Newhouse International Adoption Fund
Donation protected
BACK STORY
Africa’s been part of Sharon’s story since high school. As a naïve 15-year-old, Sharon remembers being determined to, somehow, protect the precious little ones impacted by the terrors of the Darfur conflict. Her senior year, God opened the door for Sharon to serve impacted by poverty and HIV on a week long mission’s trip in South Africa. In college, her love for Africa grew. In her sophomore year, God opened the door for Sharon to return to South Africa for 6 months to empower kids with the truth of who they are in Him. As a college junior, God allowed Sharon to love and encourage orphans and at-risk children in Zambia devastated by HIV/AIDS. After college, God opened the door for Sharon to go to seminary to learn more about Him and people in order to serve in missions long term (or so she thought). In her second year of grad school, God brought a very persistent Dental assistant into her life who wanted Sharon to meet with her son to talk about Africa.
Playing with the local children on the streets of Ecuador on a family mission’s trip as an 8 year old, God was planted a seed in Tucker of helping the less fortunate children of the world. Over the next decade, he spent time every summer continuing to love on people of all kinds by building churches, repairing houses, and running vacation Bible schools on mission’s trips in the US. During his sophomore year of high school in Jamaica, God showed Tucker how to connect with people of other cultures without words, building relationships with the residents of a deaf village. While joining the workforce and attending college, Tucker joined a small group of friends who challenged one another to look at God’s will in new ways. During this time, God put Africa on Tucker’s heart, and he began reaching out to mission organizations, gathering information in order to serve in Africa. Meanwhile, that persistent dental assistant brought home the contact info of a girl who had spent some time in Africa.
22 months later, we married and began to dream about what doing missions in Africa together would look like. Two years into our marriage, we celebrated the birth of our son. Shortly after, Sharon felt like God was asking her to surrender her dream of moving to Africa and serving there long term. Assured she’d heard Him wrong, she began praying for clarify about what His plans were for us.
In October of 2017, God again laid vulnerable children on Sharon’s heart, but this time in the form of foster care. Knowing the family was in a stressful state, she prayed for wisdom. Little did she know Tucker was having similar feelings, and about 6 weeks later, driving home from church, Tucker turned and said, “Babe, this may sound crazy, but I think we need to adopt!” Sharon’s response was “ABOUT TIME!”, knowing that this is what God was preparing her heart for.
Over the next two months, we prayed for discernment. Do we pursue foster care or adoption? Local or international? What country do we pursue? In February, we attended an orientation with Bethany Christian Services and learned that we’d been approved for 3 countries, one of which was South Africa. As we furthered our research, confirmation after confirmation came that God was calling us to adopt from South Africa. All the facts that should have scared us and turned us away only grew our excitement and anticipation.
WHERE ARE WE NOW:
We’ve filled out piles of paperwork and attended appointments to show we’re fit for this child.
We’ve given up luxuries and scraped our savings in order to put those resources toward bringing our child(ren) home. We’ve already put well over $6000.00 into fees, appointments, and trainings in order to get officially approved before fundraising. The entire international adoption process is estimated to cost between $40,000.00 and $50,000.00 (more for multiple children). This grand total includes everything from legal fee, country fees, and medical fees to trainings, travel and lodging (If you’d like a more detailed breakdown of costs or feel called to cover a specific cost or aspect of the process, please reach out to us, and we’re more than happy to share more details).
YOUR PART
That’s right, you’re in this journey with us. There are many obstacles we face in completing our adoption. While the financial need is great and appears to be the biggest hurtle, there are also a huge mental and physical adjustments for our family. We’ve asked God to show us how to overcome these obstacles through prayer and feel His call to humble ourselves, step out in faith, and ask our community, AKA YOU, for any help you can provide.
PLEASE CONSIDER MAKING A DONATION TO HELP US BRING OUR CHILD(REN) HOME!!!
For any questions or to be added to our communications list to stay informed with our progress email [email redacted] or find us on facebook.
Africa’s been part of Sharon’s story since high school. As a naïve 15-year-old, Sharon remembers being determined to, somehow, protect the precious little ones impacted by the terrors of the Darfur conflict. Her senior year, God opened the door for Sharon to serve impacted by poverty and HIV on a week long mission’s trip in South Africa. In college, her love for Africa grew. In her sophomore year, God opened the door for Sharon to return to South Africa for 6 months to empower kids with the truth of who they are in Him. As a college junior, God allowed Sharon to love and encourage orphans and at-risk children in Zambia devastated by HIV/AIDS. After college, God opened the door for Sharon to go to seminary to learn more about Him and people in order to serve in missions long term (or so she thought). In her second year of grad school, God brought a very persistent Dental assistant into her life who wanted Sharon to meet with her son to talk about Africa.
Playing with the local children on the streets of Ecuador on a family mission’s trip as an 8 year old, God was planted a seed in Tucker of helping the less fortunate children of the world. Over the next decade, he spent time every summer continuing to love on people of all kinds by building churches, repairing houses, and running vacation Bible schools on mission’s trips in the US. During his sophomore year of high school in Jamaica, God showed Tucker how to connect with people of other cultures without words, building relationships with the residents of a deaf village. While joining the workforce and attending college, Tucker joined a small group of friends who challenged one another to look at God’s will in new ways. During this time, God put Africa on Tucker’s heart, and he began reaching out to mission organizations, gathering information in order to serve in Africa. Meanwhile, that persistent dental assistant brought home the contact info of a girl who had spent some time in Africa.
22 months later, we married and began to dream about what doing missions in Africa together would look like. Two years into our marriage, we celebrated the birth of our son. Shortly after, Sharon felt like God was asking her to surrender her dream of moving to Africa and serving there long term. Assured she’d heard Him wrong, she began praying for clarify about what His plans were for us.
In October of 2017, God again laid vulnerable children on Sharon’s heart, but this time in the form of foster care. Knowing the family was in a stressful state, she prayed for wisdom. Little did she know Tucker was having similar feelings, and about 6 weeks later, driving home from church, Tucker turned and said, “Babe, this may sound crazy, but I think we need to adopt!” Sharon’s response was “ABOUT TIME!”, knowing that this is what God was preparing her heart for.
Over the next two months, we prayed for discernment. Do we pursue foster care or adoption? Local or international? What country do we pursue? In February, we attended an orientation with Bethany Christian Services and learned that we’d been approved for 3 countries, one of which was South Africa. As we furthered our research, confirmation after confirmation came that God was calling us to adopt from South Africa. All the facts that should have scared us and turned us away only grew our excitement and anticipation.
WHERE ARE WE NOW:
We’ve filled out piles of paperwork and attended appointments to show we’re fit for this child.
We’ve given up luxuries and scraped our savings in order to put those resources toward bringing our child(ren) home. We’ve already put well over $6000.00 into fees, appointments, and trainings in order to get officially approved before fundraising. The entire international adoption process is estimated to cost between $40,000.00 and $50,000.00 (more for multiple children). This grand total includes everything from legal fee, country fees, and medical fees to trainings, travel and lodging (If you’d like a more detailed breakdown of costs or feel called to cover a specific cost or aspect of the process, please reach out to us, and we’re more than happy to share more details).
YOUR PART
That’s right, you’re in this journey with us. There are many obstacles we face in completing our adoption. While the financial need is great and appears to be the biggest hurtle, there are also a huge mental and physical adjustments for our family. We’ve asked God to show us how to overcome these obstacles through prayer and feel His call to humble ourselves, step out in faith, and ask our community, AKA YOU, for any help you can provide.
PLEASE CONSIDER MAKING A DONATION TO HELP US BRING OUR CHILD(REN) HOME!!!
For any questions or to be added to our communications list to stay informed with our progress email [email redacted] or find us on facebook.
Organizer
Tucker Newhouse
Organizer
Zeeland, MI
