International adoption isn’t easy, but with her faith in God and having learned Spanish at Warsaw Community High School and Grace College, Rachelle Alspaugh, 39, was able to bring her oldest son, Juan David, home three years ago from Columbia. In her recently published two-book series, she tells her story in hopes of better preparing others who want to adopt internationally. The non-fiction books are titled “Unexpected Tears” and “Painful Waiting.” Rachelle, 39, is originally from Pennsylvania but moved to Warsaw where she attended high school and then Grace College. At Grace, she majored in ministry and minored in Spanish, which she said was one way God helped her prepare in advance for adopting her son from a Spanish-speaking country. When she was in college and studying abroad in Argentina, it was at the same time Juan David was born. “Being bilingual helped us overcome a lot of the obstacles in the end,” she said. In 2003, she moved to Dallas, Texas, but was visiting Warsaw this week. In an interview Tuesday about her books, she said, “It is a memoir about an international adoption process and pretty much the trials and tribulations that one could go through. Our adoption fell apart the first time so the first book is about the unexpectedness of an adoption falling apart. And then miraculously it came back to us and that’s why it came into a second book.” Rachelle and her husband, Mike Alspaugh, first tried to adopt Juan David from Columbia only to see it fall through in 2009. She said their paperwork wasn’t as “accurate” as Columbia wanted it. There were some bad translations and other things that weren’t noticed until the paperwork got to Columbia. On the second try, in 2013, they were able to adopt him. “It’s got two purposes,” she said of the books. “One is to kind of prepare someone going through an adoption process of things that could happen, that could go wrong. It takes you through the entire process. A lot of people who have read it have same they’re amazed at what they’ve learned of an adoption process. But the other part is that it’s a faith journey, just trusting in God when things fall apart and not knowing where He’s leading you, and just trusting that He has a plan even when it doesn’t look like it.” She said through the whole process, her faith was “strengthened by leaps and bounds.” Along with Juan David, 18, Rachelle and Mike have a biological son, David, 14, who was born in Warsaw. Rachelle published her books through a new publisher, Authenticity Bookhouse. The company publishes ministry books only, she said. “Unexpected Tears” came out in August 2015, and “Painful Waiting” came out in April. To promote her book, she does have an author blog at www.fromtheheartofrachelled.blogspot.com and an author page on Facebook under “Surviving the Valley Series,” named after the title of her two-book series. To purchase the book, readers can buy it online at ABHbooks.com/books for about $11. She said the book can help anyone interested in international adoption to know more of what can be expected in the process.
