LDS Podcast "Latter-Day Lights" - Inspirational LDS Stories
Popular LDS Podcast "Latter-Day Lights" gives members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints the opportunity to share their stories of inspiration and hope to other members throughout the world. Stories that members share on Latter-Day Lights are very entertaining, and cover a wide range of topics, from tragedy, loss, and overcoming difficult challenges, to miracles, humor, and uplifting conversion experiences! If you have an inspirational story that you'd like to share, hosts Scott Brandley and Alisha Coakley would love to hear from you! Visit LatterDayLights.com to share your story and be on the show.
LDS Podcast "Latter-Day Lights" - Inspirational LDS Stories
Adopting 12 Children & Trusting in the Lord: Laurie Everett's Story - Latter-Day Lights
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Can you imagine the faith, love, and miracles that come with adopting 12 children, several with disabilities?
Join us for an uplifting conversation with Laurie Everett, a remarkable woman with a powerful testimony of trusting the voice of the Lord, and how it's helped her and her husband to find their eternal family.
Laurie's story is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit when guided by faith.
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To WATCH this episode on YouTube, visit: https://youtu.be/uDHUxVpUl-M
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Also, if you have a faith-promoting or inspiring story, or know someone who does, please let us know by going to https://www.latterdaylights.com and reaching out to us.
Trusting the Lord
Scott BrandleyHi everyone , I'm Scott Brandley .
Alisha CoakleyAnd I'm Alisha Coakley . Every member of the church has a story to share , one that can instill faith , invite growth and inspire others .
Scott BrandleyOn today's episode , we're going to hear how one woman learned to trust the voice of the Lord in order to heal herself and build her family . Welcome to Latter-day Lights . Hey everyone , welcome to another episode of Latter-day Lights . We are so happy to have you here with us today and we're really excited to introduce our guest , Laurie Everett . Laurie , how are you doing today ?
Laurie EverettI'm doing really well , thank you .
Alisha CoakleySo , Laurie , thank you so much for reaching out to us . I have to ask you how did you come across our podcast ?
Laurie EverettI just I have been felt so desperate to be in a place where the spirit of the Lord can be , And so I've been drawn to everything I can that YouTube has as far as near-death experiences . Randy Kay has become one of my favorite podcasts to listen to , And then I was listening to the Come Back by Ashley Stone And just thoroughly , it just feels my spirit . And then I stumbled on you guys, and I've been listening to that ever since many , many episodes .
Alisha CoakleyWell we are so excited that you reached out to us and that you have been an avid listener . It's awesome that you mentioned Ashley Stone . She was a guest on our podcast , kind of in our earlier days , right , like I think she was one of the first 20-ish or so something like that . She's got a great podcast . I haven't heard the other podcast that you mentioned , but we did just have , I guess , Vinney Tolman on , who speaks about his near-death experience And he wrote a book called Light After Death .
Alisha CoakleySo if you haven't listened to that , you should definitely go listen to it And you should grab his book because it's awesome , like it was a long one but it was so good , like there were so many good things in there . It's so exciting to me , I think , about all of the good that's being put out there these days , like we do have a lot of bad and we have a lot of evil and we have a lot of things that are very contradictory to the gospel , but with that we also have a ton of good that's coming to combat that , and so you can find it . It's definitely out there And I think it's awesome that you actually took the initiative to go and to look and to fill your life with these things outside of just your everyday . You know standard stuff like reading the scriptures and saying prayers , which is so phenomenal , but with the stuff that we have out there , we really do need to combat ourselves and like shield ourselves , right Like we need all the arsenal we can get . So kudos to you .
Alisha CoakleyThat's awesome . So , laurie , why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself , your family , where you're from ? all the good things ?
Laurie EverettWell , i'm from Utah , live there most of my life . We , my husband and I , are into our 47th year of marriage And we have 12 children . I think we have 10 grandchildren . That keeps changing , and I also became a number of years back I became the second mom to another adult girl , and so I have 13 children . My husband has 12 . Wow , Whoa .
Laurie EverettAnd I , I love , I love writing . I do a lot of poetry . That's kind of been my therapy to get through some really , really hard times , and so when I write , I write in the moment , the rod moment . And I also love music . I've traveled with my husband , who was a member of the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square for 21 years And he has served on the staff in the men's wardrobe ever since , and so all these years I've always traveled with him . We've made it a point to always be to the concerts and everything , so very , very involved with that .
Alisha CoakleyThat is so cool .
Laurie EverettI also love to do some paper cutting art and the Sunway Love to sing , love to my husband and I have loved dancing . We just a lot of things , a lot of things I love to do , yeah .
Alisha CoakleyOh , my goodness , Yeah , that is . that is awesome . What's ? what kind of dancing do you like to do ?
Laurie EverettOh boy , many years ago I started on the ballroom dance team at BYU , just started . I get progressed because my husband and I got married and he's too tall , so we , but he's , he's quite a dancer And so we've danced off and on , you know , throughout our marriage , and in fact for Christmas this year he gave me dance class that we and I are in there for a few months now . So that's just yeah , wow .
Alisha CoakleyYou know , it reminds me it's so funny when I , when I , was engaged to my husband , we we had a very short engagement , Like we met , we started officially dating on our third date , which was three days Like , like we had a first date one day , our second date the next day , a third date the third day , and we started officially dating then And then two months later we were engaged and four months after that we were married and a month after that we were pregnant . So it was like boom , boom , boom , boom , boom , boom , boom . It was like super fast . But when we were engaged , we had both decided we would go take some dance lessons to do like our first dance as a couple .
Alisha CoakleyAnd he I didn't know this because , again , like we were , we barely knew each other and we were already engaged , right . So I didn't understand what was okay for me to joke about and what wasn't okay for me to joke about . And I made a comment about how he looked like Frankenstein , because he was so stiff , like he just didn't . I mean , he's like a big guy too , and so he was so like stiff with his movements And I just it's made me laugh And I was like you look like you're Frankenstein , but it like gave him such a complex that he did not want to dance with me for like 15 years after that . So he now dances , we dance , and so that it's helpful . But , yeah , I had to learn the hard way . Like some people , they try really , really hard and you may just be trying to be silly , but you got to be careful with what you say . So that's cool that you guys both have rhythm and that you guys have , you know , made that a part of your marriage . I think that's awesome .
Scott BrandleyOkay , well , Laurie , why don't you tell us your story today ?
Laurie EverettAll right , I just have to say that something that I've come to know , that the Lord has shown me again and again and again , is that ours is a family of miracles . And you know , my husband and I got married and we bought maternity insurance and we just knew that we were going to be able to start a family right off the bat . We didn't want to hold off on that And so we paid for that insurance , i don't know , for a year or so , and all of everybody in our young married ward they were all getting pregnant and everybody was just easily having these babies , and my husband and I . It just didn't happen . It didn't happen . So we finally canceled the maternity insurance , I don't know how long after , and we threw ourselves into school and four years went by . He and I both graduated and got into our first home and got going with fertility drugs and treatment and never could get pregnant .
Laurie EverettAnd it was my dream ever since I was a little girl to be able to have , and I always said I'd have 12 children , and I don't know what that was about , but anyway always dreamed of being able to have a family , and we had an opportunity to adopt a baby when we had been married a year and a half . Of course we were . My husband was not ready to wrap his head around that one And it was just kind of a new thing . I wanted to be a mom so bad that I basically got into some real difficult emotions over that , because I just really wanted that baby . But we ended up not adopting that baby . Later on I would start realizing that the Lord would tell me through very , very distinct impressions that we had children coming And of course that baby did not fit into that . I just wanted to be a mom and I wanted to . You know , do it , everyone does . Everyone was doing in that ward and becoming moms and whatnot . So we moved into our first house . Nothing was happening as far as us getting pregnant And so we started doing foster care and took a number of emergency foster children into our home And we ended up being able to have this one baby come into our home And it foster care is the hardest , hardest way to build a family .
Laurie EverettAnd if I can say , one thing I learned about that time is that no one should go into foster care expecting to adopt . It just shouldn't happen . And caseworkers , social workers , should never , never , lead on anybody into believing that they could adopt any of these children . That should never be the focus , but it was for us . I wanted to be a mom in the worst way , and so you can imagine the heartbreak when we've had that first little boy come to us . We fell head over heels over him and then lost him And you know , that's , that's a story . But I had to do a lot of , had to learn a lot and and that's something you know I had to learn to love these kiddos and let them go .
Laurie EverettBut our oldest daughter did come through that system . She came as a tiny , tiny newborn baby And and I again it was . It would be traumatic once , after a year of no contact from birth mom , and suddenly they tell me that birth mom wanted to visit And that was just . I just put my you know everything into that baby And that was a really scary moment . But anyway , that's how she came into our family is through the foster care program And she was our first . But that that really scared me away .
Laurie EverettWe have taken about 40 children through the foster care program up until that point And I didn't want to do that anymore . Maybe 35 children actually , and anyway , and so we went about trying to adopt and our next baby , and so he came through LDS at the time it was LDS social services and we were able to get that beautiful little baby boy . And by about then is when I started to recognize I knew that baby was coming . When he did , I just knew and I knew he'd be a boy . And so we had friends that were also trying to adopt through LDS social services . They had been on the waiting list for I think , a year at least a year ahead of us And and they weren't getting their baby , they weren't getting your baby , but I knew that baby was coming And , lo and behold , he came exactly when I just had the impression that he would come . And that caused some interesting feelings between these , these friends of ours , because they it would be another year , so after we got that baby , before they would get there . So you know , it's just the thing about wanting to be mom and dad and it just not happening . That's a good way to start to realize who's in charge and start to look to the Lord . I believe every experience we go in this life is designed to cause us a reason , give us a reason to look to the Lord and to be trusting in him like never before . And so the next one we had a little sibling group , that three little kids that we were .
Laurie EverettWell , we actually were contacted by the social worker who called us out of the blue and asked if we were through building our family or were we interested in adding more children to our family . And I said that I was very interested , that I wanted nothing to do with foster care ever again . That first little experience I really had a hard time with . There were some scary things that happened with that oldest child of ours . I didn't want to go through that ever again . And so he thanked me and we got off the phone and we went
Adoption, Loss, and Hope
Laurie Everetton our way . And two months later he calls again . He says we have this little sibling group , two little girls , a little boy , siblings , and their adoption is 99.9% for sure . And that's what we were told .
Laurie EverettWell , i had had the impression , very distinct impression , that we had three more coming . In fact , I got back into fertility treatment and I was taking a fertility drug that was known to bring about multiples pregnancy . And so that's where my thoughts were . And I'm going . I kept thinking I'm going to have triplets . I'm going to have triplets . I knew it was going to be three . So when he called me about these three , I knew those were our little kids . And sure enough , we got them And my whole attitude was always , always looking toward we would be able to adopt them , and so I never took them as foster children . He assured me this case is 99.9% for sure . Those are the words he used .
Laurie EverettSo we had these little kids for 11 months and , lo and behold , they were taken from us and returned to their birth , and so that was beyond . I can't tell you , because I came to know they were my children And there was a fourth one born during the time . That anyway , after the first time we lost the three children , I was so , so sad And really had a hard time dealing with that . Well , case worker called me and said we have and this is after how many ? maybe about six months , six months , they said we have a baby . The parents of lost the parental rights . This baby is , for sure , able to be adopted . There's no strings attached , nothing . You can have her if you want her .
Laurie EverettSo that was a baby we actually went and brought into our family And I was determined to make it happen . So I brought the , we brought the baby . I guess they brought the baby to us , I guess that's what it was . And basically I got the baby and passed her to my husband . There was no attachment or anything . Again , you know I'm not into collecting whoever . I want to know what the Lord wants us to do . And so we were busy calling family and telling them all the news and it was so exciting to get this little baby And my husband's holding the baby , and then our daughter that was six years old at that time .
Laurie EverettShe had a chance to hold the baby And , and you know , between my husband and our six year old they just kept holding that baby . And finally , when I put the two youngest children I mean those two children that we had at the time to bed , I was left with that baby . We called her Malia and I looked at her and I came to know with no one , with absolutely certainly , that baby was not our baby . And that was happening while my husband was still on the phone with one of his siblings talking about , you know , getting this new baby . And she was nine months old . Suddenly all of her challenges with seizures and whatever else was going with her was loomed , way too big . I just knew she wasn't my baby . It was like I was . I had taken somebody else's baby . She wasn't our baby , okay , so we took her back to the next day , wow .
Alisha CoakleyWe took her so hard .
Laurie EverettAnd you know a lot of people couldn't , you know , make a judgment with that . But I knew she wasn't our baby And I could not . There was no way it would be right for us to keep the baby that belonged to somebody else . So I tried to adopt another baby when , when we had lost our other children But no , she wasn't ours And I knew that ours , ours were coming back someday . And we ended up getting them back again a year later for three weeks , and we just spent up that whole three weeks celebrating . And the fourth one came at that time , and so then we lost them again And then we got them again . That's a whole other discussion , bayway . A lot of difficulty in getting all four of them back with us , but it was so , so thrilling to me that that we would be able to get them back .
Laurie EverettAnd when we lost them the first time , I remember , you know , again , my whole focus was these are the ones that we're going to be able to take the temple . We're going to get them sealed , We're going to this is we're going to be able to finalize an adoption here . That was my whole focus . And so when I'm going to get a little emotional , when we were told that , for sure , the judge had ruled that the children go back , i was a mess And I just emotionally , really , really lost it And I thought I always suffered with depression and anxiety my whole life , but I , I couldn't handle this moment . I didn't , I just couldn't even function .
Laurie EverettAnd I remember getting on my knees in my closet and just pouring my heart out , not that I even had words that I could even share , other than please , Heavenly Father , please don't take my babies . I just couldn't . I couldn't do it , i . That was a really , really difficult moment , and so I just begged and I bawled and I bawled and I bawled and I begged , and in that moment of the greatest despair , i mean these little
Adoption, Grief, and Joy
Laurie Everettkids . When they came to us they were five months old , 15 months old and two and a half , and the two and a half year old was more like a year old in his , his development . So they were just little .
Laurie EverettAnd our older , older boy than that was five months older And so he was three . And we had three , two and a half , and , and these two little babies And of course our older daughter was three years old in that . But , but as I'm in the closet just pouring my heart out to Heavenly Father Very clearly , I heard the voice of the Lord telling me Laurie , I will not rob you of this experience . And with that , when , when you know , you get that kind of communication through the spirit , there is such a piece that attends that there's clarity , there's , there's peace , and I was able to stop the grief And I got out of that closet and I was able to move forward and was able to let those kids go . And so the last few weeks that we had them , it was I wasn't frozen with this debilitating grief that I had been when I got the news .
Laurie EverettAnyway , those , it ended up from beginning to end with those , those children it took us seven years to finally , finally , finally is their adoption And that yeah it was a big wow And we , we went through a lot of experience , a lot of extreme traumas during that time , but we had ended up getting those six children and that was . That was thrilling . It would be later when I would come to understand what it was the Lord was not going to rob me of And it took time to understand that because at the time , you know I won't rob you of the experience of losing those little kids . You know what's that about . But later on , oh , my goodness , what ? what each of our children , not just those four , but each of our children have taught me and brought me actually face to face with myself and my own need for healing from a past I didn't know I had So anyway . So we had those children and then we have them seal to us and finalize in 1996 .
Laurie EverettAnd that was such a I can't even explain what that was like you know seven years that it took us to be able to finalize these children and to take them into the temple . You know , the going to the courtroom was one thing and I remember just balling there and then getting into the , the temple and well , actually driving up to the temple and seeing this fire of the not Timpanogus temple in the . It just suddenly started really hitting me what day this was . This was the day we could take him to the temple , and I so desperately look forward to the day that happened . That it just , you know , took so long seven years and and I have to say one more thing , you know , and those little kids were taken from us . I never got those babies back . Those babies never came back . The children that came back were older , so I never , ever , held those babies again And there was a lot of healing that needed to take place with those children because they came back in a much different way .
Laurie EverettBut one of the things that I will say too is had we been able to adopt them when they were brand new babies I came to find out we wouldn't have ever found out what happened to them . I would have never known how to deal with behaviors . There were so many things I needed to learn . In my patriarchal blessing , this education was really stressed , my patriarchal blessing And , my goodness , what I have learned through the process of building our family . So , anyway , 96 , oh , and then we go into the temple and we go down the corridor and get to the room , and that room is filled with people that loved us and love them . And all of a sudden they hit me again and I just started bawling , but loud bawling . It was so amazing to be able to take those children to the temple And what I learned is the greater the sorrow , the greater the joy , And our Heavenly Father wants us to have the greater joy . You think about that . If everything was easy , we would not be filled with the utmost joy . If life was just an easy journey , and for me it's been so difficult , so much in my life . So anyway , 96 , we get those kids finalized .
Laurie EverettIt happened just before Christmas that year in 96 . So we had such an amazing Christmas So that my husband kind of was thinking that we were done Okay , and our therapist that we had been had involved with helping all of us , she felt like , definitely we needed to be done . And so my husband was talking about how it was going to be in another 10 years when the youngest of those four turned 18 . And we were able to you know he retired and how it was going to be . And right when he was having that discussion on this one day particular , I just I was getting really bothered because I knew this , this knowing , and I can't explain , it's just a very distinct , very clear impression I had another baby coming And so , anyway , so we started in with the next six children and got a little baby with a private agency and then we ended up .
Laurie EverettThis was Oh , how do I explain ? just one after the other so we get that darling little baby , and it was the new experience for us having this brand new baby that the whole family could enjoy , whereas our first two babies that were brand new And it was just my husband and I . But we get this , this other , you know , our seventh baby and everybody this , you know , we've got children that are old enough to be totally mesmerized and taken by this little baby boy we got , and costy , he was such a gorgeous little baby , just anyway , and so he kind of had us all wrapped around his little fingers And we just absolutely thrilled with him and I I had learned a lot about attachment and bonding and healthy children to be able to develop into very healthy , happy children by by you might say mending the broken attachment , broken trust , that these all little adopted children go through . Every single adopted child goes through broken attachment , broken trust , just by nature of mom walks away . And the other clear impression that came to me to and I was going through this , especially with that little boy that's when it's really started hitting me . Here we are having a big party over this incredible privilege and opportunity of bringing another little child into our home , this little baby , so brand new , and , of course , this that that child was three days old when we picked him up .
Laurie EverettAnd the reality was what does it look like when a baby is grieving ? What does it look like when a tiny , brand new baby is trying to make sense of a senseless world , having birth mom walk out of his life and he never sees her again ? And I , it really hit me quite hard that these babies are confused , they're scared , they're grieving because they're there , their attachment , that this wonderful girl or woman , whoever you know , walks out of that baby's life . And while they're in this state of confusion and sadness , we're celebrating And we have a big party and we invite everybody and we everybody , you know we want them to see this little baby and we just celebrating , and so we've got this .
Laurie EverettTwo things going on at the same time is is you know , we're celebrating , babies grieving , trying to make sense of it , is it anyone to ? some of these babies just numb out and they never quite recover . Is it any wonder that there is a chasm that is created between us and that baby ? And so that chasm , because more and more parents that child gets older , because we're not on the same page , we're not giving that baby a chance to grieve , and so that just that knowledge just was coming to me and I again , I , I've been taught through the spirit and that was one of a profound lesson that I had to learn . And so with that baby , I he was , he was just such a quiet little guy And I pulled him right up to my ears and I started telling him his name is Jeremy . I says , Jeremy , I think it must really be a sad . You must be feeling really sad and confused because your mommy went away .
Laurie EverettYour mommy is gone . And I just even got emotional and I just really had that moment where I just wanted to just take away his hurt because I had learned through taking our other children to therapy , but that's , that's a reality for these babies . They need a chance to be heard . And so in that moment , while I had that little baby up to my , up to my face , and I just started telling , talking to him about his story and and giving voice to his emotions , suddenly he just started bawling And I just held him and I just loved on him and just held him and and told him I was so grateful that he was willing to share with me his feelings and it was such a tender moment . So , anyway , that was that was really taught .
Alisha CoakleyThat is like that is such a profound perspective , something I literally have never heard or even thought about that before . Because you do . You think , oh , you know , if they're , if they're younger than a toddler , they're not going to remember and they're not going to know what's going on and everything like that . But then again you think about it , and I mean they . They literally just came from this beautiful place , you know , from being in the presence of Heavenly Father and surrounded by people that love them , to coming to this earth and having that confusion And and even if their mom , you know , did it out of love , right , like there's so many mothers out there who do have to , for one reason or another , they give up their children because they love them so much that they want them to have a better life . But it doesn't mean that that baby understands right away , you know , and you hear the stories of people growing up and even knowing that they were adopted and always having that question of why , why , you know , even if they have an amazing family that they get adopted into right away , that why is always there and it kind of makes sense what you're saying , like maybe it's just something that they don't realize what's going on , but they're feeling those feelings and it's their first earthly experience right to have this , this confusion almost of like , wait a minute , you know where am I and where is my mom and where is my dad and where . You know to kind of have that .
Alisha CoakleyAnd you know , I almost think to now that you've said that , I wonder if sometimes that's why babies just cry is because they are grieving the loss of the family that they had on the other side of the veil . You know , like maybe there's a grief process in being born , just in general , as well as that grief process in passing on to the next life . You know like maybe there is something to that . So , so , even those who aren't adopted , maybe as parents or as siblings or as relatives or people that love these , these newborn babies , maybe we can just give acknowledgement to their feelings of . I know it must be really hard for you to not be there anymore , but we're so happy to have you here . Yeah , I , that's just . It's so like , it's just . My mind is like oh , it's such a beautiful perspective . It really , really , really is .
Laurie EverettWell , the reality of adopting to is that I just remember when I first , you know , became a mom , I was trying to make so much of my experience be the same as everyone else is . you know . just , I did do a lot of healing . I've come a long ways , but anyway . but what I've come to know about adoption is that there's a chemistry that runs in a family , and so you have and I've seen this distinctly with with But two groups that they came with siblings okay , and within that group it is such an apparent theme that there is a , there's a chemical connection that exists in families . when children are born into the families and where there may be really differences in their personalities or whatever , there is a chemistry that everybody shares in that family . if everybody is connected to each other . but with the children , there is definitely that connection that exists with them , and it doesn't exist with any of the single adoptions that we have . it's been very , very well manifest . I recognize it for what it is . That doesn't have anything to do with loving each other . we love each other , we work together , we claim each other is a family , but there is something very tangibly visible or that is there that connects those natural siblings together , that is , it doesn't , doesn't exist with anybody , but with the child outside those children
Trusting Intuition
Laurie Everett. so anyway , so I was going back to this , this seventh baby I I , he ended up being one of my most difficult children By far . we went through a lot with him . When he was 10 months old I've been carrying him in a in a cuddle pack I learned to do adoptive nursing and so I had the privilege and blessing and be able to nurse my newborn babies And but when he was 10 and a half months old , we were so as a family , we were so much into that little boy and and I had I started having that distinct impression again that we had another baby coming .
Laurie EverettWell , I wasn't ready to share myself with another baby , but I knew that we had another one coming and so basically , I put that thought up on the shelf and knew that it would happen . I came to trust that when I got those very distinct feelings . I knew that it would happen . I just was not ready to to go out and find that baby And interestingly enough , those two children are 14 , let's see , 14 months apart And at the time I started having that feeling come over me that we had that baby coming , he our next one had just been conceived . It's very interesting , and that's why I started realizing with some of these babies . that's when my feelings began about these babies , or children is is about the time when they were conceived , and so so I had that on the shelf .
Alisha CoakleyYes , I just have . I mean , you're at baby 10 at this point , right ? No , this is so seven , seven babies that we're going to have an eight Then you're gonna have an eight , Okay , And how is your husband accepting of all of these feelings that you're having ? because I'll tell my husband all the time I think we need another baby . He's like I think .
Laurie EverettI'll tell you what . He is such a gem And it's going to get better , okay , but he learned very early on that he has , I have the gift of knowing things And he was told again his patriarchal blessing he needed to marry a woman of faith And he just learned to trust when I was given I have the gift of knowing these things And so , over and over and over again , my husband would trust me And I mean he was happy if we had only had two children . That would have been doable And it would have been made life so easy . Have we only had two ? Yeah , here we are , you know , getting ready for the next one , and and I told him and that I knew , in other words , it was coming .
Laurie EverettBut when , when Jeremy was almost 14 months old , I woke up one morning knowing I had to find that baby that day , it was just I had to find that baby , and so that was January 2nd , the year 2000 . So I immediately get on the phone and start calling around to these different agencies and different ones that I've worked with before . But what I found is all the all of them were closed because it was the first of the year and it happened to be the New Year's weekend , I think it was a Monday , I don't remember , but nobody was open . But I knew I had to find that baby . It was just this And that was one of the times when it would happen later on with other children that there was , there was such a knowing I had to find that baby and nothing was going to stop me from finding him that day . And I so , after calling several agencies , i finally I didn't know what to do And all of a sudden the thought came into my mind call Shasta Perry . Shasta was a facilitator who I had talked with several times before but never worked with her to to get any of our children . And so the minute that voice came and told me that I was on the phone calling her .
Laurie EverettNow you have to understand that I was I very determined to get babies , but I would spend time making profiles and sending them to everybody . So just kind of quietly and deliberately doing what I needed to get the next baby . But here I am . I know I've got to be finding that baby that day . So I get the impression call Shasta . She gets on the phone . I says Hi , this is Laurie Everett Shasta . We need to find our baby . What do you have for me right now ? You don't do that , that's just not what you do , but that's what happened And I just can't what you have me have for me right now . And she says Oh well , right now we have all of our , all of our birth moms matched . Well , what is it you want ?
Laurie EverettAnd I says I don't know , I just know that we have another baby coming . And she says , well , I'm really sorry . Oh , actually I just got an email about a medically fragile little baby And let me go and look at that . And she went and back to her email and she had this little baby had been born . Let's see , when we got him is five and a half months old . So so he had been . They've been trying to place him in an , in an adoptive home for four months And they had just barely taken down the costs of adoptions by $10,000 . And and the Lord let me know , I needed to go find that baby that day . I don't know who else would have tried for him , but we were able to make the connections She put me through to the person down in Florida and we were able to go the end of the week and go pick him up . But that story , that was an amazing experience
Answered Prayers and Spiritual Warfare
Laurie Everett.
Laurie EverettThe Lord very deliberately organized our family the way he did , and that little baby changed our lives . So I'm in this mode of just moving forward , you know , getting all the information , everything , and then I want to just make sure , heavenly Father , is this the baby ? And so I went in the other room and got down on my knees and I just started talking to Heavenly Father . Heavenly Father , we feel like this is the baby , of course talking to my husband in the meantime , and so , with his support , i go in the other room , get on my knees and just pray . Heavenly Father , I need to know if this is the baby that's to come into our family . I'll tell you what that , if nothing else , has taught me that Heavenly Father hears and answers prayer . That prayer was one of the most profound And I knew that little . You know the swelling in the bosom and just it's . For me it's like a movement of water going forward , everything's forward , pushing me forward , and that's how the answer to prayer has been for me , over and over and over , as I prayed about our little babies that were in our family . And that's how it was . It was very profound , more so than it really even has been ever since that baby .
Laurie EverettSo this is baby number eight , and so I got up on my knees and I just knew I was going to get that baby . And so my husband and I and we were going to take our other baby down with us to Florida to get that baby And so I get up off my knees and open the door and go out , and I'll tell you what that was an experience of feeling and immediate . I got attacked by the powers of darkness and it was so , so real to me to have this dark energy , this dark oppressive energy that attacked me and got me to where I could not move forward . I started feeling confusion . I didn't want the baby . I did not want that baby . I wanted my more time with this other son And I really I just the feelings of not wanting that baby were very , very real .
Laurie EverettSo here I had been in there and it's better . Now I just totally confused and I feel overwhelmed because here we have six children , a lot of special needs with those six , and it was overwhelming enough having the children we had already , with all the needs they had , and suddenly I couldn't see how we could take another baby on . Anyway , those feelings were so real and so huge that I finally went back in . I says how many father . I'm so sorry I'm there again . I've got to know . Is this really what we're to do , because we made the decision to go after this baby ? Oh , the calm , all the peace that came over me And again that swelling in my bosom being filled with light and this rushing forward of energy is like rushing water . It was very , very real to me . I knew absolutely for sure that that baby was to be our baby .
Laurie EverettSo I get up off my knees and I go and open the door , go out the hall and immediately get attacked again . And it was . You know Joseph Smith talks about . He felt like he was doomed to sudden destruction , that very negative dark energy where you just can't move . I couldn't move forward , I couldn't go and I couldn't plan forward Again . Those feelings of not wanting that baby . I am feeling overwhelmed . Oh , same feelings and the confusion and darkness . And you know , it'd be many , many years before I come to understand how the adversary does give us . He talks to us in the first person so that we get confused and we don't realize that the thoughts that we keep hearing are not our own , but they get planted there by the adversary as he speaks in our own voice in the first person . It gets very confusing And I think this was like oppressive . I could not move forward and I can't even describe the minute I opened the door and then this happens . And so this is the second time this happened And it was impossible .
Laurie EverettWe had to be on the road , I think within five days , and that means farming all the you know six children out and getting everything ready for us to go . I believe at that time we had baby goats and I mean milky goats and whatnot . You know a lot of responsibilities . I had to be ready to go . So I again went back in the bedroom , closed the door , got down on my knees and by then I'm a little perplexed , heavenly Father please . And I just begged him and apologized that I , you know , just explain it , I can't do this , I just need to know . I'm really confused . This is really what you want me to do , what us to do .
Laurie EverettAnd again , same thing , swelling in my bosom , being filled with light , and that rushing forth , knowing in that moment , absolutely knowing there was absolutely no question whatsoever , no doubt , that that baby belonged in our family . And so and you've got to understand too there was some , you know , medical things going along . This is a medically fragile baby And all those issues would just be bigger than life every time . And so , again , I was filled with peace and I just knew what I needed to do . So I get up off my knees . Go out in the hall , you know . Open the door , go out in the hall and walk . It happened again .
Alisha CoakleyOh my gosh .
Laurie EverettAnd finally I went back in the room and I says Heavenly Father , I cannot move forward , I can't get ready to go , unless you keep that evil spirit , that Satan and all of his hosts keep them from me . I can't move forward And I have committed myself to taking this baby . But I can't do it unless you take over and keep us , keep me safe from him . So then I get up off my knees , open the door and I'm protected And I'm able to move forward . And in five days , which is a monumental thing . And again we're dealing with children with a lot of attachment issues , a lot of behaviors , a lot of difficult behaviors , with children who have dealt with significant breaks and trust and attachment and just a lot of issues related to their adoption . And so it wasn't just a matter of , you know , call aunt so and so or sister whatever . No , these children have special needs and took a lot of effort to get them where they needed to go . But we finally get to Friday and we fly out , my husband and I and our son Jeremy , the other baby , 14 months old , and we fly clear across the country to Florida And get there , get our rental car . Everything is going really , really good and fine . I just it's amazing And I'm looking forward to getting this little baby by now And the baby's in a foster home And the foster mother , who has had him for two months , request that we stay with them when we come to get our next little boy , which is Jacob , and she wanted us to stay with them for five days . So that was the agreement . If we would agree to doing that , then we would be able to come and get the baby . And so we get a rental car , go driving all the way out to their house and get ourselves up on the front porch , and the minute I take step on that front porch , whoop , the adversary is allowed to attack me again .
Laurie EverettNow , that was very , very interesting , and so the Lord carried me clear to the porch of where our baby was living . And suddenly , though , all that negative energy came , just , was thrown on me , and I had to deal with that . And so you know we had rung the doorbell or knocked , I remember , and grandma foster grandma opens the door . She's holding our little guy , and I'm looking , I'm feeling this oppressive energy And I don't want him . I'm holding my son , I don't want that baby , and I'm feeling which I can't believe I ever thought that now I have to deal with some very , very difficult feelings . I'm feeling confused again . I've got this our other son on me carrying him in and she lets us in , and but I got all the way there I knew that little baby was ours And I'm just feeling this incredible heaviness . Don't want that other baby , I just want to take our Jeremy and go back home . But I handed Jeremy to my husband and I followed him in And grandma didn't offer to hand him to us . She went and laid him down the bassinet And that's where I get a little bit very deliberate and a little bit pushy when it comes to these babies . So I went right over the bassinet without asking and just picked him up And I had a cuddle pack And for the next nine months that baby had to sit in my cuddle pack and be close to me .
Laurie EverettAnd that little baby went through some real depression . You could just tell he was very depressed . Anytime he saw the foster mom , Cathy , he would light up and he would just be happy . But looking back at me , there was just such a depression on his face And so he ended up getting quite sick when we went back to Utah and he ended up getting sick and got really sick The RSV virus , I think . But there was more than that . He had some other things going on , got really sick and demanded that I interact with him And I had to really be quite vigilant with him to help him get through this illness . And finally , when we had had him for six , six weeks , one day I realized I'd fallen in love with this baby . I loved that baby .
Laurie EverettNow you have to understand he had some real oddities about him . It was microcephalic , small head . He was long and lanky . He had no muscle tone , no muscle strength And his hair he just had this look Well , as people told us , told me when we first brought that baby home , he looked like a depressed 80-year-old man . He just had this look about him . But then , of course , he started being happy with us and would interact with us as far as being . He started having that joyful thing about him And that baby ended up being kind of like a catalyst I don't know , a transformational person , where that baby really transformed our family .
Laurie EverettJacob being our eighth child , he was the one out of all of our children , he's the one that the adversary absolutely was determined to keep from coming into our family . And he , I think he knew that everything would shift with Jacob . Jacob was born , like I said , microcephalic head and low muscle tone , low strength , and I didn't know at the time that he had epilepsy . But looking back I realized a lot of the things that he had been doing were actually seizures , but anyway . So he wasn't developing . He kind of got stuck at five-month development for a good year And he was going nowhere . And when he was around 15 months old . So we got him when he was not quite six months .
Laurie EverettWhen he was about 15 months old , i had different people coming and telling me about a modality called Craniosacral Therapy And finally , when the third person approached me and you know , have you heard of ? I finally decided to listen . There's the magic with the number three . We took him into the . I had gotten a recommendation of a specific therapist . I took him in there and they did this that when you watch it done , it doesn't look like anything's happening .
Craniosacral Therapy
Laurie EverettI didn't know anything about And I actually went in on a prayer . You know how many times I helped me to discern I don't want to do something that's not , you know , not in alignment . Yeah , i wanted to do right , I don't want it to be a little bit awesome . So I went in there and I didn't find anything . You know , I didn't feel that contrary spirit , nothing . It just it was okay . It's just kind of weird . I didn't understand it , because they basically held our son and did nothing , that just hold him and look like they were doing nothing , okay , and then they went and held his head for probably 10 , 15 minutes and then they were done , or she was done with this .
Alisha CoakleySo is it like ? is it like an energy work ?
Laurie EverettVery much energy . But what I did I would learn later what it was . Basically they well , I'll tell you So . So it took me a month to even even think about taking him back because nothing happened . It was weird . I was working with early intervention people and he was not progressing , he was not doing anything different , but nothing was happening , nothing at all . And so you know , finally , six , one month later , 16 and a half months old , i finally went back in and she does the same thing again , but nothing else was working And I felt that was the direction the Lord wanted me to go .
Laurie EverettSo , again , sat through that session , she holds him , holds his head , holds his bum and just holds him , and then she goes and holds his head and spends I don't know an hour with him . I don't know how long it was , and when she's done she said I think you're going to see a change in Jacob . And so I took him home And I , by then he could . He could sit up as a very weak sit Again . No , the muscle tone and strength was just not there . But he , he could sit up . He had . No , he was so disconnected with to anything in his physical world And the only thing he would respond to is if we talked to him or or , you know , played with him , but as far as he would never acknowledge anything else . He would never play with toys , never had any connection to food , even It was a real trick to get him to just take baby food , very , you know , very much baby food . He couldn't take anything beyond that , he couldn't . He just was so disconnected .
Laurie EverettAnd at one session I brought him home our Jeremy , you know , he was two and a half by then and and we had two steps going from our kitchen to our family room And there was the best of the toys that Jeremy always played with . And I came home , sat Jacob , right there by the toys And I'll never forget the look , how his eyes just got wide And he reached his hands over his head , grabbed the basket , pulled it toward him And for the next couple hours started discovering all the toys in that basket . He had never acknowledged a single thing outside of people , Never . Wow , and that was just an amazing thing . And so the next session , 10 days later , I took him back , she worked with him again And by the end of that session he had a very prominent ridge going up in his forehead . He never had much of a soft spot And , gosh , he was a microcephalic .
Laurie EverettAnd so she worked with him saying thing again . But when she was done she says I think you're going to see a softening in Jacob's face . And you know , he really did look like a little child . That had been , his head had been put between vice-crits because he was , he was very narrowing his head and that prominent ridge going up his forehead , and so anyway , she said that she thought I'd see a softening in his , his face . And she says that I think he's going to discover what his feet are for . So she didn't promise anything , that she's saying what she thinks going to happen . And so I bring him home and I'm sitting on the same steps right by the basket of toys and Jeremy's just , you know , into those toys . And another thing about Jacob he was able to stand as a little five month old baby would stand . But if you blew on him , you know , then he would fall over .
Laurie EverettAnd so I stood him at my knee while I'm paying attention to our two and a half year old and could not have been more shocked in my life . Then , all of a sudden , I realized that Jacob had left my , my lap and had walked away from me , walked away from me . He started progressing . He started at 16 and a half months old to scoot Okay , we just , you know , we didn't push the walking so much . He didn't even know how to scoot , he didn't know how to fall by fighting means scoot . Then he got into crawling and eventually , within two months , by 18 and a half months old , he's crawled over the cat , pulled himself up and he's walking away . That's dynamic . A year later , when we're still dealing with him , not making any effort to communicate or take communication , nothing . We took him back because she said just see what he'll do , and so she didn't do anything with him for about a year . So the year later he wasn't still , you know , communicating , and after that session she did some what they call mouth work And it's just directing energy of the body , but anyway , and he came out talking sentences . So he had suffered . Is it apraxia ? I think that's what it's called that people that suffer strokes . That's how it would be manifesting . So , anyway , I could go on and on about Jacob , but mainly , Jacob had a chance to start progressing and growing .
Laurie EverettAnd I'm a craniosacral in my very , very . I'm not an expert , but it's basic . There is , there is the nervous system , circulatory system , digestive system and all these systems in our body . Well , what , what else we have is this craniosacral system of the body and it has to do with the membranes around the muscles , it has to do with energy , but there's an actual flow , there's a craniosacral fluid that goes through the body , there's a rhythm And I started learning more about that . But so craniosacral therapy changed everything with Jacob . And when I talked with one person just trying to understand what's happening , she , she basically got a cloth and wrinkled it up and laid it down on a table , wrinkled it up , and she says craniosacral is like gently straightening out the wrinkles . And so that's that's , you know , basically what I was taught .
Laurie EverettAnd because Jacob went in there , I started looking at help for our children in a different way And my , you know , just kind of expanded my mind because Jacob got that help and he had a lot of craniosacral for the next little bit did lots of changes . He's not . He's not microcephalic anymore , his head grew back to normal size , he had a softening , he had his one eye had started to turn in , and so he was losing vision in that eye , and that was all a part of that , and that all changed And he didn't lose his vision And he changed , so , anyway . So there we have eight children , and , and then I get the distinct impression we have two more coming . The Lord showed these children to me , and they were two little children that I saw in a doorway as if they were trying to come through , the older being a little girl , very little girl , and The younger one being a very little boy , and they were dark . We got these two other little boys that were both black , and when I saw these , these two little children , waiting to come through The doorway , they , they were very dark , and so I immediately started trying to find those children and I was sending , sending my , our family portfolio , doing all the normal stuff , you know , and , and Nothing was Was happening . We just had closed doors , frustrations , things , and I , my heart , wasn't in either . It was just so interesting and , and so I will say this too You know , adopting children has been an incredibly spiritual journey , a journey of learning some of the basic Things about following the spirit of the Lord , learning to trust in the Lord . That it's been an amazing , amazing journey for me .
Laurie EverettAnd so , you know , seeing these two little brown children with with Just little children , and going all the directions , I thought , you know , logically , we've already adopted these black children and , and so I just took for granted That's where it was gonna go , but nothing flowed , and I couldn't even . You know , I was like I was doing my due diligence by sending all the portfolios and whatnot , but My heart wasn't in it . I knew the children were coming , though , and so I didn't quit , and one day at church I had There was there was a brother that had King , his wife had been adopting , and I remember how many children they had at that time . I think they had the three children that were all birth siblings , so the same birth mom gave them three children and , and , and so it's just he and I talking . We just happened to be , I think we were in the part of the cultural hall or something , and he and I just asked him , you know , do you think he'll go for more ? and ? and You know he was kind of sharing his feelings on that . He says , actually we we Got information about the Marshall Islands and we were planning to pursue that . But then he started telling me all the reasons he didn't feel like they were gonna go that direction . And the minute he said Marshall Islands , it was an amazing , was like an electric impulse that just grabbed me and he had been Trying to get information and just move ahead And it'd been six months or so since he got that information . He didn't get back with me , just wasn't , you know , seeming to move on that . But I need to get the information . So I ended up getting that from him and everything that was required I had done within months time , if not sooner . I don't remember , but it was like pushing me . I knew and that's the thing , I just know Where to go because the Lord was teaching me and and the spirit was guiding and so Next thing , you know , we , we get called on these children that are coming from the Marshall Islands and I knew exactly the ones we are gonna get .
Laurie EverettAnd so when I was talking with the adoption Facilitator or director , she was telling me About how she had the six-year-old little boy and a younger little girl that were birth siblings and And would we consider taking them , or is that gonna fit ? and I said No , our older one is is the girl and the younger one is the boy . And she says , well , this is this is who we have , you know , the older one was six and the younger one was three . And and I just That's not right . I says , don't you have another little boy ? and she says yes , but we're giving that , giving him to another family , another childless couple , and I said No , that's my little boy . Just knew that was my baby boy , anna . I knew the older one , you know , was the little girl , as the spirit just told me I knew that was , that was my little , our little children , so , and And so I just told her I was basically bearing my testimony , these are . That little boy belongs to us . Now you have to understand
Adopting Special Needs Children
Laurie Everett.
Laurie EverettShe was looking at our family situation . We had at the time we had these two little boys . Our Jacob had just gone through some amazing , amazing at things , and so he was just emerging into some , some normalcy , but he was only Not even two , no , he would just turn two . And So Jeremy was three , he was two , and I'm telling her that she needs to give me the three-year-old and another one That's almost two Okay , all the other six children , many , many special needs with those . And so she was really not willing to . But then , as I just told her , I know Those two are the ones that I'm we're supposed to have she finally relented and promised us the little girl and the little boy and she said but will you please Consider taking the six-year-old ? This is an older birth brother . Well , I'm all about keeping siblings together . I went through a lot to make sure that the little ones that we got through the foster care system Stayed together , because they were inclined at that time to split up those children , and I just fought to make sure that those children can stay together . And so , by golly , yeah , you're gonna give us those two . I definitely will pray over the older one , and So I did .
Laurie EverettI went in and expecting I've come to know that I can get answers to prayer every time , and it's happened every time , and , and so I went in and just said how many , father , we're just really considering that we want to take the six-year-old to Just help . Help me know if this is the direction we should go . And And immediately , with my eyes shut , I felt like my nose was pressing Right up next to a brick wall . There was no . I felt diminished the feelings I had again .
Laurie EverettWhen it's true , when it's right , it's like Alma 32 . That's , that's such a good indication of how it's been for me with prayer , it's just nothing . It grows , it expands the soul that you're filled with light , your foot filled with Knowledge and peace , and there's a moving forward . There was none of that . I was up next to a brick wall and there was no crossing that wall And I knew there was no question . I knew that little boy was not to be our child . Now , that's kind of strange because I keep children together and so I let him know . Well , the one that ended up getting him Had had such a spiritual witness that that little boy , she knew he was coming and she had had that spiritual witness that was her child . Well , it's so interesting because we know each other and we've had a lot of occasions to talk and we've needed each other . The Lord brought us together that way , so we got our aim and we got our Matthew , and so we have these where we up to 10 , 10 children . And Then there was another baby that was in this group too , that I just , I definitely would have taken the newborn baby , but again , that It was . It was interesting because the I call first thing in the morning and said you know what we want the baby to ? I want to , you know , keep this family together , I want the baby to . And she said , well , the babies are already going to another family . She says that the other mother Had had a dream in the night and she woke up in a panic First thing that morning and called her way too early in the morning because she knew her baby was coming and That was that baby . So I called after She had made that phone call and so so , anyway , so we got the ones that were meant for us and living life with these 10 children and Again , you know , start having feelings .
Laurie EverettI had another little girl coming and Those feelings very much persisted . I just expected it to happen someday . But we were very involved with our family , although I kept , I had the impression this one was going to be older , and so I was in a Taekwondo class and there was a little girl there that the grandma was trying to raise and I thought , well , I wonder if that's our next little girl you know as , as are we going to , you know , is somehow that going to happen ? I just found myself asking and looking and I didn't know who that girl was going to be . At the same time , not long after that , i started having a distinct impression that we have little , another little boy coming , and I knew that he was going to come with cerebral palsy , the thing . That that's another thing . I was kind of told in advance about some of the challenges some of these kids would have , but so the youngest . I knew that he was coming , but I also expected a little girl first , but I also knew this little boy was coming and and so So then we start building our home , and one of the things you never do unless you have to .
Laurie EverettWe didn't have to , we just chose to . But we came to realize that you don't try to do anything big and monumental , like build a house , when you're like children with attachment disorder , and And We just were a glutton for punishment because those little kids that had such a difficult time dealing with that , and So we were thrown in some real difficult times . During that time my husband was working full time , but We were trying . He found , you know , we had our plan for the house . We had purchased a large at home with a large lot it was an acre and We thought someday we built behind , and so that's what we ended up doing . So But he ended up needing to be kind of the contractor At the same time . He's supposed to work full time at the same time That he is fulfilling his responsibilities with the tabernacle choir . So With this whole , you know , building the house and my husband , he had to actually take off time from work , his full-time job , to be able to do what he needed to do with with the building project , him being the The contractor for that kind of an unplanned Contracting that he didn't realize it was going to take so much time And me being so busy with the children that had special needs and their behaviors that really were escalating out of control .
Laurie EverettWe never really talked , we didn't have a chance to talk and he would be out there all day And I would be dealing with my things . We just never . I never told him That I was having these feelings about having another little boy come into our family . I just knew it was going to happen and so I also knew that if there was no way I could go and find that baby . I couldn't send portfolios , anything , we had to just deal with the things that we were . So I basically put that Knowledge up on the shelf , expecting it to happen someday but not having any ability to bring it about . And so we went ahead and and Did everything we needed to do , finally got that the house finished enough that we could move in .
Laurie EverettWe moved in and it wasn't even a month later when I got the phone call from the birth mother of some of our children from the Marshall Islands and She just wanted to cry on my shoulders , so to speak , because she said there was another adoptive family that had brought birth mom to the states to be able to give birth to her baby and then they were going to adopt the baby and And they , when the baby was born with Anomalies and real challenges , they pulled out and she was so upset because of you know , the baby was born with these anomalies that was upsetting to her . But then to have the other adoptive family pull out , leaving a really difficult situation with birth mom that was here and and the baby baby was born preemie And was obviously blind , but there was some other things going on and they didn't know What , how it was all gonna go . But the minute she tells me about this baby , you know I knew that was my baby , that was him . No , he was , that was him and I ended up praying about it myself . I knew that baby was , was our baby and so . So then one My husband comes in sometime and I just I've got to tell him we have this baby .
Laurie EverettHe has always been extremely supportive , you know he's he kind of hides his feelings a little bit when it gets feeling Overwhelmed that . He's learned to trust me and so he's always supported , always made it possible , always , you know , financially , whatever needs to happen He has , he has provided . He's been an amazing , amazing Person that way . And so you know he comes in to our bedroom And I want to talk to him when the children didn't hear . So we went into our bedroom And I looked at him and I says , honey , I just can't even see this part . Honey , I just got a phone call and they have our next baby .
Laurie EverettI've been telling you kids , I've got big and it had been so stressful How many , and I had heard how many marriages can you know you've got a good , strong marriage , if your marriage can list that . I don't remember all of them , but building a house is one , yeah , and so , anyway , I tell him that and his eyes got big and he says no , no , no , i can't do it , no , I think it's real traumatic And I've just frozen . I don't know what to do because I know that baby's our baby . I got knowledge that baby's ours and he was beyond , you know , and this is so uncharacteristic of him . But in that moment I laughed . Now because , you know , I'm a little older now and I , oh my goodness , can you even imagine that ? And how is he to know that ? I just didn't want just a baby . It was made available and I just want it , you know . But again , you know , we've gone to the experience of that and no , I'm not one to just go collect babies . I knew that baby was coming And , interestingly enough , with him being born at seven months , the time when I expected . Well , it's told that he was coming , it was seven months , which is really amazing
Miracles in Adoption and Healing
Laurie Everett.
Laurie EverettSo anyway , here I am kind of in a dilemma , and so my husband kind of stormed out a little bit And again , that's not his character , but he did . He just was so over the top with being overwhelmed and the project in the house cost way more than we were able to . We've never had . You know , if money were a reason for adopting , well then we would have never even had one child . We've never been well enough financially . In fact , we have just dug in pretty deep financially in adopting and dealing with all the therapies and everything we've had to do . We've . There's been times we were $150,000 over the mortgage of our house just trying to deal with everything . We were with our family And so in this moment you know he's lost three months of being down working and he had a job at BYU that he couldn't do that but he did and it eventually worked out . But it was extremely difficult for him to be home during that time and building a house and everything is costing more .
Laurie EverettI mean it couldn't have been a more stressful situation if you had even tried to create it . And so my husband stormed out and I'm left in there just kind of frozen , not knowing what to do . So I just turned to the Lord and got on my knees and said how many father , you told me this baby was our baby . Now there's no way I can move forward getting that baby . You need to work with my husband . You need to tell him somehow , because my husband's never been able to have his experience of adopting and building our family . He has . He's the one that trusts me and I'm the one that has had the gift of getting an answer through prayer . And so I just said you've got to tell my husband , you've got to work with him , because I can't . And you know , within 15 minutes he came in and he says what do we need to do ? What do we need to do ? And that's my husband . He is just a saint , he just to trust me . It's just amazing . So we ended up getting this little baby , and you know I've got . I can spend all my time just talking about the different miracles that have happened with our family . Our family is truly a family of miracles , but so we ended up being able to get this baby and bring him home , and it ended up being one of just an extremely difficult , very , very difficult experience with that baby , because he was born blind , deaf . He had an amazing experience .
Laurie EverettSo Alma , this very disabled little boy with all the anomalies , he was number 11 . He's in the hospital eight weeks preemie and he's not on life support , because he was doing really good . The problem was they couldn't get him to take a bottle And so he was doing really rather well at four and a half pounds , but they couldn't release him And they were just planning to keep him there in the hospital with an NG tube and just let him be there until his due date , which would have been . So . He was born September 9th . He would have been born in November and planned to keep him , and so , because the other family had pulled out , they were not willing to give us this little baby . They were not willing to even entertain the thought of us getting involved with him unless they met with us .
Laurie EverettAnd so my husband and I went up and I just knew I was sure this little baby was ours , and so they were trying to tell me all the realities , and one of the things they said was that he is blind and one of his eyes , his left eye , has a severe colaboma and that means it never quite finished developing And I understand that and I could be wrong . I'm gonna slaughter this cause I don't know exactly , but I understand that eyes in a developing baby it starts from the front and goes to the back And in his case the back never closed up and left him with this colaboma And so not fully developed . That was in his left eye . His right eye only grew to about 50% , so a very , very small eye . And when the ophthalmologist first checked him over when he was in the hospital , what they found was there was this little , tiny eye but there was no visible iris . It was way up Now this teeny , tiny little , you know preemie baby , tiny , tiny head . And so having when the doctor says , you know , that eye was way back up inside with no iris , that's like going a mile back in his head . He's a tiny , tiny little baby .
Laurie EverettOne of the things they said was that small micro micro-found that guy was gonna need to be surgically removed . There was no question about it . It had to go , it was useless , it could turn tumorous later and you know all sorts of things , and that was just the beginning . They didn't know everything else . They can't know everything else with a baby We knew , even as an eight week preemie baby . He had severe scoliosis at that time . So you know what were we dealing with . I just knew that that baby was there . So , with the knowledge that , that , you know , he is born profoundly deaf and had this little eye that was gonna have to be surgically removed , I didn't care . And so we were able to get Bob brought the cranial psychotherapist and worked with him , and he ended up being in a semi-private room , and so she had a little bit more latitude as far as what she was able to do , cause it was not really a conventional type of a thing that they did . But she came and started working with him . She spent three and a half hours with that baby , this tiny little baby , and did mouth work with him and whatnot . Now , during the time she was working with him , the nurse dropped a clipboard and he jumped . There was no way he could have felt that He had to have heard it . And so other things started happening while she's working with him And in the end , several things happened in that first little bit .
Laurie EverettNumber one , his little , his whole face . He was beautiful every newborn baby is But everything shifted forward . His whole bone structure just moved And this little chin had just been . You couldn't even hardly see a chin , it was just kind of way back . It actually come out . And so everything shifted . And then they , we noticed that when he opened his eye you could actually see this little eyeball . And , sure enough , that little eye , that teeny micro-found the guy had done , traveled right in where it needed to be .
Laurie EverettAnd later on we found out he's a perfect candidate for what's called a scleral shell . That he has worn ever since And it just helps everything to develop normally . So he's not asymmetrical , he's more symmetrical in the look . So that little eye didn't have to be removed . That actually was able to hold this prosthetic scleral shell And he got full hearing in his left ear And most of the hearing in his right . Since then again , he's been able to get full hearing .
Laurie EverettAnd what else happened at that time ? It was amazing . So , anyway , oh , and then and then , because we saw this little chin come forward , I started talking to the nurse . We have got to see what we can do about giving him a bottle . We've got to see if he'll be able to take a bottle . And they were not even thinking about that , they were just gonna keep him with an NG tube . And I made her prom the nurse that was in there . You've got to promise me you will just give him a chance , just see if he'll do it .
Laurie EverettBecause , as she had been quietly looking at what's happening , she was amazed at what she was witnessing And so she wanted it to continue . But yet what was the hospital gonna say if they found out type-C ? or just a real difficult thing for her . But she wanted it to keep going . She could see that it was bringing about some pretty astonishing results And so , anyway . So they kept going with him and he got the hearing , but anyway . And so she ended up giving him a bottle .
Laurie EverettAnd this happened after we left and I went home . But they ended up giving him a bottle and he was able to grasp it , and it was because everything was in the wrong position . It had to be relaxed and brought . So he ended up , instead of staying in the hospital until November , we got him the following Friday and brought him home . So we get him . And then we had one another boy that we ended up being in the same ward as his family And there was a real difficult situation And we ended up getting our Brandon , who was nine years old at the time And Brandon was number 12 .
Laurie EverettAnd I still wondered , you know what about that little girl ? And I ended up becoming a second mom to an adult girl , and so that ended up being the one , and that I knew that we'd be adopt . I just didn't realize that she would be as old as she was . She was an adult and I became her second mom . So you know , it's just , it's amazing , and there's so many more . We really are a family of miracles . I'll tell you a really cool thing .
Laurie EverettWe went down to the Mantaipagent when they had the pageants down there and enjoyed it , and we didn't want to drive all the way home that night because it was a long drive , and so we went to my sister's house and left in the morning , and in the morning we started the trek home . We had a 15 passenger van And I think I don't know if we had every one of the children . I think our oldest daughter had moved out by then , but we had most of us there . My husband was driving the road , the stretch going all the way up to the freeway was such a quiet road You just didn't get hardly any traffic , and so there was only us , and we saw a car way ahead , at least a quarter mile ahead , and that was it . And so there's a lot of cows out on the side and whatnot , some farmed , lot of grass , and so it can get kind of boring along there .
Near-Death Experiences
Laurie EverettI had some art that I was doing in my lap and my husband was driving and not really paying attention in the car way ahead And he's kind of looking out the window a little bit . And after we had been on that road for I don't know however long , I just felt my head lift up , and so I raised my head And all of a sudden , you know , looked and that car that had been a quarter of a mile ahead had stopped in the road And we were within two seconds of plowing into it , two seconds of plowing into it . And I guess my reaction you know we talked about this after . We didn't have any time to really talk about it then but I probably went ugh , or something you know and brought my husband back where he was focused , and by then we were within just a second of plowing into that stopped car .
Laurie EverettAnd you don't have time . You know we can't pull out . There was a bully on the one side . But you know one second there's no room , no time , no nothing . And all we could do was brace ourselves to go plow into this car . And you know , while we're even beginning to think about this , suddenly we're in the front of the car . And there was no crash .
Scott BrandleyWow , wow .
Laurie EverettAnd we were trying to register what had happened And I , you know , we're just kind of stunned And we don't , as far as we know , none of the kids really saw what was going on . It was just my husband and I and we were driving beyond and we were just trying to wrap our hands around because here we were just ready for crashing into the back of that van , which you know all the emotions and adrenaline , everything and we're in the front of the van and the front of the car and You know what happened and for a long time , every time we go on that stretch , my husband , i , were always trying to find me . We kept driving Because we were . It was kind of one of those situations where we were in shock , nothing happened and And so that was , that was an amazing moment like We were being protected and I , for many years I talked about that , that situation .
Laurie EverettOur son , one of our oldest son , was going into the Marines that summer and I had been so , so upset that he was was choosing to go in the Marines . There was no , he wanted us to sign him up for the Marines . There was no way I was gonna sign him up for the Marines . It was 17 when he went into boot camp and turned 18 while he was there and but there was no way I was gonna do that and I was absolutely torn up about him going into the Marines and Knowing that he could be killed and whatnot , and totally torn up and he was with us on there on that trip and From that moment and I believe I can say this with integrity from that moment of going through that experience , I Have not worried about one single thing In life . I've had concerns , but I any worry about anything has been taken from me Entirely and I Have known Absolutely that the Lord was not gonna take any single person in my family Until it was time for us to go , until our mission was complete . I've known that and I have not felt any worry . My son was able to go in the Marines and I never Worried about him . I was concerned but I knew there is no way we should have survived .
Laurie EverettYou know , totally missed out on that crash and It would be many years later when I was just trying to get my hands on anything that was near-death experience and I was so , so into that and I happen to Read Randy Kay's Book and I don't remember what it's called now , but it's his near-death experience . And while I was reading that , do you know that Randy Kay went through the same thing , same thing , and he explains it in his book and when I came to that I was flabbergasted . There was somebody else that had been through that experience and Where he I think his was maybe a head-on collision . I and I don't remember exactly now , but he was beyond that car and he , you know , really pondered that , didn't know how that could happen . That happened with us , but then it would take another 16 years after that Near-crash experience That , all of a sudden , the Lord gave me an awareness That that that was a miracle .
Laurie EverettYes , but that wasn't the miracle . The miracle That he wanted me to be aware of happened that day , 16 years later , and that was It was going to happen . The miracle was going to happen , but he brought my face up to witness it . That was the miracle and the thing that I know , I Absolutely know that the Lord is aware of every one of us and I and Randy Kay I Am not the only one .
Laurie EverettHe's out protecting .
Laurie EverettHe's not just protecting my husband and every one of our children , he's not doing that just for us ? We have no , no , we're not any more special . We're a regular people down here on the earth , trying to do what we feel like the Lord wants us to do . But even if we work , there are miracles that are happening to every single one of Heavenly Father's children . We're his children . He loves us . He's never , ever , ever abandoned us . He never gives up on us , no matter where we are , no matter what the choices we make . He is aware of us and I dare say every single one of us has those experiences . But we don't always have our eyes open to see . Sometimes I think maybe it's spiritual discernment , I don't know , but I'm positive it's happening , and so that was , that was like a huge , huge lesson , and that was , you know , three years ago . That came to me , my goodness , that was the miracle . It was so much greater than the miracle that that happened to us , and so that's my knowledge . So , but the other thing , That is just absolutely incredible .
Alisha CoakleyI , oh my gosh and you know what I love about , about your perspective . There is . It's not that Heavenly Father is necessarily gonna miraculously save everyone and make everything perfect , right Like your children still had struggles that they had to go through . They still , you know , physical , mental , emotional , spiritual , like all of that kind of stuff . It doesn't mean that everything's gonna be wrapped in a bow , but , but the fact is , like he is there and he has These little things that he's gonna be doing throughout the way , or big things right both that he's gonna do throughout the way , throughout the way . And when you realize that you can still have a miracle And you can still have hardship , right like you , they can code .
Alisha CoakleyOh yeah , right , you can still have flaws and perfection in the same sentence . like you can still have that peace and that pain , you can still have all of those things Exist together . I think that , like you were saying , that kind of is the miracle is recognizing that we have those oppositions and We can still grow closer to the Lord because of them and through them , and you know what I mean , like in Overcoming them and everything That's just your story has just been so incredible and Wow , definitely something that I think we can get a lot of lessons from .
Scott BrandleyYeah , and I do think , I do think that you are special , laurie , because anyone that can adopt 12 kids Especially when they have a lot of them , have 13 , when a lot of them have special needs That it takes , that takes a very special person with a really big heart , and I have no doubt that . I mean God took all that time and effort to bring those kids together . He wasn't gonna let all that go in a car accident , right ? And the thing that I think about miracles to miracles are things that happen that you can't explain , right , and that's why it's a miracle . So you know , you said your family has had many miracles and I do not doubt that because God's looking out for each one of those kids and for your family . And and What a , what an a crazy , what a inspiration , inspirational story that you have . Thank you for sharing it .
Laurie EverettWell , i have to say that you know He's . You say that we can have grow closer to the Lord while we're going through things . I'd say that that is That's . That is what brought me closer to the Lord is a very difficult experiences that I've been through . That's That's when the growing occurred . It was while I was going through those , those experiences .
Alisha CoakleyWhat an incredible story , what an incredible woman , what an incredible .
Challenges of Raising Disabled Children
Laurie EverettDo you remember I I knew that our youngest was going to come with cerebral palsy . Yeah , okay , that There were so many things that were that we dealt with with him . Okay , so many things Health issues . He's got intolerance . As you know , we dealt with a lot of health challenges because of that . It was when he was seven years old , his vision specialist called me on the phone one day and talking , and she said she mentioned Something about his cerebral palsy . And I says he doesn't have cerebral palsy . She says well , his teacher at school said he's got cerebral palsy . And I says no one ever told me that . I , you know , the doctor would have told me . So the next thing , you know , i go in to talk to his teacher And she's got all of his medical records because he's , you know , been in the life skills class and She took me right over there . Do you know that when he was nine months old He was diagnosed with cerebral palsy ? So you know , it's very cool That that validated I knew he was coming with the cerebral palsy .
Scott BrandleyWow hey , laurie , could you give us just a quick recap of like where your kids are now and how how they progress , since they were Just real fast ?
Laurie EverettYou know , they're all just where . The Lord knows where they are and he's working with him , still has that . It's been . It's been a difficult journey and they all , you know , they're all grown up . We actually , you know I didn't mention that we're we've been very much involved with raising Two of our grandchildren , so actually two more children We have .
Laurie EverettWe have three children living at home , three disabled boys , because the last one that came a Brand and he was deaf , autistic , and so we've got some interesting , you know , challenges going on . Deaf , autistic . And then The Jacob , the little miracle boy He's . He is so Amazing with his capabilities , he helps us take care of the two little grandchildren He is . We were able to Find things to help him with epilepsy , so that he used to have over a hundred seizures a day . Well , over a hundred seizures a day . And now , now we might see why , once a month maybe , or something . It's just amazing . Again , the Lord has led me or brought into my life things that would made a profound difference . And so so we have Jacob , and then Brandon and then Alma . He blesses heart . He's got , he's got a lot of anomalies . Just this year He started having grandma seizures and so he's , he's had some real challenges . He's got real severe Scoliosis . Still he's a perfect hearing . He plays piano like no one's business . But again , the cerebral palsy with him is very much . You can see it in his fingers . Fine motor is something he struggles with all the time . So there's a lot of things that he's not been able to master . What else with him ? He's probably the biggest challenge we have with him as he's autistic . So you know a lot of anomalies . But oh , my goodness , that that little boys has brought our family joy . His , his sister that said 25 . Oh gosh , that's terrible . She's almost 25 or she is 25 anyway . She took him to prom this this Last week , took him to prom and this made everybody cry to see the videos and the pictures that you know That's Alma had blessed our night . So we have , we have those three boys , we have the two small , our daughters to children that we've been raising , the oldest daughter and she's had a lot of medical challenges .
Laurie EverettOur Son , that son that that went into the Marines . He came home pretty much missing in action and Stayed that way for about 12 years and all of his friends all committed suicide . Just some real tragedy and we knew that we , we were bracing ourselves , the any days we could walk into his house and we find him dead also , and all of a sudden , to see he's just doing phenomenal , he's he . The Lord just blessed him immensely and he was able to Get out of his basement to , you know he , when he was in Iraq , he kept , he said I knew I was gonna die and he's got you know , AD, ADD and he couldn't stand just sitting back there in the Whatever it's called Anyway , and so he started volunteering to go out on every mission and And and so finally , after seeing all the times he could have been killed , he finally realized , well , maybe I'm not gonna die . And so he came home . So came home with a lot of PTSD and real traumas and so back to see him today . It's just , it's so , so cool to see how he's just blossomed and you know what he's done . So he's doing really good We have .
Laurie EverettAnd then the son that's just younger than him . He's he's had some struggles but he's , he's doing good , you know , overall He's , you know , struggling and just adopted a cat and taking care of he's an apartment . You know , everybody's just kind of doing , doing their thing and our Jeremy's in prison and and He's just a cool kid too . I just you know that he's had some real close calls in prison and I Totally attribute to the fact that his life was spared in there . He joined a gang at 13 years old and so I didn't know what he was doing and with the challenges He has , and that happened when he was in detention and so you know that's played a part ever since then . He's now 24 years old and and you know he's had to try his best to stay away from the gangs and whatnot and his life was He was gonna be snuffed right out and then but the Lord intervening . It's just amazing .
Laurie EverettAnd then he he talked a little bit . It sounds like he had a near-death experience from a Overdose in the prison , but he's through . He you know little things he said . So he's doing on our Amy . She's just phenomenal with how she's carrying on and just such a blessing in our life .
Laurie EverettAnd and You remember the young little boy in the in the . You know he's , he's just a phenomenal person . He's one of the most thoughtful , just wonderful people that you ever want to meet and he's had some , some challenges . A lot of challenges come from the Marshall Islands and our Alma really kind of shows He got . He got nine anomalies , you know . So it seems like many , many of these children come from the Marshall Islands , suffer some pretty big challenges . And our Matthews , no , no difference . So we're searching for answers for him because he's Said you know he's going to a lot of grandmals and other things that are happening And so , you know , challenges keep happening .
Laurie EverettBut you know this is , we're here to learn , we're here to experience , we're not here to make things easy and anybody that thinks that we didn't come to become acquainted with the adversary , they need to wake up , because that's ideally , one of the main reasons we came here is so that we , if we don't become acquainted with the Adversary , how on earth do we ever hope to come to know our father in heaven and our savior ? How can we come to love our savior with the kind of love that Inclines all of our devotion , all of our commitment ? It's a you have to know the adversary , and I have come to know the adversary . I know the adversary that is is , you know , hates . He does horrific things to people . I also know the adversary that likes to be that very Curious , charismatic , I guess is that the word I'm trying to think of and and the liar that comes across as being everything He is not . I know the power of darkness and It's brought me to my savior . I Love the Lord , I love my heavenly father .
Alisha CoakleyI love that's awesome .
Alisha CoakleyAnd you can feel it when you talk and and you can feel the love that you have for all of those babies The ones that you were able to keep in , the ones that you had to give back . You can definitely feel all of that love . So that has been incredible . Laurie , thank you so much for coming on here and for being a guest today and for sharing your story , and thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in and and for sharing each and every one of these . These shows that Scott and I are able to , you know , provide a platform , for we are so , so grateful and so humbled to be able to be in this position , to be able to To hear these stories and to get them out to other people so that they can hear them and grow their testimonies from them too . So , um , laurie , yeah , seriously , just thank you so much . We're definitely gonna have to have you back on to tell some more stories later on . I think you've got a book or two in you .
Laurie EverettI actually I've written a book . I've actually written a few books , yeah , awesome .
Alisha CoakleyWell , if you want to share any links or any ways for for our listeners to get a hold of those books for you , we can put that in the description . So okay , okay .
Laurie EverettThat sounds great , yeah , great .
Scott BrandleyYeah , thanks so much , Laurie , for being on the show . Wow , you're such a great example to show other people what true empathy and and love looks like . So thank you for being here and for giving us that taste of of you know . I mean just I know you probably kid , you probably have hours and hours of stories to share But we , like , like Lisa said , we could really feel it and Just thank you because it just gives , gives us that extra . You know , that extra feeling of that we don't feel every day , where You know , where we know that God is there and that he loves us And that there is a plan , and by having you share your story , you get other people get to feel that and experience just a piece of that . But it changes , it changes you . So we really appreciate you being willing to to share that . Thank you for this opportunity , All right guys .
Laurie EverettWell , that's all we have for you today .
Alisha CoakleyPlease be sure to comment below . Let Laurie know You know what your favorite part of her story was and make sure that you guys do your little five minutes And make sure that you guys do your little five second missionary work for the day . Click that share button . We would love , love , love to be able to get this story to as many people as possible . And if you guys have a story that you'd like to share , one that can instill faith and fight growth and inspire others , please do not hesitate to head over to Latterday Lights calm and fill out the contact form at the bottom of the page . You can also message us on Facebook . Scott and I are really good at getting back , you know , relatively quickly If you send us a Facebook message . We would love to hear more about your stories and see how it might work . So again , laurie , thank you , you have been incredible . And to all of our guests , we'll see you guys next week . Bye , bye , thank you See ya .
