*All donations to the Fravel family are tax deductible.
Scott:After having 6 wonderful children, we still felt that God had another child for our family. We became disheartened when we realized that we most likely would not have another child on our own. After meeting some families who have adopted and hearing their stories, we began praying about this path. God has given us the grace and love to receive another child into our family through the path of adoption and we are excited to be on this journey.
Ruth: I have had sixhealthy children and happy children. It was not even in my heart to adopt, but not being able to have our seventhbaby opened my heart to adoption. My oldest son was the lead role in a musical and through that I met a precious family who had adopted fivechildren. She began sharing her story with me and there began the journey of opening my heart to adoption. I was not willing to go that route for years. I wanted my own children and did not think I could love someone else child…but little did I know that God had a special plan for our family, aplan to truly open my heart to something I never once gave thought to. Several years ago, during prayer time, the name Joseph and Hedasseh were dropped in my heart. I thought this would come from my womb, but now I know that our family is to open our hearts to a baby or babies that would not have a chance otherwise. My children’s hearts are huge for others, and I know this is truly from God! He did a complete 180change in me.
What brought you together?
Scott: I met Ruth in San Diego at church. While we both have different personalities and we seem to bring out the best in each other. Only five months after we were married, Ruth was pregnant with our first child and ever since then, we have loved growing our family.
Ruth: I met Scott in San Diego at San Diego First Assembly of God. I was playing the violin and he was playing the drums. To be specific, my sister introduced us and the rest was history! We dated 4 months and got engaged! He proposed to me at the beach and a month after we got married, I took a children’s ministry position in Washington State.
Why Adopt Now?
Scott:We know that God has given us the capacity to love another child. It was relatively recently that we began exploring the adoption process after realizing that having another child on our own was unlikely. We fell in love with the idea of embracing a child into our family as our own. We believe that one of the reasons God put us together was to lead children into “calm and peaceful pastures.” We are excited to continue doing this.
Ruth:This adoption journey beganjust recently! I met a family who had adopted fivechildren and they had us over for breakfast. They shared everything about their journey and there the seeds were planted in my heart to adopt. I grieved heavily over not being able to have my own babies. It felt like a heavy loss, but once I heard their story and saw the joy in them…God truly began opening my heart to something I had never thought of before.
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
Scott: Ruth is an amazing wife and mother. The way she treats our children with love, tenderness, and compassion constantly amazes me. It is such a joy to raise our children with such a wonderful partner in life.
We not only value academics, but also how to be good people who treat others with love, courtesy, and respect. We prefer our children to play outside and use their imagination and creativity over sitting in front of a TV or computer.
Ruth: My husband pastored for thirteen years, but now he sells health and life insurance. This was a great move for our family so that we could actually take time to invest in our family and marriage.
My husband loves camping, surfing, anything dealing with meat :)…He loves people and values and is light hearted and full of laughter!
We fell in love with the idea of embracing a child into our family as our own. We believe that one of the reasons God put us together was to lead children into 'calm and peaceful pastures.' We are excited to continue doing this.
Scott
I grew up in a wonderful family full of love and support. I feel very blessed to be able to say that. I sell health insurance to individuals and small businesses in Colorado and Wyoming. It brings me joy to be able to help people in this stressful area of their lives. I have previously been in church ministry for twelveyears and now my family is my primary focus of my ministry. I love camping, fishing, hiking, cooking and eating BBQ and spending quality time with my family. I am very thankful that my job allows me to make my own schedule so that I can make all this happen.
Ruth
I have played violin since I was three. My children play violin as well. My twooldest will be playing in Branson, Missouri with students from different states! My oldest son Jadon loves musical theater! He has been the lead role in multiple musicals. My daughter Hannah has a dream of being on pointe ballet. She volunteers as a student teacher at the dance studio. My other sons play soccer and love to play together! They have a gift of welcoming people in and making them feel loved and valued.
Nov
29
We are In!
We signed on with an adoption agency in Arizona. It could not of come at a better time, but what I love about this agency is their involvement in the pro-life groups in their areas…They have stories of moms that thought the only options they had were to either abort their baby or the daunting feeling of raising a child which that is way to overwhelming for them…These ladies in the agency help birth moms to see there are other options…I love these strong catholic women who themselves became moms through adoption as well know the value of life!
Whats next??? Waiting for the call that a birth mom has chosen us…We will be definitely prayerful about any call we get…
Jul
29
Birth Mom Book
Scott and I have begun our adoption book for the birth mom. We are going thru photos and putting our family’s interests, traditions, and a detailed description of who we are for the birth mom…
This book will be launched by this weekend!
Jul
26
We are officially in!
Tomorrow Scott and I have a phone conference with our consultant.. she will go thru the details of the agencies we will be applying for as well as the grant process… What I love about our consultant is that she adopted 3 from the agency we are going thru.. She always reminds me to choose faith vs fear and she has been my encourager since Christmas time (before we signed on with her)….
Jun
19
Application Sent!
I had 2 moms come over today. They came to drop off donated items for our adoption garage sale which is this Saturday….It was so amazing how God uses people in the most unexpected ways.. Scott and I had our application ready to send in April, but laid it on a table because we were unsure of the timing of it all. Today was confirmation to continue this journey and to step in into the”unknown” of the cost, and what it will look like. These 2 ladies prayed over my application and I felt complete peace to move forward with the adoption process…Once I hear from our consultant, our application will be sent to multiple agencies and we will be in the process of getting matched. The process of adoption is hard to grasp as so much of it is out of our hands, but God brings confirmation over and over again and we cannot deny anymore that we are exactly on the track the Lord wants us to be on. Using the christian consultants means that we will be matched within 8 months time…
God is in control…Thats all I care about.
Apr
28
A Surprise
We were out of town during Easter break but while we were gone, someone had left cinnamon rolls and a card on our front porch…When we opened the card, a check for $4,000 was in it! I could not believe it! Someone who loves and values adoption gave to our fund! We now have raised $21,000 since October! I am blown away by God’s goodness!
Apr
9
Adoption
We are homestudy approved!!!!!
Mar
11
Social Workers
I didn’t know exactly what to predict in regards to the social worker coming to our house for the first time… but, we fell in love with her right away! We fed her dinner, and got to talk about our lives as moms.
I had no idea that this would become a friendship instead of a business deal to sign off for a home study approval.
Mar
2
New update
I just got word that our home study will be done this month! So grateful for this! Colorado has a law that there has to be 3 days in between each visit of the social worker. We are moving fast
Mar
2
New update
I just got word that our home study will be done this month! So grateful for this! Colorado has a law that there has to be 3 days in between each visit of the social worker. We are moving fast
Mar
2
We are making Huge Progress!
I looked at our adoption account and we have raised $17,000 for this adoption. I Cannot believe what has been happening! So grateful to God for His provision. We have a date on the calendar for mid-March when our social worker will be coming to our home and having lunch with us and interviewing our Entire family! We will be done with the entire process by end of April/early May and then our journey with the actual adoption agency will begin! I can honestly say, every time I doubt, God brings sign after sign after sign regarding this adoption. I have a friend, Ali, who will be writing grants with me!
Jan
9
On a fast journey
I hit wall after wall after wall with our adoption agency. Social workers continually said, “Ma’am, we don’t take your size family.” “Sorry ma’am, we’ve closed our agency and no longer take applications.” Or this one which was crazy to me…
“You and your husband are required to fly to us and take a one day class… the dates of these classes are in 2 weeks…” 😩😳
We don’t live by family nor have the finances to just fly when we want to.
A former student in our ministry in Washington called me out of the blue and said she felt led to call me. She shared her adoption experience and gave me direction on what to do. We will be signing on with Christian Adoption Consultants. They will send our application to multiple places at once and we will need to crank out those grants!
I’m so excited and scared all at the same time!
Dec
12
Homestudy and Big Changes
Scott and I went to Denver yesterday to take a detailed class with our social worker on the needs of the mom releasing her baby to our family and other logistics that will be occurring. I can honestly say, as we were talking about our adoption agency, we realized that they will not take grants that we will need to apply for. There was a loss in a sense of realizing that the agency that I was so excited to be apart was not a good fit for us. So, in this journey of adoption, we are seeing so many different changes that happen. Would you pray with our family that today as I call multiple agencies, the Lord would highlight one for us? I am asking our sweet friend Chene who worked in the adoption world for years to help direct us to agencies as well. The joy of these changes is that I know God has an agency for us. Every family has their own story and journey and just as moms who are pregnant want to find the right hospital fit and OBGYN…so it is in the adoption world. We want to find an agency that is loving and knowledgeable in the adoption world. Thank you for your prayers and support!
Oct
18
Adoption Fundraiser
Next Friday we are about to launch a big event for the adoption. We are expecting a couple hundred people but more than that…We are so excited about families that have already adopted coming and being apart of this! My daughters school decided to make it a school wide event and we are over the top joyful and amazing how God is working out the details. Businesses have donated from all over! Looking forward to celebrating with everyone!
Sep
6
Grants
We put an application in the mail for a possible grant opportunity. If chosen for this grant, it will help us with $2,000 towards our home study. This would be a HUGE help to offset the costs of the beginning process. We just received word that the donors of this grant just received our application. This journey is about patience and endurance.
Thank you so much for partnering with us!
Aug
26
Orientation Class
We just ended the first 16 hours adoption classes. We have learned a tremendous amount information. The biggest thing we gained was every situation is extremely different but the attachment is a big issue and will be our biggest goal. The social workers and therapists we heard from brought incredible light to what we may have to face with our adoptive child.. There is a lot more to learn in the days to come! Thank you everyone!
Aug
24
Homestudy
we are currently in Denver taking classes on child development and brain development. We are learning a ton! Thank you donors for giving us this opportunity.
