By Felicia Ferguson | Photography courtesy of Erica Stone
What does it look like to set aside your talents and hopes to travel down a dusty dirt road and find a new dream you never knew lived in your heart? Ask Erica Stone, who put a burgeoning career in country music on hold to adopt an orphaned child from Sierra Leone, Africa—a move that would change her life forever.
This hidden dream was planted in her heart when Stone was only fourteen years old. She explains, “I went on a mission trip to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, and, at the time, I thought I was going to be a doctor when I grew up. I was in junior high school, and I remember seeing kids my age so sick and struggling, which wrecked me. And I think the switch flipped for me then. I thought, wow, there are a lot of areas of the world that live a lot differently than I do, who don’t get this kind of care, and I’ve got to figure out a way to impact that.”
What does it look like to set aside your talents and hopes to travel down a dusty dirt road and find a new dream you never knew lived in your heart? Ask Erica Stone, who put a burgeoning career in country music on hold to adopt an orphaned child from Sierra Leone, Africa—a move that would change her life forever.
Still, it wasn’t until Stone read a newspaper article as an adult that her new path began to unfold. Christian music star Steven Curtis Chapman was coming to the area of Missouri where she and her husband, Jason, lived at the time. Chapman was interviewed by the local paper and mentioned adopting his daughter from China. Erica had never heard of international adoption. Intrigued, she searched online and found a website with thousands of links to children in various countries looking for forever homes.
“At the time, in my very limited understanding of adoption and experience in the world, I thought, ‘I just had my son, so let’s adopt a little boy.’” As she clicked through the links, she found a profile for a boy the same age as her son. But when the link opened, the picture was of a little girl, Jayda, who eventually—after four years of searching and trials—became their oldest adopted child. Over time that one adoption led to five more successful additions to her family and the devastating loss of a sixth.
Jayda’s adoption also led Erica and Jason to open an orphanage in Sierra Leone called The Raining Season. But the road they’ve traveled has not been without its potholes. When the orphanage first opened, it housed forty children. An organization called Kids Against Hunger donated a large container of rice to help the orphanage get started and cover their food needs for months, giving the Stones time to arrange for sponsorships.
Then the unimaginable happened.
Two hundred farmers drowned when their ferry boat sank, leaving fifty-five children fatherless and their families unable to care for them. The orphanage director in Sierra Leone called Erica, who was back in Nashville consulting with other nonprofits, and asked if they could take the children. Erica agreed, knowing their supply of rice would now only last a month, but at least the amount would be enough to feed all ninety-five kids. Then the director said the extra rice was no longer available. He had coordinated a community food event and given this staple away to others in the area. Erica was devastated.
She pushed the anger and worry aside and consulted with the nonprofit group she was scheduled to meet that day. As she was leaving, the nonprofit’s owner said she wanted to donate to The Raining Season. Her group was just getting started, however, so Erica tried to deny the donation, but the owner was adamant. Later, when Erica opened the check, she found it was for the exact amount they needed to provide for the additional children. “I felt like God was saying, ‘You know what, don’t be mad at your people for doing a community food day. You did what I called you to do. I'm always going to provide.’ And He has. Over and over again.”
God’s care during the Stones’ journey has been more than financial. It has also included a place of respite for them and their children—the beaches along Scenic Highway 30-A in Northwest Florida. Erica said, “Every time we could, with what little money we had left, we would come to 30-A, and we would sit and watch our kids love on each other in the sand. It’s like 30-A was a place to breathe and be restored.” As the family grew together and the children healed from their traumas, the beach became a haven, a respite from stress and the anxiety of school, life, and adoption transitions. Erica, Jason, and the younger children now live full-time on 30-A, and Erica has an apartment in Nashville where she writes music.
But moving to the coast full-time doesn’t mean relinquishing the journey in Sierra Leone. In fact, new paths are forming. “We have been looking to expand. We’ve been maxed out since day one, and we have a lot of special-needs kids. With special-needs children, you can’t just make room. The staffing and rooms are different. And we have a school we want to expand and be able to offer it to the community for kids to come for free.”
I felt like God was saying, ‘You know what, don’t be mad at your people for doing a community food day. You did what I called you to do. I'm always going to provide.’ And He has. Over and over again.
Erica, Jason, and their Raining Season partners have recently met with a paramount chief in rural Sierra Leone, who is gifting the urban-based orphanage three hundred acres. The land will allow them to build a larger facility, teach life skills, produce food from farming, and decrease their dependence on sponsorships.
Eighteen years have passed since they started on this road together. “I think if there is any lesson I’ve learned in this whole journey, it’s that we don’t have time to waste. Most of us respond to God’s call or our bigger purposes in life with ‘someday.’ We think we have time, and, in reality, we don’t.”
When asked what she hoped to be able to say at the end of her life, tears filled Erica’s voice as she answered. “I want to be able to say I showed up…and that I paid attention.”
The roads less traveled can lead to the most unexpected places, but, as Erica Stone can attest, they could be the most perfect and meaningful life destinations.
To learn more about Erica and her many ongoing projects, visit EricaStone.net and TheRainingSeason.org.
