Most people get discouraged when things don’t go their way, but the Holverson family doesn’t let a change of plans stop them.
The Holversons have ten kids in total. All of whom were sibling groups adopted through foster care.
After a year of marriage, the Holversons decided to start a family. Things weren’t going the way they planned, and they decided to pursue different options of bringing children into their home.
The Holversons are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and they relied on the Lord and His inspiration to get through this time.
After feeling nudges that came from divine inspiration, they decided to try some foster parenting classes to see if it would be the right fit for them. After taking the class, they knew that it was the route they wanted to pursue.
“We did the class for a couple of months, and I just remember by the end having a total change of heart and a different perspective on all of it. I just knew that that was how we were going to grow our family through foster care and adoption. So that's how that happened,” said Lexi Holverson.
When it came time to host their first children through foster care, they hosted five brothers all under 9 years old. Later, those five boys turned into ten children in total — six boys and four girls. The Holversons decided to adopt the children and give them a forever home.
“It's a completely different experience than bringing a baby home from the hospital because they've already kind of had a life before the life they have with you, “Holverson said. “It's fun to get to know them and learn what they like and don't like, and I guess introduce them to our family, our home environment and introduce them to new traditions and learn about their traditions and try to incorporate those two things like that. So, it honestly is just fun to become a family.”
The good experiences were also accompanied by harder ones, which allowed the Holversons to push through difficulties associated with foster care. Many of their children have experienced positive changes in their physical and emotional health since living with the Holversons. Being adopted didn’t remove the struggles the children had faced before living with the Holversons, but they were grateful to have a happy and safe permanent home to live in.
“These kids, a lot can change in their lives by being loved and cared for and being in a healthy home environment, but it doesn't take away the problem if that makes sense,” Holverson said. “So, it's not that their problems are not going to go away, it's just you have to learn how to manage them and help them live a healthy life. And that definitely has its ups and downs. We have wonderful, beautiful experiences, and we have really crummy, awful experiences.”
The Holversons had the opportunity to take all their children to the temple where they were sealed as a family for time and eternity.
“My favorite part is always when they bring them in and they're wearing their white clothing and they just look like little angels walking through the door and then, you know, we do the sealing together and having the whole family just standing around together is really cool,” Holverson said.