We wanted to reach out and share a bit of our adoption journey. Thanks you so much for partnering with us financially to bring our daughters home a little over a year ago.
We traveled to Liberia, Africa in June of 2023 to get our girls. We planned to spend at the most 5 weeks in country (as the previous family did). We got to Liberia and adopted our girls 4 days later on June 27th. They, then came to live with us in our hotel. We needed to wait on the US embassy now to grants us the go ahead to proceed with acquiring the correct documents to apply for our girls’ visas (we met with them on July 7th). After three weeks of being in country, it was clear we were not going to get the visas soon. We moved to different place about an hour away. The previous place wasn’t safe to walk (we could not leave the walls around resort area). We could not go to the store without a driver from the orphanage and they were busy. It was also costing us $1,300 a week to rent a two bedroom suite.
We moved to an apartment building that was cheaper and would allow us to walk around the capital city of Monrovia.
We spent 2 months in Liberia. When it was clear in August that the US would not grant visas for our girls we had to make the heartbreaking decision to put our girls back into the orphanage and travel home.
The US Embassy was not giving us any information (we had no answers and no timeline of when anything would be done). We had 6 other kids back in the states (ages 16 down to 6) and we had just spent the whole summer apart. We were due to start school up again in a few weeks. August 14th, we traveled home. It was the hardest decision we have ever made leaving our daughters on the steps of the orphanage (knowing that they didn’t understand). By the end of August the US embassy still refused to answer any of our questions. Finally, a couple weeks into September, the US Embassy asked for DNA testing for our girls and the relative that surrendered them to the orphanage (this is to ensure that the relative was in-fact able to surrender the girls over to the orphanage). We did ask at the end of July (before traveling home) in an email from our agency, if we could proceed with this step (another family that adopted that had a similar story with relatives had to do this). The US Embassy refused to answer that email (did not acknowledge the email). In order to do this we had to send DNA testing kits from an approved lab on a list to Liberia. The first set of tests were lost after a week of travel in Paris. Finally, a week later the lab sent another set of tests. Those also got lost. About a month after the first tests were lost they made their way to Liberia (we aren’t sure if the second set ever made it). Finally, in November, the US Embassy reached out and told us that we could come back to Liberia and get our girls. We left for Liberia November 20th. We spent two more weeks in Liberia getting all the documents and doing all the meetings/medical stuff that was needed. It was a rollercoaster ride.
After,
3 years in the adoption process
23 months matched with our daughters
20% of our year spent in Liberia
And them officially adopted for 5 months…
On December 4, 2023, we landed back in the US with our two youngest daughters.
It has been a little over one year since the girls have been home and we’ve been a family of 10. This past year has flown by.
Our trip stretched us financially with spending so much time in Liberia and flying during the most expensive time of year (right at the beginning of summer break and the holiday season). Our adoption almost doubled in price. Our family cannot thank you enough for the money you provided for our family.
In Christ,
The Stertz Family
