Episode 12 – The Best Gift Of Christmas Corey and Theresa Stallcup: The Blessings Of Adoption

Kimberly Faith: Welcome to the Truth in Love podcast with your host, Kimberly Faith. We seek to present God’s timeless truth through the lens of his remarkable love. This is podcast 12. We are calling this series the trifecta gift of Christmas, and adoption episode 1 is this morning with adoptive parents, Corey and Teresa Stalcup. We are very excited to unwrap this trifecta gift, and we’re gonna talk with Teresa and Cori about their adoption experience and how it has led them into this triple blessing.

And when I say triple blessing, I mean the blessing for the children, the blessing for the parents, and the multifaceted blessing of being able to glorify God through adoption. We’re excited to share this gift for Christmas. Corey and Teresa, welcome to the podcast. Thank you.

Corey Stallcup: Yeah. Thank

Kimberly Faith: you. So the the gift of adoption, we’re talking about this in the in the terms of being a trifecta gift. Okay? And, what do you think about when you think about a trifecta gift?

Theresa Stallcup: Well, I think there’s 3 parts, obviously. Obviously. And I think that well, trifecta always makes me think of the trinity as well. So

Kimberly Faith: Ah, yes. That’s good.

Theresa Stallcup: I didn’t think

Kimberly Faith: of that when

Theresa Stallcup: I was thinking about this. Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: So so we have the gift to the child, obviously, of a home, a forever home, a place that they can always know they belong. Mhmm. Gift to the parents, the adopted parents. I’m not sure which is better. I’ve been adopted, so I kind of understand that.

I never have adopted, but I might as well have had, like, I don’t know, 50 kids running around the world going to mom.

Theresa Stallcup: Right? There you go. Yep.

Kimberly Faith: And then we have this third part of it, which is the gift that we get to experience through a in fulfilling our our glorious purpose of bringing glory to God in manifesting to the whole world what this looks like. And and before we kinda get into your story, I just wanna Teresa, before we were talking, you had mentioned the reason that you and your husband well, the reason you wanted to adopt, and and we’ll talk about his horse ride. But but just just give the listeners, your view on why you decided to adopt them. Ready to get into your story.

Theresa Stallcup: So growing up, I had some family members that were in foster care. Both sides of my parents’, families were not Christians. My parents are first generation Christians. And, I’ve seen some of my cousins come into foster care. My parents helped raise some of my cousins.

And I remember being about 10 or 12 and a couple of our cousins being placed with us in our home, and they were only with us a couple weeks maybe. And then my parents decided they just really couldn’t do it anymore. They’d already done this before. It was really overwhelming. So they’ve been

Kimberly Faith: in their care several times?

Theresa Stallcup: Not these 2 kids. Some of my other cousins had been in their care before, and that ended in a really heartbreaking situation. And so I think my parents felt like it was just too heavy to do again. But as a child, I, of course, didn’t understand all of the things that are involved in that and how hard it can be. And so I was really upset, and I wanted to keep them, and I didn’t understand.

Kimberly Faith: A 7 year old.

Theresa Stallcup: Yes. I’m like, I don’t understand why we just can’t do this. Just make it work. And so I just knew from that point on that I wanted to adopt. And I loved kids.

I’ve always loved kids, and I do feel like children are the greatest blessing that God gives us. And so I wanted a bunch of kids, and so in my mind, one of the best ways to do that was to adopt.

Kimberly Faith: And here we are, 10 kids later.

Theresa Stallcup: Yes. Yes. Yeah. I’m halfway.

Corey Stallcup: I I didn’t know anything about any of this until Teresa wanted to do it, and I was hesitant to say the least probably, but I was like, well, let’s Give

Theresa Stallcup: it a go.

Corey Stallcup: Let’s do it then. And then and as I said when we were talking about this earlier, I saddled the horse, so I’m gonna ride it now.

Kimberly Faith: Well, I I love that. And, you know, I think God makes everybody have a little different viewpoint so that you can bear the burdens differently for each other. Right? And, especially the you know, some of the differences between the way men view things and women view things kind of kind of keeps the horse on the trail.

Theresa Stallcup: Yes. And I think that is something that God designs. Women have this desire to nurture, and we would probably have 15 kids in our home if we could allow it, but I think the men give us that balance of, like, you know, this is what’s more safe or this is what’s a a more feasible option. Right. And and they create that balance in in that.

So

Kimberly Faith: So, I I don’t think I recalled that you had 10 children in your home until we sat down to talk about this.

Theresa Stallcup: Yeah. I was thinking there were 8. Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: But I know that you 2. Right. Right. So let’s just do the rundown. Okay?

When when you first adopted, when you first started I guess you became foster parents. Is that right?

Theresa Stallcup: Yes.

Kimberly Faith: You have 3 adopted children and 2 that you have guardianship of. Mhmm. And they all came out of the foster care system. Yes. Okay.

But in the meantime, you had triplets. Yes. Okay. So you already had triplets when this process started. Yes.

And how old are the triplets now?

Theresa Stallcup: The triplets are 7 now. Okay.

Kimberly Faith: How many 7 year olds are in the home?

Theresa Stallcup: 4. Our youngest adopted is the same age as our triplets. She’s just 3 months younger.

Kimberly Faith: Okay. And, man, that sounds like a a fun group there. Yes. It is. And then you have so the you have a from age 18 Mhmm.

Down to 2 months old. Yes.

Theresa Stallcup: So our 18 year old is about to turn 19 and he’s actually out on his own now.

Kimberly Faith: Okay.

Theresa Stallcup: So he’s grown and doing his own thing. Alright. But from in the home, we have from our 16 year old who’s about to be 17 down to the twins, the newborns.

Kimberly Faith: Alright. And so, Nick, Connor, Nathan, and Millie were all adopted.

Theresa Stallcup: Yes. Mhmm.

Kimberly Faith: And, they’re did they how long were they in foster care with y’all before you actually went to the adoption

Theresa Stallcup: process? 4 years.

Corey Stallcup: 4 years? Mhmm. Yep.

Kimberly Faith: And at that point, you had, your your 3 your triplets. Right? Yes. So that would have been 6 kids in the home? Yes.

Okay. Mhmm. How did they, what made you decide to go ahead and adopt?

Theresa Stallcup: Well, from the moment they walked in our door, in my opinion, they just felt like they were always ours, and so it seemed crazy for us to not adopt.

Kimberly Faith: Is they so you all live do you live on a farm?

Theresa Stallcup: Yes. Mhmm.

Kimberly Faith: Okay. Tell us about that.

Corey Stallcup: We’ve we’ve got a we’ve got a little bit of everything on that farm. We’ve got cows and chickens and pigs and a pony and mostly cows. That’s what that’s what we do, but we’ve we’re like old McDonald’s farm as far as anything else. We’ve got it all. And they’ve

Theresa Stallcup: And it’s the farm that Corey grew up on.

Corey Stallcup: Mhmm.

Kimberly Faith: Okay.

Corey Stallcup: Yep.

Kimberly Faith: And so as and they were in foster care, they were really learning the farm life.

Corey Stallcup: Yeah. They Connor well, Nathan too, but Connor was old. He’d never seen a cow. Mhmm. He was that was his whenever he first come around, he was he was say he he was excited to see a cow.

I mean, he’d never seen a cow before. So

Theresa Stallcup: Connor and Nathan were placed with us first before Billy came into care, and they had never been around animals really at all. And I remember they didn’t even know how to play outside Mhmm. When we would ask them, you know, go play outside. So, you know, and they would just kind of stand in the yard and look around, and Wow. They didn’t know what to do.

Wow. They’ve come a long way. So now we have to tell them to get inside.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah. And and so and you live in rural a a very rural countryside.

Theresa Stallcup: Yes.

Kimberly Faith: So did they they had not experienced that? Not at all. Wow. And were they they were part of a bigger sibling group. Is that right?

Yes. And so, how long did it take them to adjust, and what were some of the the struggles that you saw them in in adjusting?

Theresa Stallcup: The biggest struggle, I feel like, in them adjusting Nathan, not so much. He was only 3, so it was a lot easier of an adjustment for Nathan. But Connor was 5, so he remembers some of his older siblings. And that was the by far, the biggest adjustment. He never really missed his parents.

There really just wasn’t a bond there, but the older siblings had taken care of the younger children. And so that’s been the largest adjustment for him is that, not being with them and then which is such a sad story with sibling groups. Right. But then also as they have gotten older, they refuse contact with him. And so that’s been the largest struggle for me seeing in them is that for Connor mostly that

Corey Stallcup: because he’s sad.

Theresa Stallcup: Lost those bonds. The older children were old enough to know how things really were, and the younger children were young enough not to remember. But kind of the middle kids were old enough to remember, but because they were so young, they didn’t understand how bad things were, and so they have this kind of

Corey Stallcup: Skewed perception. Yes. And they and and they were his older siblings were placed on the highest Yes. Pedestal in his life. So it it’s it was hard to

Theresa Stallcup: It’s something that he honestly still struggles with.

Corey Stallcup: Right.

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm. That’s a and I and I remember, this adoption. I remember the that there were other siblings, and so they’re not in touch at all.

Theresa Stallcup: No. So we are still in touch with all the younger siblings. Okay. But as the older children have gotten old enough to kinda be on their own, they have all chosen to Break that tie. To lead not the greatest of lives.

Kimberly Faith: Oh, gotcha.

Corey Stallcup: Revert back, if you will. Mhmm.

Kimberly Faith: And that’s that’s a that’s part of the real hard struggle

Theresa Stallcup: I I For older kids.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. For older kids who are adopted is is, you know, you you it’s hard not to go back to your roots. Yep. You know? And, Absolutely.

And, you know, so you guys have described, some of the some of the struggle. Right? And I I also want you to kind of talk about some of the joy, some of the some of the great things.

Corey Stallcup: Oh, there’s there’s a lot of great things. I mean, they’re everything’s great except for that was about the only bad that there is, the the the struggle. But

Theresa Stallcup: Mhmm.

Corey Stallcup: Other than that, there’s there’s more great things than you can talk about. There’s new experiences. They’ve never seen anything. They’ve never been fishing. They’ve never I mean, just I can’t even begin to describe.

No. They never had no way to pay any attention to them. So just if just being outside and throwing a ball to them, just doing anything, they was it it it’s all good. It was easy. Yeah.

It was easy to make them happy.

Kimberly Faith: It was easy to love them.

Corey Stallcup: That’s right. Yep.

Theresa Stallcup: Yeah. We we got to experience all their first you know, Corey got to take the boys hunting for the first time, played football with them for the first time. Wow. You know, anything like take them fishing, like he said, for the first time. And, the other great I think the this most fantastic thing is we’ve got to watch the older 2 boys, so Connor and Nathan, turn into just these amazing big siblings to the triplets and to Millie and then now to the twins.

And, of course, we have our older 2. They’re amazing siblings too. I just thought we’re kinda talking about Connor Nathan and Millie’s story right now. But, and the bond to see that all the kids, even though they’re not all biological, they see no difference. And that is so neat to watch and see they are I’m their as thick as thieves.

Every one of them know. Yeah.

Corey Stallcup: Oh, yeah.

Kimberly Faith: I love to see your pictures on Facebook. I mean, because you’ve got a very, racially mixed

Theresa Stallcup: group. We do.

Kimberly Faith: And it’s and it’s like and and I know when I’ve met them, there’s just no difference. You know? And it’s funny. I I grew up in a hippie commune, and and there were all people from all different walks of life, or I should say mostly lower socioeconomic, but all different, races. And we didn’t know there was a difference.

Yeah. Absolutely. And we didn’t I didn’t the first time I ever heard anything racist was when I went to an all, an all black school. I was in I was 6 or 7 in New Jersey, and they called me a they called me a name that was not nice, and I didn’t know what they were talking about. Yep.

Mhmm. And and I didn’t know we didn’t we weren’t taught that. And so what a blessing that you guys are bridging that. We have to

Theresa Stallcup: have a really funny story about that. Yes. The children all went to church camp this last summer, and, Connor, it was last summer, Connor and all the younger 5, were all in the same week at camp. Well, Weldon, he’s one of our 7 year olds, was telling this boy at camp that Connor was his brother. Weldon’s white.

Connor’s black. And And

Kimberly Faith: Yolanda’s got blonde hair. Right?

Theresa Stallcup: Weldon has brown hair.

Kimberly Faith: Oh, he has brown hair.

Theresa Stallcup: Okay. And so Weldon was telling this boy that Connor was his brother, and the boy said, he is not your brother. And he said, yes. He is. He is my brother.

And the boy is like, no. He is not. And Weldon almost came to fist with this boy

Corey Stallcup: At church camp.

Theresa Stallcup: Sorry, over the fact yeah. Sorry.

Corey Stallcup: At church camp. Yeah. At church camp.

Theresa Stallcup: Weldon almost fought this boy because he was telling him that Connor there was no way that Connor was his father, and he was lying. And so he and then we explained later, Melvin, you don’t look like you came from the same parent, so you have to explain. And

Kimberly Faith: he yeah.

Corey Stallcup: But he wouldn’t explain. He just it

Theresa Stallcup: He never even

Corey Stallcup: thought of his father. His mind that they weren’t, that Connor was adopted, that Connor’s his brother. Yeah. And then you’re telling me he ain’t my that he’s my brother.

Kimberly Faith: That is so well, isn’t that though the picture of how we should be in Christ? You know, we are adopted into the family of God, and if the church could learn to be like Weldon and Connor Yeah. You know?

Corey Stallcup: Yep. Then

Theresa Stallcup: there’s no difference. There’s no difference.

Kimberly Faith: It doesn’t matter what, you know, what socioeconomic background you come from, what your racial background is, who your parents are, you know, whether you are a recovering drug addict or whether you’re, you know, somebody born with a silver spoon in your mouth Mhmm. Or a cow in your backyard. Right? Right. There’s there’s no difference.

And and, you know, the it’s it’s so interesting to me that, you know, the Bible is such a an equalizer. It’s God’s word is such an equalizer because we’re all created in the image of God. And, and and so it’s it’s so it’s just super cool for me to hear, you know, your your story. Like, your your bio son is looking at your adopted son and saying, what? You know?

Yeah. No. We’re we’re brothers. You know? And and shouldn’t we all have that wonderful attitude about each other?

Yeah.

Theresa Stallcup: You know? Absolutely.

Kimberly Faith: Because, you know, I’m sure they fight, and I’m sure they

Theresa Stallcup: Oh, no. Just like any brothers.

Corey Stallcup: Yeah. Yeah. They oh, yeah.

Kimberly Faith: No. It’s not like it’s unhealthy. It’s you you have to kinda especially boys, they kinda have to get whatever that is that boys have out on the playground Mhmm. And or in the backyard or wherever. Yes.

And, but, you know, the love runs deep. Absolutely. And and, you know, it’s it’s I think in, we’re we’re talking about the body of Christ and and just how adoption gives us such an opportunity, to see a bigger picture, a spiritual picture. It’s it’s I I just wanna read this first because I think that we talk about the bible talks about this the spirit of adoption, and the spirit tells us that we are the children of God in in Romans 8:15. And he says in in the our spirit the the holy spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.

And, you know, we’re we’re joint heirs. We’re heirs with Christ joint heir or joint heirs with Christ. We’re heirs of God. And your children are growing up with the confidence of knowing that they’re they belong. Mhmm.

How do you how do you think that that when they get older, especially, how do you think you’re gonna be able to teach them that bigger spiritual lesson, or how are you teaching them that bigger spiritual lesson?

Theresa Stallcup: Well, I think that with all the kiddos, we have talked about, salvation and how we become children of God, and I think they understand that concept pretty well. And I hope that they see that we’re trying to teach them to live that out in their lives and

Kimberly Faith: The fruits of the spirit?

Theresa Stallcup: Yes. Absolutely. Right. Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: And maybe maybe they’re also seeing a pattern in in you and Corey, you know, in the home. You know, you they see a loving father. They see a loving mother, and they know God is that’s who God is. That’s that’s how the father is. You know?

Yes.

Theresa Stallcup: And we have definitely talked about how the picture of the family is supposed to be kind of the picture of how God and his children are and how the church, you know, is a picture of God

Kimberly Faith: and his children. And Right. Right. Well and and, you know, what an opportunity. Jesus said, go ye therefore and make disciples.

That was the great commission, the first part of the great commission. Isn’t that what y’all are doing?

Corey Stallcup: Yes. Yes. Yes.

Theresa Stallcup: For sure trying to.

Kimberly Faith: And so you mentioned that you you teach them, obviously. What what other things are you doing to really make disciples of Christ? Well, do you want that one? Or I

Theresa Stallcup: mean, I can I just I feel like I’m

Corey Stallcup: Go ahead? I’ll no. Go ahead. I’ll get

Theresa Stallcup: I’ll get it started because I paid them. So, well, 1, we are definitely trying to raise them as god comes first. Absolutely, god comes first, and then others come first before yourself. And then, we homeschool, so that helps us kind of, bring the bring the focus to what God teaches us and and setting those morals. Because something with adoption, I do feel like is, at least for us, in the experience, our kiddos that we adopted were not raised around church or any kind of a biblical worldview.

And so we’ve had to completely teach every it’s all foreign to them. And so we’ve had to teach everything from scratch from the very beginning. And they have grown so much, and I feel like even sometimes they know more than I did as an adult, let alone at their age.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

Theresa Stallcup: And so,

Kimberly Faith: isn’t it interesting the way that, you know, we have, like, whatever version of truth these kiddos were raised in had them so, you know, in such a bad place

Corey Stallcup: Mhmm. Really

Kimberly Faith: that they never knew where their next meal was coming from. Absolutely. Know where their, you know, where their safety was, where their security was. They had nothing.

Theresa Stallcup: Mhmm.

Kimberly Faith: And I and I remember their story, but I just I just think that the biblical truth gives us this foundation. It doesn’t change. Absolutely. It doesn’t change. God will always be God.

He will always love you. Right?

Theresa Stallcup: Yep. He is always good.

Kimberly Faith: He’s always good. Right? And and he is someone to run to, not run from. Absolutely. Mhmm.

What do you think, Corey? What are your what are your views on how how you’re you’re building disciples of Christ? I

Corey Stallcup: I don’t I don’t know. I’m the I I’m the father figure of the whole deal, and I’m I try to be I try to be. I’m the tough one, but I’m the fun one too. And and I I don’t know. Practical things.

I teach them mom is the which I’m I help too, but she’s the one that really does the which she does the homeschooling anyways. But they do bible study and stuff with her. If I’m there, I’m in on it. But I my part is to I make them men and and Girls are women. And the girls are the women, and she teaches them the stuff.

And then and then I try to lead by example maybe more than anything.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

Theresa Stallcup: But

Kimberly Faith: Well, that’s super important. I mean, to have and and I suspect, at least half the kids in your home didn’t have strong father figures.

Theresa Stallcup: Absolutely.

Kimberly Faith: And, there’s a lot of I think there’s a lot of, of truth behind our image of God is made a lot and and shaped a lot by the father in the home.

Theresa Stallcup: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I think the father being in the home is probably the most important thing when it comes to a child’s relationship with God.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And so you’re the solid one, fun one. I mean, I think God is hilarious. Yeah. I think he made me.

I mean, that would be hilarious. He made you.

Corey Stallcup: You’re more hilarious.

Theresa Stallcup: He made me.

Kimberly Faith: And y’all adopt a 10 I mean, you’re not adopted, but you guys have 2 kids. That’s that’s hysterical.

Theresa Stallcup: I mean I don’t think anybody would have ever thought, especially for Corey, that he would even have a couple kids, let alone 10. And that’s that everybody thinks that’s pretty comical.

Kimberly Faith: So so what, like, what what is different? What do you do differently as your family has expanded? Like, do you have a van that you drive around? I mean

Theresa Stallcup: We just upgraded to a 15 passenger van.

Corey Stallcup: We had a 12 Yeah. Before that, and it was it wasn’t big enough.

Kimberly Faith: It was cramped, Tom.

Corey Stallcup: Yeah. Good weather was gonna be 12 of us up in there.

Theresa Stallcup: Yeah. Not

Corey Stallcup: having an extra seat. That’s too close. Somebody’s gonna have a friend over or something at all times.

Theresa Stallcup: So plays sports. We have our our nieces and nephews come over quite often. So, yeah, being completely full wasn’t an option. Right.

Kimberly Faith: We needed extra space. Right. So and what about things like, I mean, I’m assuming feeding 10 children is probably a little different than feeding

Theresa Stallcup: 3. Mhmm.

Corey Stallcup: Oh, yeah. I mean, if what time they all leave, we’ll either we’ll be throwing food out or we’ll both be fat as hogs one of the other because we won’t know how to cook for for nobody.

Kimberly Faith: Well and and so you mentioned that you homeschool the children. Are they do they enjoy that?

Theresa Stallcup: Yes. They do. So our oldest that’s in the home, Jaden, who’s 16, she goes public school. She is a senior this year. Okay.

And then from our 12 year old down, homeschool currently.

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm. What if you were to, like, to to to tell anyone what the greatest the greatest part of adoption is for for both of you? What would that what would that look like, Corey? Well, I’ll start with you since you’re a man of so many words.

Corey Stallcup: It it would just to make a difference in in a child’s life. Somebody that probably didn’t they didn’t have a chance. They they may or may not have, but chances are they probably wouldn’t have amounted to very much because they didn’t have a chance and then just see what they become as they grow up.

Kimberly Faith: Like unwrapping unwrapping a gift. Right?

Corey Stallcup: Yeah. Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. That’s that’s that’s, and and did you have any idea that you would be doing this maybe 10 years ago?

Corey Stallcup: No. No. 10 years ago, where was I at? I’d have been 21.

Theresa Stallcup: No. So we didn’t get You’re

Kimberly Faith: 31 Mhmm.

Theresa Stallcup: And you

Kimberly Faith: got 10 kids. That’s that’s so great.

Theresa Stallcup: We went from 0 to 10 in seven and a half years. Wow.

Corey Stallcup: Yep.

Kimberly Faith: And you’re just rolling with it. Yeah.

Corey Stallcup: Yeah. Oh, you don’t have a I mean, you don’t have a choice. You you don’t have

Kimberly Faith: to stand still.

Corey Stallcup: No. You just gotta go.

Kimberly Faith: Well, I think that’s that’s remarkable that you, you know, that you have this vision of of unwrapping their gifts, unwrapping their talents, and and getting to be part of that.

Theresa Stallcup: That’s awesome.

Kimberly Faith: Isn’t that really what Jesus was talking about when he said, be disciplers?

Theresa Stallcup: Go

Kimberly Faith: ye therefore and make disciples, whether it’s your children you’re raising or whether it’s the Bible study you teach in the you know, in your office or whether it’s the, you know, the the one on one you have with somebody who just needs a friend. This is what we do. We’re in the trenches. And you guys are clearly in the trenches all the time. I think y’all be asleep in the trenches.

Corey Stallcup: Yeah. Sometimes.

Kimberly Faith: What about what about you? What do you think about 3 SOS bars? Your the one thing you enjoy most?

Theresa Stallcup: I love what Corey said. I think that’s pretty spot on. And I think that, I don’t know, just kinda where I touched on earlier about how it’s gonna impact generation after generation, how when we lead our children to Christ or just as our family grows, it doesn’t just stop with us. It goes on and on and on. And to me, seeing that, I feel like I’ve done something with my life that’s important.

And Something you can take with you. Yes. Mhmm. Yeah. Absolutely.

Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: You could you could spend all this time making 1,000,000 of dollars.

Theresa Stallcup: But And when we’re gone, it means nothing. Right. But when we’re gone, our children mean something, and what we’ve taught them means something. And then they carry that on to their children and their grandchildren and so on. And who knows?

It might impact 1,000 tens of thousands of lives.

Kimberly Faith: I love that. You may you may be also raising the next Billy Graham or the next Charles Spurgeon or Absolutely. You know, you you don’t know. Absolutely.

Theresa Stallcup: And if we say no to that, if we say no to the trials, like, a lot of people say, oh, I could never get that attached to a kid or I could you know, and the possibility of them leaving. Right. But when you say yes and you’re willing to go through the trials and the hard parts of adoption or foster care, then you’re saying yes to that. Yeah. Maybe because we do this, they’ll reach their potential, like Corey said, and the plan that God had for them that is not being lined up for them right now.

Kimberly Faith: We have to really think about love is never wasted. If Jesus if Jesus only went to the cross thinking that he was not gonna waste his love, he would have never gone. Right. Right? Because of all the he he died for his enemies.

Yeah. And, you know, love is risky because love is selflessness. That’s the that’s what Jesus loved. It’s selfless. Complete selflessness.

People, when I teach them that, it’s like, what do you think the opposite of love is? And they always say, hey. Like, no. Actually, that may be a form of love, but true love is selflessness. So the opposite is selfishness.

Right?

Corey Stallcup: Absolutely.

Kimberly Faith: And what what you guys have done is really chosen a path to live in the love of God full blast, full tilt. I mean, the horse is galloping. Yeah. Yes. There’s, like, a whole herd of them

Theresa Stallcup: out there.

Kimberly Faith: And and and, you know, what what you said about the, Teresa, about the, multigenerational impact, you know, imagine someday in heaven, you know, you’re you’re standing there, and there’s people coming up to you you don’t even know, saying thank you. Thank you for, for for bringing Millie into your home. And and Millie was my grandmother, and she taught me about Jesus. You made me cry?

Corey Stallcup: Yeah. Yeah. Make myself cry. Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: Of course I cry too. Yeah. But, you know, I I I think that whether it’s through adoption, whether it’s through foster care my parents foster over a 100 kids. That’s amazing. And, yeah, and they adopted 4.

And they were like, my my youngest sister is 30 years younger than me, so they got her at at just a few few weeks old. She was just tiny, little, fitness shoe locks.

Theresa Stallcup: Yeah. Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: But, you know, I I know that you guys have, I’m sure, hard times where, you know, you you just maybe wanna give up. And what keeps you going? Well, I think sometimes you just have

Theresa Stallcup: to keep going, but I I think, honestly, for me, it’s just knowing that God promises to work things for good for those who love him. And so even if it doesn’t make sense, even if we’re worried about one of the kids or, you know, if we just don’t know how we’re gonna make it work, we just know that he’s gonna be in control and he’s got it and Right. We just gotta keep doing what he has asked us to do, and we’ll get there.

Corey Stallcup: You can’t give up. Mhmm. People say, I don’t I don’t know how you do it. I couldn’t do it. I’m like, you guess you can.

Theresa Stallcup: Mhmm. Yeah.

Corey Stallcup: If you have to, you will. Mhmm. I guess or you won’t, but there’s a choice there you have to make. I’m if you’re in it, you gotta do it.

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm. I heard a I heard a a friend of mine who’s a farmer, and he’s he’s from Oklahoma. He said, well, we all do what we want. And, I mean, you know, that’s pretty biblical. Mhmm.

Because whatever we decide we wanna do, we’re gonna do it. And and it doesn’t matter what the obstacle is. We’re gonna do it even if it means we’re gonna make our beat our head against a bloody brick a brick wall total. It’s bloody. We’re gonna do it.

Yep.

Theresa Stallcup: That’s exactly right.

Kimberly Faith: And and then when we when we had the attitude, I can do all things through Christ, and we’re out of the equation, we know God can do anything. Right. You know? And then we get to sit back and say, did you see what God just did? Mhmm.

Did you see him? Oh my gosh. Like, who would have thought you’d have twins? Yeah. Right?

Yeah. Were you like, was that just the biggest surprise ever?

Theresa Stallcup: It was a huge surprise. We were not expecting we were not trying. We were not expecting to ever be pregnant again, and, they just kinda surprised us. And then we were told it was only 1 baby, and then went back 2 weeks later to see a heartbeat, and there were 2 babies.

Kimberly Faith: That’s that’s so crazy. And I you know, you know, you kinda do you ever kinda wonder what’s got up to?

Theresa Stallcup: Absolutely. So little funny story with the twins. We just kind of assumed we were done. We had 6 kids, and then my 2 cousins came into foster care. And so then we had 8 kids, and we thought, okay.

You know, we’re definitely done. Not that we were trying not to have kids. We just we figured this was God’s this was it. This was his plan. And one day, all of our kids started praying at every meal, and at morning or, like, breakfast, lunch, and supper.

And then at bedtime, they would say, please give mommy another baby. Oh my god. And they prayed that for 2 years. And, of course, I just assumed the answer was gonna be no. I didn’t think that God was ever gonna give us any more children.

Kimberly Faith: And, then just surprise, surprise, we had 2 more. Oh my goodness. What a beautiful story there.

Theresa Stallcup: So neat because when we told the kids, the very first thing they said was, God answered our prayers. And it was beautiful to see that for them.

Kimberly Faith: Oh my gosh. Yes. This song made me cry. That is I mean and and, you know, the the the prayer of children is just Precious. So pure.

Just so pure. The heart is you know? I mean, who knows why they want it? I mean, you know? But, you know, God I feel like before a child reaches the age where they willfully sin, you know, they have this connection with the Holy Spirit that is so it’s just so rich.

Yep. Mhmm. And who knows what these little twin boys are gonna do. Right? Yeah.

I mean and and God just knew exactly what you needed.

Theresa Stallcup: Absolutely. And that’s the thing. We if we had thought we if we had any kind of control over our plan, we would have just thought that was it, and we would have never had more children. But God’s plan is so much greater than ours and

Kimberly Faith: It is. I like to say, every day, I like to sit back and just watch God blow my mind. Mhmm. Because he does. Absolutely.

He does. Especially when we’re living for his glory and not our own. Mhmm. You know? Because it’s just like, oh god.

I mean, I I just love your story because it it’s it’s such a great life, and, really, anybody can live in that kind of life of complete dependence upon God. Absolutely. You don’t have to adopt 10 kids to live in this life of, k, God. I’m I’m yours. Mhmm.

What’s next? And, you know, like you said, Corey, you’re on the horse. You’re not there’s no turning back. Mhmm. You’ve done this adoption and birth thing.

Corey Stallcup: Yeah. You can jump off or you can ride it. Jumping off don’t feel very good, so I’m gonna ride it.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Exactly. Because it’s still your horse.

Theresa Stallcup: Mhmm. Yep. And and,

Kimberly Faith: you know, it’s it’s the same way. You know, I I sometimes look at the ministry God’s given me. I’m like, god. I don’t have time to add something else. When he added this podcast, he’s like, I’m like, god.

I’m running devotionals, running music, discipling people, have 2 law practices. I have 3 kids. I have one. Yeah. What?

He says, is this your life, or is it

Theresa Stallcup: mine? Mhmm.

Kimberly Faith: Right? And isn’t that what it boils down to?

Theresa Stallcup: And like he said, he’ll blow your mind to what he’ll make you capable of doing. Exactly. And I think that’s something that that stops people from looking at adoption. They just don’t think they don’t see how they could do it. But if God calls you to it, he’s gonna give you all the means to make it work.

We don’t make a ton of money. We don’t have a big fancy house. We are not rich. We don’t, you know, we don’t have all the things that people think you gotta have in order to have a bunch of kids, but God has provided every single need we’ve never gone without.

Corey Stallcup: Yep. And we have a lot of fun.

Theresa Stallcup: Yes. We

Kimberly Faith: do. I imagine you do. I imagine he does.

Theresa Stallcup: Yeah. I’m kidding. No.

Kimberly Faith: I well, listen. I really appreciate you all joining me for this podcast. I and are are you gonna have a date tonight? Yeah.

Theresa Stallcup: I think we’re gonna

Corey Stallcup: I think we’re gonna go eat somewhere.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. I think you should. But, no, I really appreciate you all, joining me for this podcast. What a great testimony, and and I appreciate I appreciate your lives.

Corey Stallcup: I do Thank you.

Kimberly Faith: And, what you’re doing. And I I’m gonna have to make it out to the farm

Theresa Stallcup: to see the cows. Yep. Yep. They’re they’re they’re there. Yep.

You’ll be greeted by a bunch of running children.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. I would love that. I would absolutely love because I haven’t seen them since the adoption or maybe the the guardianships, I guess. Yeah. The guardianship.

But, but, yeah, I would love that. So I hope to get an invitation. Well, you’ve been listening to the Truth in Love podcast, with my guest, Corey and Teresa Stalcup. We appreciate you all listening, and we hope that you in enjoyed this first of the our our adoption series of trifecta gift of Christmas. And I am excited to also present the next podcast, which will be another adoption story.

And so please join us for that great episode next week. You have been listening to the truth in love podcast with your host, Kimberly Faith. To discover more answers to the big questions in life, visit us atgofaithstrong.com. Hallelujah, you rescued me.