Drake has a family!

Drake has a family!

 

Prologue by Bring Hope:

Last year we advocated for a little girl with arthrogryposis named Rita. Since we could not raise funds for Rita at the time because of her situation, we instead started a sharing campaign. Hundreds of "shares" happened across Facebook and blogs. Rita was famous in a matter of days! (In fact Rita caught the eye of one mommy who later went on to adopt our other AMCer, Victoria!)

When Kelly contacted Bring Hope to say she had been planning on adopting Rita, we were overjoyed as it marked the first time we could celebrate one of "our kids" finding a family in the same month we were spotlighting that child! That was very encouraging to us. (That was the first time it happened, but not the last!)

But our friend Kelly was not content to merely stop with changing the life of one girl. We watched her champion the cause of many orphans. (In fact I see Kelly sharing Sadie's file just about every day!) When Kelly saw that Melissa wanted our little Drake (as Melissa very subtlety commented "I WANT HIM" on that post, heh) she immediately sent Melissa encouragement and resources. We are privileged to be one of those resources.

A lot of the following story happened behind the scenes as the family prepared to commit to Drake and we attempted to help them raise the necessary commitment fees without spilling the beans on who they were commiting to! But now we are happy to announce how it worked out! Below is the whole story told by Drake's new mommy, Melissa.
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Arthrogr...what? A few short weeks ago I had no idea how to pronounce arthrogryposis, much less know what it was. Another unfamiliar diagnosis listed below a waiting child's name.

Enter Drake...

Someone on facebook posted Drake's link from Reece's Rainbow and I said I WANT HIM! Of course, I didn't really know what I was saying....I had seen his little bitty figure transform into a smiling little boy waving at the camera and was amazed! Fast forward and now there are even more videos and this little boy astounded me!

That one comment "I WANT HIM" (and yes, I did comment with all capital letters) led another mom to message me and let me know that she would answer any questions I had about arthrogryposis (there's that word again) and that there was a terrific support group for families who have adopted children with this diagnosis. We visited and I contacted another mom, Alexis, to ask her a few questions...

I was hooked! My husband and I, and our 3 children, were just about to submit our dossier for Lance, a 2 year old with severe CP in Drake's country and I just could not get rid of that tugging that Drake was special...I had butterflies for him, just like I did for Lance. I talked to my husband, who wonderful man that he is, told me his concerns but didn't say "no" (That's almost a "yes", right???) So we talked about it a lot, did a little bit of math, and realized that to add Drake to our current adoption without stalling the process for Lance would cost an additional $7000.00 and have to be less than 2 weeks since we were almost ready to submit our dossier.

$7000.00- that's nothing to save a life/ a soul! Right?

Well, here's the thing: My terrific, wonderful husband said "$3500.00 in 2 weeks and we will move forward confident that God wants us to adopt Drake."

Oh my goodness!!!! THAT'S A YES!!! RIGHT? Ok...wait, what was that "little" part about $3500? How on earth are we going to raise that in less than 2 weeks?

Well, God is faithful and with some help from Bring Hope and SEVERAL other people we have never met in real life, we had raised $3520.00 in LESS than 1 week.

God provided not for the adoption of another child... but for our adoption of "Drake"! To see God's love poured forth for this little boy half a world away, who has no idea any of us exist, is more powerful than any words can express. My God, who knows the number of hairs on little "Drake's" head, has seen fit to bring him into our family. We are so grateful for the friends we have met in a few short weeks who have taught us about arthrogryposis and encouraged us in our journey. Thank you for your willingness to reach out and provide hope and help for children with arthrogryposis....thank you for your willingness to provide hope for Drake!

So, where are we now? We are officially committed to Drake, we are waiting for our apostilled docs to come back, and we are hoping to send our dossier for translation in about 2 weeks.
We estimate that our adoption of our 2 precious sons will cost a total of $30,000.00. So far God has provided for our adoption so abundantly and we are only about $9600.00 short of being fully funded!!! We can't wait to see how He chooses to provide for the rest ;)

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To donate to Drake and Lance's adoption please go here. To find out how you can obtain help with your adoption of a child with arthrogryposis please leave a comment on this blog and we will be happy to assist you!