You Are So Loved

Dear Children,

As I sit here, on the border of India and Nepal, I’m consumed with gratitude by the amount of people who already love you. I was just having coffee with a dear friend who runs a children’s home here and telling him how God has completely given your father and I what we need in order to bring you into our home, including a brand new car.

I want you to know, from day one as Runyons, that you are now our children. You are wanted, loved and fought for. And…

You are chosen. Not only by me and your father, but by our community: your new family and friends. 

When we first told people about you many of them cried happy tears. Your pictures are already hung on many people’s walls, people are praying for you and sending gifts to help prepare your home for your arrival. 

Before we started the adoption process we were worried that we might not be able to provide for you. Money worries were high on our list but as we moved forward we declared that God would provide if He wanted you to be our children.

We said Yes to adopting you with no way to pay for all of the paper work, lawyer fees and travel expenses, which added up to around $45,000. We also have a 1000 sqft home and one small car, so living and traveling together would be tight. But we pressed on, deciding in faith to not let material inconveniences stand in our way. 

And that’s when all of the amazing people you will soon come to know and love began showering our family of 5 with support. People near and far sent their hard earned money to us so that we could cover your adoption costs. We can say, with the most humble of hearts that through our amazing friends and family we have raised the money needed to bring you home! 

And children, hear this: When you are afraid, when you are worried, think back to this time of our family becoming one and remember that God chose you to be our children and He made a way for your father and I to bring you into our lives, even when we literally did not have the means to do so on our own. If God calls you to do something He will always find a way to make it work out, that doesn’t mean it will be easy and you might have fear, but He will provide. 

Dad and I were making dinner one night when we got a phone call. It was a couple, Brad and Lara Postma, who have a house in the same town where your dad grew up. They knew about our adoption and cared about your lives and said they had some news. We switched over to FaceTime, you know the way we’ve been talking to you 3 for the past few months while you’re still in the Congo, and they told us that they were worried about our car situation. They didn’t want us to not be able to safely fit your car seats in our car and they knew the burden one car would bring once we’re all home doing life together. 

“So we bought you a minivan.” They said quite calmly. And that’s when the water works went off. What?!?!? Who does that??? Who buys someone else a car, no strings attached? Do you understand this? People out there (who we cannot wait for you to meet) loved you and wanted to bless you with a safe car! 

God doesn’t always work like this of course, He’s not a genie or a wish granter. But He always provides when His will is being accomplished. We fully believe that God has redeemed your story. He wants you and He wants you to have a loving and devoted family. And you will never know how sorry I am that your birth family could not raise you but it is our greatest honor that God chose us to be a part of your beautiful redemption story as He chases and pursues your hearts. 

Children, you are not alone on this journey, there are so many who love you and will walk with you through this life. Just remember God has provided beyond measure for you already and He will continue providing for you for all of eternity. 

You are so, so loved,

Mama

A Vow to Our Children

It’s been a long road to get to you and in all reality you are still so far away. 

If I'm going to be honest with you, and I pray I always am, this whole process of becoming a family has been unexpectedly surreal and painfully hard. Your father and I didn’t have a magical moment where we heard Jesus tell us to adopt and we didn’t see your photo and know you were our children. 

But we want you. 

We’ve wanted you for years and we will continue to want you, because we are choosing you and we promise we will continue to choose you. 

The process leading up to our decision was a journey through a dry desert that began years ago. 

And then there you were. We sought Jesus night and day and begged for the right answer, because, you see little ones, for the first time in our lives, the outcome of our decision did not only affect us. It affects you. And we fiercely want the absolute best for you. 

And you know what Jesus, our sweet, sweet Jesus whispered to your daddy one summer night?

Jesus told your daddy that He wants to bless him, not because of his choices or adoption but because He is good and He loves us. 

But…

My loves, we have learned over the years that God’s blessings and unfathomable love does not always mean easy or happiness. We often find that God takes us down arduous paths in order to strip us of anything we exchange for intimacy with our Heavenly Father. Knowing Christ, receiving His sacrifice and experiencing His Spirit are the absolute best things your father and I have ever experienced.

And so, because of God’s great love and incredible imagination, He gave us emotions. Emotions that go unchecked can be misleading and pull us towards a life of self gratification. When we follow our desires over what God desires we start believing this will lead to our happiness, but your father and I have found that isn’t always the case. 

Children, we have met Jesus in the broken and hard parts of life. We have met Him face to face when we are surrendering our desires and seeking to follow His path for our lives. 

I tell you this, my beloveds, because we know the path ahead is going to be hard but we want to make you this vow:

The way we were led to you, by seeking Jesus and trusting His goodness, is the same way we will continue to pursue you, even through the pain. We will daily strive to lay down our lives to serve you, but we know we will often fail. We know you have suffered and experienced sorrow in ways we will never know, and that completely rips our hearts out, but we will always show up and walk with you as you learn to find your identity in Christ. We know this whole family thing is going to be hard for you. We know it is not natural to be adopted, we know there can be pain in looking different than your parents. But we pray that in the hard struggles of becoming a family and the difficult parts of your lives that you find true intimacy with Jesus.

We grieve with you. God grieves with you. But He is there. We are here. We want you and we choose you. It’s going to be a long road, but one we will walk together. 

“God knows how much I love you and long for you with tender compassion of Christ. I pray that your love will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return. My you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation, the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus, for this will bring much glory and praise to God.” Philippians 1: 8-11

That Time We Told My Parents We Were Adopting 3 Kids...

For 6 years I have dreamed of how I would tell my mom that we were starting our family, either through pregnancy or adoption. I've seen all the videos on Facebook and YouTube of creative ways loved ones find out, there are tears and screams and lots of hugs, and I've always wanted that.

Sooooo....

It was raining, that devastating hurricane was coming through Texas and we were set to have a birthday dinner with my mom and dad in downtown Austin.

Texts went back and forth, 'maybe we should reschedule...'
NO!
I called my dad, "I think mom will really like her birthday present, let's still try." So my parents made the hour drive into town to meet a very wet Whitney and Nick at one of our favorite Italian restaurants. 

I was shaking as I handed her 2 gift bags with tissue paper pouring out of the top and she placed them aside while we ordered drinks. I wanted to scream: 'OPEN YOUR PRESENTS', but I figured that would give it away, so I played it cool...and downed my wine...

The kind waiter kept coming over, 'Are you guys ready?', 'No, go away, this is about to get good!' is what I wanted to say, but instead, 'sorry, give us another minute.' 

And then she went to open them...and the waiter came back and I actually swatted him away! 

I pulled my phone up, the camera was already on as I was r-e-a-d-y, and it seemed everything went into slow motion...It took her forever (in my mind) to pull out that dang tissue paper...

And then...

It was the best! It was everything I'd hoped it would be for 6 years and I could not be more thankful for my loving parent's hearts. 

The rest of the dinner we talked about alllllllll the details, all the things, all the feelings. 

Over the next few days we had the privilege of telling Nick's family but because we live out of state we weren't able to get their reaction on film. But it was just as sweet! There were tears and joy, hoots and hollers and lots of questions but so much love and support. 

And since the very first day we have received so many kind words, prayers and encouragement and we are forever thankful for all of your support. Our hearts beg that you do not glamorize this step of faith but truly see our growing family as a testament to the goodness of God. He is the only one who can and will sustain us through this process and we are clinging to Him. 

I'm planning on sharing our travel journey to our children later this week but in the mean time we have set up an adoption fundraising site. We by no means expect anyone to give but some of you have asked how, and so we are sharing. We will also be applying to adoption grants and loans and will be hosting an Instagram Auction. If anyone out there has a store or something they would like to donate to our auction please email me at whitney@thearchibaldproject.com! 

Thank you for being our village and community!

With passion + thankfulness,

Whitney and Nick

Our 'Yes'

Hi Friends and Family! We are so excited to share that we are adopting a sibling group of 3, (yes 3!!!) from the Republic of the Congo, not to be confused with the Democratic Republic of the Congo :) 

2 years ago we worked with an organization in the Congo called Mwana Villages. We had just spent 5 months in Uganda and were completely broken by the corruption we saw behind closed doors. We received an email from an adopting mom asking if we could accompany their family to the Congo, document their adoption and highlight the organization from whom they were adopting. I replied with a very blunt, (but hopefully kind), email asking how she knew this organization was legit and not trafficking her children. 

She responded with an essay of an email that touched my soul.

You see, this woman, who is now one of my life long friends, had been in the process of adopting through another organization and found out that the children with whom they were matched actually had living parents who wanted to keep them but were being blackmailed. This sent my friend and her husband into a deep investigation causing them to cancel that adoption. However, we believe the Lord uses all things for good for those who love Him and this broken adoption led our friends to Mwana Villages! Mwana's desire is first and foremost to keep vulnerable mothers with their children. They offer employment opportunities, training, have conducted beautiful reunifications AND have local Congolese families fostering many of the children from their babies home. 

So we obviously fell in love with them, but let's fast forward 2 years to the point of our announcement! 

Nick and I became aware of our 3 children's situation and their need for a family and the Lord led us to the question:

"Could we be their parents?"

No. Absolutely not. We could not go from 0 to 3, and we aren't talking 3 babies, we're talking a 5 1/2 year old with lots of energy, and twins that will turn 3 soon. This just didn't make sense...at all. In fact, it scared us out of our minds. We already fundraise for our jobs through The Archibald Project and TAP is completely reliant on Nick and myself. Like if one of us stepped away for a parental leave TAP would stop functioning. We officed out of our house, our 1,095 sqft house...we have one car, and it's small...we travel internationally for our jobs...we are scared of not being enough...we don't know how to parent children of trauma...the list goes on and on and on and on...

And on...

But the Lord led us through a 9 week journey: a journey of seeking counsel, fasting, praying like crazy, lots of tears, fighting and questioning everything...He led us to a night out in the Texas Hill country where it was just the 2 of us with His Spirit where He brought us into unity and into our 'Yes'. 

It still doesn't make sense, not in a worldly sense at least. But we find that God rarely asks us to do things that make sense. He asked us to quit our jobs and take our nonprofit full time, and even though its hard and scary God has ALWAYS provided. Sometimes His provisions come through in the bottom of the 9th, but they come. They are never more than we need: they are always just enough. 

And so we are moving forward to make these children living in the Congo OUR children. We are seeking to claim, restore, validate and never abandon 3 little souls on the other side of the world. We know the road will be hard; we know we are not enough. But we know that our God is good. He will always provide, even in the hard. We know that it won't be all fun and smiles and the beautiful images we see on social media of the 'good'.  We know this path might break us of everything we cling to other than Jesus, but we want to go through the fire to be made more like His son.

And so, we have given Jesus, one another, Mwana and our 3 children our 'Yes'. And from this point on will do everything in our power to ethically bring them home. 

Prayer Requests:
Please pray for all 5 of our hearts. We are all struggling to understand the waiting period. Our kids are old enough to desire a mom and a dad and don't understand why we cannot be with them. Please pray for protection against lies from the enemy in their hearts, pray for worth and love for their little minds and pray supernatural favor over our paperwork so that we might be able to be together as soon as possible. Thank you!

With passion + thankfulness,

Whitney and Nick