Wayne and I met in 1984. We each had suffered painful divorces. Wayne had 3 little girls and I had my four. At the time, I found out that single moms could adopt and I was in process of adopting, Jessica, then 13, from Colombia. That idea had been placed in my heart by a very special friend, Debbie Bowden, who walked in church one Sunday morning with a 9 month old Korean baby girl! That seed was planted and grew into a whole garden!!
Wayne and I each had a love for children and also missions, so when we married, we decided to adopt children who already existed rather than have our own. Jessica arrived two weeks before we married and then Wayne and I adopted her together after we married. Next came a little cutie from Korea, Benjamin, at 11 months, who was special needs due to a cleft lip and palate. That was repaired and then we learned about Rani, a spina-bifida child, 8 yrs. old from India who was in the States but needed a home. So Rani came to join our family. Then, we learned about our sweet Josiah-James, from Taiwan, who was only 10 months on arrival and also special needs due to a genetic disorder. About the same time, a friend encouraged us to look into the needs of the Romanian children, which resulted in me taking a group (!) of 18 people to Romania to adopt children in March,1991. I returned on Father's Day with lovely Valentina, her biological brother, rambunctious Nicolae, and charming Alexandru!
They turned our household upside down!! (all were special needs) Around the same time we also were boarding two Ugandan teens (their dad wanted them in the Christian school there) and we learned about the needs in Uganda. Then we discovered private adoption through friends, John and Kathy Purdy, and ended up adopting two beautiful twin girls, Arianna and Annalia, who arrived at 3 days old! Then, in March, 1994, we moved to Uganda, Africa, with 8 of the kids, and started Good Shepherd's Fold Children and Babies Home! God did amazing things and that is another whole story in and of itself. We ended up with about 225 kids! Some still keep in contact with us and three or four of them have started their own children's homes! In 2002, God called us out of there and into Southeast Asia. But before going to Asia, we adopted three more, adorable Yannah, 7 months, sweet Edwin, age 5, lovely Faith, 11, all from Uganda. We were in the U.S. for two years then went to Thailand in 2004 and except for 6 months in Burma, we remained in Thailand. In May, 2007, we took in Jedidiah at 2 weeks of age as he was unwanted by his birth parents and their families. We also took in 4 tribal (Hmong) children for a year until we lost support for them.
While Uganda was our "mountaintop", Thailand was our "valley" and it has been a difficult journey. In the summer of 2010 we discovered that I needed some medical care which forced me to go back to the U.S. We had been planning on going back anyway but Jedidiah's adoption was not finalized yet so Wayne stayed behind to care for him since we thought it was getting close to finalizing. We had to stop homeschooling 3 of the kids, and could not afford to send all of them to the international school there, so over a two month period, they returned to the U.S. with me. We got them settled in public school, which was difficult for them as they had been used to the close-knit missionary community and Christian school.
And so....this is where we are now, waiting for the adoption to finalize which just seems to drag on and on. It has been 17 months since our family has been apart! Please pray that the adoption will finalize or our attorney can find another way so that our family can be reunited. We believe we cannot abandon Jedidiah, nor would God want us to. In all our adoptions, there has always been a spiritual battle, so this is not unfamiliar territory. We believe God will be victorious and He is "Semper Fi", always faithful!
His for the Children,
Bonnie Sue and Wayne
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