Fans of Duck Dynasty may not know that Willie and Korie Robertson are the proud parents of five children (John Luke, Sadie, Will, Bella and Rebecca), that one (Will) is adopted and another is a foster child from Taiwan (Rebecca).
The couple, who have known each other since the third grade when Willie asked Korie to go on a moonlit hike at summer camp, had the desire to adopt even before they were married (a year after high school).
“It’s something we wanted to do ever since we were dating,” Willie tells Sports Spectrum. “We both wanted to adopt a child. Take a kid put him in a good home, a Christian home. We just thought why not?”
“We didn’t plan on having a lot of money, nothing to do with that, we just thought it would be great. We tried to pursue it and hit a few road blocks, and the Lord provided…It’s the best thing I’ve ever done on this earth.”
Their adopted son, Will, is biracial, and americanadoptions.com’s website says there is a “strong need for families to adopt African-American children or biracial children that are part African-American” and that there is also a “vast shortage of families seeking to adopt children of an African-American descent.”
After adopting, Korie became pregnant a month later.
“So we had two together,” says Willie. “It was wild and it was fun. The other situation came about as an exchange student and she pretty much said I want to stay here.”
Willie says if more Christians got involved in adopting children, the impact would be great. With an estimated orphan population between 143 million and 210 million throughout the world, one can tell the impact would be huge. And even though 250,000 children are adopted each year, there are more than 14 million children who grow up as orphans and age out of the system each year (an average of more than 38,000 children per day).
That’s why the need is great and can impact someone for a lifetime.
“That’s what God did with us,” Willie told a crowd of people at a recent speaking engagement. “He took us in. Jesus is his son and we are his adopted children and so I can look at my two sons that I have and literally see the New Testament unfolded right there. Because I have the same love for him, no different. “
By Brett Honeycutt
Brett Honeycutt is the managing editor at Sports Spectrum magazine.
