Rhonda Phillips Experience 2

From Rhonda Phillips, Logan, UT

Mother of eight children, including two sons born with Down syndrome

Paul (All for a Smile)

It was a Monday morning at about 10:30. The phone rang. When I answered it, it was Dallin and he said, "Are you having labor pains?"

I said "What?"

He said, "Are you having labor pains?"

"What are you talking about?" I said.

At that he told me to sit down and then said that the State of Idaho's adoption agency had just called him at his office and said, "We have a two day old baby with Down's Syndrome. Would you be interested in adopting him?"

Wow! Dallin it's our Paul. Yes we will take him. Wait we have seven other children, this could be hard. If we take him, it will definitely have to be a family thing. We will ask the kids what they think. "O.k.," Dallin said. I told her we would call her in the morning to let her know.

That night at family home evening we were out under a big pine tree in our front yard and sitting in a circle. We asked the kids how would you like a new baby? Emily, Becca and Cathrine stated clapping and jumping up and down. A baby! A baby! Yeah! Let's get a baby! JoAnna was only a year old and didn't get much of a choice. Patrick and Brian were also in agreement although not quite as enthusiastic as the girls. Christopher, the oldest at 12, maybe remembering some of the hardships with Patrick and his sickness because of being Downs said to wait a minute. He went into the house and came back in about 10 minutes and said yes, let's take him. When we asked what he had done, he said he had gone in and prayed about it and felt good about it. So there you have it. It was unanimous. We would tell the agency yes.

Now let's back up just a bit. Why did out of the blue the adoption agency call Dallin Phillips in Preston Idaho? Good question. Let me fill in what happened.

Seven years and four children earlier Dallin worked with a lady named _______ from the adoption agency. He worked with her quite a bit and got to know her quite well. She knew we had Patrick and she said, "Well someday we will have a child with Downs Syndrome and we won't be able to find a place for him and we will come and set him on your doorstep." Dallin replied, "Don't do it because we will take him."

O.k. got the picture, seven years latter _________ had left that office. Paul was born and the new person was standing at a desk talking to others in the adoption agency saying that a baby had been born that the mother didn't want and they didn't have a place for. At that exact time _________ was walking past and heard the conversation and said, "Well there was this red headed attorney down in Preston years ago but I can't remember his name." Another girl in the conversation just happened to be from Clifton, an area by Dayton where Dallin had grown up, and she said, "Was it Dallin Phillips?"

"Yes!" _________ replied, "It was. Why don't you give him a call."

Now don't think it was all smooth from there on out. We had to wait for one month to get Paul. Three days after we said yes, we got a call that a support group had been in to see Paul's mother and she said she would keep him. She kept him for two days then said she couldn't do it. So back he went to a foster home.

At nights I would wake up in a panic thinking what are we doing. We knew Paul had kidney problems and with all the problems Patrick had had we knew there might be more health problems. We also had seven kids. What were we thinking? Everything logical was shouting "No!" The agency had sent us a Polaroid snapshot of Paul. I would get it off of the dresser by the bed and get on my knees and pray. Immediately a peaceful feeling would come over me and the baby in the picture was mine without a doubt. Paul was already ours. Nothing more was to be said.

The other part of the story is that while I was carrying JoAnna I felt like she would have Downs. Dallin and I always thought that we would have another child with Downs and we just thought it would be JoAnna. When she was born and was beautiful and healthy I brushed it off.

We also had the name Paul picked out and after three boys everyone after that was a girl so we had not got the chance to use the name Paul.

That is another reason why when Paul came along it was just natural.