God Doesn’t Make Mistakes: Danielle Voss’ Adopting Story

By Emma Foley

Like her mother and grandmother, Danielle Voss dreamed of becoming a mother herself.

God had a plan for Danielle. She just couldn’t see it yet.

Having married later in life and experiencing infertility, Danielle and her husband were in the throes of in-vitro treatment and embryonic transfer. The women in Danielle’s maternal line had similar issues conceiving, but the couple had hope in the medical innovations. But as the Covid lockdown hit, her IVF attempts were delayed and, ultimately, unsuccessful.

Danielle and her husband considered foster care. They had been preparing their home to be able to accept a child of any age. A nursery was set up, furnished with a crib, and the home had ample room for older children as well. The two were even enrolled in classes for prospective foster parents.

Then, Danielle learned of her husband’s affair. When the two divorced, she felt her dreams of being a mother were gone forever.

God wanted to make Danielle’s crooked path straight. She just didn’t feel it yet.

That December, Danielle’s phone rang. It was the North Carolina Department of Social Services. There was a baby who needed a home, presumably a six-to nine-month-old, since any age younger was almost unheard of in foster care.

The state was still under Covid directives, and it was Christmastime. Because Danielle had not been traveling, she would not need to undergo the mandated fourteen-day quarantine. She also had the only crib in Madison County, making her home ideal.

The infant was a little boy, just hours old. There were only a few reasons, Danielle explained, that the custody of a newborn would be signed away so quickly. That was when the department explained that, given the baby’s state, Danielle would likely not have him very long.

The department told Danielle they could give her a little over an hour to make up her mind. She immediately called her brothers and her boss at the time. Each suggested, after seeing her through her broken marriage, the loss of her parents, and the state shutdown, that she be practical. Politely decline this child, they recommended, and wait for a more suitable option.

Danielle considered the advice from her brothers and boss. They were right — after everything she had gone through the past year, why would she take in a newborn baby who would almost certainly be taken away? Hadn’t she had her heart broken enough?

Danielle’s phone buzzed. It was a text this time. The sender was a friend who had been attending Bible study. Without any clue about Danielle’s predicament, the friend texted her Psalm 113:9, saying they felt convicted about sending the message.

He gives the barren woman a home,

making her the joyous mother of children.

Praise the Lord!

“Other than God coming straight down from the sky and patting me on the back and saying, ‘Do it,’ “I don’t know how much more obvious it could be,” Danielle said. She called the department and told them she would accept the baby.

“It became more of an act of obedience than excitement,” she admitted. “I was very, very scared.”

Danielle had not anticipated the gravity of the situation. The baby boy was born premature, though even the doctors could not discern how premature, given the cocktail of drugs in his system at the time of birth. Four-and-a-half pounds at birth, he was addicted to high levels of methamphetamine.

Approximately 48 hours later, on the baby’s third day out of the womb, Danielle got the call to pick him up from the hospital. She hopped in the car and called out to the Lord at that moment.

“I feel like I need to go do this, but, God, you’re going to have to provide—because I have no idea what I’m doing.”

On the way, Danielle stopped at a Walmart to grab a pack of wipes, a pack of bottles, a pack of diapers, and a pack of formula. It was plenty to keep him alive for one night, and she’d figure out what to do after that. 

“The divorce had pretty much wiped my money, but I had a little bit in savings where I could go get other things that he needed,” she explained.

Much had fallen into place in less than 72 hours. A daycare agreed to hold a spot for little J.P. six months out, which was practically unheard of, especially with the Covid mandates that would stretch through 2021. A family friend made herself available to help Danielle with the newborn.

Fear still gripped Danielle as she made her way into the hospital room.

“The nurse handed me this little, tiny, tiniest baby I ever saw in my life,” Danielle recalled. “She visually saw I was upset. There wasn’t a lot of excitement — just fear and feeling alone.”

Danielle then recounted the nurse’s words, the first spoken to her while holding him:

“It looks like you two needed each other.”

That nurse was right.

Danielle would never forget one lesson from her father John, who believed there is no such thing as a “stepchild” or “foster child” or any other sort of caveat. If there is a child in your care, he is your child. So when it came time to name the baby boy, Danielle chose John Patrick, after the baby’s grandparents, John and Patricia.

The Lord was not finished providing for J.P. and Danielle. Word had spread to the foster care community, to the college where Danielle worked as an athletic trainer at the time, to neighbors in the small town. On J.P.’s first morning home, Danielle opened her door to find her porch covered in diapers, swings, bassinet monitors, and strollers — like manna from heaven.

“I think he was about 14 months old before I had to buy him diapers,” Danielle chuckled.

J.P. spent exactly four months in foster care in Danielle’s home. Then, on April 14, he was fully adopted by Danielle, the fastest adoption from foster care on record in Madison County — another miracle.

Fast-forward three years, and J.P. is smart, creative, clever, and a little shy. He is ahead on most benchmarks, and his vocabulary is unbelievable, his mother proudly reported. While he’s a cautious kid, J.P. is brave around his friends.

J.P.’s young life has not been easy, as many babies who form addictions in utero suffer problems throughout their lives. J.P. has his share of challenges, from asthma that will likely linger forever to allergies that he may grow out of. But the doctors who predicted he would suffer speech, walking, and developmental delays were wrong.

J.P. also loves superheroes. His favorite? Spider-Man, of course.

“My living room…my house décor…is Spider-Man,” Danielle said.

She tells him all the time that, while he loves to pretend to be a superhero, he already is one. He was a hero the day he was born.

“There’s no reason for him to be alive,” Danielle began, “so, therefore, there’s a reason he’s alive.”

“I want him to be bold,” she continued. “I want him to love God. I want him to realize the impact his story has, and I want him never to be scared to tell it.”

Until J.P. is old enough to tell his story, Danielle will tell of the generosity of the Father, the abundance she received after saying yes and accepting His child into her home. While foster care is confusing and heart-breaking for many, Danielle is a proponent. After J.P., she took in more foster children, many of whom she’s fallen in love with.

“We’re all going to get our heart broken,” she said. “You might as well make it worth it. These children need somebody’s hearts broken for them.”

Danielle has even had a hand in convincing women in similar positions to the one she was in three years ago to pursue foster care and adoption.

“If you feel like you will break if a child walks out of your door, you’re the first person who should take them into your home,” she said she tells those women. “The most important thing those kids can see is that they matter enough to break somebody’s heart.”

Emma Foley is the Digital Managing Editor for the Howie Carr Radio Network. She grew up in Pennsylvania, but after graduating from Boston College, she decided to make Massachusetts her new home.