Meet the Vantrease Family.

We are the Vantrease family.   Mike and I married in December 1985.  As I am adopted as well as my dad, Mike and I always knew that we too would adopt.  It wasn’t until 1998 that we began the adoption process bringing our first daughter home from China at the age of 12 months December 2000.  Shortly after bringing her home, we found our second daughter Maggie on a list of children with special needs.   Maggie was listed as having a repaired cleft lip unrepaired cleft palate. We began the paper chase and traveled in February 2003 to bring her home at the age of 20 months.   I began advocating for some of the children on the lists and one little boy really pulled at my heart.  He was being overlooked and I tried to get the word out about this little guy.  The more I talked about him, the more I became aware that maybe God’s plan was that this little boy be our son.  So after much prayer, we knew that this was His will and we began the adoption journey again, this time for a little boy, 3 years old, with a club radial hand.  We traveled in February of 2006 to bring him home.  As I’ve always had an open heart for the orphan, I knew my heart would remain open to God’s call.  In 2010, I saw a picture a little girl on Rainbow Kid’s.   For some time I had been thinking about adopting an older child.  This little girl really spoke to my heart but her need seemed to be really significant.   At the time of adoption, this sweet girl would be 12 years old.  After once again talking it over with my husband and praying over her need (cp) and medical care, we moved forward to bring her home.  She’s thriving in the home and in school.  She had very little schooling and is now mainstreaming into regular classes and in the 8th grade.  God is good!

As we are getting close to bringing our second son home, Keegan on Reeces Rainbow, but will be known as Ian Michael, I never imagined I could adopt a child with such a severe need.   When I first saw his picture I really had a hard time looking at him as all I could see was the pain he had endured.  But that was it, he HAD endured.  And what a precious one he is in God’s sight.  So after talking it over again with my sweet husband, we decided to move forward to bring our little guy home, 5 years old.  We’re hoping for a March 30th gotcha day.  We’re so excited to see what God has in store for us and Ian Michael, trusting in His plan.  And we can’t wait to get our little guy home.