Transcript from Panel Discussion

I mentioned that Jason and I took part in a panel discussion on Sunday morning, during our church's Orphan Awareness service.  Here are the four questions we were given...and our answers...

Q: Is there anything God taught you during this time that you want to share with the church?

Joli: To just obey. To trust Him with the details. When we hear Him call us to something….we need to just obey. Even when it is scary. Even when it doesn’t “make sense” from the world’s perspective. He is faithful and He is always right there with us. Obeying doesn’t ensure that things will always work out perfect - and it certainly doesn’t mean things will necessarily be easy or comfortable - but He will always be right there with us, even in the hard parts.

Q: What were financial challenges along the way & how has God been faithful?

Jason: Both of us were finance majors in college, and we know and love numbers. The numbers with our adoptions don’t make sense. That we have been able to adopt 6 times in 10 years just doesn’t make sense. The numbers don’t add up. We call it God Math. He called us…we obeyed…He provided and worked it out. He has provided several grants, gifts from family members, my advancement at work…and probably the biggest help has been the Adoption Tax Credit that is available through our government for every adoption.



Q: You have been faithful to open your home to 5 beautiful children. Why one more? What adjustments have you had to make in order to be available to be used by God in this way?

Jason: The short answer is that God told us to adopt domestically again. Four years ago this month, during an Adoption and Orphan Awareness conference that we helped host…the Lord spoke to both Joli and I separately and told us that we were supposed to adopt two children domestically…African American children specifically.

Joli: Adjustments? We would be coasting right now if we’d stopped adopting with Lily Kay, who is now 8 years old. We were past diapers, and sleepless nights, and potty-training, and teething…and two-year old tantrums. And it absolutely makes me teary-eyed thinking about what we would have missed if we hadn’t adopted our youngest two…if we’d been too scared…or too comfortable to step out. What an absolute blessing they are to us. And to watch our oldest four interact with the two babies is such a blessing…it is priceless what the older four have learned and experienced through these babies also.

Q: Most people are scared of domestic adoption. What is one fear that you had that God turned into a blessing in the end?

Joli: I never wanted to adopt domestically. The Lord planted the seed for adopting from China in my heart back when I was 7 or 8 and saw a documentary about China’s One-Child Policy, and I was so glad to be adopting internationally, and skip any of the potential problems that we hear about with domestic adoptions…parents changing their minds or birth parents wanting an “open adoption.” But the Lord changed our hearts as we stepped out and obeyed and adopted domestically the first time. And with our most recent adoption we have been extremely blessed that we were able to meet with and spend several hours with Abigail’s first mom a couple of times. It was a blessed time that we will forever cherish. The Lord has shattered pre-conceived notions that I held regarding who places children for adoption and why. He took something that I was so scared of, and wanted no part of…and totally blessed us with and through it.