!James & Livie are adopting!
Donation protected
Hello, we are James and Olivia Rhodes and this is our story.
We were married June 12, 2005, after dating for two years. We fell in love and quickly realized that we couldn’t live without each other. I think as Christians, when you go into something you think it is all going to be roses and lollipops, but that wasn’t the case. Our first two years of marriage left us with great loss. We lost James’ brother in November, then we lost a baby in December. At the same time I was also diagnosed with PCOS (Polycystic ovary syndrome). That following year we lost two friends and a grandmother. I think at that point we just held each other through it all.
We always kept our faith and knew that God had a plan. We continued to serve in numerous ministries in our church, from youth ministry to children’s church, and currently a young adults group. But we always kind of felt like there was still something missing.
We have struggled with infertility throughout our thirteen years of marriage. In December 2013, we got an amazing miracle and I was pregnant! We were happy, confused, and our heads were spinning. See, at that point we were content with ministry and serving God with everything we had. If God chose to bless us with children at that point it was only icing on the cake. To say we were shocked is an understatement! We found out on a Tuesday that we were pregnant, and a week and a half later we had lost another sweet angel.
I’ve struggled with depression throughout this journey, but God was always there telling me “I see you, right where you are”. To me that meant He sees our pain, our heartache, our fears, our confusion—and He has a plan! We continued to serve in our church as the years went by. We poured a lot of our love into our nieces and nephews, they are our pride and joy! In January 2017, the opportunity arose for us to adopt a sweet baby boy. We jumped all in and we knew it was gonna be a long road. In April of 2018, a year and half later, we found out, for whatever reason, that adopting him was not God‘s plan for our life. We were heartbroken all over again, but we know he is loved and taken care of.
Again I struggled with depression and trying to understand God‘s plan. We knew He gave us the desire to be parents, but we just weren’t sure where to put it. We carried a lot of pain. But God sustained us in our faithfulness. In May 2018, I thought I had the flu or something…but we were pregnant! Again shocked, confused, worried, and trusting God that this little miracle baby would stay full term. However, three days after we found out we were expecting, the nightmare repeated itself and we lost our third sweet baby to miscarriage.
The one thing we’ve longed for, for so many years besides God, was gone! We experienced complete and utter devastation at that point. But in the midst of all of it I still heard God say, “I see you, right where you are,” and we knew there had to be a reason so we continued to trust God with our greatest desire.
A week after we lost our sweet angel baby a young mother got in contact with us and said she was 4 1/2 months pregnant. She was trying to get her life on track and felt that taking care of a 5th child was too much. She wanted to give this baby up for adoption, but wanted it to be a good home, with loving godly parents. Still grieving, we thought long and hard about putting our hearts on the line again, but everything inside of us said go! So that’s where we are, WE ARE ADOPTING a sweet baby that is due the end of October!
We are coming to you with this exciting news and asking you to please continue to cover us in prayer as we walk this path of faith and, as many of you know, adoption is expensive. We are asking if you will consider helping us with the heavy financial portion of this new journey. All donations will go to lawyer fees, court cost, and other unexpected expenses.
We Love you all, and thank you for your continued prayers and support!
Sincerely,
James and Olivia
We were married June 12, 2005, after dating for two years. We fell in love and quickly realized that we couldn’t live without each other. I think as Christians, when you go into something you think it is all going to be roses and lollipops, but that wasn’t the case. Our first two years of marriage left us with great loss. We lost James’ brother in November, then we lost a baby in December. At the same time I was also diagnosed with PCOS (Polycystic ovary syndrome). That following year we lost two friends and a grandmother. I think at that point we just held each other through it all.
We always kept our faith and knew that God had a plan. We continued to serve in numerous ministries in our church, from youth ministry to children’s church, and currently a young adults group. But we always kind of felt like there was still something missing.
We have struggled with infertility throughout our thirteen years of marriage. In December 2013, we got an amazing miracle and I was pregnant! We were happy, confused, and our heads were spinning. See, at that point we were content with ministry and serving God with everything we had. If God chose to bless us with children at that point it was only icing on the cake. To say we were shocked is an understatement! We found out on a Tuesday that we were pregnant, and a week and a half later we had lost another sweet angel.
I’ve struggled with depression throughout this journey, but God was always there telling me “I see you, right where you are”. To me that meant He sees our pain, our heartache, our fears, our confusion—and He has a plan! We continued to serve in our church as the years went by. We poured a lot of our love into our nieces and nephews, they are our pride and joy! In January 2017, the opportunity arose for us to adopt a sweet baby boy. We jumped all in and we knew it was gonna be a long road. In April of 2018, a year and half later, we found out, for whatever reason, that adopting him was not God‘s plan for our life. We were heartbroken all over again, but we know he is loved and taken care of.
Again I struggled with depression and trying to understand God‘s plan. We knew He gave us the desire to be parents, but we just weren’t sure where to put it. We carried a lot of pain. But God sustained us in our faithfulness. In May 2018, I thought I had the flu or something…but we were pregnant! Again shocked, confused, worried, and trusting God that this little miracle baby would stay full term. However, three days after we found out we were expecting, the nightmare repeated itself and we lost our third sweet baby to miscarriage.
The one thing we’ve longed for, for so many years besides God, was gone! We experienced complete and utter devastation at that point. But in the midst of all of it I still heard God say, “I see you, right where you are,” and we knew there had to be a reason so we continued to trust God with our greatest desire.
A week after we lost our sweet angel baby a young mother got in contact with us and said she was 4 1/2 months pregnant. She was trying to get her life on track and felt that taking care of a 5th child was too much. She wanted to give this baby up for adoption, but wanted it to be a good home, with loving godly parents. Still grieving, we thought long and hard about putting our hearts on the line again, but everything inside of us said go! So that’s where we are, WE ARE ADOPTING a sweet baby that is due the end of October!
We are coming to you with this exciting news and asking you to please continue to cover us in prayer as we walk this path of faith and, as many of you know, adoption is expensive. We are asking if you will consider helping us with the heavy financial portion of this new journey. All donations will go to lawyer fees, court cost, and other unexpected expenses.
We Love you all, and thank you for your continued prayers and support!
Sincerely,
James and Olivia
Co-organizers (4)
James Rhodes
Organizer
Bolivar, MO
Olivia Rhodes
Co-organizer
Chris Crenshaw
Co-organizer
Victoria Crenshaw
Co-organizer