Facebook might be a horrible place to get news, but for one couple, it was the perfect place to find a daughter.
In early 2018, Emily Thomes shared a post on Facebook, telling her friends and followers about Faith Ann, a little girl from China in desperate need of adoption.
Not long after she posted about the young child, who has Down syndrome, Thomes told Faithwire she received a message from Stephanie Lee and her husband, Dave, a couple who found Thomes’ post through mutual friends.
The Colorado couple, who already have two children, wanted to adopt Faith Ann.
“I was crying my eyes out when she told me,” Thomes said. “They [the couple] message me every few months and give me an update and it’s finally happening.”
Faith Ann’s adoption has been nearly a year in the making.
In February, Lee messaged Thomes, thanking her for sharing the post about Faith Ann and letting her know she and her husband were looking into adopting the little girl.
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“It amazes me how God works,” Lee wrote to Thomes. “We knew were were called to adopt, but we couldn’t afford it since we don’t want to go into debt. Then you posted and Faith Ann’s face wouldn’t leave my mind. I asked my husband and he was so excited. We will see what God does.”
For a while, the Lee family struggled to jump through all the legal hoops, working overtime to make ends meet financially and to complete a “home study,” a screening of the adoptee’s potential house as well as the life of his or her prospective parents.
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The Lees, who are already foster parents, were ultimately able to use their local screening for Faith Ann’s adoption.
“God moved that mountain,” Lee wrote.
Thomes then suggested the couple start a GoFundMe campaign to help raise money for travel expenses, since that was not covered in the prepaid adoption grants.
After much prayer, hard work, and penny pinching, Lee messaged Thomes on Wednesday to let her know she and her family are traveling to China next week to pick up Faith Ann.
“You started it by sharing her nearly a year ago,” Lee told Thomes, “and now she is almost home.”
The couple are naming the little girl Olivia.