Elroy's Family
We got married in 2012 and Maryland for Emily to serve on Young Life staff. Part of her role on
staff was to be the director of Capernaum ministries. Capernaum is a Young Life ministry
directed towards teens and young adults with disabilities. Getting to lead this ministry together
gave us both a passion for people with disabilities. When we were called away from Young Life
staff, Sean and I knew that we would revisit this God given passion to serve this community in
some capacity in the future.
Alongside a passion for special needs ministry, the Lord also placed a desire to either foster or
adopt a baby in our future. When we decided to stop having biological kids after our youngest,
Avery was born, we prayerfully considered if it was the right time to begin the adoption process.
After seeing friends at church and in our community go through the Foster/Adoption process,
and understood it would be an investment of time and money, we had peace that it would have
to be whenever the Lord truly brought it to the forefront of our minds and hearts.
After attending a local Down syndrome association event in January 2022, it was instantly
clear that the Lord was calling us to adopt a child with Down Syndrome. As we looked further
into what this calling would look like for our family, we found NSDAN and it felt like an answer to
prayer. We were “all in”! We started the home study process a couple months later and were
officially on the NDSAN registry in June 2022.
We went into the process praying for 3 things:
● We prayed that God would give us the opportunity to meet a need - to provide an
option to a family who felt that they could not meet the specific needs of a child with
Down Syndrome. We prayed that God, in His sovereignty, already knew our child and
would give us the chance to adopt a child with Down Syndrome.
● We prayed for an opportunity to not just care for the needs of a child with Down
Syndrome but also that adoption would be an opportunity to invite an entire family into
a relationship with hopes to share the gospel over time.
● We prayed that our kids would catch the same vision that we had for this adoption. We
wanted them to have eyes for the marginalized, to be inclusive, and to be genuinely
excited for a sibling with unique needs and different abilities.
We waited for 10 months until we were matched with Elroy on March 22nd, 2023. God
answered all of these prayers in very specific ways by bringing us our sweet, Elroy Kai.
● Elroy was born on January 9th in Taiwan. His diagnosis of Down Syndrome came as a
surprise to his mom and dad about 6 weeks after he was born. His parents had
already made arrangements to move from Taiwan to Southern California once his
mom received her Green Card post the birth of Elroy. Elroy’s dad is a first-generation
Taiwanese-American man, who had moved from Taiwan to the US at the age of 13
and was the only one in his family (both immediate and extended) that spoke English.
Elroy’s mom would be moving for the first time from Taiwan to the US. Upon receiving
the news of Elroy’s diagnosis, his parents tried to imagine what their life would now
look like with a newborn with Down Syndrome. As they researched and pondered this
idea, they came to the realization that amidst also caring for their 18-month-old son
and transitioning to a new country which involves overcoming language barriers and
adapting to a new culture, they may not be equipped with the right resources to raise
him. They wrestled for a month or so before they made a decision to create an
adoption plan and soon after found the NDSAN which led them to our family. Elroy’s
parents were searching for a family that had the desire to come alongside them to
lovingly care for and offer resources they felt they couldn’t offer. They love him deeply
but felt based on their research of Down Syndrome, that if Elroy could have better
access to the correct resources, be valued and included, and be given opportunities to
grow - he would without a doubt, be successful in life.
● We had the privilege of going out to California to spend an extended weekend with not
only Elroy’s parents and biological brother, but uncle, great-aunt, grandparents, and
great-grandparents. The time gave us the ability to get to know them and their story,
earn their trust, and get to share our heart for adoption with them. It really was a sweet
time, in the midst of a difficult situation, that felt God-ordained. Conversations with
their family, despite cultural and language barriers felt natural, uplifting, and insightful.
It was clear in the big and little details of our time together that the Lord had gone
before us to merge our two families together.
● After spending the weekend together with Elroy’s family, his first parents signed
relinquishment papers that Monday and transitioned him to our care. The Lord made
this process seamless. We received the call that Wednesday afternoon that we had
permission to leave the state with Elroy and bring him home. This meant we could
surprise our kids, get to spend the last half of their Spring Break together, and
celebrate our daughter’s 8th birthday as a new family of 6! Elroy was greeted by our
kids with warm embraces and genuine celebration. The kids have decided that “Elroy
is perfect” and “he completes our family”. We have seen Avery step into her role of
being a big sister with great pride as she looks for ways to be helpful. Hudson has
taken on a new leadership role as he finds ways to play and engage with Elroy every
chance he can. Harper Grace has always been our nurturer, but she has taken this to
another level as she is able to help feed, dress, and watch over her new baby brother.
Our kids have created a rotating schedule for who gets to sit next to Elroy in the car as
well as who gets to pick out his outfits each morning. What a joy to see how quickly,
genuinely, and deeply they already care for their brother. The Lord has answered our
prayers.
We have had Elroy in our home for 4 months now and we couldn’t be more in love. We have watched
him persevere in therapies and already make progress physically and socially. In PT, Elroy has been
continuing to work on his neck control and we have seen tremendous improvement! We can tell
he is eager to start moving, especially when he sees his brothers and sisters moving around
him, but he can't quite figure out that part yet. He will start to kick his legs as if he wants to take
off crawling, yet is still right where he has been laying on his tummy the whole time. He
continues to work to strengthen the position of his arm extension to move toward crawling. We
are impressed by his ability to be pushed to his limits, persevere, quickly learn new skills, and
engage with her exercises for the entirety of our sessions.
Elroy began eating solid foods and continues to be on a consistent schedule with napping and
eating. So far he has tried broccoli, green beans, and carrots. The feeding therapist has been
impressed with his ability to manage new textures with his mouth and start mastering the
movement of using his tongue to eat off of a spoon. We will continue to work with her on this
and feed him meals during our lunch and dinner meal times. We are also working with her to
start to teach him 'baby sign language' - starting with the words "milk" and "more".
Some of Elroy’s favorite things include: playing on his water tummy time mat, interacting with
people (babbling, smiling, and giggling), and chewing on his teething toys. He is obsessed with
watching his older sisters and brother play around him and gets excited when he meets a new
