The Ogdens Adopt from South Korea

Jocelyn and I (Justin) met while working part-time at Starbucks in college. I was washing dishes before closing when I caught her off guard with an odd question - how many kids she wanted. “Three or four… I don’t know. How about you??” Without hesitation, I responded, “9, so our family could be a full soccer team!” She had the courage to see past my goofy humor because we fell in love that summer and got married upon graduating from Penn State in 2012.

Fast forward ten years. We are raising three resilient and dazzling daughters (Esther is 7, Avery is 5, and Olivia is 2). We love our community in Charlotte, and are immensely grateful for the work God has called us to. Jocelyn is a full-time mom/photographer and Justin is a dad and training consultant. As we've grown as parents and a family, we’ve had a conviction that we could do more to love and serve.

Why adoption?

We believe our family is where we can have the most significant impact. Our mission is to nurture courage and wisdom within our daughters' hearts. We acknowledge that we are adopted into the family of God through grace by faith in Christ. We believe we have been blessed to be a blessing to a child who may otherwise not have a family. We are not the heroes of this story. We know the process will be painful and agonizing, and we will never fully understand the trauma and suffering that our adoptive son has endured and the grief he will continue to experience. But we walk in the path of unconditional love and unending grace that Christ has set before us. When our strength fails, we know that we can rely on the Lord, our friends and family, and our church community to continue walking that path.

Why South Korea?

We chose to adopt internationally because of our love for Asian culture. Justin spent six years growing up in China, where his parents taught English and ministered to college students. In high school, many of his classmates were Korean, and he fell in love with Korean dishes (ja jang myun, bi bim bop and bulgogi just to name a few). South Korea has a well-established adoption program in which children receive excellent care in foster homes and top-notch medical care. We are both learning to speak Korean and have connected with a few Korean families in South Charlotte to practice our language skills. We will help our adoptive son remember and cherish Korean culture. We are adopting through Holt International, an agency known for being a leader in the world for International adoption.

Our timeline?

International adoption is a long and expensive process. We started in March of 2022 and just recently finished our home study in early September. Holt International (our adoption agency) has officially approved us to start fundraising for this adoption. In the next 16 months, we are seeking to be matched with a child. Once matched, we pay Holt a sizeable fee for the child’s medical and home care expenses. Next, we will complete paperwork between the US government, Holt, and Korea. Each step requires additional processing. It can take 6 to 16 months for this paperwork to be processed. Once approved, we are given dates for two trips to Korea. The first trip is to meet the child, the second is for a final court date, and the second is to return with the child. These two trips are typically 4-6 weeks apart. We estimate that it will cost us $12,000 for these two trips.

How much will this cost?

We believe the entire adoption will cost us $60,000. So far we have invested $17,000 from our savings. Our fundraising goal is $27,000, and we are working to receive grants and scholarships for the remaining $16,000.