WHO ARE THESE DEWBERRYS....?

The Dewberrys live to surround themselves with the lost and forgotten youth. Joe and Nicole have been in youth ministry working with at-risk youth together for 13 years and Nicole for 18 years. Nicole from a young age new she was always called to adopt when she married. Thankfully God put that upon her heart because once they met and married they were unable to have children of their own. So they became foster parents and poured their lives into children in need of guidance and also helped families that came to them in search of help with their children. At their church when they lived in California they started a skateboarding outreach to reach out to the local kids in the community with the kids from their church.

Once they settled in North Carolina God made it clear and lead them into a ministry called New Horizons For Children which is where the met their now son, Kolya from Eastern Europe. They hosted him over Christmas 2010 and fell in love not only with Kolya but also the program. They soon went to Eastern Europe and adopted him and also became Volunteer Regional Directors for the program in Central, NC. Nicole is now on the Board of Directors and actively travels to Eastern Europe to reach out to the orphans with the New Horizons For Children team in search of children to bring to America for hosting in hopes of finding them a forever family. Right now the Dewberrys are working with New Horizons For Children and stretching the ministry to do outreach for the timing out children in Eastern Europe that leave the boarding schools with no where to turn. Their hopes for training is to teach the children about Christ, job, social and life skills and help them locate work. Also the plan is to hold Christian camps during the year to reach the children before they reach the timing out faze to teach them about Christ, give them hope and love on them. The have located a property and are in the process of building the ministry.  Kolya and Nicole love helping with another orphan hosting ministry locally called Redline United working with the orphaned kids of Eastern Europe, teaching them about Jesus and loving on them every other summer here locally in North Carolina in hopes that they also find their forever families.

The Dewberrys loves skateboarding and are a bunch of large children. With Kolya’s amazing artistic talent and their love for skateboarding and the lost youth they have started a local ministry www.fallenbutsaved.com. They build and design custom Christian skateboards to reach out to the kids in their community, love on them and teach them about Christ.

Why are they adopting again? When Kolya was 5 he was separated from his older brother and sister who was then 3. She was adopted by an Eastern European family and there was never a good-bye or let’s stay in touch. It is just an empty void in Kolya’s heart for his little sister. His brother, Dima on two different occasions when he was 10 years old ran away from the orphanage they moved him to in search of Kolya and his sister. Thankfully after 8 years once Dima was on his own he finally found Kolya and they are still in touch. But their sister was never to be found. But Kolya has always wanted a little sister and has a soft spot for the little ones.  On one of the New Horizons For Children interview trips Nicole met a boy named Sergiy. They hosted him Christmas 2011 and completed their homestudy/dossier ahead of time in order to adopt him should he want to join their family. He said “Yes”! So they flew in February 2012 to adopt him. He was a timing out teen (15 years old) but he knew his freedom was knocking at the door and he had also met a special girl that stole his heart in just a month of us all being separated. The adoption disrupted and Joe and Nicole started to head back to the US and then he asked them to come back for him and they turned right around and went back for him to only have him not be ready to leave her or his freedoms. When Sergiy was with them the family all talked about adopting a girl when they got home stateside. After a month of recovering this loss of Sergiy because it was like a death to the family they started their homestudy locally in North Carolina to adopt a girl. They had no funds even if they wanted to return to Eastern Europe because of the expense of both Kolya and Sergiys adoption. Even though Sergiy’s adoption disrupted they still have incurred the adoption fees and travel expenses.  They used all their stocks, retirement and equity loans to get the boys. So there was nothing to take from to support another adoption adoption. Although Eastern Europe is like their second home to them there was also now hurt associated with it after losing Sergiy and always that looming risk they could be rejected once again with an adoption. Their homestudy got completed in the US and every girl they looked at either got adopted or they just could not meet the child’s needs so they were at a bit of a stand still which was OK.  They knew God would bring the right child when his timing was right. 

Nicole’s sister who is a very BIG advocate for RR has been trying to get Nicole on RR for 8 months and Nicole nor Joe would just sit down and look. Denise indicated RR had children with HIV & other special needs we might want to check out. Nicole in High School was certified as a foster parent baby-sitter to care for “Special Needs” children. One of the little girls she worked with daily had AIDS. This was back in the day that there was not much knowledge of it and how it was spread  The medication was not what it is now either to help lengthen if not give children a normal life span. You wore gloves when you whipped their noses or touched any sores. It was expected Bianca would live until 3 years of age no longer. The AIDS was passed down from her mother. Bianca was a trooper and made it to 5 years old when she lost her battle with life. After that Nicole closed the door on going down the road of HIV/AIDS because of the loss. BUT on 4/26/12 Denise and Nicole were looking on the computer at kids Nicole had interviewed and met in Eastern Europe and were also in search of photos of the boy Denise and her husband are adopting. Denise hood-winked Nicole into getting on RR page and that is where she found “Taylor”. Nicole new instantly she was done looking any further for a daughter. Although the words HIV positive was right there Nicole knew she has found her girl. She went to Joe and amazingly he said start moving forward. They were and are in prayer daily for the curing of Taylors HIV. They were also in prayer everyday to not mistake their own feelings for what God was calling them to do. Nicole jokes this is kind of the trailer before the horse scenario because they are document ready (dossier complete), physically and mentally ready to go get her but they financially are not. With the last two adoptions even with the disruption, again they used everything they had to bring the boys home, they had a safety net and resources. This time they have to jump and pray God will catch their fall. This is the biggest leap they will take trusting God to meet their financial needs and lifting Taylors health up to him. They are reminded everyday when they look at their fridge that has a saying on it “If God will lead you to it, he will lead you through it”. Also that God does not make mistakes.  God leading them to Taylor was no mistake. God continues to make it abundantly clear they are called to adopt Taylor and they just need to trust him and jump. They have jumped and made this commitment to adopt Taylor!

With the Dewberrys just being in country with the disrupted adoption of Sergiy their dossier is complete and ready, sitting in the SDA office. So with a few minor updates they should be in the air flying shortly To Eastern Europe. One thing Nicole was also reminded when she found the property to build this orphan ministry in Eastern Europe was “You cannot put God in a box”. God cannot be limited. So they have chosen to tear down the walls of the box and not limit God to the miracle of him bringing them to Taylor and God being able to financially provide them the funds to bring her home.

The Dewberrys thank you for all your prayers and any donations as you feel called to help them bring their girl home!