Jill & Charlie's Story of Disruptive Hope

The Disruptive Hope Fund is thrilled to announce we've helped a 2nd family realize their dreams to adopt after experiencing a disrupted match. Jill and Charlie welcomed their daughter earlier this month and we are so excited for Jill to share their story with you!

To Friends of Disruptive Hope -

Charlie and I have been married since 2014 and in 2015, God made evident to me His plans for us to adopt. This was not something that we had previously discussed as a couple but the calling became stronger and stronger. We prayed about His plans for our family and decided to move forward with adoption in the Summer of 2016. Quickly after becoming active, we matched with a baby due a few months later. We were elated!

The night before Thanksgiving our world came crashing down when we received the news that the mother we had matched with decided to parent. Thanksgiving had always been my favorite holiday but I could barely pull myself out of bed that year. I thanked God that we had not met the baby. I knew that would be so much harder.

We tried to go about our lives while grieving what could have been. Exactly two weeks after the devastating news, we found out that we had rematched and needed to travel that same evening to Utah to meet our son! As soon as I saw him for the first time, I knew he was meant to be our child.

Shortly after returning home with our baby, we found out that I was expecting. We would welcome a baby girl into our family in 2017 and then another little boy in 2019. As we navigated the beautiful chaos that is life with two working parents, three dogs, and three children three and under, I knew our family wasn’t complete.

God prepared my heart for adoption again much sooner than He did Charlie’s. We talked and prayed and turned yet again to His plan in Fall of 2021 when we decided to once again see what He had in store for us. The second time around we anticipated things to be a bit easier because we knew what to expect. It was anything but. Things did not move nearly as quickly as when we had adopted in 2016 and this time we had little hearts involved as well.

When we received word this past Spring that we had matched with a baby due in a few weeks back in Utah, we thought this was it – this was God’s plan. One day prior to our planned departure, we received word that the mother we matched with was in labor so we packed up and hit the road. As we traveled we got a text message that made our hearts sink. She was considering parenting. I had thought that since a disrupted match was part of our first journey, we had been there and done that. God had other plans in mind. After having driven for two straight days and in a hotel room with our kids and dogs less than one mile from the hospital, we learned we would be returning home with an empty carseat.

The financial and emotional toll the second time around was far greater than the first. When we got home, I didn’t leave our house for several days. I doubted God’s plan and if we would ever welcome another child into our family. As I was beginning to lose hope, God restored it through a phone call from our consultant. That is when she shared with me information on the Disruptive Hope Adoption Fund. God had answered our prayers.

There is nothing that prepares you for a disrupted match, even if you have experienced one before. Finding hope in a community that has walked the same path as you is a true gift from God. During my first call with another family who had faced not one but two disrupted matches, we cried together and encouraged one another for more than an hour. We checked in with one another via text and she was one of the first I shared the news with that we had rematched. I could feel her joy through the phone and halfway across the country.

In early July, we welcomed our daughter into our family. Just as I had the first time, I instantly knew that she was a part of God’s perfect plan. I know that there was a reason and a purpose for the valleys to get to her. Without the pain, we would not have been connected with the Disruptive Hope Adoption Fund. We feel incredibly blessed to be one of the first families served by this incredible organization and humbly ask for you to consider supporting other families walking through the hard and waiting on God’s plan.

With Love - Jill & Charlie

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