In March of 2015 we partnered with Nightlight Christian Adoptions to host a 7 year old boy with the English name Micah from China. Micah came to stay with us for three weeks during July and August, and we took him on a lot of sightseeing trips. The purpose of the trip was to help him find a forever family and give him the opportunity to see what it would be like to became a permanent part of an American home.

Here is a glimpse into what we did during this summer stay. We took him to a horse farm in Lexington, the Kentucky Science Center, The Kentucky Derby Museum, The Louisville Slugger Museum, the Louisville Zoo (where his favorite animal was the tiger), and to Gatti-Town.

We also took him to meet some of our family members in Tennessee and Florida. This was challenging since he doesn't speak much English. He got to meet Darla's brother, Lee and his wife Crystal and their two children, Kaylee (age 7) and Levi (age 6). His favorite activity was to ride Darla's niece and nephew's four wheeler and their toy backhoe. Early one morning before the rest of the house had woken up, we found him on the toy backhoe in his pajamas and slippers! It was funny to see him interacting with Kaylee and Levi even though there was a language barrier. We found the Google Translate app to be very helpful as well as Darla's survival knowledge of Mandarin from when she used to live in China.

We also took him to Florida to meet Benjamin's parents, and while we were there, we took him swimming and discovered that he loves the water! After swimming at Benjamin's cousin, Wesley's, house, he woke up the next morning asking if we could go again, so we took him to the beach! It took him a while to get the courage up to get into the waves, but once he got in, he didn't want to leave.

While in Florida, Micah also got to visit the fire station where Wesley is the Captain, and he got to sit in the fire truck and wear the fire suit that the firemen wear.

Micah has PKU (phenylketonuria), which means his body cannot process one of the amino acids in protein. Micah has to have a low protein diet, and he has to supplement his diet with specially made formula that has protein that is ok for his body. His diagnosis makes it challenging to pick foods that he is able to eat, which frustrates him because he wants to eat all kinds of food.

After Micah went back home to China, we decided that we wanted to adopt him. We have been doing our home study, background checks, and immigration paperwork, and we are almost ready to submit our dossier to China for approval.

Hello family, friends, and strangers!

We are Cody and Rebecca Rosenbarker, and adoption is something we have been talking about doing for several years now. We started the process a couple of years ago, but in the midst of both working 40+ hours a week and both being in graduate school full time, we just didn’t think it was the right time for us to be bringing a child into our family. Not that there is ever a perfect time, but we are very excited about this new journey for us.
We are pursuing a special needs adoption of an older child from Kyrgyzstan, which is located in Central Asia, near China, Russia, and Kazakhstan. There is a specific little boy that we have a particular interest in adopting, but the international adoption process is very long with lots of bumps along the way, so we can’t be sure that he will be joining our family. At least, not yet!

In this time of transition for us, we greatly appreciate your thoughts, prayers, and support. The international adoption process is a costly endeavor: our agency estimates that our total costs will be about $38,000. We deeply value and appreciate any amount you feel lead to give that will help us bring our child home!

Several months ago, my husband and I decided to look into adopting a child internationally. The very first place I called to even begin the search shot me down and broke my heart, right out of the gate I wanted to quit.

A couple of months passed, I was sitting in Bible Study with a group of young moms, and one of the questions was "Have you ever felt like you were called by God to do something and one person told you "no" so you gave up completely?" Uh oh! God was talking, and it was LOUD and CLEAR. I knew at that moment He wasn't done with the small flame he had put in my heart, because that question alone turned it into a full blown, five-alarm, bon fire in my heart. I called Cody immediately after Bible Study, and told him we couldn't be done, that we had to try just one more time. His heart was still hurt from the first "no" and he was pretty hesitant. But since he typically just rolls with the punches of my over-the-top ideas he said "sure honey, look into it, and we will talk more." The fire kept burning in my chest. I was a momma on a mission!!

That very day, I sat down at the computer, I began searching Christian Adoption Agencies and came to Night Light. They seemed to be pretty on track with where we wanted to go. Then it happened. I found the "Waiting Children" section, and my goodness, it was all downhill from there! I came across a picture of Collins, his little Bio said that he suffered from Hydrocephalus. That burn in my heart that I talked about earlier, yeah you guessed it OUT OF CONTROL! Call in aerial support because this flame was getting bigger and bigger and there was only one way to put it out!

I immediately, called Cody (he was still a little worried, but he knew it was best just to humor me). I told him about Collins, and that I had known kids with Hydrocephalus, and that IF he would have been born here in the United States he would have already had shunt placed, and would be living like a normal little boy. Again, he said "see what we can do."

So I messaged Carrie with Night Light, and from there folks, the ball started rolling, we were accepted into the Ghana program, we are just waiting on the finishing touches of our home study, and then well of course, there is that whole coming up with money thing! If you feel you can donate to help us save this boy we would forever be grateful! Thank you for taking the time to read about us! If you can, share it, but most of all please, please pray that everything works out so that we are able to get this sweet baby boy some help!

In four days my daughter and I will be flying to Kyrgyzstan for the third time, and we will be returning with our 5 year old adopted girl. We can't believe there will be a new child in our home. We have felt so supported by the people who have followed our story on Adoption Bridge, especially as they saw the site posted on Facebook. We raised $1425 in just a few days, which really helped offset the cost, and bring together our family and friends. Thanks to those who donated. Thanks to AdoptionBridge for making such an awesome site. Thanks to Every Child has a Name for making it all possible.

Every Superhero needs a sidekick, and Super-Samuel is no exception! Since Samuel came home to Michigan from Hong Kong over a year ago, it has been clear that Samuel is a "people-person"! He loves playing with other kids, and longs for a play-mate at home. John and I began to look into options for our second child even before Samuel got to his "one year home" mile mark! We knew our family wasn't complete yet, but just were not sure how it would grow? We were open to it all...embryo adoption again? domestic infant? international? China (restrictions have lessened this year!), Hong Kong again (wouldn't that be fun for Samuel?!), or... As we looked and prayed, all options seemed great to Stephanie, but John just didn't jump at any or feel that the time was right, yet. Until...we were looking at the waiting kids in Hong Kong one day, and noticed all these cuties waiting in "Central Asia". Curious, Stephanie looked it up. Kyrgyzstan had opened an adoption program up only one year ago! One little girl caught our eye. We asked, we got some information....and THAT WAS ALL IT TOOK TO KNOW! John and Stephanie were finally on the same page. Little Altynai is one year younger than Samuel, precious, with some special needs, and a sweet smile on her round face. So here we go again...hoping to bring this sweet little girl home within one year!