Kansas and Missouri Kids Cry Out for Families. Focus on the Family Wait No More Event Will Help on Nov. 1
By Staff
“When, God?” the Smiths wanted to know. “When is the right time to add to our family?”
Adam and Carol already felt totally comfortable with the idea of adoption. Not only were they emotionally ready (Carol has siblings who were adopted and she considers the experience “an amazing blessing”), they were also spiritually ready. They believe that “God calls us to care for the orphans among us.”
All they needed was confirmation that the time was right.
That confirmation came when they attended a Wait No More conference organized by Focus on the Family (See side note), and heard testimonies from families who shared how God had carried them through the difficulties and challenges that can come with adoption.
“The Lord used this time to calm our fears and quiet our hearts,” Adam recalls. “We feared our own inadequacies at meeting the challenges of these children. But the event created such excitement that we couldn’t wait for this next phase of Christ’s journey for our family.”
A few months after the Wait No More conference, the Smiths, who live in Missouri, were presented with the profiles of two kids in foster care. So Adam and Carol committed their hearts to move forward with foster care adoption.
“They were a good fit for our family,” Adam recalled. And the children’s social worker agreed. Two months after first meeting them, Rebecca and Ryan moved in with the Smith clan. Four months later, the adoption was complete.
The hardest part of any adoption, Carol says, is learning to blend so many different personalities and different ways of relating.
“But God has united us and made us a family,” she says.
“It has been a joy to introduce them to our God, who loves them with an unending love and has already adopted them as His sons and daughters!” Eighteen months have passed since the adoption. And Carol says, “The kids are bonding and growing. Both Rebecca (now age 8) and Ryan (now age 6) have become Christians and been baptized.”
In fact, the adoption experience has been so great that the Smiths are in the process of adopting again. Carol says, “We have more room, we have more love and with the power of Christ and our community of believers behind us, we are able to step out in faith to love these kids.”
The Smith kids realize that this will require sacrifice.
But they’ve all prayed about it and asked themselves, “Am I willing to pay the cost of answering God’s call?”
The answer they’ve come back with is YES!
- Wait No More Event Details
Focus on the Family has joined the Kansas Department for Children and Families, the Missouri Children’s Division, local churches, adoption leaders and Metro Voice to raise awareness of and recruit permanent families for waiting children and youth in foster care. The Wait No More adoption conference will be held on Saturday, Nov. 1, at Colonial Presbyterian Church, 9500 Wornall Rd., in Kansas City.
The conference will highlight the fact that almost 400 legal orphans in Kansas foster care and 1,400 in Missouri are awaiting adoption. The conference is from 10 a.m. — 2 p.m. The conference is free, however, because conference-related materials will be offered, pre-registration is strongly preferred. “These kids are dealing with feelings of rejection, fear and mistrust, and we want to shine the light of God’s love to them through adoption,” said Kelly Rosati, who adopted her four children from foster care and serves as vice president of Community Outreach at Focus on the Family.
“Orphans are just one of the many groups that cannot speak for themselves, and we want to raise awareness of these precious children awaiting adoption in Kansas and Missouri.” One goal is to gain the support of churches. Kansas has more than 4,000 churches and Missouri has almost 9,000. Conference participants will have the opportunity to hear more about the waiting children, the process of adoption from foster care and ways to support adoptive families. In addition, agency and county representatives will be on site to answer questions and help families begin the adoption process.
Since November 2008, more than 2,800 families (out of approximately 6800 that have attended events) have initiated the process of adoption from foster care as a result of Focus on the Family’s 24 Wait No More events in 17 states.
For more info or to register, visit icareaboutorphans.org or call 1-800-A- FAMILY
