The Adoption of Deserie

Written by: Emilee Harvey, Staff Writer

Coach Jason Smith, the head women’s basketball coach, adopted three children from the Philippines. And in doing so, stepped out in faith.

The Philippines have specific rules for their adoption. One of the most important rules is that the family must be Christian. Smith and his wife had to write down their testimonies to adopt. They wanted to adopt a sibling group, so the agency gave the Smith and his wife a list of different siblings and they could pick a set. They got a fast reply saying they would not be adoptive parents. They continued searching and found another sibling group.

Each child gets fifteen to twenty adoptive requests. Then after the adoption agency looks at each family, they narrow it down to two to three families and do home checks.

After the three families are chosen, they bring in fifteen professionals and they argue their points why this family is the best for the children. This takes a long time for them to decide. After picking the family, they ask them if they still want the children since it’s been six months. Smith and his wife were nervous about being accepted because it takes awhile to hear back from the adopting agency.

Eventually, Smith and his wife were accepted and they could adopt two beautiful children – Joy and Joselito. Before they officially adopted them, they had to do a lot of paperwork. The agency allowed Smith and his wife to video chat with the kids and they were happy to get to know the kids before Joy and Joselito came. When Smith and his wife video chatted the kids for the first time, they met Deserie. Both knew that Joy and Joselito had an older sister, but they didn’t know where she was because the Philippine government separated the three siblings.

Smith and his wife instantly prayed about what God wanted them to do about Deserie. For a while, there was no answer or any signs. But one day, Mrs. Smith received a photo of the three siblings and sent it to her husband. Smith broke down and instantly prayed to the Lord again. He felt in his heart that they needed to adopt Deserie. He went home he told his wife what he thought and she felt the same way.

The US government does not allow you to adopt a child over the age of fifteen. So, they worked with the Philippine government to let Deserie be adopted with her siblings. After the Philippine government got the siblings together as a package, they contacted the US government and asked if they would accept this and they did. Coach Smith and his wife were accepted and had to start the paperwork all over again.

The American government requires you to make a certain amount of money in your household when you’re adopting. Smith and his wife had enough for Joy and Joselito, but not for Deserie.

Instead of worrying about money, Coach Smith and his wife put their faith in God and trusted that He was going to help them. “Our prayers were answered.” Mrs. Smith got a letter in the mail from an old company that she worked for.

The company gave her retirement money that they could put towards their assets without any problems. This gave Coach Smith and his wife enough money to put them over the line for the amount needed for the kids. This deal was a one-time deal that she could cash with no penalties. They counted it towards their assets and the American government approved the adoption.

This entire process took three and a half years but now Smith and his wife have three beautiful children. They can’t image life without Deserie.

Smith said, “I don’t have a dollar, but God does. God provided the money.” Smith and his family stepped out with faith when they didn’t have a dollar to afford these kids.

Emilee Harvey is a communications major with a focus in film and design and is the graphics coordinator.