ADOPTION NOW April Fallon

President & CEO of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption has joined ADOPTION NOW for an incredible interview. Rita Soronen has worked on behalf of abused, neglected and vulnerable children for more than 30 years.  As the leader of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, a national nonprofit public charity, her mission is to dramatically increase the number of adoptions from foster care. They are working hard to find permanent families for the more than 140,000 waiting children in the United States foster care system. The non-profit was inspired by Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy’s fast-food restaurant chain, who was adopted himself! Rita shares his story, as well as her own journey in working with families and children. If you are interested in adopting an older child from the foster care system, this episode is for you!

Author Sarah D. Shearer joins ADOPTION NOW to talk about her adoption story.  In her words, her story started off with little hope, “I was born with various medical needs and was left in a Russian hospital where nuns helped to keep me alive until I was transferred to an orphanage.” The Russian orphanage was convinced that no one would want her, but a family in Thomasville, GA saw her picture and fell in love. This is an uplifting story filled with gratitude and grace towards adoption. Sarah has written a memoir called “Extra Ordinary” to share her positive perspective. She says, “no one can speak to adoption more than an adoptee.” Listen to this episode and check out her book on Amazon!
 
QLyczKYulKtuC15aefxa

PART 2!! As we heard on the last episode, Jacob and Jessica already had 2 biological children when they adopted a baby boy while being filmed on the Oxygen show “I am Having Their Baby.” The family of 5 soon became a family of 6, as they went on to adopt a little boy with clubfoot. On this week’s episode Jessica shares how their journey was not over after 2 adoptions! As they waited on the agency’s adoption list, a situation came up that involved drug exposure to the unborn baby. The couple had to make a quick decision if they wanted to keep moving forward and say yes. Listen to hear the rest of the J Family's story!

As cameras rolled, Jessica and Jacob started their adoption journey on the Oxygen show “I’m Having Their Baby.” On this episode, Jessica talks to us about the experience of adopting while being filmed on a TV show (as if the hospital time isn’t stressful enough)! They had 2 biological children when they started the process, and as you will hear, they just kept saying yes to situations. This is part 1 of 2 episodes on how they became a family of 8!

Kurt and Megan were married and had 2 sons when they went on a mission trip to Haiti. God began to stir in their hearts a call to adopt. This is a story about surrendering to God’s plan and being obedient to taking the next steps. They knew that if they did not pursue adoption, they would miss out on what God had planned for them. The process was not easy but eventually they brought home a 4-year-old little girl named Esther. They were all so excited but as time went on, they learned about trauma and grief in children. In this episode we hear from Megan about the joy and chaos of learning to parent differently and how to let go of the expectations of what they thought raising a daughter would look like. Through prayer and resources, they have seen Esther grow in ways that have brought love and understanding to their whole family.

Noah joins April on this episode to talk about so many things…like the new WEBSITE! They update us on how the kids are doing and share what is next for ADOPTION NOW. You do not want to miss this candid conversation the two of them have about life as a multicultural adoptive family.