- Lisa, thanks for coming on.
- Oh, I'm so tickled you had me.
I was excited just to see you.
- Oh well, I know you travel the world.
You're preaching the gospel,
doing great things, but part of your story that I love
is that you're an adoptive mama.
- Yeah, grace of God.
- Yes, so your story's incredible,
and I'm familiar with it, but for those people that aren't,
tell me a little bit just about the adoption,
your adoption story.
- Well let me go back to the
because it's kind of tale of two cities,
best of times and worst of times.
Worst of times is I was hot mess on a stick
when I was younger.
(chuckles)
Kind of looking for love in all the wrong places.
So, didn't get married
because I was attracted to yayhoos,
and so I didn't think I'd get to be a mom.
And then I had several different people in my life
who spoke in my life about adoption.
Not saying, "You should adopt."
I just kept hearing that theme,
and you know when you feel like,
okay Lord, you've even put it in refrigerator magnets,
like maybe this is something I should pray about.
- Totally, it's constant. It's always in front you.
- Exactly.
So I prayed about it a lot.
Met with a ton of people about it.
I'm job security for my counselor.
Talked to her about it, and then I thought,
you know, there's a 147 million-ish orphans in the world
as we know it today.
And yeah, best case scenario, in my opinion,
a child gets a mom and a dad.
But there are millions and millions and millions of kids
who will die before infancy,
and third-world countries, orphanages, age out
in foster care in the states,
and so I just began to kind of put out some feelers
and say, "If there's a child who doesn't have a shot
or a good chance at a mom and a dad,
then maybe a fluffy single mom in Tennessee
would be a better option."
Started praying about it,
and through just a series of miracles.
First of all, I lost two adoption attempts
that were just heart-wrenching.
- Which, is that rather common in the adoption process?
- Very common.
- Yeah, you hear that.
- Very common, and then a friend called me
and she said, "But I just got home from Haiti,
and while I was in Haiti,
one of the young moms in the village
I was visiting, died of AIDS, undiagnosed AIDS,
and she left behind a 2-and-a-half-year-old who has HIV
and tuberculosis and cholera, and a host of other issues.
And the doctors are saying this baby won't live."
She was 2 years old at the time.
"For two months, if somebody, really anybody,
doesn't stand in the gap for her."
And she said, "While we were in the hospital,
God just put your name in my heart."
And she said, "Would you be willing to pray about this?"
And I said, "Nope."
I said, "I've been praying about this for 30 years,
sign me up."
And then I got off the phone
and said a word that wasn't in the Bible.
(chuckles)
Because I thought, "Goodness gracious, you know
I don't know how to do this."
And then six weeks later, I was in Haiti,
and they put her in my arms,
and it took two years
from that moment for me to actually get
to bring her home to Nashville.
And it was really hard
and really beautiful,
and she is now 10 years old
and healthy as a horse.
And other than Jesus,
she is the most amazing thing in my life.
- I mean she is, and I've met her a few times in person,
but even just following you on Instagram.
Just seeing her, whether it's in person
or just via my phone,
the joy that this little girl has.
Lisa, it is unbelievable.
- She is really joyful.
- I mean, is that just her?
How is she now?
I mean, it radiates.
- She had a spark when I first met her,
but she was more weary than joyful
because she didn't have a whole lot to be joyful for,
and it's been the coolest thing to get to watch her unfold.
God wired her to be joyful, and she's very effervescent,
and she's become more and more so, the safer,
and the more love she's received.
- Yes.
So good.
Oh my gosh.
Okay, so talk to me
about the international adoption process.
How was that for you?
- A lot of people go, "Oh you must've prayed about Haiti."
And I'm like, "No."
I just was like, "Lord direct my steps. I'm not that smart
so you're going to have to make it real clear."
From my experience, and I have a ton of friends
in the adoption community,
there's a few more wrinkles involved
just with the visas and it's a little more expensive
going back and forth.
So they're different.
They're apples and oranges,
but I feel like God makes it clear
whatever you're called to.
- Absolutely.
So good.
So kind of off that point,
it can be a somewhat of a trend of adoption.
- Yeah.
Yes. There was kind of this flood I feel like
the past few years of people doing it more and more.
- Yeah, kind of PEOPLE magazine, Star Tracks, yeah.
- Right, right.
So my question to you is what encouragement
would you give someone, like kind of checking themselves of,
hey this is a true calling conviction on your life
that's been put on you. Versus just thinking,
"Oh, this sounds fun.
This is great. Okay I'm going to go for it."
- Right, I recently had a friend who called me
and she was fussing cause she goes,
"So and so saw your story
and now she's praying about adoption,
and I just think she's doing it because it's trendy."
And I just started laughing and I said,
"You know what, God will purify her heart in the process."
If He's called her to that, He'll keep opening the doors.
So I do you think you have to be prayerful about it
and recognize
I'm not doing this
because this is something Brad and Angelina did.
God has called me to this.
You seek counsel, and then if He calls you to it,
I mean . . . I was in way, way over my head.
It was so far above my capacity and my pay grade,
and God has filled in every single gap.
So if He's called you to it, He'll make a way.
I would just say in that process of praying about it
make sure you have counsel around you.
- Yes. So good.
So if someone is at the point that they're like,
"Okay, yeah we're ready to take those steps and adopt."
What advice do you have just in general for adoption?
- It's messy.
It's just like life, and then your heart's involved.
So you're like goodness gracious
not only is this messy,
I feel like my heart has been ripped out of my chest.
It is a heart-wrenching process, but we're called to it
as Christ followers.
We're called to take care of the widows and orphans.
So if He's called you to it,
it's so worth the mess.
Just don't think it's going to be neat and tidy.
You can't wrap an across stick around it.
- Which is so good because I feel like sometimes
you can get this picture, or
you see someone and you're like, "Oh look, it's adoption,
and it looks so great."
But there are the hard times, right?
- Oh real hard times.
- And even you just saying that,
I hadn't even thought of that, but I'm like yeah
when you have that child in another country.
- Oh yeah.
- You have no control.
- Oh yeah. You know,
I think you just know going into it,
God is big enough for this.
- [Rachel] So good.
- I'm not, so I'm going to continually
stay desperate to Jesus,
and because He's a redeemer
and a life giver,
there's going to be redemption in this story.
- Yeah.
Absolutely.
And there's hope.
- There's always hope.
- In that sense, you know what I mean?
- There's always hope.
- So you touched on this a little bit at the beginning
but I do want to circle back.
So for women out there who are single
and they're starting to feel this pull.
- That's right, that's right.
- Like you were talking about.
How was that in general?
Just adopting.
How were people in your life?
Were you encouraged?
What did that look like as a single woman?
- I mean Rachel, I had, I can say it was, it can be real polarizing.
You have to find a community.
A community of faith who goes, "We've got your back."
- Yes.
- But I will say, if it's a single woman who's lonely,
don't adopt a child because you're lonely.
Boy, you got to be real careful about the motives of your heart,
because a child isn't going to make you less lonely.
Jesus makes you less lonely.
- So good.
The motive part is so, so wise,
because I'm like, you can plug that into anything. Right?
- [Lisa] Absolutely.
- Don't get married because you're lonely.
- [Lisa] Absolutely.
- Don't spend money because you're lonely.
I mean, all of it, it goes back to that place.
- Or carbs.
(chuckles)
Don't eat carbs because you're lonely.
Which is one of my favorite go-tos.
(chuckles)
- I love it all.
Well, you are just such a shining, bright light.
Whatever room you walk into, ever since I've known you,
I'm just like you are just an attractive person,
and you're raising, obviously, one of the sweetest, sweetest
little girls in the whole world.
- And I totally believe in arranged marriage,
so we can start that now.
- I know that's right.
I know, well, Misty will be a little bit old for him,
- I'd love for her to be a little Cruze baby.
- but they could definitely.
(chuckles)
- But train them up in the way they should go, Rachel.
You know?
- That's right.
I think the pairing could really happen, really happen.
Lisa, thanks for coming on.
- Oh, thank you for having me. It was an honor.
- And sharing your heart in this.
It's such a huge topic.
I know we can only just scratch the surface on the show.
- I'm so glad you're addressing it.
So glad, because it needs to be under this canopy.
So I'm so glad y'all are doing that.
- Well thank you.
Thanks for coming on.
Always good to see you.
- Thanks for having me.
- Love it. - Thank you.