Evelyn's Family

When we got married, we knew we wanted a big family. We always wanted to aim for six children, but after two challenging pregnancies followed by struggles with postpartum depression, we questioned whether or not we’d even make it to three children. Shortly after the birth of our second child, we began to look into the idea of adopting a child. As a former special education teacher, Brandi has always been in love with the children with Down syndrome she’s worked with. She often floated the idea of adopting a child with DS to Paul and in December 2021 we made the commitment to follow through with it.

Since we knew we only wanted to adopt a child with Down syndrome, we began following the steps necessary to get our family listed on the National Down Syndrome Adoption Network’s registry. It took us three months, but in April 2022 we were officially a waiting family.

We thought we would be on the registry at least until the fall. However, we found out on June 21st that we’d been matched with the only family we’d asked to be considered for. We thought we’d have a month to plan for baby’s arrival, but our little Evelyn had other ideas. She came just two weeks later on July 5th! In a hurried scramble, we packed our bags and flew to Texas to meet her.

Evy has been a champ since day one. She was removed from oxygen and feeding support shortly after our arrival in Texas. She quickly learned how to drink from a bottle and made continuous weight gain while in the NICU. As a result, we were able to take her home at just two weeks old! The nursing staff was continuously impressed by her consistent progress. She touched the hearts of many in the NICU with her kind, gentle demeanor.

Evy has been the sweetest addition to our family. She is loved by her big brother and sister who enjoy greeting her as soon as she wakes every morning and giving her kisses before she falls asleep for the night. We look forward to becoming integrated in the Down syndrome community and have already felt the love and support from many organizations such as GLADS who have generously provided us grants for our adoption as well as care items to help Evy learn and grow into the strong, caring, individual we know she is meant to be.

July 2023

Here's an update on how everything has been going this past year.

To put it simply, Evy is amazing. Everything about her has brought a joy to our family that we didn't realize we needed. Her smile is contagious and draws attention wherever we go. And we go lots of places. Evy loves adventuring. In her one year of life she's traveled all over the state to go hiking and camping. She's happiest when she's out in nature. Evy also enjoys music, especially piano music. Now that she's sitting well, she enjoys being put in front of our piano to pluck at the keys just like her big brother does. Evy is a big eater. We haven't yet found any food she won't eat. She loves it all, especially broccoli and avocado. We are excited to share that we finally finalized her adoption shortly after her 1st birthday! It actually happened a year to the day that we flew in a plane to go meet her! I say it a lot, but we are truly blessed to have Evy in our lives. At her doljabi (a korean 1st birthday tradition) she chose the medallion off of the tray, indicating she'll grow up to be a leader. We have no doubt she'll use her charisma and loving personality to lead by example in order to affect positive change in this world!