“Now glory be to God, who by His mighty power within us, is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of; Infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts or hopes.” Ephesians 3:20 This scripture from Ephesians describes our unique love story, our beautiful adoption journey, and the…
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We [the Payton’s] always knew that we wanted to adopt. In our minds, we thought that adoption would come later in life (we were 24 and 26 at the beginning of the process) and thought that you had to be more “mature” and “stable” to start the process. Really, there is no right time, just…
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The timing was all wrong… we were living in an RV at the time- trying to decide if we were building or buying our next home. There were 5 of us and a guinea pig living in an RV on my (Austin’s) parents land. Though we had talked about adopting in the past, it wasn’t on…
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So many people have used the word “unique” to describe our adoption story. It started with a mission trip back in January of 2013 with a small group from our church traveling to Lesotho to help with various projects at a small orphanage. Our oldest daughter, a sophomore in college at that time, accompanied me…
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My favorite definition of patience is simple: quiet, steady perseverance. It is a quality I admire and aspire to, but sadly one that doesn’t come natural to me. I’m lucky to be married to someone with seemingly never-ending patience, yet our adoption journey even challenged his quiet, steady perseverance. As someone who made the…
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What is your job title and what is your role in working with Small World? I am the Representative of Small World Adoption in Lesotho. I am the liaison person between Small World and the Ministry of Social Development. I make sure that paperwork on the sending side is well organized in line with the…
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July 7th, 2021 we did our final post adoption report. We have officially completed every step of our Liberian adoption. What a thing to celebrate! However, we wish we could tell you adoption was easy. We wish we could say it always felt “worth the work.” We wish we could say we loved our…
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What is your job title and what is role in working with Small World? I am referred to as the Country Director for Small World Adoption Agency in Liberia. My role includes working with different sectors of Liberia communities, pre-identifying, and screening children brought to the Small World orphanage home, investigating child eligibility for possible…
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Our adoption journey began in December of 2017. When we began, we never expected things would unfold as they did. As we look back we are reminded that God is faithful through all things, through all the ups, and downs. Our daughter was born in the middle of the process with a tumor adjacent to…
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“I asked this beautiful, humble mother to share a small snippet of their miraculous story. She has a tremendous amount of faith and a wonderful ability to understand and utilize the importance of early intervention and the power of attachment and touch. From a wonderful Small World adoptive family that has served sacrificially in Asia…
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