MIRACLES DO HAPPEN!!!!!!
Our family had a true Christmas miracle this year. Many of you may remember the story about my parents trying to adopt a baby boy 20 years ago. When I was 11 years old my family had the opportunity to adopt Native American baby boy. You can imagine that in a family with four daughters, this was a HUGE deal. We got him and named him Tanner Jack Christianson and loved him with all our hearts. Then when he was 3 months old he was taken away from us. Because of tribal laws, we were not able to legally adopt him and so we lost him. As you can imagine, it broke our hearts, and my parents were devastated. We were able to see him a few times after that, and we knew that he had cerebral palsey pretty bad. After he was about one and a half, we never saw him again. We heard that his grandmother had taken him to a reservation and that was all we knew. My parents felt very strongly that he had died, and so to us we had lost our little brother.
Well, two days ago on Christmas Eve, my parents had the most amazingly happy shock of their life! A woman came over and asked if my dad was Jack Christianson and she had pictures of her son, Tanner Jack. It was indeed the Tanner that we had lost and she has had him for the last 10 years, living in Alpine, UT. Can you believe it??? For 10 years the son my parents had lost was living only 15 minutes away!! We don't know much about the first ten years of his life before she found him and took Tanner into her home and family. This woman's best friend attended an adoption conference my dad spoke at a few months ago at UVU. He told his experience about losing Tanner 20 years ago and this woman thought for sure it had to be the same Tanner. They put the pieces together and realized that it was indeed the same person. Tanner had no idea that we had ever had him. He didn't know that he had a family that loved him and wanted to keep him very much.
On top of that great news, my parents called today and said that Tanner was coming over to visit and could we come over to meet him. Stupid question! So, we went to my parents home and got to see this brother we haven't seen in 20 years that we thought was dead. It was awesome! He was so funny and told us all about what he does and really neat things about the Navajo culture. He is very involved with that and plays his drum at Pow Wow's often. In fact, he invited us to come and see him perform on New Year's Eve. I am really in a state of shock that this is really happening. I am so happy for my parents. This is such a blessing for them at this time of life. They have been called to serve as mission president and will be leaving for three years and it is such a blessing to have found Tanner before then. Who knows if it would have happened after.
I have an absolute testimony that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. My parents have prayed for 20 years that they could know something about this lost son, and by the hand of God it has finally happened. They were put in the right place at the right time and people were put in their way to put the pieces of the story together. I know that Heavenly Father has a purpose in all things, even when trials are so hard and we can't understand why, he knows what we need and he always has a purpose in trying us. I love Him for that. I am so grateful to see and meet Tanner. He is an amazing person!
Our family had a true Christmas miracle this year. Many of you may remember the story about my parents trying to adopt a baby boy 20 years ago. When I was 11 years old my family had the opportunity to adopt Native American baby boy. You can imagine that in a family with four daughters, this was a HUGE deal. We got him and named him Tanner Jack Christianson and loved him with all our hearts. Then when he was 3 months old he was taken away from us. Because of tribal laws, we were not able to legally adopt him and so we lost him. As you can imagine, it broke our hearts, and my parents were devastated. We were able to see him a few times after that, and we knew that he had cerebral palsey pretty bad. After he was about one and a half, we never saw him again. We heard that his grandmother had taken him to a reservation and that was all we knew. My parents felt very strongly that he had died, and so to us we had lost our little brother.Well, two days ago on Christmas Eve, my parents had the most amazingly happy shock of their life! A woman came over and asked if my dad was Jack Christianson and she had pictures of her son, Tanner Jack. It was indeed the Tanner that we had lost and she has had him for the last 10 years, living in Alpine, UT. Can you believe it??? For 10 years the son my parents had lost was living only 15 minutes away!! We don't know much about the first ten years of his life before she found him and took Tanner into her home and family. This woman's best friend attended an adoption conference my dad spoke at a few months ago at UVU. He told his experience about losing Tanner 20 years ago and this woman thought for sure it had to be the same Tanner. They put the pieces together and realized that it was indeed the same person. Tanner had no idea that we had ever had him. He didn't know that he had a family that loved him and wanted to keep him very much.
On top of that great news, my parents called today and said that Tanner was coming over to visit and could we come over to meet him. Stupid question! So, we went to my parents home and got to see this brother we haven't seen in 20 years that we thought was dead. It was awesome! He was so funny and told us all about what he does and really neat things about the Navajo culture. He is very involved with that and plays his drum at Pow Wow's often. In fact, he invited us to come and see him perform on New Year's Eve. I am really in a state of shock that this is really happening. I am so happy for my parents. This is such a blessing for them at this time of life. They have been called to serve as mission president and will be leaving for three years and it is such a blessing to have found Tanner before then. Who knows if it would have happened after.
I have an absolute testimony that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. My parents have prayed for 20 years that they could know something about this lost son, and by the hand of God it has finally happened. They were put in the right place at the right time and people were put in their way to put the pieces of the story together. I know that Heavenly Father has a purpose in all things, even when trials are so hard and we can't understand why, he knows what we need and he always has a purpose in trying us. I love Him for that. I am so grateful to see and meet Tanner. He is an amazing person!
