Tommy and Aimeé Poché are an extraordinary couple with an amazing adoption story!  Theirs is a saga of longing, faith, trust and finally – fulfillment and joy!  Touched by both domestic and international adoption, they were asked by Mark Stermer, one of the Healing Place Church pastors, to begin an HPC ministry that would heighten awareness in the church to the plight of the orphan.  After the adoption of their first two children, “His Heart for Orphans” was birthed in November 2003. 

 Photograph taken by Nicki Olinde Photography

When Tommy and Aimeé were young, they both thought they would adopt a child someday.  Once married, they really didn’t discuss adoption so they didn’t realize how the other felt.  But they knew they wanted a family. 

 

Their adoption journey began with infertility, as many adoptive couples’ stories do.  Despite infertility treatment, they continued to be seemingly unable to conceive a child.  Aimeé describes it best, “While Tommy and I were going through infertility, God would often lead me to barren scriptures in the bible; in particular the story of Hannah.  I would get so upset!  I told God that I would not go there.  I would not read barren scriptures because I refused to be classified as BARREN!”  

 

This same scenario replayed over and over again throughout several years.  But one day a friend shared this scripture with Aimeé:

He gives the barren woman a home, so that she becomes a happy mother.  Praise the LORD!

Psalm 113:9 NLT

 

Although it seemed at first to be just another reference to barrenness, Aimeé discovered the cross-reference scripture: 

 

Those who were well fed are now starving; and those who were starving are now full.  The barren woman now has seven children; but the woman with many children will have no more.

I Samuel 2:5 NLT

 

Aimeé and Tommy began to understand that the barren women of the bible and their husbands may have felt the pain and heartache of not having a child, but that was not the way that God intended to leave them!  In due time and season, they would move from being barren to fruitful.

 

After years of trying to conceive and countless infertility procedures, the Lord asked them to trust Him to multiply their family through adoption.  Throughout this walk of faith, they have experienced the trials and financial challenges of both the international and domestic adoption processes, but they have also come to know the fruitful rewards!

 

 

Now the proud parents of eight children¾one domestic adoption, five international adoptions and two birthed from their womb¾the Poché’s have proven God faithful to His word and give Him all the glory!  They have personally come to know the God who wants to see families multiply and longs for His people to care for orphans.  This is their amazing story.

 After seeking God for His will for their family, the Lord asked Tommy and Aimeé to stop infertility treatments and trust Him to multiply their family.  They listened to God and knew to hold tight onto His word. 

 

What is faith?  It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen.  It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see.

Hebrews 11:1 NLT

 

God was asking them to exercise their faith.  During this time, He placed a deep desire in their hearts to adopt orphans. 

 

“For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give youhope and a future.”

Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

 

Tommy and Aimeé began the process of an international adoption from Peru through Christian World Adoption.  But during that process, they were approached by a woman in the church to adopt her unborn child through an open, private adoption.  Born on April 8, 2003, Asa Matthew Poché became their first child upon his homecoming April 10th, the Poché’s wedding anniversary – what a wonderful anniversary gift!   He may not have come from Aimeé’s womb, but he is no doubt their first son.  He carries with him their hearts and deepest love.

 

Just seven weeks after bringing baby Asa home, Tommy and Aimeé received their referral from CWA for a little girl from Lima, Peru.  One look at the picture, and they knew they had found their daughter!  Leaving Asa at home with family was difficult, but two weeks later the couple left for Peru.

 

After nearly a month in-country finalizing the adoption process, Zoë Marìa José became the first daughter in the Poché family on June 28, 2003 at the age of 22 months.  Although they didn’t know it at the time, this small, shy child would be the catalyst God would use to perform an amazing miracle in their growing family!

 

While in Lima facilitating the adoption, the Poché’s learned that Zoë was not an only child.  They were told by their attorneys that she had three older birth siblings; all four children had the same birth mother.  Tommy and Aimeé were interested in meeting these children and were given permission by the Peruvian authorities to visit Casa Hogar “Villa Martha” orphanage in the town of Picapiedra in Pachacamac where the children were living.  Their intentions were to simply meet the children and take pictures of them with Zoë so that someday they would be able to tell her about her family in Peru. 

 

 

 

But from the time of their arrival at the orphanage, one of Zoë’s brothers attached himself to Tommy’s leg.  Can you imagine what it would feel like to have a child tug on your pants and beg in Spanish, “Will you adopt me, too, and become my Papa?”  Tommy Poché doesn’t have to imagine … that’s exactly what happened to him!  Advised by their agency’s lawyers not to look at or even acknowledge the child’s request so as not to raise false hopes, Tommy and Aimeé instead looked at each other wondering how they could now deal with the knowledge that part of Zoë’s family was being left behind.   Had they not met these children, their adoption story might have ended there … but it didn’t.

 

After returning home to the United States after their first international adoption, Tommy and Aimeé Poché couldn’t shake the knowledge that their daughter’s sister and two brothers were left behind in a Peruvian orphanage.  Although they felt strongly that God was calling them to another level of adoption awareness by becoming parents to this entire family group, they did not have peace in their hearts about beginning the process. 

 

When Aimeé became pregnant the following spring of 2004, the couple experienced real confusion.  If God was now blessing them with a biological child, should they pursue the adoption of Zoë’s siblings?  Tommy also felt strongly that God’s wisdom was to first complete the adoption of their son, Asa, due to be finalized at the end of June.  Aimeé miscarried that April, which further added to their bewilderment.  Although they continued to prayerfully consider the adoption of Zoë’s sister and brothers, they still felt no peace. 

 

That summer the Poché’s were contacted by their Peruvian adoption attorneys informing them that another, younger child with a biological connection to Zoë was available for adoption from the El Refugio orphanage in Lima.  Had they given any more thought to adopting one or all of Zoë’s older siblings?  And would they be interested in adopting the younger child as well?  The peace that had eluded Tommy and Aimeé now flowed over them, and they finally understood why they had not been released to begin the adoption process sooner.  Had they gone through with the adoptions when they had first returned home from Peru, the littlest member of the family would have been unknown and left behind! 

 

With Asa’s adoption now complete, Tommy and Aimeé felt ready to begin the process of bringing the rest of their family home.  Although the financial challenges were great, they were now confident in God’s timing for their family vision.  But how would they cope with adopting older children who didn’t speak English?  And, as if this journey didn’t present enough challenges of its own, there was another major surprise along the way; Aimeé discovered that she was pregnant!

 

In January of the following year, Tommy and Aimeé returned to Peru.  Finding favor with the country’s adoption officials, they were given the awesome privilege of interacting with children in the orphanages they visited while being personally hosted by a Peruvian adoption official.  In these impoverished institutions, they were able to see first-hand the needs of orphaned and abandoned children, and how great was their desire to have a mom and dad of their own. 

 

But for one little Peruvian family whose siblings had been separated by circumstance over the course of several years, the dream of becoming part of a real family came true.  On January 17, 2005, Heidi Angela – age 15 , Henry James – age 13, Anthony Wayne – age 9, and Debora Rose  – age 21 months, joined their sister, Zoë, and were adopted into the Poché family.   

 

After returning home, the Poché’s experienced more than a few life changes … moving to a larger home, trading the family car for a large-capacity passenger van, and learning Spanish!  And on March 8, 2005, all the Poché children welcomed a new sister into the family, Cheryl Grace.  In less than two years, the Poché’s had adopted six children and birthed a daughter from the womb!  But their story still doesn’t end there …

 

Fast forward to January 2007 – as further testament to God’s miraculous opening of Aimeé’s womb, the Poché family welcomed their eighth child home, Elijah Stephen.  Tommy and Aimeé are careful not to limit what God plans to accomplish through their multi-cultural family.  Their plans for the future are in His hands!