I’ve always wanted to adopt. I remember coming home in middle school after meeting someone who was adopted and confidently telling my parents, “we need to adopt a baby right now.” Obviously, my parents had great reasons why adoption wasn’t feasible for our family at that moment. But adoption never left my heart. It’s something I knew would be a part of my family’s story on this side of heaven.
When Kayla and I were on the World Race in 2017 – 2018, we met a lot of children in need of care, love, and hope. This further solidified our resolve to offer our love and our home to a child in need of both one day. So in January of 2021, we completed our home study and officially began the praying and waiting that it takes to adopt domestically. Honestly, the process was much more difficult (and now, much more beautiful) than we could have ever anticipated. There were moments of wonder and then moments of fear. There were moments of celebration and then moments of loss. There were moments of confidence and then moments of heavy doubt. Still, our Heavenly Father has been faithful. We trust Him to finish what he’s started.
Much of the doubt came after we matched with a birth mother in August 2021 who was due with a baby boy on January 10th. We were so eager to say yes to partnering with her in caring for the little guy. We made plans. We picked out a name. We worked with our jobs/teams to schedule maternity/paternity leave. We bought gifts for both her and him. And the night before we were supposed to meet them both, she decided it was best for her to continue her journey alone. We still pray for both of them regularly and believe that our failed match was not by “mistake. God always has us, right where He needs us, and, in that season, He had us care for a single mother and her son for reasons we will probably never fully know.
Nearly 4 months of silence followed our failed match…
And then… on January 26th, 2022, we got the phone call that will now forever change the history of our Taylor family.
Hello world, meet our son: Amos Michael Taylor.
Amos (more on why his name is Amos soon) was born on January 20th, 2022, at 34/35 weeks premature and weighed 6 pounds, 6 ounces. Immediately after birth, he was transferred to a hospital near us in Tampa, FL, and diagnosed with a congenital heart disease (CHD) called d-TGA.
Here’s a great site if you’d like to learn more about his condition: D Transposition of the Great Arteries. We were shocked to learn that 1/100 babies are born with CHD!
Essentially, the major arteries in his heart were hooked to the wrong pipes, and they needed to be surgically swapped.
We got to meet him in person for the first time for 20 minutes before his open-heart surgery (thanks, COVID). *Special God Wink – We met Amos in February during American Heart Month. Panera Bread restaurants (in Tampa) even sell heart-shaped cookies to benefit our PCICU unit!
He had a successful arterial switch surgery on February 7th and has been healing at a miraculous pace since. On February 17th, we were finally able to sign the adoption papers and make Amos an official part of our Taylor family. As I write this, we are sitting in Amos’s hospital room earnestly waiting for the news of when we will be able to bring him home. Ada can’t wait to meet her baby brother.
It hasn’t been the smoothest road since we got the phone call, but we wouldn’t change anything. There are hundreds of doctor and therapy visits in our future. But Amos is perfect. His repaired heart is perfect. His feeding tube is perfect. The way he snuggles up in our arms is perfect. His little baby snores are perfect. And our family is perfect with him forever by our side.
We are so thankful for the love so many of our friends and family have shown us (and Amos) via text and Facetime calls over the last month. Many have asked how you can support or even join us in Amos’s adoption story. We’ve created this GoFundMe page as a simple way to share updates and ask for your support to help make Amos’s transition home as smooth as possible.
Amos’s total adoption expenses total $55,000+ (including about $15,000 in expenses from our first match). We are doing all we can to apply for grants and work with our wonderful adoption agency to make payments as we are able.
Will you please consider supporting us in adopting Amos?
You can donate online via the
GoFundMe link below OR by using the Venmo app to @RJExcited.
If you are not able to donate, would you be willing to share/forward this email? We are thankful for every prayer, share, and donation amount.
