A BOY for the Noll family — MI
Ryan and Jamie Noll have been married for 20 years! They grew up in the same neighborhood, and dated for three years before a year-long engagement; he proposed on the infamous covered bridge in Frankenmuth, Michigan. They home school their children, except for their eldest who recently graduated from their home school. She is now enrolled in a local college, taking Spanish (because she serves on a yearly mission trip in Honduras) and calculus. Ryan is the field supervisor for a pump company, and Jamie coaches roller skating. The family all pitches in with their small hobby “farm” of chickens, ducks, turkeys, peacocks, rabbits, cats, dogs, and horses, as well as a lizard and some turtles and fish.
The pregnancy of their sixth child was used to radically change the family’s life. After the baby cried and took her first breath, proving the expectations of most wrong, the family continued to be challenged. During one of the baby’s many hospitalizations, Ryan and Jamie learned that children like their new daughter were sometimes abandoned in the local hospital due to complex medical needs. Jamie knew then that special needs adoption would be a part of her family’s future; Ryan was not so sure.
Months after that particular hospitalization, a seven-week critical care stay for Gaebrielle, when the special needs adoption seed was planted for the Noll family, an orphan in Ukraine was placed on Jamie’s heart through one of her online support groups for moms of children with arthrogryposis. Since Ryan still was not ready, he agreed to pray for the child with Jamie. She appeared to age out of eligibility, which caused Jamie to grieve heavily. The grieving was used to connect her with people in the Reece’s Rainbow community, where she discovered another family who was ready to adopt the child who had appeared to age out. Then, another child, in India, was placed on her heart. Ryan still was not ready so they prayed.
In December 2021, Ryan finally said they could take the next step toward the child in India. Jamie was delighted, again, at God’s provision, and they started the process immediately. Because the Noll’s have a “large” family, their agency suggested they wait until another family with similar familial circumstances get to the next step before the Noll’s officially started. Four weeks later, they were given the go ahead. For approximately one and a half years (and $16,000), the Noll family worked to adopt a teenage girl in India. Just before the child’s 16th birthday, they were rejected because they had too many biological children, Jamie was a victim of abuse as a child, and the child they intended to adopt was “already very old.” Their agency suggested looking at Bulgaria…
On August 14, they were matched with a tiny Bulgarian boy!
The entire Noll family has been involved in the adoption, as well as their loved ones and community — fundraisers, donations, notarizations, flexibility in appointments, and PRAYERS. Their home study is nearing completion of its update, and their dossier will be sent off very soon! Due to the severe medical needs of the child they have been matched with, both countries are working to expedite this child’s case! They can hardly wait to hold their tiny Bulgarian boy!
10/20/2023 — COMPILING DOSSIER
