Our Story, Our Faith, Our Adoption

Do you know what this month is? It’s National Adoption Awareness Month!

As a result, I am breaking away from my normal posts to focus on a subject that is close to our family’s heart…

Foster Care and Adoption! 

Many of you may know, last November our family adopted a sibling set of three biological sisters from foster care. (Video here) We also adopted our now forteen-year-old daughter. (Her story is here.)

Today however, I want to go back to a vision that was birthed in my heart exactly three years ago. What was that nudge?

That call was to share the personal, local, adoption stories of those I know personally. People right here, who live right around me. Stories of moms and dads…Individuals just like you and me. (Read previously shared adoption stories here)

Today, three years later, God has stirred up my heart again. As a result…

I am so humbled to have the honor and privilege of launching a SECOND ROUND of  MORE powerful, heartfelt and encouraging God-stories that is guaranteed to stir YOUR heart towards adoption.

Let’s jump into our first story from a family that has literally changed, not just their family and their community, but has impacted children all over the world.

Carol and Doug Whitfield are long-time family friends of ours. I have known Carol since…Well, as long as I can remember.

I grew up going to church with Carol. Since then, I have had the gift of witnessing first-hand, the legacy of her and her family’s obedience and willingness to follow faithfully wherever He leads.

Our family has flown with Doug & Carol to Guatemala, as their non-profit, Kaitlin’s Mobility Foundation brought wheelchairs to special needs kids in remote places. A few years ago, Carol and Doug also came with my husband and I, to bring mobility supplies, to an orphanage in Ch*na. (Photo shown above)

This family is very near and dear to our hearts.

So, let’s jump into the Whitfield’s story, as shared from Carol herself…

Our Story, Our Faith, Our Adoption

Oh, where do I begin? A writer I am not, but what I can do is just tell Our Story! So, here it goes:

Growing up, I dreamed of some day getting married, being a mom and having lots of kids, with a white picket fence around the yard…

Well, my dream came true, but not like I thought it would. God had another idea and plan for my life. (Which it ended up being perfect)

I got married in 1990. We ended up having our first bio daughter in September of 1991, a beautiful baby girl. We were so happy, and she was such a great baby, so we decided to have another child.

That baby girl was born in 1994.

Well, after our youngest daughter Kaitlin was 6 weeks old, she began to have seizures. I am not going to go into all the details right now, but the first 6 1/2 years of her life was so hard.

Our sweet, baby girl never developed beyond a 6 month old level. She never talked, she never walked and she was tube fed….(Ok, this was not in my plan….but again, God had a plan).

Our sweet baby girl Kaitlin, had a seizure so bad one night. I just stood at the foot of her bed and cried and prayed. I prayed, “God if you take our little girl to heaven, we will open our home up to children who need a home.”

Kaitlin passed away in 2001 at the age of 6 1/2 years old.

Our Fostering Adoption Story begins here:

After our daughter passed away, we became foster parents in 2003. We did not think we would adopt. We just wanted to be foster parents…..(God had another idea :).

In 2004, we picked up a sweet baby boy and brought him home at 3 days old. We did not know what would happen. We did not know if he would return home or go up for adoption.

We were not planning on adopting him, but by the time he turned 2 years old we had the opportunity to adopt him.

He became legally free. We said, “yes”. We knew God’s plan was for us to give this baby boy a forever home.

God changed our hearts.

After adopting our first, we again said we will just be foster parents.

We fostered so many children, and were able to be that link to see the little ones go from our home to their forever home.

God used us, to be that link for those sweet babies, and to be part of seeing a family who could not have children of their own, to be able to adopt one of the sweet babies we fostered.

As time went on, 2011 came.

It was October and my husband & I were in New York. My husband was on a business trip and I was sitting in a hotel room and checked my email.

There was an email from placement looking for a foster home for a new baby girl who was still in the hospital with a rare disease called Pompe Disease.

Pompe’s Disease is life threatening and this baby may not live past 1 years old.

However, I could not get this little one out of my mind. I began to read about Pompe Disease and I began to pray, and my husband & I talked about it, but we were just not sure we should take this little one on.

We arrived home from New York and we went to church that next Sunday.

Some friends of ours, who were foster parents, started telling us about a baby in the hospital and that we should take this baby into our home since we know all about special needs kids. (We have had many in our home.)

They began to tell us that they are fostering the mom of this baby & the mom is very young. We said we will pray about it…

O.k. you all, you know what happens when you pray. God listens and he also speaks.

God spoke to us and we decided that we would begin to visit the baby and keep praying.

As I sat at the hospital one day holding that little precious baby girl on oxygen, tube fed, having to have treatments every two weeks to keep her alive…

And who would need this treatment for the rest of her life, not even knowing if she would live past 1 years old…

I was talking to God.

I was telling him all the things that would need to fall into place. I said, “Oh dear God, I have this horse, and taking this baby in, I would not be able to get to the barn to ride for a long time”.

God began to speak to me. He said, “Carol, I will take care of all the details. If I call you to do this, do you not think I will not take care of all the pieces to help you do this?”

I said, “Yes Lord, I know I need to trust you…that you will take care of every detail”.

My phone rang & it was a gal from the barn. She said, “We would love to lease your
horse if you are willing to do a lease?”

Ok, this gal did not know about the baby. She didn’t know that I was looking to, at some point, lease my horse. So you can image at that moment I said, “Yes!”, and the tears began to fall.

I went home, talked with my husband, and we agreed to bring this baby girl home.

This baby girl, we said we would just foster. Well again, God had another plan….He called us
to adopt this sweet baby girl by the time she was 2 years old.

She is now 9 years old, doing pretty good, uses the wheelchair at times, uses a walker, is on oxygen at night, and can eat on her own.

She does have weekly infusions, but she is still with us. God knows & he knows her future and ours.

He knew when he allowed us to walk that road with our bio daughter that he was preparing us for what was ahead. He knew there was going to be these sweet children needing a forever home.

Adoption is an amazing process, & we are so thankful we listened to God.

Our plans maybe different, but God’s plan is always way better.

We love our Children.

We are still foster parents & my dream of lots of kids? Well, we had 2 bio, adopted 2 children and have had over 70 children in our home…

So, I guess you could say my dream of a big family with lots of kids…God gave me that dream, but it just looks different.

God is good & we just need to have faith & trust him in the things we can’t see.

Jeremiah 29:11 “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'”

Our Story, Our Adoption.

~ By Carol Whitfield

Carol, THANK YOU for your willingness to share your INCREDIBLE story! I know it will inspire, encourage and challenge every single person who reads it!

You guys, the Whitfield’s daughter is TRULY a living, breathing miracle! And it’s all because of one faith-filled, willing couple, who loves God and desires more than anything, to serve Him.

God has also birthed a beautiful ministry from the loss of Carol & Doug’s precious daughter, Kaitlin. Here is the link to their non-profit, Kaitlin’s Mobility Foundation. Please stop by and check it out!

The Whitfield’s “YES” is an inspiration to us all! It’s a reminder…Kids need permanency, especially children with special needs!

If you have a heart for special needs adoption, how might God be leading you? What impacted you most as you read the Whitfield’s faith-filled story?

Friends, there is SUCH beauty in obedience!

Thanks for considering sharing this post, to help encourage others. Then please, return back here, for more incredible stories like the Whitfields, coming your way…