By Bethania Wonagseged —
Exactly nine months after Baylor prayed for a younger sibling, Hayden arrived at their house to be adopted on Oct. 5, 2015.
Nine months earlier, Mom thought her 9-year-old daughter was adorable and silly when she piped up with: “Mom, I think the Lord is calling us to adopt a kid.”
”Well, I don’t feel the calling, but obviously if there’s a kid on my doorstep then I will take them in,” Mom replied politely. There were no plans for more kids.
Born in a Christian household, Baylor was the younger sibling and wanted to be an older sister. Her aunt, who struggled with alcohol, gave birth to Hayden and gave over parenting to Baylor’s mom and dad.
Nine months later. “When me and my mom looked back at those prayers, we just started balling,” she says.
”And now we have Hayden who is the literal best little brother ever. He is an angel,” Baylor says. “If you know him, he literally is such a blessing.”
Things took a downturn just before her senior year in high school.
Her sister-in-law, who was also her cheer teacher, cheated on her brother with one of Baylor’s fellow students at school. Her father, who sat on the board of the school, regretfully had to inform the board about the unfortunate events.
“Of course it spread like wildfire,” she says,” And there are people who were very very hateful to my family even though my dad did the right thing.
“It reminded me how Jesus was persecuted and how people didn’t believe what he came to say and how they hung him on a cross,” she says. ”Even when you do the right thing, there are going to be people who are still negative about you. It was hard on the whole family. There were times when we could hardly breathe.”
Baylor didn’t think she’d make it out of high school with the non-stop gossip and hate that swirled around her, but the trial stengthened her in the Lord.
“I don’t wish it upon anyone, but it brought strength and reliance on the Lord,” she says. “When you don’t have anything else what do you do you fall to your knees in reverence to him.”
