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    How We Survived Our Adoption Story
    How We Survived Our Adoption Story
    How We Survived Our Adoption Story
    Ebook92 pages1 hour

    How We Survived Our Adoption Story

    By Sarah Simmons

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    About this ebook

    Sarah Simmons was born in a small city. She moved to a smaller town at the age of fourteen and met and married her high school sweetheart, Pastor Abraham Simmons. She is the mother of three boys: Morris, Kevin, and Jonathan. She also serves as assistant pastor beside her husband, with whom she hosts a weekly television broadcast.

    How We Survived Our Adoption Story describes how you can make it through any process that may be filled with turmoil, trouble, and trials, even from the very beginning. It allows her to express the challenges associated with raising children, adopted or natural. It also shows the deep love of God the Father in navigating through perilous times.

    Sarah Simmons believes that reading this book will allow you to see that all things are possible through Jesus Christ, and her Best Friend, Holy Spirit.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWestBow Press
    Release dateOct 20, 2011
    ISBN9781449722265
    How We Survived Our Adoption Story
    Author

    Sarah Simmons

    The title of the book is "How We Survived Our Adoption Story." What qualifies me is the fact that this is a story we lived out. Enclosed in the book on the final page you will see the Bio. My husband and I have been in ministry for over 25 years and again I say that the essence to the story is what we have lived. Our message is to convey to the world the challenges, joys and sorrows that comes along with adoption. We live in the south region of the US in the great state of MS. I serve as Asst. Pastor of our church. My husband and I have been married for thirty (30) years and in ministry over over 28 years. We raised three boys by the "Grace of God" and the aid of my best friend "Holy Spirit!

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      Book preview

      How We Survived Our Adoption Story - Sarah Simmons

      Contents

      Dedication

      Acknowledgements

      Chapter I

      Chapter II

      Chapter III

      Chapter IV

      Chapter V

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      Dedication

      I want to dedicate this book for the glory of and to my Father Jehovah, my Savior Jesus Christ and my dear and sweet friend, Holy Spirit. Without whom I could not have made it this far in my life and certainly could not have survived this experience in my life. To Whom I give all glory, honor and praise. Secondly, I dedicate this book to my wonderful, precious husband, Pastor Abraham Simmons. We’ve been through so much together, 30 years reaching God’s plans and destiny for our lives. Looking at your face, listening to the sound of your voice, dreaming our dreams and visioning God’s destiny for us, helped me get through the experiences in my life. Second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, week by week, month by month and year by year, we made it baby! A & F (Always and Forever) and a day. Thank you!!!

      And God forever be with you!!!!

      Acknowledgements

      I want to acknowledge:

      My mom, thank you mom for all you’ve done for me. You taught me so many lessons in life. Some I didn’t fully understand until I became an adult. I love you and God forever keep you in his loving care. To my extended mom, thank you for showing me the same kind of love you show your son. I love and appreciate you. God’s continued blessings on you.

      Honorable Mention: To my late dad, I Love You!

      To my extended dad, I love you and God forever bless you.

      My sisters and brothers: I love you with all my heart, you have influenced my life in ways you may never know. God bless each of you. My extended siblings, I love you and appreciate your love & kindness toward me.

      To our late grandparents: My Granddaddy. Thank you for all the many hours we shared playing checkers and laughing at the funny things that can happen at church, and for sharing all our family history with me. Thank you for allowing me to get to know who you were! Without those times, my experiences in life would have been much harder to bear.

      To my extended grandparents, thanks for all the life’s lessons I gleaned from you. And for what we couldn’t understand, grandpa you just said Keep living. Grandmamma when you would say to my husband what Grandpa’s dad said to him, take care of you. That lives on through us. Abraham is taking care of Sarah.

      To our Pastorate church , we Love you all and God forever Bless each of you! You always come through in the end!

      To our Pastors & home church family we love and appreciate you, and may God forever Bless each of you.

      Introduction

      After my introduction, I want to start my story in chapter one by sharing a copy of a letter that I wrote to the Judge that awarded us our children. This was in 2002, but I never got the strength to mail it t o h im.

      We were going through so many changes with our children. Some of the many changes we went through were:

      First: Emotionally, because they were behaving in ways that was not natural or what we would call normal behavior for any child. Especially anything that we were familiar with. We had experience dealing with our own nieces and nephews; Children in our youth ministry at our church and in the community we Pastored in, plus experience from our own childhood & conversing with our siblings. I have four brothers and two sisters, and my husband has three sisters.

      Second: Socially; We had to over a short period of time drop completely out of society. My husband and I were very active in our community and surrounding communities. My husband was very involved in politics, he worked on the campaign committee for the Democratic Party in the 1980’s. He was the president of a local group called Concerned Citizens which involved community involvement being a role model for High School students, providing tutorial classes, etc. Also he led a quest that reinstated High School Teachers that lost their jobs unfairly. We also worked together in street witnessing, home bible studies, feeding the less fortunate and many other activities. Briefly after we got our children all of our outside activities ceased. The only outside involvement we had was church on Sunday, other speaking engagements, and bible class on Wednesday nights.

      Third: Financially; We spent every penny we had and didn’t have on baby sitters when we had to visit sick members, funerals, weddings or such events. We eventually had to put two (2) of our boys in private school. They had a hard time staying in the public school. We had to establish an academy at our church for them to go to, which cost us $220.00a month for each child and we lived 60 miles from the school. So we spent $100.00 a week on gas. Our salary at the time was $1500.00 a month, plus around $500.00 a month adoption assistance. We eventually got behind on all our bills. We went through a lot of hardships spending everything we had on their schooling and their well being in every other area.

      Fourth: Physically; The stress of being tormented by our children’s bizarre behavior and financial problems caused both me and my husband to go through many sick days. I had several emotional burnouts. the first one was in 1993, two years after getting our children. And the last one in 2005, when our middle son and a close family member schemed to see my destruction. My husband went through an ordeal with hyperthyroidism. The doctor said it was brought on by anxiety and stress.

      And Fifth: Spiritually; We were so tormented at times that we felt like we were so far out of the will of God. We were so persecuted, pressed down and forsaken until we had no other answer but to stand on the Word of God and realize that we must had been like Job when He said in Job 13:15 Though He slay me, yet will I trust him: But I will maintain mine own ways before him. And like Jesus when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane and He said in the book of St. Luke 22:41 & 42 vs. And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed saying, Father if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done". We knew by Jesus and Job example that all of this we’re going through is working together not just for our good, but for the good of many other people. Romans 8:28; And we Know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Our Prayer is that this book bless your life and the life of everyone you come in contact with. Be encouraged. The Best is yet to come for you.

      Chapter I

      What We Lost

      Monday 10:50p.m. 2002

      Dear Judge:

      My name is Sarah Simmons. I am a 38 year old wife and homemaker. When I was a little girl my dream was not to become a doctor, a lawyer or anything like that. My dream was to be a wife and a mother. My childhood was pretty hard. I come from a single parent home and I am the youngest of seven (7) children. When I was fourteen I met a young boy that I knew would be my husband one day. Little did I know it would only be 2 years later that we

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