life long friendships. Blessing after blessing has happened since we took this leap of faith and I would encourage you, if you feel the Lord’s call to adoption, to run as fast as you can towards it.
Sergey turned three in August and we are working as fast as we can to raise the rest of the money needed and to finish up the paper chase so that we can meet our son very soon:) We covet your prayers and would love it if you would like to follow along with us on our adoption journey.
Please stop by our blog and say hi anytime.
Danielle blogs about her sweet family right here. Please keep them in your prayers as they get closer and closer to bringing their sweetheat home. Thanks!
