Whitaker Family Adoption

We are in the home stretch of our adoption joruney. Our son will be born in the next few days/weeks and will be joining our family through private domestic adoption. Abby is already out of state with birth mama and Brenton and the kids are joining them Friday. Our family will be there for much of the upcoming month as we await our son’s birth and afterwards as we bond as a new family and wait on ICPC clearances to come home to Texas. God has authored this beautiful adoption story into our lives (you can read more below!) and we know he is going to provide. We also know that he has given us a community and village around us, and right now, we are humbly asking for you help. In full transparency, all costs associated with this adoption total over $20,000. We have been working hard with our personal finances and fundraising, plus an adoption loan to cover these expenses. The bottom line is we have $5,000 left in legal fees as well as the expenses of traveling out of state for a month and we have exhausted our personal resources. This is where you come in. If you feel so led, from the bottom of our hearts, we appreciate your generosity in helping us cross the finish line with this adoption and bring our son home, while easing some of the financial burden on our family. We appreciate your support as we faithfully walk out the calling that God has placed on our hearts, not only to love this little boy as our own, but to walk alongside with his first mama, showing Christ’s love to her through a beautiful open adoption.

Many of you may be wondering how we came to this place and we would love to share the story with you.

Brenton and I have been married for 12 years. We have three biological children and one amazing adopted son. Our family was called to the ministry of foster care over 5 years ago and continued to serve this ministry until January of this year. We have always had a heart for children and felt led to serve in this way. We also felt God place a nudging on us to be open to adoption again to complete our family. We always assumed this would happen through foster care. Private infant adoption was more of a far off dream than a reality for our family. We always felt that while we both loved our teaching and coaching careers, they just didn’t provide for something like domestic infant adoption which can range in cost from $30,000-$60,000. In November of this past year, God further opened our hearts when he unexpectedly brought an expectant mama into our lives . We faithfully believe there is no such thing as coincidence. We weren’t with an adoption agency, we hadn’t been saving money for an adoption, we didn’t even have a private homestudy completed. It was clear that we didn’t have domestic adoption on the mind, but God swooped in and placed a beautiful birth mama in our path who has stollen our hearts. Right before Thanksgiving, I got a message from a friend asking for resources for a teen mama she was connected to. One thing led to another and in God’s devine sovereignty and providence, a phone call later, we were officially in a private, infant adoption match. We jumped in with blind faith and both feet. Abby has been able to form a beautiful bond and relationship with our expectant mama as she and walked this pregnancy with her both traveling to be with her many times as well as through daily phone calls and FaceTime. Brenton and the kids have gotten to know her as well as she got to spend a beautiful week with our family as she celebrated Easter with us. The kids talk of her often and she is very loved in our family. We are so excited for the next chapter of our lives as a family of 7. This isn’t just about having another baby. This is about walking out in faith the calling that God has placed on our lives. This child was meant to be our son, and his mama was meant to be a part of our family forever. We believe that while adoption is born from brokenness, it is a beautiful representation here on earth of the love that God has for each of us as he calls us his own children.

We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19