Bringing Home "B" - An Adoption Fund
Donation protected
IN A NUTSHELL
We found our daughter…an 11 year old Orphan and we need your help to bring her HOME!
THE BACK STORY
Justin and I met the first day of high school and were married at 19. In our 16 years of marriage, we have had four children together – one daughter - Alex who is 12 and three sons - Patrick who is 10, and two twin boys that are in Heaven. On December 17th, 2019 our hearts expanded again when we met “B”, an 11 year old orphan from an Eastern European country. She may not have our eyes or our smile, but she has our heart. Help us bring our daughter home.
God speaks to some with a burning bush, but He has always spoken gently to me in the form of ideas or thoughts that percolate inside my head for extended periods of time. It’s almost like a gentle whisper in the back in my mind and slowly builds to a crescendo that cannot be ignored.
That voice started over 12 years ago, in the space between the loss of our twins, Travis and Noah, at 3 days old and the birth of our first daughter, Alex. In that midst of our devastation, we found a peace that told us our kids are not our own, but the Lord’s. Justin and I always talked about adoption and said we wanted to do it “down the road”. We knew “at some point” that we would open our arms to a child that didn’t share our DNA. We just didn’t know when. So, we waited. And waited. And even though that voice lingered in my mind, it hadn’t reached the deafening roar yet.
Until I saw this Facebook post asking people to host sweet orphans from Eastern Europe. This post moved me to tears. The statistics were staggering. After the age of 5, an orphan only has a 20% chance to be adopted and as they pass through the system, nutrition and living conditions deteriorate. Orphans "graduate" from the system at the age of 16. At 16 they are forced to move out of the orphanage and provide for themselves. They will be homeless, alone and lacking the education necessary to provide for themselves. With this, 10% will have committed suicide by their 18th birthday and 60% of the girls will end up in prostitution within the first year. Only 20% will ever find work. When a child is hosted, those numbers change significantly! Learning all of this, I was all in and after much prayer and discussion, so were Justin and the kids!
Justin has only heard God speak to him twice in his life. Once was when our boys, Noah and Travis, were born. He heard the Lord speak to him and tell him he needed to let them come to Him. The second was atop a mountain a Scotland as he prayed to his Father about whether opening our home up for hosting was His will for us. Justin heard the Lord tell him he was needed and that the Lord would show him what do.
THE BEGINNING
We received a list of over 100 children that were available for hosting, but one in particular spoke to our hearts. So, we took a leap of faith and agreed to bring “B” to our home. We didn’t know where the money would come from, what she would be like, or how we would juggle those 4 weeks. We just knew that the Lord had spoken to us both and that when He leads, we follow.
While we prepared our hearts and our homes for B, the Lord kept moving in our hearts and there were several times I cried thinking about her situation and looking at her sad eyes in the photo. They touched a deep part of me. Justin and I were privileged to see the Lord work through our friends and family as they became touched by this little girl, who was still thousands of miles away.
SHE WALKED INTO OUR LIVES
We prepared our hearts and our home for her arrival. But no amount of preparation could have equipped our hearts for what happened at 1:30 am in the morning at an airport. “B” walked off that plane and when I saw her sweet face and enfolded her in my arms, I knew she was our daughter.
As we continued to get to know one another over the coming weeks, the Lord really solidified that this girl wasn’t here by accident and that out of the hundreds of children, He led us to her specifically. Despite the sad eyes that haunted me from her original photo, “B” has an inner light that shines so very bright. She chooses joy at every turn. She is thoughtful, kind, respectful, compassionate, friendly, and intelligent. She picked up English so quickly!!
The four weeks passed all too swiftly. We laughed as she continued to school us at Uno and Parcheesi (seriously, she is incredibly lucky at games!), rode her first ferris wheel, and perfected the art of tossing an M&M into the air and catching it in her mouth, which brought squeals of delight. She went from fear of expressing her opinion to shyly suggesting something else, to respectfully saying “no thank you” at the end of her stay. She questioned of us her worth, her value, and broke our hearts by asking if an Orphan child could ever be a part of an American family. She even laughed joyously when she received an Astros hat and shirt, declaring it “made her just like you all!”
We laughed a lot, but there were times she would randomly start crying – in the car, at the dinner table, and while cuddling on the couch. Each time she would only say “I keep thinking about leaving and I don’t want to.” Or “I am scared I will not see you again.”
We exchanged notes the night before she left and as we translated them to each other, we looked into each other’s eyes and then held on tight and cried. Her final note to us was written around a photo of us as a family of 5 and said: “I love you all so much. Thank you for showing me so much fun. Thank you for trying so hard for me. Hope to see you soon. I am glad I came to you. I will miss you more than you could ever miss me. I love you!” She broke down while reading it and couldn’t even finish translating it the first time. If she could only know how inaccurate that statement was about missing her. Our home is missing one of our children right now. Our hearts are shattered and a piece left on that plane with her.
As we watched her walk away through security to her plane, it was reminiscent of watching Noah and Travis take their last breaths on Earth. The only difference was that I knew where they were going and that it truly was a better place.
GOING BACK
As I watched “B” getting smaller and smaller in the distance at the airport terminal, it haunted me that she wasn’t going to a better place. She was going back to being another face in the crowd where no one is going to kiss her goodnight, no one is going to cuddle under a warm blanket and share Skittles (her favorite!) with her, and no one will care about making her smile and hearing that gloriously sweet giggle. Her vibrant personality will once again be tucked safely back into the shy smile and those questions like “why do you love me? I am nobody.”
“B”, you are not just somebody, you are our daughter and the daughter of the Most High. You are a Honeycutt, the missing part of our family, and we just need to make it legal now. We will cross oceans, mountains, and fight our way to you.
You belong at home. You belong here.
BRINGING B HOME
We wish we had the time to raise all the funds needed to adopt her on our own, but each day she is away from us is too long. The total adoption will cost almost $40,000. We are making financial moves to fund her adoption, but we need your help. Every day she is not here, is a day she is alone and questioning her worth and if someone could ever truly love her. Would you please consider helping us #BringBhome?
HOW YOU CAN HELP!
GIVE - Every donation is greatly appreciated! If you can give even $5, we would be so thankful. Whatever you can contribute is one dollar closer to bring our girl home!
SHARE - Imagine how many people we could reach if you shared this on your social media! Please share our story and help change the life of this sweet 11 year old girl!
PRAY - Pray that “B” feels our love from across the world, that all of the many agencies involved process our paperwork smoothly and efficiently, that the funds needed would not stand in the way of bringing her home, and that the Lord would go before us and smooth the path in all ways.
We found our daughter…an 11 year old Orphan and we need your help to bring her HOME!
THE BACK STORY
Justin and I met the first day of high school and were married at 19. In our 16 years of marriage, we have had four children together – one daughter - Alex who is 12 and three sons - Patrick who is 10, and two twin boys that are in Heaven. On December 17th, 2019 our hearts expanded again when we met “B”, an 11 year old orphan from an Eastern European country. She may not have our eyes or our smile, but she has our heart. Help us bring our daughter home.
God speaks to some with a burning bush, but He has always spoken gently to me in the form of ideas or thoughts that percolate inside my head for extended periods of time. It’s almost like a gentle whisper in the back in my mind and slowly builds to a crescendo that cannot be ignored.
That voice started over 12 years ago, in the space between the loss of our twins, Travis and Noah, at 3 days old and the birth of our first daughter, Alex. In that midst of our devastation, we found a peace that told us our kids are not our own, but the Lord’s. Justin and I always talked about adoption and said we wanted to do it “down the road”. We knew “at some point” that we would open our arms to a child that didn’t share our DNA. We just didn’t know when. So, we waited. And waited. And even though that voice lingered in my mind, it hadn’t reached the deafening roar yet.
Until I saw this Facebook post asking people to host sweet orphans from Eastern Europe. This post moved me to tears. The statistics were staggering. After the age of 5, an orphan only has a 20% chance to be adopted and as they pass through the system, nutrition and living conditions deteriorate. Orphans "graduate" from the system at the age of 16. At 16 they are forced to move out of the orphanage and provide for themselves. They will be homeless, alone and lacking the education necessary to provide for themselves. With this, 10% will have committed suicide by their 18th birthday and 60% of the girls will end up in prostitution within the first year. Only 20% will ever find work. When a child is hosted, those numbers change significantly! Learning all of this, I was all in and after much prayer and discussion, so were Justin and the kids!
Justin has only heard God speak to him twice in his life. Once was when our boys, Noah and Travis, were born. He heard the Lord speak to him and tell him he needed to let them come to Him. The second was atop a mountain a Scotland as he prayed to his Father about whether opening our home up for hosting was His will for us. Justin heard the Lord tell him he was needed and that the Lord would show him what do.
THE BEGINNING
We received a list of over 100 children that were available for hosting, but one in particular spoke to our hearts. So, we took a leap of faith and agreed to bring “B” to our home. We didn’t know where the money would come from, what she would be like, or how we would juggle those 4 weeks. We just knew that the Lord had spoken to us both and that when He leads, we follow.
While we prepared our hearts and our homes for B, the Lord kept moving in our hearts and there were several times I cried thinking about her situation and looking at her sad eyes in the photo. They touched a deep part of me. Justin and I were privileged to see the Lord work through our friends and family as they became touched by this little girl, who was still thousands of miles away.
SHE WALKED INTO OUR LIVES
We prepared our hearts and our home for her arrival. But no amount of preparation could have equipped our hearts for what happened at 1:30 am in the morning at an airport. “B” walked off that plane and when I saw her sweet face and enfolded her in my arms, I knew she was our daughter.
As we continued to get to know one another over the coming weeks, the Lord really solidified that this girl wasn’t here by accident and that out of the hundreds of children, He led us to her specifically. Despite the sad eyes that haunted me from her original photo, “B” has an inner light that shines so very bright. She chooses joy at every turn. She is thoughtful, kind, respectful, compassionate, friendly, and intelligent. She picked up English so quickly!!
The four weeks passed all too swiftly. We laughed as she continued to school us at Uno and Parcheesi (seriously, she is incredibly lucky at games!), rode her first ferris wheel, and perfected the art of tossing an M&M into the air and catching it in her mouth, which brought squeals of delight. She went from fear of expressing her opinion to shyly suggesting something else, to respectfully saying “no thank you” at the end of her stay. She questioned of us her worth, her value, and broke our hearts by asking if an Orphan child could ever be a part of an American family. She even laughed joyously when she received an Astros hat and shirt, declaring it “made her just like you all!”
We laughed a lot, but there were times she would randomly start crying – in the car, at the dinner table, and while cuddling on the couch. Each time she would only say “I keep thinking about leaving and I don’t want to.” Or “I am scared I will not see you again.”
We exchanged notes the night before she left and as we translated them to each other, we looked into each other’s eyes and then held on tight and cried. Her final note to us was written around a photo of us as a family of 5 and said: “I love you all so much. Thank you for showing me so much fun. Thank you for trying so hard for me. Hope to see you soon. I am glad I came to you. I will miss you more than you could ever miss me. I love you!” She broke down while reading it and couldn’t even finish translating it the first time. If she could only know how inaccurate that statement was about missing her. Our home is missing one of our children right now. Our hearts are shattered and a piece left on that plane with her.
As we watched her walk away through security to her plane, it was reminiscent of watching Noah and Travis take their last breaths on Earth. The only difference was that I knew where they were going and that it truly was a better place.
GOING BACK
As I watched “B” getting smaller and smaller in the distance at the airport terminal, it haunted me that she wasn’t going to a better place. She was going back to being another face in the crowd where no one is going to kiss her goodnight, no one is going to cuddle under a warm blanket and share Skittles (her favorite!) with her, and no one will care about making her smile and hearing that gloriously sweet giggle. Her vibrant personality will once again be tucked safely back into the shy smile and those questions like “why do you love me? I am nobody.”
“B”, you are not just somebody, you are our daughter and the daughter of the Most High. You are a Honeycutt, the missing part of our family, and we just need to make it legal now. We will cross oceans, mountains, and fight our way to you.
You belong at home. You belong here.
BRINGING B HOME
We wish we had the time to raise all the funds needed to adopt her on our own, but each day she is away from us is too long. The total adoption will cost almost $40,000. We are making financial moves to fund her adoption, but we need your help. Every day she is not here, is a day she is alone and questioning her worth and if someone could ever truly love her. Would you please consider helping us #BringBhome?
HOW YOU CAN HELP!
GIVE - Every donation is greatly appreciated! If you can give even $5, we would be so thankful. Whatever you can contribute is one dollar closer to bring our girl home!
SHARE - Imagine how many people we could reach if you shared this on your social media! Please share our story and help change the life of this sweet 11 year old girl!
PRAY - Pray that “B” feels our love from across the world, that all of the many agencies involved process our paperwork smoothly and efficiently, that the funds needed would not stand in the way of bringing her home, and that the Lord would go before us and smooth the path in all ways.
Organizer
Ashlee Honeycutt
Organizer
Waller, TX
