Latter-Day Saints Adoptions

Can you love someone else's child as much as your own? Ed Kehl has answered that question with his whole life, first as a boy who joined his family at twelve and later as a father who welcomed two of his four children through adoption. In this episode of Latter-day Saints Adoptions, host Donna Pope talks with Ed Kehl, a former BYU and NFL lineman raised by Gary and Nancy Kehl in a home of nine children, six of them adopted.

A Boy Heaven Would Not Lose

Ed's early years in Florida were unsettled. At nine he left the home he shared with his dad and grandmother, and in one stretch he moved seven times in a single year. A bishop's family in South Carolina took him in as the ninth child in their home. Then his file crossed a desk at LDS Social Services in Utah, where Nancy Kehl was serving, and she felt inspired that the boy in the packet was her son.

A Father Twice Over

Ed waited nearly two years on his best behavior to be sealed to his family on his parents' anniversary, the same day his adopted brothers and sisters had been sealed before him. Years later, he and his wife lost twin babies born at 23 weeks. Days after their son's funeral, a call came about a baby boy who needed a family. Within days of holding Jayden on his chest, Ed knew the answer to the question every adoptive parent asks.

Today Ed is a father of four, his oldest and youngest both welcomed through adoption, and Donna and Ed close with the reunion decades in the making, the DNA test that found a half brother an hour away, and the birth father he now talks with once a week. Ed's counsel for anyone weighing adoption is simple.

Trust that God has a plan for your family too.

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Can you really love a child who was not born to you? Brooke Pace has answered that question three times. In this episode of Latter-day Saints Adoptions, host Donna Pope talks with Brooke Pace, a mother of five whose three youngest sons joined her family through adoption. After complications during her daughter's birth led to a hysterectomy in her twenties, Brooke and her husband Nate walked through a door they felt Heavenly Father had already opened.

Three Fears, Three Lived Answers

A grandmother in the family once told Donna what she believed keeps more Latter-day Saints from adopting. They worry the love will not come, they worry about the cost, and they do not know where to begin. Brooke answers all three from experience. A sister's reminder that a temple sealing is stronger than any genetic tie settled the first fear, years of saving and an unexpected gift met the second, and one conversation between her mother-in-law and a friend solved the third, leading the Paces to Heart to Heart Adoptions.

A Son Within 24 Hours

The Paces also know the hard side of the wait. During COVID, a match in Atlanta ended when the baby's birth father chose to parent, and Brooke grieved for months. When the agency asked if she wanted to go back on the list, she said yes, and 24 hours later came the call about Emmett. Two quiet weeks in Tennessee gave them time to bond. Then, just as the family prepared to adopt again, Bergen's birth mother reached out. She was expecting and wanted this baby raised in the same home, which kept two biological brothers together.

Donna and Brooke close with the moments that give adoption its eternal weight. They talk through three sealings in three different temples, a sealer who invited all five children to kneel with their parents, and Brooke's testimony that the covenants made there hold a family together beyond biology. Brooke's counsel for anyone weighing adoption is simple.

Trust Heavenly Father with how your family grows.

Get the Free LDS Adoption Guide at LatterDaySaintsAdoptions.org

Ten years of trying. Four rounds of IVF. Two miscarriages. Two adoption matches that fell apart. Then one phone call changed everything. In this episode of Latter-day Saints Adoptions, host Donna Pope talks with Ben and LaCol Kjar, whose story reached theater screens in the movie Standout and whose baby reveal videos have been viewed millions of times. Together they revisit the parts of their adoption story that the movie and the videos never showed.

A Son and a Name

After years of heartache, the Kjars got a call about a baby boy who had already been born. They boarded a flight on faith, telling no one, not even their parents. Within minutes of meeting the birth mother, she invited them to meet their son. That night, Ben woke at three in the morning with a name pressing on his mind. At the hospital the next day, the birth mother shared the name she had written down on her own, a name meaning protective warrior. It was the same name. Liam.

A Daughter Five Days Later

While the paperwork for Liam was being signed, Donna took a call in the hallway. Another birth mother in a neighboring town was due in two days. What followed was a season of doubt, a desperate prayer offered in a hospital bathroom, and counsel that both Ben and LaCol describe as one of the most sacred moments of their lives. A year later, a single text message brought their third child, Liam's biological brother, and kept the siblings together.

This episode is a study in tender mercies, the small miracles that stack up until the hand of God becomes impossible to miss. The Kjars speak with love and reverence about their birth mothers, and Donna shares parts of the story the family never knew, including what was happening on the other side of each phone call.

Get the Free LDS Adoption Guide at LatterDaySaintsAdoptions.org

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