Frazier Adoption Journey

2010-12-11T03:34:00.000-08:00

The End to the Journey

Almost six years since the journey started...it is finally coming to an end! Two months after we received our referral for Ji Chen we received yet another devastating call. The CCAA had not taken him out of the system and had referred him to two families. When they reviewed our family and the other. they decided to give him to the other family, because they had fewer children. "Hold on," God was saying...and although me were ready to give up, we didn't. Within 24 hours we signed for another referral. Fu Yi Kun is 3 years old, deaf in both ears and mute. He was dropped off at the orphanage at 10months (most likely when the family realized he did not hear). My heart breaks for this mother and father. Although we assume "they did not want him because he is not "perfect" We do not know this for fact. The society they live in is harsh on families and perfection. Boys are highly thought of and each represents the family name..."perfection" is all that is accepted. We know in the Frazier family that Gods design is perfect and he has a plan and purpose for each of his children. We are praying that God will use Matthew Grant Frazier (Fu Yi Kun) in his deaf community or even in China years down the road.

We are busy with the final arrangements and paperwork to bring him home. Aaron is ready to go get Matthew at the drop of a hat!!! We are just waiting to hear his travel arrangements which should be no later that January 7th! I can't even believe our dream is coming to an end. Although we know a whole new journey is about to begin, we also know God is in control and will equipt us. He has used this experience to draw us closer to Him and all praise and Glory goes to Him.

So are you wondering why I am not going? Well I am expecting in July of this year...Praise God again! After having two miscarriages since last spring, we knew travel would not be a wise decision. God was telling me to give up our China trip and I fought him for a while, not seeing any good reason! When I finally said OK and called off my travel with my dear friend Jackie, a week later I found out I was pregnant. I have seen the heartbeat twice and am in awe of my God!

5 Year Journey

2010-06-01T05:23:00.000-07:00

Well Friends and Family, the journey goes on! We are saddened but confident that after waiting two years for Yeleseh to come home, it was time to let go of our African adoption. After much prayer and new knowledge of what we could face by bringing Yeleseh into our family, we felt it was best for our family to move on with our journey. Two weeks after pulling out of the Acres of Hope program, I found out that the baby I had carried for 3 and 1/2 months had gone to be with the Lord. Losing 2 children in 2 weeks was tough on the famil. In fact this whole adoption journey has been very hard. We are strong in the Lord and have faith that He carries us through the easy times and the tough. I have to admit I felt completely done with adoption after that trying 2 weeks. We were exhausted emotionally and I physically. Two weeks after I lost the baby, the Lord said " I am not done with you. But now i have you right where I want you."" I was reminded of His timing once again. No matter what our time expectancy was for this adoption, God will do what he needs to do in His timing to complete His perfect plan. . I was reminded that we have not found our Frazier who is out there. I was reminded that He asks us to follow Him. I was reminded that if we try to do things in our time and strength, we are missing out on His blessings. God closed the door to our referral for Yeleseh. His hand of protection was on our family and that was one reason the adoptions were shut down as soon as we received our referral!

With that said, He opened another door. In a 2 week time frame we received a referral for a 3 year old little boy named Xiao JiChen. He lives in an orphanage in China. Can you even believe this? For those of you who have not followed our adoption for the past five years, that is the country we started with and the country of our hearts desire. We truly could love any child that came into our home, but for some reason China was dear to our hearts. Maybe the Lord was preparing our hearts when we lived in Okinawa Japan for over three years? Ji Chen is completely deaf in both ears.....Ready for another WOW!! My plan for the childrens school year staring in the fall was to learn Sign Language as a second language! We serve an amazing God! He has not been taught sign language so it will be new to all of us. This journey (though long and more labor than birthing my 5 children) is such an amazing experience from the Lord. Through all of it we have had a unique opportunity to grow closer to our Saviour!

God has always provided for our adoption and I am quite certain we would not have seen a penny of what we used to pay our fees up until now had we not obeyed. We are not done yet and we have some fundraisers going on that you can support to help bring home JiCheng (Matthew Grant JiChen Frazier). Our family is selling tshirts for $20. They are white t shirts that say "Got Love" on the front and on the back have the verse James 1:27 written out. We have all sizes...If you would like to order one or many please let me know via email (mymarineourhero@aol.com) . We thank you always for your support in our adoption journey...We know you will be blessed at the end of our journey as well!!!

Catch Up Time!!!

2009-08-04T03:06:00.000-07:00

Wow...It has been so long since i did an update. Forgive me please. As of right now we are waiting for the African government to lift the hold on adoptions. Although this is a frustrating time, God knows exactly what He is doing and our family has peace.

Yeleseh is growing strong and will be 8 in October. I would love to throw him a huge birthday party, but only the good Lord knows if that will happen. We receive updates saying he is doing well and enjoys the orphanage. He speaks a lot of coming home to his new family and how exciting it will be. We can't wait to get him here! Acres of Hope is constantly fighting for these children and I am very thankful for there hard work.

We are all settled in our new home in Virginia and can not feel more blessed with what God has provided. We are in a lovely safe neighborhood and even have Christian friends living 3 doors down. Our new neighbors have a son for the boys to play with and an adopted child from China for Anna to play with. The similarities our families share is a direct result of the Lord comforting us in many ways through one of our hardest moves yet.

I am due with Abigail Victoria in 3 weeks but have already started labor. We are so excited for our new addition to come!

Grandma and Grandpa are living with us and what a blessing it is! The children get so excited to go downstairs to their apartment and see them whenever they want! This is something Aaron and I always wanted for the kids. They are a huge help to me and and it is so nice to always be around family.

I hope this note finds all of you well and may God Bless you and your family!

Pray...Pray...and Pray some more!!!

2009-02-15T03:51:00.000-08:00

Good Morning Friends and Family,

At times it is hard to remember how Good God is. He is always looking towards our best interests and will never leave our side. In the past few weeks we have had news of our adoption that has been upsetting. The president of Liberia has shut down the adoptions temporarily until some laws have been worked out. God is bigger than this and He will work through it to bring himself Glory. Please pray with us that all wrinkles will be ironed out soon and that we can bring home our son. The orphanage is suffering financially due to the unexpected time the children are having to spend there and not being sent to their forever homes. If you would like to donate to the Acres of Hope orphanage, please go to Acres of Hope.com and the site will fill you in on how to do so...

As always, thank you for your prayers and support!

Tanya

2008-12-30T10:48:00.000-08:00

James Matthew Frazier (Yelesa)

I hope this letter finds you all in good health and you are looking forward to what God has in store for the new year.

Although this year has been full of blessings, we did have a loss about two months ago. Our family had been prepared to take home our baby girl Mya Faith from Liberia since August. We were told by the Agency that she was no longer adoptable. It was a true loss to our family. We do not understand why God chose this, but we as a family are trying to focus on the FACT that he has our best interests at hand. Mya Faith will always be in our hearts and the Lord had our family and many of you praying for her. I know the prayers worked for her somehow. God does not always answer them like we want him to, but he does answer. I do know that she had gotten very sick with malaria which caused her brain damage. Our family will continue to pray for Mya Faith and I hope you will too.

This adoption journey has been more of a journey than we could have anticipated, but are truly thankful for the lessons we have learned along the way. We have grown as a husband and wife, family and with the Lord through it all. When we were told the sad news, once again we did not know where to go. I truly thought of giving up. Aaron told me we were not, and even if it took 12 years to get our child or children, until the Lord says "stop" we will not.

Around the same time I had heard of some breaking news and things were looking up for the adoptions in Africa, so I went to the web site to see if I could read about it. As I was going through the website acresofhope.com, I noticed a 7 year old boy listed as needing a home. It took me back...he is 7, healthy, and high energy. Hmmmmm...I figured his age is what landed him a spot on the Special page in the news. I thought to myself, "Imagine someone missing out on my Christian? High energy? Our whole family right down to the dogs are high energy! But I wonder what they mean by that?" So I contacted the agency and asked what a high energy Liberian was like. They too were trying to find out what it meant, but was pretty sure it was nothing.

Last night around dinner time, I received a phone call from the founder of Acres of Hope. She asked me why we inquired about Yelesa (the 7 year old boy) when we had young female stated in our home study. I told her that God has continually been working on my and Aarons heart. He has taken so many blinders off of us because he is not done fine tuning us. We told God 5 years ago that we would adopt, but in the same breath, we also told him what the child would look like, that the child would be female and Asian. The Lord must have gotten a huge chuckle out of that!

Now, we have been chosen to accept Yelesa's referral. We are all sooooo excited, but have a bit of a guard up at the same time. yelesa is 7 years old and is in perfect health. His high energy is rare to Liberians because he is not laid back. He likes to go, go ,go!!! Yeah for us...hop on board! He sounds perfect for our family. he has a sibling and we are not sure if we will get to adopt her as well, but the agency is working to find that out. If his biological sibling does not come to us, there may be someone else in store...We have to wait and see about that.

Please pray for us as we go through this next phase...God is good and he is in control! I attached a picture of our new son...His smile will make your day!!!

Baby Mya's Coming Home

2008-07-02T04:40:00.001-07:00

Good Morning Friends and family,

I am so excited to share our news with you! As you all have heard and seen, our adoption has taken many twists and turns in the past 2 and a half years. We have had many times of frustration and disappointments, but now that we are at this point, I would do it all again.

Last Tuesday, we received the call we have been waiting for. We have a baby girl, Mya Faith. She is 9 months old and she is labeled "special needs". She is living in an African Village and being raised by a Liberian woman who has taken in 15 children! Can you even imagine? I can not! I have started to pray for this woman, I hope you may join me in that. I am so thankful she has cared for my baby girl up until now and would love to be able to bless her in some way, if the Lord would allow it. We have been told that Mya can not sit up or hold a bottle. Some family and friends are extremely concerned about this, but I am not. Some may think I am crazy for not being concerned, but that is OK. There is something to be said for the peace God gives you, when he is asking you to do something for Him. This adoption is not only about us. It is about so many people we love and adore...and it makes me want to shout "GOD IS AWESOME"!

It has been so heavy on my heart for this adoption to finely happen. For a while I was at peace with Gods timing. Aaron had been deployed and I was pregnant with Daniel. I had a full plate with keeping life in order while Aaron was deployed. All of a sudden I wanted this adoption to happen 'NOW". I was in constant prayer for this chapter to come to an end and for our family to be pulled together under one roof. Soon after we found out about the possibility of receiving a referral for Mya. There was another family who wanted her as well. One afternoon, the kids and I had a picnic lunch on the living room floor, and I told them we were going to all take turns praying. I prayed first for the safety of this baby girl, and that God would take care of her and put her the right family, which he obviously would! Thomas prayed that the baby would have food and not get sick. Christian prayed that the baby would be his sister Mya. Anna prayed in a stern little voice "Lord, I KNOW it is Mya, so would you just bring her here!" The power of prayer was revealed to my children in a way they had not experienced before...Praise God! of course Anna does not see the big deal, because she already had told us it was Mya! That Sunday we had Daniel dedicated. That day at church, there was a Liberian guest speaker! Now come on people...God was giving me a wink for the heavens above!!! I praise Him for all he has taught our family through this. No, it is not over yet...but I am confident in the Lord and His plan is perfect!

Paperwork is being pushed through the system as fast as it can. Aaron and I are busy trying to make arrangements and tie up the loose ends here. Acres of Hope is estimating the time of travel to be as early as August, no later than September. They want Mya at home as soon as possible. there is so much to be done! Aaron and his mother Marilyn will be traveling to pick Mya up. Please keep them in your prayers. My wonderful mother in law has challenging preparations to make, which include care for my handicapped sister in law. We are in prayer for her care as Mo (Marilyn) travels. I think this is going to be a wonderful experience for Aaron and his mom to have together. For those of you who have not met her, She rocks!!!! I wish I could go, but we said all along that one of us would stay home with the other four, so it would not be to overwhelming when Mya gets home. I always thought I would go, but Aaron does not know how to breast feed, so that makes the decision. It is kind of neat that he already has all the shots since he just came back from his deployment to Africa. Everywhere I look I see Gods hand!

Thank you for your prayers,
Love, because of Him,

Tanya

Daniel Isaiah Frazier

2008-07-02T04:11:00.000-07:00

May 9, 2008 is another wonderful day for our family. Daniel was born at 7:20pm weighing in at 8.10 ounces and 20 inches long. He is healthy and beautiful. He is a spitting image of Thomas and I am thrilled. The kids love him! I could not ask for a better acceptence of him into the family. Everybody loves to get him to smile. Anna changes diapers and puts lotion on his feet and mine! Thomas is wonderful with him and can get him to burp better than I! Christian loves to cuddle with him on the couch and watch a movie. He loves the way Daniel smells! All is going well. Daniel is the sweetest addition to our family! How could God bless me more than this...

Soccer Time

2008-03-18T03:58:00.000-07:00

How exciting is this? Aaron has distributed the $1000 worth of soccer equiptment to the village kids. We, as a family have raised $500 from our family and friends back home for the soccer equiptment and Aaron was blessed to distribute it. He said they swarmed him in excitement.

God has truly given our family a heart for these children in Africa. I am truly humbled by the experiences he has allowed us to go through in our adoption and Aarons deployment to bring to where we are in our faith. All the glory goes to the Lord above.

because of Him

tanya

Semper Fi...Always faithful

2008-02-04T03:59:00.000-08:00

The servicemen are bussed to the orphanage to play and teach the Boys skills. Aaron has a blast volunteering his time to these boys. He has shared with me that the boys are happy and Americans are generous to them. At age sixteen, if not adopted the boys are released from the orphanage to live. Can you imagine the fear that they may feel, or maybe not...

We have a lot to be thankful for when it comes to the men and women serving our country. They work long hard hours to try and better the world we freely live in. Whether or not you agree with the war, there are men and women out there for you and and doing their best to protect you and your family. I am so proud of Aaron and his dedication to God first, family and the Marine Corps.

Beginning to End

2008-01-27T05:59:00.000-08:00

Two years ago, we were led by the Lord to adopt. Little did we know where this journey would take us. We started our process with meeting with our pastor from Choice Baptist Church, Pastor Tim Wilcox. He was extremely helpful and supportive in the decision to adopt and encouraged us and prayed with us about our journey. Our family was on a spiritual high because the Lord was asking us to do something for Him and it was clear to both Aaron and I. We began our adoption with China. We worked very hard to complete and satisfy the Chinese and American government with all the documents and paperwork and meetings they required. After about 10 months od weekly accomplishments, we were told to make sure we did not bring our bibles or mention the Lord while in country. An alarm went off in my head and Aarons as well. Exodus 20:3 "You shall have no other Gods before me." Although we are concerned about orphans and God calls us to take care of His orphans, He still must be first in all decisions. We decided to pull our of the China program and adopt from Guatamala. Again, we gathered all the paperwork, documents and necessary meetings with our adoption agency. When all was in order, we found out that Guatamala was ending their adoptiions with the United States for the time being. That clearly was a closed door for us. This is when we hit our low and did not know where to go. Around the same time, I found out I was pregnant with Daniel Isaiah. The family was so excited. I called the adoption Agency and told them of our good news. They were happy for us, but it did pose a problem with their requirements. needless to say we had to with draw from our agency for help. we were told that they could not help us until our youngest was one. This posed a huge problem because most documents and paperwork expire 12-18 months after they are notarized or have official seals on them. We knew our journey could not wait, but did not know what to do. Aaron was leaving in 4 weeks for Africa for a six month deployment and we were both a bit upset about the turn out of our adoption.
All along we both have had wonderful support from friends and family. A year prior to this I had met a wonderful lady, Kim. She and I had an instant bond due to several similar circumstances. We are two peas in a pod as my mom would say. One of our similarities was that their family of seven were adopting. I thanked the Lord every day for her friendship and the understanding we had for eachother and the up and downs we faced with our adoptions.
As Aaron began his deployment in Africa he discovered two orphanges outside the base he was working at. Hmmmmmm...my mind definately started wondering the point of this. I knoew there was one, but did not know what it was. I realized this was an open door for our family. I asked Aaron to find out if we could adopt from this orphanage and in so many words we understood it was not possible. All along I have been seeing pictures of Kims children (Siblings) from Acres of HOpe, Liberia, West Africa. My heart was huge for them and I felt like I was going to be an aunt again. One day it hit me. Kim is pregnant, she has four other children, her husband is a Marine...Why wouldn't we be accepted as we are from the same orphanage. I comfronted Aaron with this idea. He was on board...Let' go for it!
Now let's recap the order of this....

China to Guatamala to Africa...Wow...now I am excited all over again!!! The neat thing was, everything has fallen into place. Our paperwork is all completed for Liberia. We have been accepted not only for one, but two children, which we are even more excited about. I traveled to CHarleston South Carolina last week to get my fingerprints done, because the last set expired and now once Acres of Hope receives that document, we will be waiting for our referral. God has worked out every detail of this adoption to get us to where we are at. I had someone say to me, "Don't you know when to give up?" I know this was said out of concern for Aaron and I, but when God tells you to do something, you step out in faith and let him work out the details. He does not say it is going to be easy...but it will surley be worth it!

Aaron's Spare Time

2008-01-27T05:51:00.000-08:00

While deployed to Djobouti, Africa, Aaron volunteered at the boys orphanage outside the base. He has a blast teaching the boys skills in sports and an even better time playing with them. It is an encouragement to see how Gods plan is so perfect. Just when our journey with adoptin had really gotten us down, God placed Aaron in Africa (what are the odds when everyone else is needed in Iraq) and gave us the boost we needed!

Our Adoption Journey

2008-01-27T05:33:00.000-08:00

Good Morning Friends and Family,

It has been a while since an update of our adoption journey, and what a journey it has been. Two years ago when we started our adoption journey, our Pastors wife, Paula, recommended I do a site to keep people updated on our journey. I was very intimidated then by this and did not do it. Now I am a little more confident in the internet and what to stay away from when posting information on line. With this said, I ask that you do not be afraid to share our story, because we know that is one reason God has allowed it, but with discernment as to who you share it with. I pray it is a blessing to all of you, as it has been to our family. I praise God for the opportunity to share with you.