BRANDON GAGE BURRIS

What can I say about our adorable, little Brandon? He keeps us on our toes, that is for sure, and he is our youngest child going through his terrible twos. Though he is our youngest, he is chronologically our second child. There was quite an extensive gap of eight years from the time we brought home MaKayla and the time we brought home Brandon. Why did we wait so long? It wasn’t because we didn’t want more children, but mainly because we moved frequently and every time you move to a new state, you have to restart the adoption process. Frustrating, yes, but when it is meant to be, it will be. And man, when it was meant to be the flood waters came rushing in. We went from one to three in a six month period, three to four in a one year period, and soon four to six in a six-month period. All in all, we will have gone from one to six children in less than a 2.5 year period. Now, unless you are having quintuplets, I would like to see most women out there do that?

Brandon is our cute, adorable, highly intelligent and ONE ACTIVE little toddler, and his story is just as miraculous. We were in the process of working on Amornthep’s Thailand adoption and already had our home study completed, just waiting for our approval to travel. Yet once again, the Lord, under his watchful eye, started to prepare me for his arrival. We were currently living in Louisiana at Fort Polk. It was a hot, muggy summer day (aren’t they all in Louisiana) and I was sitting on our living room couch browsing through our mail. Suddenly, out of the blue a powerful thought plummeted in to my mind that a little boy was being prepared to come to our family. Of course, I mentally responded that the little boy was Amornthep. But as soon as I did this, the thought grew more powerful and divulged details. By the time the inspiration left, I was convinced that within a few short months, there was going to be a baby added to our family. And, just to show how kind the Lord truly is, he even told me that the bearer of great tidings would come from my newly acquainted friend, Helaine. Helaine was a new convert to our church and she and I had become fast friends. Helaine was/is everything that a southern gal dictates; hospitable, engaging, to the point, determined and full of spunk. No wonder we got along splendidly.

About a month later, Helaine called to tell me that her brother’s girlfriend was pregnant and thinking about giving her baby up for adoption. Oddly enough, even though everything fit the inspiration I had received a month earlier, I knew this was NOT the child the Lord was planning for us. I did listen to the situation, but nothing came of it. I wasn’t disappointed as I was very confident that call would come in time.

Two months later, again sitting on the couch, my mind was immediately caught up in inspiration that I was going to receive a phone call from Helaine regarding our new child. Within 30 seconds of this thought, the phone rang and I said to myself, “This is it, this is the phone call.” Sure enough, Helaine was on the other end, asked if I was sitting down and had a very important and urgent item to discuss. She proceeded to tell me about her niece, Whitney, that recently had a baby but due to her current circumstance, was no longer able to take care of the child.

Yep, this was it…this was the phone call. Within hours, I was on the phone with Whitney; sweet, dear Whitne. When we first started to speak, she was so hesitant. Come to find out, she was worried I wouldn’t WANT to adopt her child and I was worried that she was not fully on board with the idea of having her child adopted. But by the time we were done, we realized this was going to happen. Phil came home that night and I told him what occurred. Of course, we were thrilled, but after a few days past, we hadn’t heard from her. It was July 2nd, and we were preparing to leave the next day for a two week vacation in Spokane, Washington. Our hope was that we would at least be able to settle the proceedings and get the legalities moving forward. But, lack of contact made us start to worry she was rethinking her decision. Finally, Helaine called us that evening and said she was working on getting us back in contact with Whitney. A few minutes later, there was the call. As we talked, Whitney seemed uneasy and I could tell she wanted to ask something. Finally I said, “Whitney, do you want us to take the baby now or would you rather wait?”

“Really,” she gasped, “You would be willing to take him now. I just didn’t think you would want him this soon.” But ironies of all ironies, here we could only hope and pray to get a child so soon, and all along she was concerned that she was putting a burden on us by requesting we take her son as soon as possible. Of course we told her we would relieve her of the stress she was experiencing and take him. And, it just so happened we were leaving for Spokane WA tomorrow and had to go right through her hometown on our way out. That night, as soon as I got off the phone, we ran to Wal-Mart and bought diapers, formula, car seat, baby clothes, etc. 17 hours later, we were picking up our son Brandon.

We were blessed to meet Whitney and her now husband, then boyfriend, Trey. They were pleasant, easy going, but obviously we knew the meeting would be difficult for Whitney. She was making a completely unselfish decision by acknowledging that this little guy needed someone that could better tend to his needs. But, she also has been his mother for the past four months and to give him up now, such excruciating pain. We sat in their home for a few hours to get to know them and promised Whitney that we would keep in contact and she would be blessed to watch her son grow. She seemed to become more at ease, but by the time we needed to depart, once again, I watched a beautiful daughter of God make the most unselfish, amazing, loving decision she probably ever had to make in her life. Of course she wept, and wept and hugged and held her little child. I gave her an enormous hug, promised her he would be loved and cared for and off we went. To me, that day and her actions have always impressed me. This young lady had her baby for four months. Most birth mothers that choose to have their child placed for adoption only have them for a few hours to a few days. And, for her to still make such an amazing decision says that her love for this child was far more powerful than anyone of us could imagine. I personally do not think I would have had the strength. But, she did and she was the instrument that brought Brandon in to our lives. Again, I love her so deeply, and respect her so intensely for making this decision and giving us the amazing blessing of raising and being parents to Brandon. And, in honor of her, we kept his middle name as Gage, which is what she calls him to this day.

During the two weeks in Spokane, Whitney called frequently. I can’t blame her. She just had to know how he was doing and there were a few times she was rethinking her decision. Looking back, it was probably the best thing that we were 2000 miles away as we were unable to return the child to her if she wanted us to. However, after the two weeks, she was able to realize that her decision was truly in the best welfare of the child.


On our way back to LA, we stopped at her home so she could visit with Brandon and finish the legal documents. Just a month later, Brandon legally became our son. We continue a strong, close relationship with Whitney, though our military lifestyle requires moving quite a bit. But, we usually talk with her via phone once a month and try to catch each other on Facebook when we can. She is now married to her then boyfriend, Trey, and has a beautiful little girl named Malena and just as happy as can be.

In my post regarding MaKayla, I mentioned my sister’s comment about the danger of having such a good baby first. Our other two children came to us much older, so Brandon has only been our second baby as he was four months old, and WOW, he is ALL BOY! Whenever I go out, I have people tell me that they get exhausted just watching me deal with him. He is in to everything, goes everywhere, and can annoy just about anyone. But man, is he just the cutest. AND SMART…our 2 year old knows almost all of his letters just by looking at them and has already started reading. We had him tested by a geneticist, and results stated he has an above average intellect. Great for when he is older, but HORROR to the parents when he is young. Yes, I’m a proud mom, but he is my baby and I just adore my little Brandon.

Brandon comes from a tall, large and strong family and has football in his genes. His grandfather was an Army Ranger and we have been greatly blessed to continue relations with his birth family. Once again, another amazing and great blessing from above…our little Brandon!