Donate Now
Changing the world starts with one small act.
Act now. Drive Adoption.
Donate Now
Changing the world starts with one small act.
Act now. Drive adoption.
Changing the world starts with one small act.
Act now. Drive Adoption.
Changing the world starts with one small act.
Act now. Drive adoption.
My husband Jeff & I tried for 6 years to conceive. Throughout this time the call for adoption was strong. We finally decided to listen to what God was telling us & we started on our adoption journey in the fall of 2010 for foster adoption. We were placed with 2 brothers shortly after being licensed & we had them for 16 months before they were placed with their grandmother. Two months later we were placed with a newborn & 4 months later our first 2 returned to us. We were able to adopt all 3 of them on June 16, 2014. It was a crazy emotional process but we wouldn’t change one moment. Having our older 2 boys leave us was a very hard time for us but we realized now that it was a blessing because had they been with us when we got the call for our youngest we would have said no to taking him. God’s timing is always perfect we just need to trust in Him. Our boys have been such a blessing to us in more ways than we can count. We could not love them more! We set out to change the lives of children in need but they have changed our lives for the better and we are hoping to adopt again in the future.
Early in 2004, we quit our jobs in FL & moved back to IN together to pursue our dreams of adoption. Through God’s amazing grace, we had rebuilt a broken marriage and knew he had more for us. We were blessed to have our children move in right before Thanksgiving that year. What a “Thanks Giving” it was! Not just 1 or 2, but a sibling group of 4! People say we changed the kids’ lives, no they changed mine! God is so good & I am truly blessed. It hasn’t been easy. Going from 0 to 4 overnight and having girls who were just 2, 3 and 4 and an angry 9 year old son, was a challenge. I went from a full-time job to full-time Mom. Things were tight & struggles were real, but, here we are, 10 years later, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything! We will celebrate 32 years of marriage in October and celebrate 11 years as a family in November. It has been an amazing and wonderful journey. If you learn to seek and appreciate the “little blessings” of each day, you will feel God’s hand through the tough times and become stronger as life moves on. Don’t be afraid to take a leap of faith. God has a plan and although we don’t always know where it’s leading, it’s always an incredible journey!
As parents of seven young adult daughters, six who came to us through the beautiful gift of adoption, we can truthfully say that the journey of foster care and adoption changed our family in wonderfully profound ways. Our daughter who came to us through the gift of birth was 11 when we started this journey and today, six sisters and eight years later, we’ve grown so much as individuals and as a family. Two of our adopted daughters came to us through the foster care system as adolescents, our other four came to us after the age of 18 from homelessness and aging out of foster care. Adding so many new dynamics, backgrounds and life stories to your family in such a short amount of time has had its challenges, for sure, but anything worth doing should require significant effort. The greatest blessing of all for us has been the ability to step right into the middle of our daughter’s life stories as dad and mom. We are so thankful for our wonderfully crafted family, the mosaic that our collective stories create is testimony to the God who truly sets the lonely in family, binds up the brokenhearted and sets the captives free.
Adoption chose us! When we found out 25 years ago we could not have children it was a hard fact to hear. Paula really wanted children, I did but was not sure about being able to love a child that was born to someone else. Over time I realized how vital it was to Paula and agreed we would go for it. We did the foster parenting classes and thought there would be a slim chance we would ever get a baby. Through a series of events, only God could orchestrate, we got a phone call about a private adoption. After meeting with this couple they decided they wanted us to adopt their baby. They were very young, and wanted to give their child a chance. They could have chosen abortion, but they didn’t. They choose life for her and gave us the most precious gift anyone has ever given us. It was not easy for them, they are good people and we really got close with them through this. When our Daughter was born they let Paula go into delivery and hold her. The day we left the hospital and went home we had a home coming celebration and we invited her birth parents to come. We have maintained contact with them over the last 22 years and our daughter has as well. Our family was born October 1993 and I learned love has no DNA. Johanna June Godwin is our daughter and I am one thankful man!