Our Story

OUR STORY by Taytum's mom Even before I knew her name, I knew God created her for us, and us for her, that we would be blessed with the privilege of raising a daughter who, in every way belongs to us, but was not born to us. When I first brought the idea up years ago, John just brushed it off like one of my many other whimsical thoughts. Quite honestly, I did to. I had always dreamed of adopting, but it just didn't seem like the right time. But that feeling of thinking our family just wasn’t complete still kept coming back again and again, and it just wouldn't go away. I know it was the Holy Spirit. Our oldest daughter, Shyla, was so persistent too. At many times she was relentlessly telling us how we should adopt. Clearly the Holy Spirit was going to work in her life too. Here's the thing about having faith in God that is really cool. There are times when you can be praying about something and you think he's not at work. Then, little things start to happen and you start putting the small pieces of his big picture together. It doesn't happen all the time, so when it does it's awesome. Here's what I mean. We started our summer (of 2011)all really looking forward to a family missions trip to Florida to serve families of kids living through childhood cancer. Well, our income had been really down and we had a property in Colorado that was really draining our money, so we made a tearful decision not to go on the trip. I was upset thinking "Why would God not want us to go on a trip to serve him?” We decided instead to drive to Colorado, see my brother and sis in law and visit our Breckenridge place for, hopefully, the last time before it sold. The kids were amazing on the 14 hour ride there, and we had one of the best family trips! But one day stands out. We went to Keystone and took the gondola up to the peak. After taking in the beauty of the mountains we gathered our Adirondack chairs, got some drinks and had some good old family fellowship. One of the topics? Adoption. So was that God’s plan all along to get the wheels of adoption turning? I’d like to think so. After the trip was over, we all said that our visit to Keystone was everyone's highlight of the week. I can't tell you when the first time the idea of adoption came I to my mind. I guess I would have said maybe five or six years ago, but my husband tells me that I mentioned it to him over 19 years ago. A few years after our last one was born I began to want another. I began to look into adoption but nothing serious, again, it didn't seem the right time. Our kids were still young and the cost and the addition of a child didn't seem plausible. We later began to foster kids on a temporary basis. After each one went home, Shyla, our oldest, would always say “Why don't we just get one to keep?” After months of her persisting, I began to research adoptions from China. When I thought of adoption no other place came to mind. If someone were to ask “Why China?” well, I would simply say “Because that's where our daughter is.” It didn't take long for God to convict me that this was the time. Well when the subject came up in Colorado, I would have signed the application that afternoon. John, on the other hand was still thinking that adoption was wonderful, for someone else that is. So I began to pray. If God meant to complete our family with little girl from China then he would. He's God, for Him nothing is impossible. Soon we began to pray as a family for God to either open the doors for us to adopt, or close them if it was not in His plan. The kids and I grew more and more excited, but John was just a bit hesitant. He wanted to make sure he had what it took to be a great dad to another little one. The thing that really tipped him was a conversation that he had with Shyla where she told him that he was such a great dad and she wanted to be able to share that with a little girl who didn't have a dad. It was pretty amazing to see. Seeing the Holy Spirit working in John’s life is truly a blessing to me. During our adoption journey, he was telling everyone! He was so excited to share our news. We started our journey in October of 2011. At the time our coordinator told us that we would have our daughter by the end of 2012. We both felt called to bring home a little girl with a special need, which makes the wait time about a year. Many of the kids on the waiting list have a “special” need that can be corrected easily once in the states. We agreed to be open to any special need and put our faith in God to equip us to meet any need that she had. For the most part, our paperwork went pretty smoothly and by the third week of May our dossier was complete and we had a log in date. Our referral came on Memorial Day. Seeing her picture for the first time was by far the most surreal moment of my life. There was my daughter right on the screen in front of me, yet still a half a world away. We all wanted to just hop on a plane and bring her home. The hardest part of waiting came next. I'm not sure what the hold up was, but we waited 3 long months for our Letter of Acceptance. Once that finally arrived, we completed the papers needed for our Travel Approval, and waited some more. Knowing that she is there waiting for us is so hard, but, at the same time, I have a peace knowing that God will get us to China exactly when He wants us there. There is so much more to our story though. In addition to the amazing call we feel to adopt her, we have been so blessed along our journey. We have seen so much love and generosity from family, friends and even strangers. We will all be forever grateful for the prayers, love and support shown by so many people. Our story wouldn't have even have happened if it weren't for a God who loves us, adopted us and calls us to adopt. I think about how we enjoy a life rich in blessings while there are little people just lying in cribs not getting the physical, emotional or spiritual nourishment that they deserve. What a privilege to give one of those kids all that nourishment! I think about a sermon I once heard about making decisions by keeping in mind how we want the story to end. Well, I want to end my life story knowing that I did my best to save a little life, to give a little girl all my love. To see for myself, and show my kids that there is a world out their bigger than they can imagine, and that we serve a loving God who can do anything! Ephesians 3:20 "Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us."

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