The Wagner family shares an update on their son, Teagan, who they adopted from Ethiopia in 2012. We featured Teagan in the summer 2010 issue of Holt International Magazine, and again in our enews.

When I noticed Teagan's picture in Holt International’s summer 2010 magazine, I was immediately drawn to his charming smile. We had three children already — two boys through birth, Braden, 10, and Rylan, 8, and adopted Addie Lou through Holt from Ethiopia in 2010 when she was 4 months old. We were not planning to have any more children, and had never considered adopting a child with significant special needs. Even so, I cut out Teagan’s picture and placed it on a memo board in our home so that we would remember to pray that this special little guy would find a family. For the next few months, that's exactly what we did. However, I found myself thinking of him often and eventually began questioning if he was meant to be a part of our own family. It was not an easy decision. His diagnosis was overwhelming and we discovered that in all the years he had been in the care center, we were the first family to even request to review his file. We spent months talking and praying for wisdom about the decision before knowing that this was the right path for our family. There were so many unknowns regarding Teagan's health, development and future, but we decided that having him as a part of our family was more important than living an easy, comfortable life. I remember my husband saying that the unknowns did not matter — that if he was truly our son, then we would figure it out and face the challenges together.