Posted: 1/6/2022

17-Year Old Rae's Adoption Surprise

Family is the BEST Christmas present! This video captures the moment that Rae, one of our 17-year old teens, found out that she was OFFICIALLY ADOPTED!

Rae had been longing to find her forever family for many months, even occasionally reaching out to our Adoptions Team to find out if any families had inquired about her. (It's not a secret that finding forever families for our teens can be a challenge due to the many misperceptions about adopting a teenager.) However, Jamie and Michael Cardin have always had a heart for kids - especially teens and siblings!

Jamie shares, "8 months ago I was looking on the Heartland Gallery at the children up for adoption like so many times before. This time was different though. This time I stopped on a young girls picture and felt something in my spirit. I brought the idea to Mike and he said, 'we are at capacity babe.' We both committed to praying about her and for what God's plan was for her life. Two months later Mike asked me about her and if I got her info.

We started the process and I was terrified because we've never adopted a teen before and had no idea what this would look like...BUT GOD! I knew the first moment that I met Rae that she was meant to be ours. I knew that God orchestrated every single step and that we were her forever. She told me a few months ago that she knows that God is indeed real and that He brought her to us. How? Because she planned to end her life before she aged out of the system because she felt as if she had no one. She knew that only God could have intervened to bring a crazy white lady like me that loves Jesus so much to say 'yes' and that's exactly what He did."

Rae shared with us that,

Foster care hasn't been the best experience but the Cardins were a God-send. I really love them. All 85 thousand of them. Foster care has been quite the journey but I'm glad to have found my destination.
 

To learn more about our teens available for adoption, visit heartlandforchildren.org/gallery or call 863-519-8900 x 223.