Support Bryan and Lauryn's Adoption Journey

Our story of how Rylee came into our family may not be a unique one, but my husband (Bryan and I) know that God is the reason she is with us! Most of our family and friends know "our story" but maybe not the full story, and if you’re reading this we thank you for taking the time to do so.

Bryan and I got married September 17, 2022. We are blessed to have a very blended family with children from each of us. On a normal evening in February 2023, a family member of mine (Lauryn's) had to find a place for her 10 month old baby to go or she would be placed into the DSS foster care system due to drugs in the current home as well in the 10 month old's blood system. Without a whole lot of thought I called Bryan to tell him the situation and told him I offered to bring her into our home. However, what we thought would be a few months of providing a safe and loving home has become so much more! Our entire family has fallen in love with Rylee and we feel God is calling us to make it her permanent home.

On the morning of February 13, 2023 the DSS caseworker called to discuss the options for us and getting Rylee; we would have to do drug test, background checks, homes checks, etc. I agreed to do whatever was needed to make sure Rylee did not go into the foster care system. The night of February 13, 2023 Rylee was placed into our home in an emergency situation due to her most recent DSS drug test coming back positive for fentanyl! I drove to pick Rylee up late at night. I had never met her until that night! She was a TINY 10 month old baby who couldn't sit without assistant, hold her own bottle, or attempting to crawl. The first few nights and days was very hard for her and our family because we knew NOTHING about her and she was going through serve drug withdrawal symptoms; that included not eating, not sleeping, screaming/crying, nothing consoled her. We toughed out the very often sleepless nights and long days! Rylee saw her biological parents March 2023 at a public place in which I never once took my eyes off her. A few days later the sleepless nights of drug withdrawals returned. Per our request we had her drug tested again and 8 days after seeing her biological parents her drug levels came back positive for fentanyl with levels over 500! We had a court hearing April 17, 2023 to which the most recent drug test was brought up in front of the judge. The judge granted Rylee to be left in our (Bryan and Lauryn) custody due to the drug test as well as neither of the biological doing the court ordered parenting classes and drug/alcohol rehab classes. Rylee has not seen her biological parents since April 17, 2023. It is court ordered both parents have to show a clean drug test before they are able to see her.

Bryan and I have raised Rylee as our own child since she was placed in our custody February 2023. We have provided for her since the first night she came into our home. After having her in our home for over a year we have prayed and discussed about legally adopting Rylee to be our legal daughter and become Rylee Huffman. However, this will be extremely costly. We have met with a lawyer and have been advised that we have a strong case against the biological parents, however, this will be considered a private adoption case. Due to this, we have been estimated a fee of $25,000!

God has provided every single step of the way for our family since the night we brought Sweet Sugar into our home and we know he will until the end. If you are not finically able to donate to help with adoption cost we ask that you share our post but most importantly pray for our family during this process.

Thanks for reading, supporting, and praying for our family!

-Bryan and Lauryn Huffman

Please enjoy some "before and after" pictures of our Sweet Sugar Bear!