About Us...Now...

So I realize our blog is a little outdated, so we decided to update a little bit....

This is the bio that we used for our online profile for adoption

 

We are a young energetic family living in a very small town in Utah with a lot of love to share and a great desire to open our home to children through adoption. So far, our family consists of four people: Dad, Tanner, Mom Taylor (that’s me!) and our children; our son Tatem who is 3 and our daughter Emerson who is about 18 months  (give or take a month!)

Tanner and I met when he was 14 and I was 11. Our families were fast friends and even opened a business together and Tanner and I became best friends. We didn’t date until we had known each other for over 5 years, and then 2 years later we were married. Soon after, Tanner left for training with the National Guard and I worked on completing my BA in Family Studies (a degree very similar to Human Development) at Utah State University.

Tanner returned home to get a job with DIRECTV Home Services where he is now working as a supervisor. He loves his job and is great at it! But, he loves coming home to his family even more; there are few men who are as hands on of a dad as he is. For fun, he likes to camp, hike, go to movies and hang out with all of us. Tanner has 3 younger sisters who he helped raise and has worked with children by being a teacher at church and an 11 year old scout leader.

I (Taylor) am a stay at home mom to our children and plan to remain here with the kiddos! I love being with the kids, and completed my degree in August 2012 which has been priceless at times. Being home all day allows me to keep a very structured environment and therefore a lot of consistency. For fun, I like to redo old furniture and decorate on a budget. I have a good background with children through my education, but have also served with children at church for over 6 years.

Together, the four of us love to go on adventures, to the park, the zoo and aquarium, camping, swimming, and visiting Grandma’s! (Both Tanner’s parents as well as my own live within 10 minutes of our home; they are a HUGE support system! We also have cousins, aunts and uncles who live in our town!)

We feel like our family is ready to grow through adoption. We would love to provide a safe, loving, structured environment for a sibling group. We know that family is so important and we hope to be able to keep kids with as many family members as possible and also help them bond with our current children.

So many people ask us why we are trying to adopt, and the answer to that question is what keeps us going through the long waiting and decision process: At infancy, my mother was told that it was likely that I would not be able to have children of my own, most of my life I looked forward to the idea of adoption, I was raised by my birth mother and my adoptive father (both of whom were amazing) and my adoptive father was also adopted so it is near and dear to my heart!   But of course I also prayed to be able to have my own children. You can imagine me and Tanner’s delight when we discovered we were pregnant with Tatem, about 6 months after our wedding. Tatem was born happy and healthy and we were thrilled! Tatem is your typical little boy, he loves playing with friends, trucks, trains, cars and making messes! When he was about 2 we realized very quickly that he had a speech delay. He has been in Speech Therapy for about a year now and is making remarkable progress. In other aspects of his life, he is progressing pretty much on track for his age.

Tatem has taught us what the love of being a parent really is. He has taught us what it means to fight for your kids and their needs, and most of all, he has taught us how amazing life can be when things don’t exactly go as you had planned. Although the unexpected can be hard, it is also where the greatest blessings can lie. There is nothing more wonderful and rewarding than helping a child overcome the things that are hard for them and seeing the smile on their face when the light comes on. We have seen how not every child's journey is easy, but we know that every hurdle is worth it. We intend on putting the same heart, soul and fight into every child that comes into our family.

23 months to the day after Tatem was born, Emerson was born. She is such a tender, sweet little girl! She loves to hug and cuddle just about anyone who will cuddle her back and has brought so much fun into our home! Her big brother Tatem adores her and she him. She is right on track with her speech and development and it has been a delight to see how her presence has helped her brother continue to progress.

We have come to the decision together as a couple that our family is ready to continue to grow through adoption. We were recently considering having a third child; we wanted our children to be close in age. We are people who have a strong belief that we can be lead to make decisions through prayer and careful consideration. As we prayed about the decision to carry and birth another child we both felt strongly that adoption was the course of action we needed to take. In fact, Tanner was praying about it and I was praying about but we didn’t know that the other had taken the thought to heart. I had felt that adoption was our answer, but didn’t know how to approach Tanner about it. Little did I know, he had come to the same conclusion; he came to me and said, ‘don’t think I’m crazy, but I think we need to consider foster care adoption.’ I was shocked because I too had felt the same. Days later, we began the process of becoming approved in Utah, and it has been one of our best decisions.

We truly believe that there are children who are supposed to come into our family in a different way than Tatem and Emerson did, through adoption. So far, this has proven to be a long process but we know that our future children are waiting to come home and we will sacrifice and do what it takes to get them here and provide them with all of the support and help they need once they arrive.

If you'd like to Contact Us with questions, support on your journey or to have us come speak to a group feel free to email us:

tayshay91@hotmail.com