We are the Alexander family, and we are thrilled to share our adoption story with you! Ryan (dad) is a Pastor, Sarah (mom) works part time from home for a child sponsorship ministry, and we have 4 grade school-aged biological children. We are adopting a little girl from Ghana, through Generations Adoptions. We plan to adopt a healthy girl, or a girl with mild/moderate special needs. We have 3 boys and 1 girl, and they are all thrilled to be adding another sister to our family! We are hoping and praying to take our children with us when we travel to Africa to meet our little girl, so we’re working to raise enough funds for us all to travel!
Our adoption journey began in September 2011 (at a women’s conference), as Sarah began feeling God lead us to open our family up even more, to actually live out his gospel of adoption. Over the next year, God began working in Ryan’s heart as well, as he slowly warmed to the idea of adoption. We have both always had a heart for all nations, traveling many times to various countries, spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. We really began to develop a love for orphans, and now have both embraced the idea of adopting a child that simply needs a family. Our motivation is simple: God has put us in a place to be a family for a child that needs nothing more than a family, a child that needs nothing more than love. That is something we can do. God has adopted each one of us as His child. We are His heirs, His chosen children. What better way can we spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, than to model, in our own family, what he did for each us individually?
We have done extensive research into the global orphan crisis, and adoption in general, and although we cannot solve this crisis on our own, we feel like God has called each of us to do our part. The Bible clearly states that it is our responsibility to care for orphans and widows. God has called our family to be part of the solution for one orphan, to bring one home to her forever family. James 2:17 states that faith without action is dead. We want to live out what we believe , and be an example of what God did for each of us through His adoption of us.
From the very beginning, Sarah felt led to adopt a little girl from Africa, and God confirmed that through our biological children. Even before we officially decided to pursue adoption, our children asked if we could adopt a sister from an orphanage (totally out of the blue!). That’s just one of the many ways that God was working behind the scenes to prepare our family for adoption. As we researched different countries in Africa, Ghana turned out to be the perfect fit for our family.
As parents, we strive to teach our children what it means and what it looks like to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Our greatest desire for our children is for them to grow up to love God most of all, and to serve Him wholeheartedly. We’re doing our very best to model Christ-like behavior to our children, so they, in turn, can model it to others.
We have made a commitment to complete this adoption without added debt due to adoption expenses, so we have worked very diligently from the very beginning to raise funds for our adoption. We started with a Tupperware and an Avon fundraiser, and we have our own storefront with Just Love Coffee ($385). We have also partnered with Compelled Designs Jewelry (over $1100), Apparent Project ($292), have sold African items that we purchased while on a mission trip ($340), and have designed tees. We have recently completed a Both Hands ($3700) project as well. We also held a garage sale where we raised just over $2000, and will have another sale in a couple of weeks (because we had so many leftover donations!). Our newest fundraiser is an auction of two quilts that my mother has made for us. They are beautiful handmade quilts, and have been made with TONS of Grammy’s love!
You can see all our fundraising items, including the quilts, on our facebook page: www.facebook.com/AlexandersAdopt You can also leave your bids on our facebook page. We will close the auction in time for Christmas shipping.
