Pray For Jay - Update by Kyle

As I sit here and process all of the events of this past week and attempt to share an update that is not over informative or too melodramatic, Taylor walks into the kitchen and says, “Don’t over think it babe.” I quickly replied, “I’m not.” Which wasn’t truthful at all. In fact, I had been doing a lot of that this entire week, we both had. One scenario after another playing out in our minds. All of them tied to the question, will we be able to get Jay home soon?

Three weeks ago, we had been hit with the news that his passport had just been applied for, so that was going to push back our anticipated travel date some. We weren’t sure how much longer we would have to wait but our main concern then was whether or not Jay would be home for Annistyn’s birthday. Which was a big deal to her!

Then about two weeks ago, news about a new wave of Covid in India started to push its way to the top of the headlines. What we were seeing was devastating. New daily infection rates were being described as a rocket and not a curve as you would normally see. Medical supplies were quickly depleted, healthcare facilities were out of space and even the morgues could not accept anymore bodies. Like I said, devastating.

This news was hard to hear. India had been doing so well. What happened and where did this come from? Unfortunately, many times when I hear news like this, my mind immediately starts asking how does this affect me? Now of course this news did affect me because whatever affects one of your children affects you. But the reality is, there is an entire nation of people suffering. The majority of which do not know the name of Jesus and do not know that in Christ, even death is powerless. A truth that we have been holding to through this entire adoption process and one that we realized that we would have hold tighter to as we continued to wait on the green light to travel.

As bad as things were there, traveling to India to get Jay was still an option but his passport had to be at his orphanage before we could make those plans. So, on Monday we got the wonderful news that his passport had arrived! We were eager to get our trip planned and were waiting on our agency to give us a timeline for the different appointments that need to happen while we are in India. On Tuesday they called us and had set a timeline for those appointments and for the day that we would meet Jay. We found out that we could travel, so we started making plans, looking at flights and getting everything ready to go. But as this week went on, that door that we were so excited to run through, started to feel like it was slowly closing. The concerns and risks for traveling began to grow, along with the stress of having to make a tough decision. A decision that we had hoped we wouldn’t have to make.

Getting into the country still had not been shut down but the signs of a shutdown were there, so the ball was still in our court to make the decision. We were running the risks and scenarios in our minds over and over. We were praying and trying to not let the weight of the decision overwhelm us. Honestly it was hard to sleep and hard to focus. If there was even a sliver of hope to get Jay home, we wanted to go. But it was risky! Our agency even suspended travel for families this week but since we had everything we needed they considered helping us go. We continued to speak with our agency and others we know that are in India yesterday, trying to get as much information as we could. But, as it became more evident that the safety of, not only us and our son, but also of our Indian guides would be jeopardized in a way that didn’t seem wise, we decided to cancel our plans.

Our hope was to be on an airplane today, headed to meet our son for the first time. And we can’t even express how much it hurts to know that we were this close and now we have to wait again, knowing that Jay is there in the middle of a growing health crisis. Did they tell him we were coming? Will he be able to understand that we aren’t coming now? We wish we knew, or maybe we don’t. One thing we do know is that we want him home but right now, the fear of this unknow future has to be met with faith in an all-knowing God. That faith has continued to bring peace through all of this, and we know it will not stop here. So please join us as we continue to ask God to move in amazing ways. Pray for the people of India and that this devastating time would open the door for the gospel to come in and bring them the hope of Jesus. Pray for Jay and the workers there at his orphanage. Pray for the adoptive families who are still in India to be able to get what they need so that they can bring their children home safely. And pray for us as we wait on the Lord.

Also, just realizing that we have not shared his name with everyone yet. Jay Isaac Smith. Jay is his Indian name and we chose Isaac because he is a son of promise and his story is a picture of God's faithfulness.