The Lord works in amazing ways and the road He took us down to prepare for our adoption journey was incredible and perfectly planned by Him. Zach heard His “whisper” to adopt several years ago and it weighed heavy on our hearts. After years of running away, finding excuses, and a series of life events in the spring of 2012, we finally said “Yes” to the Lord.
We waded through mounds of paperwork, agencies, grant applications, background checks, training sessions and countless hours of prayer. Our motivation for adoption was not to fulfill a deep desire to grow our family or compete with childless couples who longed for a baby, but rather to simply obey and answer the Lord’s call. If one of God’s children needed a home, then we wanted to be His hands and feet. We were matched with a birth mom; she did not have a stack of profiles to chose from or a line up of families willing to take this risk. We felt the nudge to pursue this match. This was the baby who, it appeared, may not have had an immediate placement without us. We were overwhelmed by love when we welcomed Ivor James into our family in the fall of 2014 after a year of referrals. Meeting his birth mom was a moment in time that will forever be etched in our hearts and remains very humbling now as we look back. As we thought we were the ones to bless this child and give him a secure home, it turned out he was the one to bless us.
We are a very fortunate family to have the privilege to parent another one of God’s precious children and forever grateful to his birth mom for giving us that opportunity through her most selfless act. However, the fees associated with adoption felt exorbitant to us. We were blessed along the way with a Show Hope Grant and with an anonymous local gift.
It is our desire to come along side other adoptive families and bless them by assisting them with a portion of their expenses regardless of their financial need. We are now a family of five; Zach is self employed full time and Jill is a stay at home mom and freelance artist. We have two biological children and one adopted son. Together, with the help of many, we founded The James Project during the summer of 2015 and developed a board of directors to assist in our giving decisions. It is our desire to spread the word about our cause and if you should have an appropriate audience, we would love to hear from you. We are willing to openly share our entire adoption story in hopes to inspire and motivate your audience to pursue their own calling from the Lord, whatever that calling may be.