Meet our February Featured Family: The Johnson Family
1. Tell us more about your family.
Erik is originally from Northern Indiana, while I am from the western suburbs of Chicago. We first met at Indiana Wesleyan University, a small college where we both played on the soccer teams. Our relationship began as friendship and developed over several years before we began dating and eventually married. After getting married twelve years ago, we settled in Erik's hometown so he could continue to pursue growing J2 Marketing, the small business he started while in college. By God's grace, his business has flourished enough to provide for our family as its sole income. We have also been blessed with three wonderful children- Lincoln (8), Jolene (5), and Griffin (3)- who I have the privilege of staying home with and homeschooling.
2. Tell us more about your heart for adoption.
Our passion for adoption started before we were married. While in college, I spent two life-changing summers in India, where I worked in orphanages and spent time loving on the children and helping teach English. I quickly fell in love with the culture and the people there. The experience left a permanent mark on my heart. During my second summer, Erik joined me, though we traveled to different parts of the country, each doing different work. I continued my time with the children, while Erik wrote business plans for orphanages to help them become self-sustaining. Together, we both fell in love with the people and the children in India, and we left a part of our hearts there. It was during this time that we began to dream of adoption and growing our family through it. We trusted that God would lead us when the time was right. Our journey hasn’t been easy, and we’ve faced painful challenges along the way. We've experienced four miscarriages, each one deeply heartbreaking. Yet through each loss, we have drawn closer to one another and found an even deeper appreciation for the gift of family and the children we have been blessed with. After much prayer and consideration, we feel God has given us the peace to move forward with our adoption journey.
3. Tell us more about your adoption journey so far.
From the outset of our adoption journey, we felt a strong pull toward India, given our deep connection to the country and the time we had spent there. However, we wanted to remain open to wherever God might lead us. As we explored different countries and adoption paths, we felt increasingly certain that India was where we were meant to adopt from. We are thrilled to welcome a precious little girl into our family from a country that holds such a special place in our hearts. According to the timelines provided by our agency, we can anticipate it may take another year and a half before we are able to travel to bring a child home (obviously a rough estimate since we are not matched yet).
4. Tell us more about the child you are adopting.
We are not yet matched, but we are pursuing the adoption of a girl up to age three to maintain the birth order in our family. While we are open to a range of special needs, we are still unsure of the specifics but are confident that God has already orchestrated all the details of what that may entail.
Prayer Requests:
Please be praying that God would continue to guide us toward the child He has for us and that we would have patience while we wait for her. Pray that we would be wise stewards of our time, energy and finances throughout this process. Please pray that God continues to prepare our hearts and our children's hearts to welcome this sweet little girl into our family. Pray God's protection over the little girl we will adopt- that she would feel loved and seen as we wait to bring her home. Pray God's peace over our future daughter's biological family with the loss that they will have experienced.
We will be donating $1 from every bag of coffee sold this month to the Johnson's Connected Hearts Ministry fund and we'd love for YOU to partner with this family to adopt their precious child! You can donate directly to them through their Connected Hearts Ministry link, where 100% of the donation will be used for adoption-related expenses: https://give.connectedheartsministry.org/campaign/johnson-family-adoption-fund/c645288