Emily Simpson Chapman and her husband, Christopher, are expecting a baby boy in July. Facebook is making miraculous strides possible for their complicated adoption. The Chapmans live near Pittsburg, and their son’s birth parents are living in California. The couple has been vigorously working to find housing for baby Toby’s birth parents. They have reached out to multiple agencies for help, but services are limited to help for mothers only. The parents, in this case, are trying to start a life together, and the Chapmans want to encourage that. The birth parents’ near homelessness comes from the desire not to live anywhere that drugs are present.
Despite the birth father’s steady job, rent for an apartment is too high. The government housing subsidies have waiting lists that are years long. The Chapmans temporarily had the couple at an Airbnb, but have since gotten them an RV, a task Emily credits to her Facebook contacts. Speaking of the future she wrote, “Our prayer is that we’ll be able to find a situation that they can afford for the short-term and that we will be able to save or raise enough money to give them a down payment on a mobile home, which is by far the best long-term solution for them.”
Emily and Christopher suffered infertility issues which led them to adoption. They had their adoption journey planned out financially but were matched with this couple before they were ready. They felt a connection with them and were compelled to make this opportunity work. A friend set up a Youcaring page to help the Chapmans with adoption expenses. Emily shared, “Facebook has its drawbacks, but it’s also an amazing gift for which I am daily giving thanks. Without the people it’s connected to me, I wouldn’t have our wonderful adoption attorney, a baby waiting to become our son…Housing for his birth parents, and the prayers and material support that is making all this possible. I’m saying an extra prayer for Mark Zuckerberg today. Social media is—sometimes—everything it’s cracked up to be.”
