One year ago Teagon officially became a part of our family! Well legally became a part of our family…he’d been the little brother in our hearts since we got him pretty much!
I get questions about Baby T all the time and I couldn’t think of a better time to share a little bit about him.
1. My parents started fostering Teagon when he was 5 months old. Then a year a half later they adopted him.
2. Kelly and I had wanted a brother or sister since FOREVER. My mom had high-risk pregnancies with both my sister and I (we were premies) and after Kelly was born my parents couldn’t have anymore kids. They always wanted more and Kelly and I always wanted at least another sibling. We’d all talked about adoption, but then my dad got sick and they didn’t really have the time to pursue it. Then God just kind of dropped Teagon in their laps and we are all SO glad He did.
3. When John Luke and I got married we both had just gained brothers and lost our bedrooms in our parents house haha.
4. Teagon is SUCH a boy. All boy. Loves cars and balls and being so silly.
5. Teagon is hilarious. John Luke, Kelly, and I always talk about how cool Teagon is. He is so stinking cool. Such a little personality.
6. His nicknames: Baby T, T Baby, Teagy. No matter how old he gets, I think he’ll always be Baby T haha.
7. He is super sweet and super snuggly.
8. Him and Pippa have a love/ hate relationship haha. They remind me of siblings for real! Like they loveeee each other, but they also get on each other’s nerves!
9. He calls John Luke “Jute” so thats what John Luke is referred to by pretty much all of us when we’re together.
10. He’s the BEST little brother I could have ever imagined. And I never would have imagined I’d be 21 with a 3 year old brother. And my 3 year old brother has a brother-in-law ha!
Lastly I’d just like to add this:
If you have the ability to foster or adopt, do it.
If you don’t think you have the ability at first thought, rethink it. My parents are older… my dad turned 61 this year and my mom is about to be 56, and more that that, my dad is still sick. Maybe not the ideal situation you may think, but they were/are willing. And fostering is not necessarily an “easy” thing. When my parents were still just fostering Teagon more people than not would say, “Oh I could never do that because it would be too hard when they had to leave.” I have SO much admiration before people who foster because yes that has got to be so heart-breaking when the child leaves, but you put what was in THEIR bests interest over your own feelings. You knew they needed a home and love and you knew you could provide that. There are SO many children in the foster system who need homes temporarily and permanently. It would blow your mind if you realized how many were right around you! It certainly blew all of our minds when we find out. I was reading a Francis Chan book one time and he said something along the lines of this:
“So many times Christians look at adoption as ‘Oh well we’ll pray about it and if we feel like this is something God wants us to do we’ll do it.’ But heres the thing: we KNOW this is something God wants us to do! He says in James 1:27 to take care of widows and orphans. So why not go ahead and have the mindset that you are going to do it. Move forward with it and see if God says no rather than not doing anything and waiting for a yes!”
Adoption is SUCH a beautiful thing! It portrays such a beautiful picture of the way God brings us into his family. Ephesians 1:5, “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
LOVE IT!!!
This is a great post. 🙂 You are all very blessed, and I really admire the mindset of your family. You’re SO right–we ARE supposed to take care of each other. That really gets overlooked in our culture anymore. And you are spot-on about putting the child’s feelings first and foremost…another forgotten thing these days. I love it when kids say things like “Jute”. ha, ha. My youngest is just learning to talk and asks for her Bible all the time, but she’ll point at it and say, “Bi???” 🙂 Thanks for sharing this.
I am so glad you shared this. Fostering and adoption are both something that is so heavy on my heart. Reading this made me want to share my family’s story with you. On February of 2016 my family got a call about a baby who needed a home for a few months. Within 24 hours we had a two day old precious baby girl. We weren’t in the foster system or looking to foster, but The Lord had other plans. She is now a year and three months old and is a total joy! We have such a long one road ahead of us, but I can’t think of life without her now and pray that one day she’ll legally became ours. At the beginning my dad kept saying he was too old (he’s 60 and my mom 52) but age doesn’t matter when there are so many children that need a home and a family to love them. Thank you for sharing your heart and story. I’d love to hear and share more with you!
I love this post!! I’ve never written a comment on your blog before, but wanted to share that we just adopted our daughter after 3 years of being her foster parents (since she was a newborn), and while there were so many times we thought we were going to lose her, looking back we can clearly see how God had his hand on everything, and kept our daughter safe. If I had only trusted in Him completely, instead of allowing myself to fall into fear and despair, these last 3 years wouldn’t have been so unnecessarily anxious! My daughter is a daily reminder of God’s love, there is.no way we could have done this without Him! <3
Beautiful!
MK, Jamie & I have been fostering for almost a month. IT. IS. HARD! But, you are SO right. We talked about it since before we were married. Then life happened. Now we have older kids and room in our home…& hearts. It was time…and here we are! Love and hugs to you and “Jute”! Baby T is a pretty blessed little guy…& I know he has blessed you all as well!
Right on! Baby T and Jute are blessed to have each other. They look like they are the best of buds. Thank you for spurring us to action.
That’s an AMAZING & BEAUTIFUL story! He is soooooo adorable!
Thank you for sharing. You are so right. People don’t understand that there are so many right here in our area that need the love and stability of a home. Foster/adoption changed our lives and I thank God for sending Ashley into our lives. There’s not a shadow of a doubt she was our child, but it had to be in Gods time and Gods time was Perfect. Because of his timing, I became a mom and now that she is grown and married, we are grandparents to a beautiful little girl and another on the way. Your mom had invited us over sometimes to bring Aubree to swim with Teagan. I know they would have a blast and she would talk his ears off LOL.
My husband and I have always wanted to adopt. We hope to make this dream a reality. This past winter I went on a missions trip to Ethiopia and the people there stole my heart. Praying one day we can adopt from there.. it’s so expensive but I believe God can create the funds if that’s what’s meant to be!
Such a cute post about Teagon! And very true about the importance and beauty of fostering and adoption. 🙂
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Touching
Today, I went to the beach front with my kids. I found a sea shell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.” She put the shell to her ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear. She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is totally off topic but I had to tell someone!
Awe this is so so sweet <3 People who foster/adopt have such a big place in my heart! Congrats to your parents!