Jason & Kelley's Adoption Story- so far

My wonderful mother in-law and father in-law were visiting and told me they knew a couple in their circles who had a similar call to adoption story.  He sent me their story and Kelley and Jason agreed to let me share what God was doing in their adoption story.  Of course- it's amazing:

FROM JASON:

1. In April 2009 God showed Kelley a little Indian girl in a dream who was around age seven or eight. The little girl had short black hair and had a little blonde-headed boy sitting in her lap. We had been committed to adopting for some time at this point but never thought it would be an older child. Now having seen pictures/video of our daughter, she looks very much like the girl in Kelley's dream in April 2009. Also, most of you know that we now have a little blonde-haired boy, born approximately one year after this dream. :)

2. In May 2011 the reality of adopting from India was still years away for two reasons: Jason's age didn't meet the minimum requirement by India and our housing situation did not have an extra bedroom (which was a requirement for approval considering we had a son). Kelley heard the Lord tell her to wait three more months though all signs pointed toward the wait being much longer than that. Three months later in August 2011 we were informed that India had just announced a new adoption system including a new age requirement of 25 (reduced from 30) for adoptive parents. Jason was 27 so instead of a three year additional wait we were instantly within the approved age range. Additionally, we now know that during those three months of waiting in 2011 our daughter was found abandoned and brought to our orphanage. Finally, our adoption agency re-opened their India program following India's adoption system overhaul.

3. As we mentioned, without three bedrooms an adoption of a little girl would be impossible. Our apartment at that time only had two. Over several months following August 2011 God  opened doors for the RD position in the campus apartments to be full-time and for our family to switch roles with the apartment RD...providing three bedrooms!  

4. In March 2012 we both felt confirmation that it was time to begin the adoption of our daughter. We were still yet to move to our new apartment until May 2012 so this would allow the initial application and paperwork time to begin processing with our adoption agency while we waited to move. On March 23rd, Kelley's birthday, we submitted the official application. Now we know that it was also in March 2012 that paperwork was officially completed in India declaring our daughter legally free for adoption.

5. On May 7th, 2011 Kelley wrote in her journal that an Indian adoption seemed virtually impossible but that she knew that God could make the impossible possible (Luke 1:37). One year later, almost to the day, while on a train leaving Kolkata, India Kelley received a random Indian newspaper with the front page article outlining all of India's adoption changes and declaring that adoption would be getting easier and quicker. Literally, the front page said, "Adopting a child in India to get easier, quicker." With God, all things are possible. And we have that newspaper article framed in our bedroom :)

6. On Oct. 22, 2012 we got the referral for our daughter. We already knew that our friends from Easley, SC had spent last summer at the very orphanage our daughter was from. Of the hundreds of orphanages in India what are the chances?! Now, knowing our daughters identity and through comparing pictures and details we realized our friends had met her the last week they were there and had actually taken a picture with her! On Oct. 25, 2012, Jason's birthday, the final reports arrived allowing us to accept her referral. She was a little 7 year old girl who would turn 8 the following week (remember the dream in #1 above?!).

7. Last week we received a 17 minute video of a little short-haired, brown-eyed, eight-year-old girl - the little girl Kelley saw in her dream almost four years ago.

8. For the sake of anonymity we won't give all the specific details here, but in less than six weeks we went from not having even half of the $8,000 due to complete this adoption referral acceptance to more than enough. Enough to cover the first plane ticket to India for when we travel to pick her up! We've been so encouraged and spurred on in faith by the sacrificial generosity of so many friends and family, as well as many additional odd jobs for Jason. We anticipate hearing in January from a grant we applied for that would add $3,000 toward our upcoming trip! We'll keep you up to date on the status of that after we hear.

We are in AWE of the Lord. He is faithful. Truthful. He is kind and generous.

Please continue to pray for the necessary court dates in India. For those who are local to Central and are interested in seeing the video just let us know! We are able to show it in person just not online.