When we were asked to write something in a few words about how we got to the place of being ready to adopt, we just couldn’t reduce it down. There’s just too much goodness to share.
To narrow it down, the moment we trusted Jesus as our own Savior, that’s when God adopted us into His FOREVER family. Everything for us changed. Our thoughts, our desires, our will; we just can’t do the next “thing” and feel good about it without Him. Having a family was one of those things we needed the Lord’s blessing over. He indeed blessed! We have 4 babies now and they are AMAZING. Before we had our own family, we committed to raise children up in the Lord no matter how they were a part of our lives; birth, adoption, honorary kiddos through ministry, nieces and nephews, etc. Jacob desired so much to give to a child the beautiful upbringing he had, and Chelsea just wanted to love those who were a little “hard to love”. We have been afforded this opportunity through our children and now through adoption. We all are a little hard to love and we all need a family that exhibits our Heavenly Father’s love. The Lord has put it in our hearts to do this again for a little one all the way around the world. Specifically, we feel India is where we are to first look for this precious child.
Each of our family members has their own perspective of how the Lord is helping us be ready for this adoption, but all of us are experiencing amazing growth from this journey. We thought we would get to change a little one’s life, but really, we are being changed too!!
We want to point every step of this journey back to Jesus so our children, our child to come, and all of you coming alongside us can see just HOW BIG our God is!!
God already has provided BIG through 2 matching grants! Josiah’s Adoption Fund and Lifesong for Orphans have given us two matching grants totalling of $6500! This means any donation you give here or through check in the mail will be matched up to $6,500. We are so grateful and blown away at this generosity! Thank you for giving, praying, and journeying with us!
Keep reading to know more of the story
Chelsea’s adoption testimony:
I grew up in a Christian home, surrounded by siblings, cousins, and friends. I knew the church answers, was the teacher’s pet, youth pastor’s pet, all the things a good little christian girl should be. I prayed the “sinner’s prayer” a few times in my childhood, usually because I was afraid of something going on in my world or the whole world itself. September 11th was one of those times I was afraid and prayed to go to Heaven. It wasn’t until August 3, 2003 it occurred to me just how sinful I was and that I was just wanting to go to Heaven one day. It was more of a prayer of security than a heart change. I didn’t really have a relationship with Jesus. That night in August, I trusted Christ for the first time to truly save me and change me. I was finally, securely, in the family of God!
I wish I could say it was happily ever after in my walk with the Lord after that, but my teenage years were marked by some bad choices on my part and those choices brought into my heart and mind a lot of fear and anxiety. When we want what we want more than what the Lord has planned for us, it’s very easy to become fully enveloped in our own hopes and dreams and plans. It also becomes very easy to distrust anyone who opposes those wishes. It took until I became a married woman to begin to realize God’s plan for me is exceedingly better than anything I could ever hope or dream for myself. Quickly after getting married, we began discussing wanting a family. Jacob has always been ready and willing to adopt and have our own children; he just wants a full house. He jokes and tells everyone he wants 10! I laugh and roll my eyes. I wanted our own biological children first and always said I would be willing to consider adoption. God did bless us with our own children, and He also kept adoption firmly on the table of my heart.
Our family quickly grew from the two of us to our first born daughter, second born son, third born daughter, and fourth born daughter. Our hearts and quivers felt full! Being a mother brings the issue of trusting Jesus with all my hopes and dreams and desires into full effect. With each child, every geographical move as a family, all the big and little moments in our family or the world arounds us begs the question, do I trust God ? I didn’t realize just how much He was going to ask us to trust Him with His plans coming next for our lives.
About 2 years after our fourth born daughter, we began to desire again for our family to grow. There’s always been a slight pull towards adoption in our hearts but it was quickly dismissed because having a biological child has been a gift we’ve been given each time we wanted to grow our family. This time though, my heart hasn’t been ready to try to have another baby. My heart has been entirely wrapped into the idea of adoption but also pulled into many directions because of fearfulness. How can we handle another one? What if we don’t feel the same and love them the right way? What if I mess up my family? What if this is just a good idea, but not the Lord’s idea for our family? So. Many. Thoughts.
I just began to pray about it. I began to pray the Lord would allow me to know His will specifically on growing our family no matter what it looked like. I asked Him to make my desires His desires and to order our steps if adoption was indeed what He desired (Psalm 37: 23). The answer to my prayer came when I was planning my theme for our 2023-2024 homeschool year. The story of the disciples fishing all night and catching nothing and Jesus telling them to “launch out into the deep” (Luke 5:1-11) resonated so much with where our family was spiritually, emotionally, ect. I didn’t realize at the time the Lord was about to place international adoption squarely on our shoulders as how we were to pursue growing our family. After a lot of additional prayers and conversations, we narrowed in our hearts to trying to adopt from India.
So, here I am, asking Lifesong to help us “launch out into the deep” and help us bring our little one home! We know the Lord will provide because He always has! I hope Lifeline, LIfesong, our church, family and friends can be a part of His provision and support.
Jacob’s adoption testimony:
I became a Christian one night after church at the age of 5. I had heard at church that morning/evening hard preaching on sin and hell. I came to understand that I AM a sinner. That sin separated me from God and damned me to an eternity in hell. However, this is not what God wanted for me, so He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to come to earth and live a perfect life and die as a payment for my sin. This atoning death made a way for me to go to heaven, not on my own merit but on the finished work of Jesus Christ. Although I didn’t understand all the big words as well as I do now or even appreciate the beauty of what God did for us, I did understand the basics that night as I talked with my mom. I am a sinner, I am headed to hell, and confession of sin with a faith in Jesus Christ to take me to heaven was the simple answer for that problem. I was scared to ask Jesus to save me from my sin, but not long after my mom left the room, I knelt next to my bed and told Jesus that I knew I was a sinner and asked Him to save me from my sin and to take me to heaven when I died. It wasn’t a prayer that saved me, but rather God’s grace availed to me by faith.
My adoption into God’s family is a part of why I am able to trust Him for His direction for my life and my family. Wanting to adopt a child has always been something I have been open to. I have always wanted a large family because my family growing up was big and full (5 brothers in the house!)
I always wanted my own biological children but adopted children would be just fine too. Having children and committing to raise them up in the Lord is something Chelsea and I have wanted and trusted God to provide whether biological, through adoption, or both. Last summer, we really started talking about adoption a lot more. Chelsea was praying about it, I was praying about it, and we both came to the same conclusion: adoption was next for our family to look into. We do have our preferences and ideas for this process, but His ways are higher than mine. (Isaiah 55:8-9) I’m looking forward to what the Lord has in store for our family.
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