December 9, 2025 • 37 mins
Lydia and Scott Rosencrants have 13 children, 11 of which are adopted and 8 of them have some form of intellectual or physical disability. They didn’t set out to adopt this many kids, but they clearly answered the call a lot of times. And Lydia is the President of our local chapter in Memphis that’s launching soon!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Banna's tube fed.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
She's an infant at seventeen, right, she's full care, but
she's also full of joy. And you asked, but you
asked why. I mean, I guess some people may ask
why does God allow things like this to happen?
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Anyway?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
But when I look at Anna, she reminds me that
every single one of us is made in the image
of God, and every single life has dignity and worth.
And we put so much of our value on the
wrong things right, like our work, our ability to do
this or that, and Anna can't do any of that.
(00:43):
But I have a feeling that all day long she's
communing with God, and maybe she's sad.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
For the rest of us, she's the happiest child we have.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Welcome to an army of normal folks. So I'm Bill Courtney.
I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, I'm a father,
I'm an entrepreneur, and I'm a football coach.
Speaker 5 (01:07):
In inner City Memphis.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
And that last part somehow led to an oscar for
the film about one of my teams. That movie is
called Undefeated. I believe our country's problems are never going
to be solved by a bunch of fancy people. In
nice suits, using big words that nobody ever uses on
seeing inner Fox, but rather.
Speaker 5 (01:28):
By an army of normal folks.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
Guys, that's us, just you and me deciding, hey, you
know what, maybe I can help. That's what Lydia and
Scott Rosenkrantz, the voices you just heard have done. These
unsung heroes have thirteen children, eleven of which are adopted,
and several have disabilities. And if that wasn't crazy enough,
(01:53):
Lydia is going to lead our local chapter in Memphis.
I cannot wait for you to meet Scott Lydia right
after these brief messages from our general sponsors. Scott and
(02:21):
Lydia Rosenkrantz, Welcome to an army of normal thoughts.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Thank you, it's great to be here.
Speaker 5 (02:27):
First of all, let me just go ahead and break
the eye. Y'all are nuts.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
You're not telling us anything.
Speaker 5 (02:34):
You are minds crazy.
Speaker 6 (02:37):
I thought it was not quite so obvious.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
So interestingly, you are our second interview to come from
a first interview. The first interview was Peter Mudubasi, who
is a dad who's fostered forty seven kids and adopted
three of them. And we did a large audience attended
(03:03):
event with him, and his episode is incredible and he's incredible,
and we got a lot of great response from it.
And through that we met Mick and Tracy Taylor, who
attended that live interview with Peter, and their voices are
really powerful on the topic of transracial adoption, which is
(03:26):
really interesting to us because we are conditioned as a
public and culturally when we think of transracial adoption candidly
to think of two white parents that adopt black or
brown children, or maybe Asian, but Mick and Tracy are
African American parents who adopted white children. It's just an
(03:49):
interesting juxtaposition. And honestly, it says a lot about our
culture that that would be an interesting juxtaposition that even
that is surprising to us, and it was surprising to me,
And after meeting them and hearing their story, I refused
(04:11):
to any longer be surprised by that. There's latent prejudiced
and racism in the surprise itself and their interview and
their story helped me to see adoption in a very
different light. I loved them, They were great, and she
is tough as nails. And then you guys come along,
(04:35):
because I think you were there too.
Speaker 5 (04:36):
I was both, or just how did you hear about it?
Why did you attend?
Speaker 3 (04:41):
You?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Gosh, I want to say I've probably heard about it
on LinkedIn first, and then you know, just the idea
of adoption and a single dad having that many foster kids.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
I was really excited to attend.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
And then I'm also aware of the good work that
Agape does and that's where we filmed it.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
So you happened to show up and I guess you
met Alex sitting on a corner.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Sure, I did.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
He was behind he was he was behind the curtain,
but I pulled it back and I.
Speaker 5 (05:10):
Said, hey, so you're like Toto a little bit. Yes,
she came to the Alex's lemonade stand.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
That's right, I did.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
I didn't get to come to the actual recording, but
I did get to meet Oh goodness, you're going to
have to tell me your name, yes, and get a
picture with her, and that was Yeah, it was very special.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
So why are we talking to Scott and Lydia today?
Speaker 4 (05:33):
Scott and Lydia are parents to thirteen children, eleven of
which are adopted not from Memphis but now living in Memphis,
which we'll get into. How and why and what and
what else they're doing, and the story of the growth
(05:57):
of their family is just phenomenal. And so from Peter
and McK and Tracy come Scott and Lydia, who I
think when you hear their story, everybody, you're going to
be like, Wow, these are just normal people who have
changed so many lives through their love and their empathy
(06:18):
and candidly they're hard work.
Speaker 5 (06:21):
So first, how'd your meat?
Speaker 4 (06:24):
First of all, two crazy peoples one another.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Oh, well, that was that was interesting.
Speaker 6 (06:31):
That was I had just gotten out of the Navy
that year, So this was nineteen ninety six, and I
was riffing houses on the side and working at a microbrewery,
brewing beer and partending at night.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
That's what people do when they get out of day.
Speaker 6 (06:45):
Oh exactly so, because you know, beer was kind of
a sport in the navy. So she was on a
date with another guy that night.
Speaker 5 (06:56):
Oh, you didn't told me that.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
To mention that, Alex is that real?
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (07:03):
And uh, Scott's game.
Speaker 6 (07:08):
The way the micro berry set up is behind the
bar is it's one way glass because all the lot
are tons and everything back there. So if you're back
there working a thing, you'd help. You could see through,
but they can't see into the back. And I wasn't
actually bartending that night. I was doing some maintenance work
and I saw her walk in and I've already talked
to the bartender because he was expecting a girl he
wanted to talk to to come in that night, and
(07:29):
I said, so when I saw her walking, I came
out and said, hey, man, now.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
It's the chance we'll just switch.
Speaker 6 (07:34):
You can keep an eye out for I was going on,
I'm going to run the bar for a little while.
So well, she didn't know the first time that I
actually saw her first she thought what she walked in
and saw me come into the bartender.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
That was the first time that.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
I was well was it was not someone that I
knew well, we had just been out a couple of times.
I will just say, Bill, it goes to show that
God can use any situation for his good and his plans,
because those were two very broken people that met that night.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Two people. I mean, we both grew up in the church.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
We had wandered really far away, both of us, and
you know, I often laugh thinking about how we thought,
you know, we're just going out for a fun It
was a Friday night. We're going out for a fun
Friday night. And I just felt like God was just
sitting up there and having laughing going, you guys have
no idea what I have in store for you.
Speaker 5 (08:27):
Were you in school?
Speaker 1 (08:28):
I was.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
I was getting my PhD in accounting at Michigan State University.
Speaker 5 (08:32):
My grandmother went to Michigan State.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Yeah, I got spartans.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
Yeah, yeah, a long time ago. She was in one
of the first classes that admitted women. Okay, yeah, long
time ago, long time ago.
Speaker 5 (08:44):
So you're spartan. So you're getting your PhD.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
In a in accounting, yes, right.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
And you're figuring it out. You got out of the
Navy and kind of what's next working in a micro
brewery and doing your thing. But I think you you
had the interest on.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
Well, I was.
Speaker 6 (09:01):
I was in the I was in the Nuclear Navy,
So I was in a nuclear navy. So I was
facettech submarines. I was a nuclear qualified operator. I was
electrician and diver. I'd had a few years of college
before I went into the Navy, so I'd already been
in the electric engineering pipeline.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
And that was you know, hoping to come back and
finish that off.
Speaker 6 (09:19):
So, but you know, in the meantime, after you know,
doing the twenty four seven three sixty five thing, you're
kind of like, I was catching my breath kind of thing.
Speaker 5 (09:28):
You were on nuclear subs?
Speaker 6 (09:29):
Yes, yeah, six eighty eight class the USS city of
Corpus CHRISTI.
Speaker 5 (09:33):
How long would you spend underwater?
Speaker 6 (09:36):
Well, we could spend months if we needed to, but
I think thirty eight days.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
The longest time that we went. Thirty eight thirty eight days.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
I think we found out that Genesis if you're crazy, Yeah, yeah,
eight days underwater. This has nothing to do with the story,
but I want to hear what that like. Does it
get funky smelling under there?
Speaker 6 (09:57):
Well, yes, because everything that comes into it, because you've
got you know, we have diesel fuel on board for
the when we're on the surface, and you've got you know,
obviously one hundred and forty men on board there, and
all the smells that we generate because we can recycle
and you know, refresh our air. But it's not the
freshest there in the world. So you have what's called
boat smell. You get used to it, and you don't
(10:17):
know it till you step out in fresh air and
you go what is on my clothes.
Speaker 5 (10:23):
They call it. Boats called it boat.
Speaker 6 (10:24):
Smell, So you know, and when you're going to go
to a port, you don't have your your civilian clothes
where they can suck up that boat smell. They are
in plastic bags with a dryer sheet in them, so
you don't really.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Yeah, so you don't. Yeah, oh yes, you don't smell
like an ogre when you're in public.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
So yeah, it's that's unreal. Oh yeah, what about showering?
Do they ration water and things?
Speaker 6 (10:44):
Oh yeah, it's the showering is a whole purpose of
you get in, get wet, shut the water off, soap up,
turn the water back on, rents out, get out, because
you know, we we make our own fresh water, but
you're not supposed to use a whole lot of it.
Speaker 5 (10:57):
That's fine.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
In the submarine, take in salt water, desalenated and make water.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Ten thousand gallons a day.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
Really, Oh yeah, I see, I could sit here. We
can't really know, but I could talk about that forever.
That is wildly interesting. Where where would you patrol? Where
would you where would this one?
Speaker 5 (11:15):
Well?
Speaker 6 (11:15):
I was a I would stay not a grout in Connecticut,
so we were East coast, so Atlantic North South all
the way up to Gateway to the North. I've been
in the North Atlantic. I've been underneath the polar ice cap.
Speaker 5 (11:26):
Have you really? Oh yeah, when that thing comes up.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
In the middle of nowhere Atlantic, are y'all allowed to
walk around on the boat and get some fresh air
and see it?
Speaker 5 (11:35):
What was that just for people?
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (11:38):
Only at least special events where you go and do that.
You got to be part of the top side crew
and me and I was a ship's diver. I was
number one as far as safety goes. I'm the only
person who wasn't tracked into the deck because if someone
went off or over, I had to have freedom of
movement to go get somebody. So I had a line
on me. But I didn't have the harness and everything
that everybody else tops I did.
Speaker 5 (11:59):
So did you have the big metal hat? No?
Speaker 3 (12:01):
No, no, I wasn't not deep sea this.
Speaker 6 (12:02):
I was scuba so no kidding. Yeah, so up there
and I didn't. I didn't even have tanks on. It
was just I had a udtves non shorts, fins arotected
in case.
Speaker 5 (12:12):
It's kind of cold. Yeah, it kind of is. Yeah,
I can't but you're married to a boss.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
Oh absolutely, that's really very very cool.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
That's you can see why I dump the other guy.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
Yeah, it get it.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (12:30):
If you're listening to the other guy, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
He's saying they have thirteen kids, Thank you God.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
Apparently they're nuts. That's right.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
That's really a cool Your kids know all this, they
know some of it. Yeah, you should tell them all
of it. I mean, that's that's dad hero status stuff.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
I wasn't tell my kids cool stuff like that. That's
really really neat.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
And now a few messages from marginal sponsors. But first
I wanted to share an awesome update that in January
and February we're launching the first six local chapters of
an Army in normal folks. If you happen to live
in one of these communities and you be interested in
being a part of it, email Alex and he'll connect
(13:18):
you to their leaders. The cities are Memphis, Oxford, Mississippi, Hadiitaddi, Atlanta, Milwaukee, Wichita,
and Clinton, New York. If you be interested in leading
a local chapter in your community, will hopefully be launching
more of this spring or summer. Please reach out to
Alex about that too his email Army at Normalfolks dot us.
(13:41):
We'll be right back, all right, So y'all meet Atterbrurary.
You scoop up and skate the scar out of the way,
and you don't do so you get married, I mean
(14:06):
take me from there.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
We dated two years and then.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
I proposed about eighteen seventeen, eighteen months into it, so.
Speaker 5 (14:17):
Something like that, and you're both in Michigan's, Michigan. And
what was the plan.
Speaker 6 (14:25):
The I guess the plan was at the time, she
was take her PhD, figure out where she would end
up teaching, and I would continue my education, get my
engineering degree and Georgia Tech.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Ash yeah, yeah, well that's because I ended up getting
a job at a small school in Georgia.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
Oh well, then I next time Georgia Tech.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Georgia Tech was we were we were about an hour
south of Atlanta where we were, and so it worked
out he could either go to Georgia Tech or Auburn
and ended up choosing Georgia Tech.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
So and our plan was I would work.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
While he finished school, and then once he started working,
I would start staying home and having babies.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
Normal. Yeah, normal, right, very very rational r not crazy.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
No normal, No, just very.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
Rational, honestly wonderful, boring love story, but boring and and
really unremarkable. Everybody normal wife, that's it.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
Yep, So what the hell happened? All right?
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Well I'll start and then I'll I'll let Scott pick
up with how he felt. I don't think anybody else
can share how he felt when I said this. That. So, so,
before we got married, we had really rededicated our lives
to the Lord. We'd he had brought us back as
a couple, Yes, as a couple, and church became extreme
(16:00):
important too, is I would say, pre children. Besides my
job and his schooling, church was everything to us. We
were very involved in our church, and so we had
only been in Lagrange. I think I think we were
in our second year there in the Grange, Georgia, right, sorry, yes,
in our second year there. So we were very young,
still newlywoods and I laid down to take a nap
(16:24):
one day because we had a strange little January term
that had just started, and I wasn't teaching and he
wasn't taking a class, and so we had all this
time and God spoke out loud to me and said,
you're going to adopt internationally.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
Is that the first time that thought had been in you.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
As far as I can remember, Yes, Well.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
This wasn't a thing you thought about as a child
or no, a teenager.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
No, no, I'm an only child.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
I don't remember, you know, really thinking a whole lot
about kids in general from this, because I was still
I don't know, twenty nine, I think at this point,
I was still pretty young. It was the only time
he has spoken out loud to me.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
But it was clear. It was completely clear.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
So I assume at some point you share this switch.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
I got, I got out, I got out of my nap,
you know, I got up from my nap and went
and started looking on the internet, like, are you kidding? No,
that quickly I was like, that's how clear it was.
Speaker 6 (17:21):
And our computer was in the downstairs room where our
TV room was, and and I was it was a
Sunday afternoon, I'm watching football.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Yeah, So all right, so he comes, you know, he
comes in, and I'm like, so I need to tell
you what God said and I did, and I'll let
him give you his reaction.
Speaker 6 (17:40):
And you know, you know, having been in the military
and submarines, things things change, and you're like next thing up, whatever,
and you're out this.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
You know, you're out the scene. It's just she said that,
and I was like.
Speaker 5 (17:50):
A second, it's third and three.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Maybe Detroit wasn't playing it.
Speaker 6 (17:56):
And I was just like, okay, we'll see this goes.
I have no idea what you're talking about. And you know,
I never have any idea when God's involved. It's like, yep.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
You know, when eberneze or Scrooge saw the the first
vision of Christmas past, he thought it might have been
just some undigested out.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
That's exactly what could have been. Could have been, It
could have been, it could have heavy. Except that within
a week.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
Just one second, Yeah, Alex, you saw just evoke Charles Dickens.
You see that, right, really good Charles Dickens in this center. Gosh,
that's pretty cool. Right, I'm not impressed that you cited
or something. I give you a break. I'm sorry, go
(18:53):
back to.
Speaker 5 (18:55):
Keep going.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
So I might believe you, Bill, except that within a
week we had signed with our adoption agency.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
It was that fast.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
Wow, And that was going to internationally. That's a big,
big footprint.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Yeah, that's well, so somewhere in there God had just
narrowed it down for us very quickly that it was
going to be Kazakhstan.
Speaker 5 (19:17):
Okay, when I read that Alex put that in the prep,
I laughed.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
Out loud, because it's because I've been to Uzbekistan and
I've done business there, and so I know a little
bit about this place.
Speaker 5 (19:32):
It's completely landlocked.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
Yes, it's Russia to the east and its China really
to the west, and in these mountain region stands in
the middle. And the people are these beautiful mix of
East Asian West Russian folk, yes, largely muslim m and
(20:02):
beautifully kind, very poor for the most part, people, lots
of agriculture and all of that. And for centuries these
places have been invaded and taken by larger countries around
it for their natural resources.
Speaker 5 (20:21):
That's the stuns. Sure, so let's go there. I mean,
come on, are you crazier? The crazy?
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Well, it was just you know, I mean, it was
where God let.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
Us, nobody even thinks about the stars we exists.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
So this was two thousand and one.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
At the time, if you looked up countries to adopt from,
Kazakhstan was actually a pretty popular country for adoptions.
Speaker 5 (20:47):
Oh, okay, it was easy, it.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Was fast at the time.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Now, I don't think it's even I don't think international adoptions,
at least in the US, are even allowed.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
But it was.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
It was easy and fast, and they had young children,
which most people who were adopting they did it for
infertility reasons and so they wanted to have the experience
of a baby, right, so you could actually adopt a
baby if.
Speaker 5 (21:11):
You, on the other hand, did it because of a map.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
I did it because of a nap. I did it,
you know, And.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
So happened when you're well rested.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
We actually because at the time we thought, you know,
Scott's in school. We need children that can go into daycare.
So we were actually wanting to adopt older.
Speaker 5 (21:27):
Yeah, you didn't want an infant, you wanted so much.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Right at least too at least two years old was
kind of our So anyway, somehow we ended up at Kazakhstean.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
I don't know. That was a long time ago.
Speaker 5 (21:36):
Crazy so take me.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Yeah, well, you know, it's a it's a process.
Speaker 6 (21:43):
You've got to you can watch videos and then you
put it in a referral. Well, for the first little
boy that we were looking at you with a lot
of prayer and watching the video over and over and over.
We fell in love with this little boy. But someone
was in line ahead of us, and so we're like,
oh my god, if we put all this into this
is this is gonna happen, is not going to happen.
(22:05):
And it was a Sunday morning, so we're, you know,
getting ready for church because we got to go early
because she's involved the praise team.
Speaker 5 (22:13):
You know.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
I worked with the.
Speaker 6 (22:13):
Techno group, and I went to take a showers. She
went downstairs check the computer again, see what's up with
the referral. And the house that we were in at
the time was three stories, so I'm all the way
upstairs in the bathrooms store. She's all the way downstairs
with the computers, and I hear screaming, and of course
I'm in the shower with a spider.
Speaker 5 (22:33):
On the walls. Screaming or joyous.
Speaker 6 (22:37):
Through two floors, you can't tell tell screaming, and I'm like,
out of the shower, grab a towel.
Speaker 5 (22:45):
Maybe on the way I.
Speaker 6 (22:46):
Go and find out because I think it could be
somebody in the house got for everything, and I'm I'm
ready to kill or just get a hut. Don't our
referral had gone through the other couple that had been
looking at the little boy dropped out and we found
out that Arstin was ours.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
So that was that was good kid.
Speaker 6 (23:04):
Of screaming solos a very you know, it's start, joyous
start to the rest of the process.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Which is well.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
And so the one thing that you find out very
quickly is international adoptions are delayed constantly, constantly, and that
can be from our side, that can be from their countryside.
Speaker 6 (23:26):
It is.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
Yes, when I was reading this, this popped into my
head and people are going to hear this, and there's
going to be a number of people that say hmmm
and look into it.
Speaker 5 (23:41):
So eyes wide open kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Yeah, it's not cheap, no, no.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
But beyond that, in some of these third world countries,
forget adoption for a second again, I've done business there.
Speaker 5 (23:59):
You run into a lot of people with their handout.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Oh absolutely, and if you don't put the money in
the pall, oftentimes that leads to delays and oh this
paperwork got lost, and I'm sorry that they. People can
people with just a modicum of administrative power can make
lives miserable in places like this. If you don't grease
the palms. I don't do it. I don't want my
(24:24):
business involved in it. I don't think it's ethical. So
if it comes down to doing business or not, in
that situation, we walk. I'm just curious for the delays
because some people were wanting things that you were unwilling
or unable to give.
Speaker 5 (24:41):
Or is it just the administrative.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
Process and these places are so jacked up it just
takes forever.
Speaker 5 (24:47):
It was.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
It was a delay across the board. It wasn't just us.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
It was no families would travel during this period of
time because the laws were changing, or they took the
summer off. Yeah, they took they took the summer off.
Speaker 5 (25:02):
Were done.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
They did seriously, I mean they were you know, they
were part of the SOVIETI they were the second largest
country to come out of the Soviet Union when the
Slovie Union broke, so very different way of doing things.
But we traveled exactly when God had his plan to travel.
Now I was not so that sounds like, oh, isn't
she just so faithful? No, I was pacing many times
(25:26):
saying God.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Why, you know, why, why why?
Speaker 2 (25:28):
But in the middle of it, we did decide we
get it up to so it did allow us to
bring home two little boys instead of one.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
In this process.
Speaker 6 (26:01):
Then it's because you travel with other couples, and one
of the couples that we were traveling that we got
to know they were debating about a second little boy
because he needed a very special type of heart surgery
that you really can only get here in the States.
And so part of the delay process was God working
on their hearts provide this opportunity to get move them
(26:21):
to that point. So while that was happening, you know.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
We're bored.
Speaker 6 (26:27):
So we were continuing to look at pictures on the
same website and we came across another little boy who
we just thought, isn't he cut?
Speaker 3 (26:36):
And he was, and it is.
Speaker 6 (26:37):
He's a very handsome young man now. And so we
ended up adopting two little boys. And this was more
on like I said, this time on her leading that
this was the thing we needed to do. So this
was Arson and Seric. So they were the first two
that we adopted.
Speaker 5 (26:56):
Yes, so.
Speaker 4 (26:59):
You people sing, the reason I'm pausing is to have
a chart of all these kids and their ages and
where they're from. And now I'm boxing in Arston. Arsta
N and Sarah ser I k who were the first
two of the family, both from Kazakhstan.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Five weeks apart in age?
Speaker 5 (27:19):
How many five weeks?
Speaker 4 (27:20):
Five weeks apart in age biological tie? Who were your
first two children? Yes, and they were adopted in two.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
Thousand and one, September or August of two thousand and one.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
Yeah, which is interesting because when you went to get
them and were flying back, it.
Speaker 6 (27:36):
Was September eleventh, and we did not make it back
to the United States of America.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
We made it to Canada.
Speaker 4 (27:43):
Unbelievable. So here was my next question. I read that,
which is your planing got diverted to Canada?
Speaker 5 (27:50):
Right right? Grounded everybody.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
So now you got two Americans in Canada trying to
get back home to the United States with two brand
new Kasah children.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Who didn't have a and who didn't have a Canadian visa,
so they were a passport. I mean, so in Canada,
all that work, all the Canadian people, bill they were,
they were so incredible. They pulled us aside, immediately, processed
visas immediately.
Speaker 5 (28:23):
Was it because they knew you had a background and beer?
Speaker 3 (28:26):
It could have been Well, I've been to Nova Scotia.
Speaker 5 (28:32):
Cruised by their coast and a nuclear with me. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
They treated us with so much respect and we're so kind.
Speaker 5 (28:41):
Where were you in Canada?
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Were Toronto?
Speaker 5 (28:43):
They so you weren't at least you're just a cross border.
Speaker 6 (28:46):
Yes, which was again another God said, because at the
time my parents were still alive and being from Michigan,
the borders you know here on sorry on, they opened
the border and allowed people to cross. My parents. How
did you get You walked? I guess you walked. We drove,
We drove my they you know, they drove hotel and
(29:08):
stuff when we were kind of stuck down in Rockford,
which is a really nice area of Toronto, if you know,
that's like Toronto raptors. So lustan'sa airline put us up,
paid for everything. So we had three meals a day,
We had hotels.
Speaker 5 (29:24):
Were they at the time.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
What one had actually just turned to one was about
to turn to So they were in the middle.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
Get you and then you get back and.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
Drive to Georgia.
Speaker 5 (29:36):
Yeah, and drive to Georgia.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
After all that, they got to meet their grandparents and
the inn.
Speaker 5 (29:42):
You know, so look look what we did. Yeah, here's
your grand grandson's too, So here you are.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
Yeah, now we were so happy thirty or so.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Yeah, and you go, oh, I should say Scott had
you know, he had planned to start Georgia Tech that fall,
but we had to defer because of the delays. Right,
so you didn't get to start till the spring. So
we get to spend that whole semester home with the boys.
Speaker 5 (30:07):
Got it? Oh?
Speaker 3 (30:07):
Yeah, so new Dad.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
Here are new Dad arstin Surk. Everything's great, you're about
to go back to TAG. You're working your job. Happy
family woke up from the nap shot, not one verse two.
Speaker 5 (30:24):
We're good to go. We are and life moves on.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
But not really, because too far we had seen those
We've seen the kids.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
We had seen the children.
Speaker 6 (30:36):
When you're there, because you visit twice a day in
the baby houses.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Is an organ I mean orphanage.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
It's an orphanage, right, I mean these are we don't
have a it's hard for us to comprehend. I mean,
these are babies and toddlers that live in an orphanage.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
Right, we don't see that. It's hard for us to understand.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
In a picture of what a Kazakhstan orphanage looks like.
Speaker 6 (31:00):
If you've seen the construction of the basic type of ability.
Most of them are these cookie cutter put together concrete buildings. Yeah,
square building, square windows, two to three stories whatever. Leaky
heat and you know the steam heat that comes in
and does everything, and you see it leaking up through
the streets. Everything's you know, metal fenced concrete, so it's
(31:20):
not welcoming.
Speaker 5 (31:22):
There's no pictures of little miss tough at eating or.
Speaker 6 (31:26):
Nothing like that, but you know inside the places were clean.
The caregivers were phenomenal. They kept these kids in line.
The way to keep them in line was after they
were fed and clothed and got everything ready, they'd walk
them for two hours morning and afternoons.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
These kids could.
Speaker 6 (31:41):
Walk, but you go outside when we had our time
with them and playing with the boys and being outside,
they would be walking the groups. The other little kids
would see their friends and they would see these adults
who they didn't recognize. They know why they're there. These
kids didn't know English, so they knew two words bomby
and daddy, and as a group they would come like
(32:03):
a little herd, running screaming those.
Speaker 5 (32:04):
Two words, looking for mom and dad.
Speaker 6 (32:06):
Right, yeah, and so the two little boys were so
we're out with Arsen serc we a couple of times,
a couple of days, and the fear in their eyes
when they clung to our legs. You know, you're kind
of getting to know each other and you haven't done
a whole lot of the hugging and that kind of stuff.
Yet all of a sudden, they're clinging to us because
they're afraid we might choose someone else.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
You know, there's a scene in the musical Annie where
perspective parents are coming to the orphanage and all of
the kids are running around, arguing and putting on the
nicest clothes they have and everything because they want to
act as best they can to possibly be picked.
Speaker 5 (32:50):
That's this, yeah, oh yeah, but in a very real way.
Speaker 4 (32:53):
Yeah, it's heartbreaking because you know you're leaving and the
ones you leave behind, and yeah, and I can get
a mommy and daddy, right.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
And those kids no legs, they see that happen, and they.
Speaker 5 (33:05):
And what happens in Kazakhstan when kids don't get chosen ultimately, well.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
They I mean they keep moving up.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
They move from you know, they age out to the
next orphanage. And honestly, I don't know exactly what happens
today at the time we had were adopting the oldest kids.
They would age out at about sixteen, and it was
whatever you could do at that point.
Speaker 5 (33:34):
It's heartbreaking too.
Speaker 4 (33:35):
Yeah, yeah, okay, So how long after the arrival of
child one and two do we decide we need to
go back to Kazakhstan and get some more of these kids.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
So we were home in September. We started the process
again in January.
Speaker 5 (33:53):
Oh five months stops.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Yeah, yeah, we celebrated first a breathe. Yeah, why why?
Speaker 4 (34:08):
I mean, I get I get the emotional todd of
those kids, but y'all you're young. You haven't even finished
school yet.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Even started new program started. You hadn't started started it right.
Speaker 4 (34:21):
And and and you're actually thinking, let's go get two more.
Speaker 6 (34:26):
Yeah, And it was and this time around we were
talking about, yeah, we're going to do this when and
we're looking at Demir, who's our oldest son, and looking
at his pictures and the videos and stuff, and we're
just going back forth when we found out he had
a half brother. And I remember the conversation because I
had actually started. I was, I was driving to Atlanta
(34:46):
every day, so I started at Georgia Tech, and I
remember Lydia asking me, she goes too, really do you
think we need.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
To do too this time?
Speaker 6 (34:56):
And I was I listened to talk radio. Well, I'm
in a hard because, you know, you gotta have something
to take your mind off the fact that you're on
the road with you know, ten thousand other people or
we have normal folcus. It's not a bad thing to
listen to. Yeah two yeah, you know. So you you know,
you drive with people on the roadhore willing to kill
you to get to work.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
And I'm just going to school.
Speaker 6 (35:18):
But I'm listening to this, and the voice on the
radio changed and it basically told me that you are
doing the right thing. You are going to take two
boys again. You will take that second child home.
Speaker 5 (35:30):
So you go back to Kazakhstan.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
Yes, so we go almost a year to day, same city.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Yeah, it was very close.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
Different baby house, but they're in the same city.
Speaker 4 (35:38):
They call them baby houses too, And so you roll
in and you find the mirror and his half brother.
Speaker 5 (35:49):
How long does it take.
Speaker 6 (35:51):
The process while we're staying over there, Yeah, okay, it's
it's about a month. So you stay there for a month. Yeah,
you're living in an apartment. Is the whoeverything she will throw.
The organization went through. They arrange all that.
Speaker 5 (36:04):
You have to stay there a month, you visit twice
a day.
Speaker 6 (36:08):
It's it's an hour and a half on the visitation
was watching my parents came down from Michigan, stayed in
our house and family effort.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
It has always been always been.
Speaker 4 (36:26):
So yes, so you come home a month later with
these two.
Speaker 6 (36:32):
So now yeah, we went six, well, well with those
it's it's so yeah. There's six of us in the
house plus two dogs. Of course would but we went
from being parents of nothing to parents of four boys
under the age of five within a year.
Speaker 4 (36:53):
And that concludes Part one of our conversation with Lydia
and Scott Rosenkrantz.
Speaker 5 (36:57):
And you do not want to miss port too.
Speaker 4 (37:00):
It's now available to listen to you together. Guys, we
can change this country, but it starts with you. I'll
see it in part two.
Banna's tube fed.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
She's an infant at seventeen, right, she's full care, but
she's also full of joy. And you asked, but you
asked why. I mean, I guess some people may ask
why does God allow things like this to happen?
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Anyway?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
But when I look at Anna, she reminds me that
every single one of us is made in the image
of God, and every single life has dignity and worth.
And we put so much of our value on the
wrong things right, like our work, our ability to do
this or that, and Anna can't do any of that.
(00:43):
But I have a feeling that all day long she's
communing with God, and maybe she's sad.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
For the rest of us, she's the happiest child we have.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Welcome to an army of normal folks. So I'm Bill Courtney.
I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, I'm a father,
I'm an entrepreneur, and I'm a football coach.
Speaker 5 (01:07):
In inner City Memphis.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
And that last part somehow led to an oscar for
the film about one of my teams. That movie is
called Undefeated. I believe our country's problems are never going
to be solved by a bunch of fancy people. In
nice suits, using big words that nobody ever uses on
seeing inner Fox, but rather.
Speaker 5 (01:28):
By an army of normal folks.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
Guys, that's us, just you and me deciding, hey, you
know what, maybe I can help. That's what Lydia and
Scott Rosenkrantz, the voices you just heard have done. These
unsung heroes have thirteen children, eleven of which are adopted,
and several have disabilities. And if that wasn't crazy enough,
(01:53):
Lydia is going to lead our local chapter in Memphis.
I cannot wait for you to meet Scott Lydia right
after these brief messages from our general sponsors. Scott and
(02:21):
Lydia Rosenkrantz, Welcome to an army of normal thoughts.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Thank you, it's great to be here.
Speaker 5 (02:27):
First of all, let me just go ahead and break
the eye. Y'all are nuts.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
You're not telling us anything.
Speaker 5 (02:34):
You are minds crazy.
Speaker 6 (02:37):
I thought it was not quite so obvious.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
So interestingly, you are our second interview to come from
a first interview. The first interview was Peter Mudubasi, who
is a dad who's fostered forty seven kids and adopted
three of them. And we did a large audience attended
(03:03):
event with him, and his episode is incredible and he's incredible,
and we got a lot of great response from it.
And through that we met Mick and Tracy Taylor, who
attended that live interview with Peter, and their voices are
really powerful on the topic of transracial adoption, which is
(03:26):
really interesting to us because we are conditioned as a
public and culturally when we think of transracial adoption candidly
to think of two white parents that adopt black or
brown children, or maybe Asian, but Mick and Tracy are
African American parents who adopted white children. It's just an
(03:49):
interesting juxtaposition. And honestly, it says a lot about our
culture that that would be an interesting juxtaposition that even
that is surprising to us, and it was surprising to me,
And after meeting them and hearing their story, I refused
(04:11):
to any longer be surprised by that. There's latent prejudiced
and racism in the surprise itself and their interview and
their story helped me to see adoption in a very
different light. I loved them, They were great, and she
is tough as nails. And then you guys come along,
(04:35):
because I think you were there too.
Speaker 5 (04:36):
I was both, or just how did you hear about it?
Why did you attend?
Speaker 3 (04:41):
You?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Gosh, I want to say I've probably heard about it
on LinkedIn first, and then you know, just the idea
of adoption and a single dad having that many foster kids.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
I was really excited to attend.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
And then I'm also aware of the good work that
Agape does and that's where we filmed it.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
So you happened to show up and I guess you
met Alex sitting on a corner.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Sure, I did.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
He was behind he was he was behind the curtain,
but I pulled it back and I.
Speaker 5 (05:10):
Said, hey, so you're like Toto a little bit. Yes,
she came to the Alex's lemonade stand.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
That's right, I did.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
I didn't get to come to the actual recording, but
I did get to meet Oh goodness, you're going to
have to tell me your name, yes, and get a
picture with her, and that was Yeah, it was very special.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
So why are we talking to Scott and Lydia today?
Speaker 4 (05:33):
Scott and Lydia are parents to thirteen children, eleven of
which are adopted not from Memphis but now living in Memphis,
which we'll get into. How and why and what and
what else they're doing, and the story of the growth
(05:57):
of their family is just phenomenal. And so from Peter
and McK and Tracy come Scott and Lydia, who I
think when you hear their story, everybody, you're going to
be like, Wow, these are just normal people who have
changed so many lives through their love and their empathy
(06:18):
and candidly they're hard work.
Speaker 5 (06:21):
So first, how'd your meat?
Speaker 4 (06:24):
First of all, two crazy peoples one another.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Oh, well, that was that was interesting.
Speaker 6 (06:31):
That was I had just gotten out of the Navy
that year, So this was nineteen ninety six, and I
was riffing houses on the side and working at a microbrewery,
brewing beer and partending at night.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
That's what people do when they get out of day.
Speaker 6 (06:45):
Oh exactly so, because you know, beer was kind of
a sport in the navy. So she was on a
date with another guy that night.
Speaker 5 (06:56):
Oh, you didn't told me that.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
To mention that, Alex is that real?
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (07:03):
And uh, Scott's game.
Speaker 6 (07:08):
The way the micro berry set up is behind the
bar is it's one way glass because all the lot
are tons and everything back there. So if you're back
there working a thing, you'd help. You could see through,
but they can't see into the back. And I wasn't
actually bartending that night. I was doing some maintenance work
and I saw her walk in and I've already talked
to the bartender because he was expecting a girl he
wanted to talk to to come in that night, and
(07:29):
I said, so when I saw her walking, I came
out and said, hey, man, now.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
It's the chance we'll just switch.
Speaker 6 (07:34):
You can keep an eye out for I was going on,
I'm going to run the bar for a little while.
So well, she didn't know the first time that I
actually saw her first she thought what she walked in
and saw me come into the bartender.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
That was the first time that.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
I was well was it was not someone that I
knew well, we had just been out a couple of times.
I will just say, Bill, it goes to show that
God can use any situation for his good and his plans,
because those were two very broken people that met that night.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Two people. I mean, we both grew up in the church.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
We had wandered really far away, both of us, and
you know, I often laugh thinking about how we thought,
you know, we're just going out for a fun It
was a Friday night. We're going out for a fun
Friday night. And I just felt like God was just
sitting up there and having laughing going, you guys have
no idea what I have in store for you.
Speaker 5 (08:27):
Were you in school?
Speaker 1 (08:28):
I was.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
I was getting my PhD in accounting at Michigan State University.
Speaker 5 (08:32):
My grandmother went to Michigan State.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Yeah, I got spartans.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
Yeah, yeah, a long time ago. She was in one
of the first classes that admitted women. Okay, yeah, long
time ago, long time ago.
Speaker 5 (08:44):
So you're spartan. So you're getting your PhD.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
In a in accounting, yes, right.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
And you're figuring it out. You got out of the
Navy and kind of what's next working in a micro
brewery and doing your thing. But I think you you
had the interest on.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
Well, I was.
Speaker 6 (09:01):
I was in the I was in the Nuclear Navy,
So I was in a nuclear navy. So I was
facettech submarines. I was a nuclear qualified operator. I was
electrician and diver. I'd had a few years of college
before I went into the Navy, so I'd already been
in the electric engineering pipeline.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
And that was you know, hoping to come back and
finish that off.
Speaker 6 (09:19):
So, but you know, in the meantime, after you know,
doing the twenty four seven three sixty five thing, you're
kind of like, I was catching my breath kind of thing.
Speaker 5 (09:28):
You were on nuclear subs?
Speaker 6 (09:29):
Yes, yeah, six eighty eight class the USS city of
Corpus CHRISTI.
Speaker 5 (09:33):
How long would you spend underwater?
Speaker 6 (09:36):
Well, we could spend months if we needed to, but
I think thirty eight days.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
The longest time that we went. Thirty eight thirty eight days.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
I think we found out that Genesis if you're crazy, Yeah, yeah,
eight days underwater. This has nothing to do with the story,
but I want to hear what that like. Does it
get funky smelling under there?
Speaker 6 (09:57):
Well, yes, because everything that comes into it, because you've
got you know, we have diesel fuel on board for
the when we're on the surface, and you've got you know,
obviously one hundred and forty men on board there, and
all the smells that we generate because we can recycle
and you know, refresh our air. But it's not the
freshest there in the world. So you have what's called
boat smell. You get used to it, and you don't
(10:17):
know it till you step out in fresh air and
you go what is on my clothes.
Speaker 5 (10:23):
They call it. Boats called it boat.
Speaker 6 (10:24):
Smell, So you know, and when you're going to go
to a port, you don't have your your civilian clothes
where they can suck up that boat smell. They are
in plastic bags with a dryer sheet in them, so
you don't really.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Yeah, so you don't. Yeah, oh yes, you don't smell
like an ogre when you're in public.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
So yeah, it's that's unreal. Oh yeah, what about showering?
Do they ration water and things?
Speaker 6 (10:44):
Oh yeah, it's the showering is a whole purpose of
you get in, get wet, shut the water off, soap up,
turn the water back on, rents out, get out, because
you know, we we make our own fresh water, but
you're not supposed to use a whole lot of it.
Speaker 5 (10:57):
That's fine.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
In the submarine, take in salt water, desalenated and make water.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Ten thousand gallons a day.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
Really, Oh yeah, I see, I could sit here. We
can't really know, but I could talk about that forever.
That is wildly interesting. Where where would you patrol? Where
would you where would this one?
Speaker 5 (11:15):
Well?
Speaker 6 (11:15):
I was a I would stay not a grout in Connecticut,
so we were East coast, so Atlantic North South all
the way up to Gateway to the North. I've been
in the North Atlantic. I've been underneath the polar ice cap.
Speaker 5 (11:26):
Have you really? Oh yeah, when that thing comes up.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
In the middle of nowhere Atlantic, are y'all allowed to
walk around on the boat and get some fresh air
and see it?
Speaker 5 (11:35):
What was that just for people?
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (11:38):
Only at least special events where you go and do that.
You got to be part of the top side crew
and me and I was a ship's diver. I was
number one as far as safety goes. I'm the only
person who wasn't tracked into the deck because if someone
went off or over, I had to have freedom of
movement to go get somebody. So I had a line
on me. But I didn't have the harness and everything
that everybody else tops I did.
Speaker 5 (11:59):
So did you have the big metal hat? No?
Speaker 3 (12:01):
No, no, I wasn't not deep sea this.
Speaker 6 (12:02):
I was scuba so no kidding. Yeah, so up there
and I didn't. I didn't even have tanks on. It
was just I had a udtves non shorts, fins arotected
in case.
Speaker 5 (12:12):
It's kind of cold. Yeah, it kind of is. Yeah,
I can't but you're married to a boss.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
Oh absolutely, that's really very very cool.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
That's you can see why I dump the other guy.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
Yeah, it get it.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (12:30):
If you're listening to the other guy, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
He's saying they have thirteen kids, Thank you God.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
Apparently they're nuts. That's right.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
That's really a cool Your kids know all this, they
know some of it. Yeah, you should tell them all
of it. I mean, that's that's dad hero status stuff.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
I wasn't tell my kids cool stuff like that. That's
really really neat.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
And now a few messages from marginal sponsors. But first
I wanted to share an awesome update that in January
and February we're launching the first six local chapters of
an Army in normal folks. If you happen to live
in one of these communities and you be interested in
being a part of it, email Alex and he'll connect
(13:18):
you to their leaders. The cities are Memphis, Oxford, Mississippi, Hadiitaddi, Atlanta, Milwaukee, Wichita,
and Clinton, New York. If you be interested in leading
a local chapter in your community, will hopefully be launching
more of this spring or summer. Please reach out to
Alex about that too his email Army at Normalfolks dot us.
(13:41):
We'll be right back, all right, So y'all meet Atterbrurary.
You scoop up and skate the scar out of the way,
and you don't do so you get married, I mean
(14:06):
take me from there.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
We dated two years and then.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
I proposed about eighteen seventeen, eighteen months into it, so.
Speaker 5 (14:17):
Something like that, and you're both in Michigan's, Michigan. And
what was the plan.
Speaker 6 (14:25):
The I guess the plan was at the time, she
was take her PhD, figure out where she would end
up teaching, and I would continue my education, get my
engineering degree and Georgia Tech.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Ash yeah, yeah, well that's because I ended up getting
a job at a small school in Georgia.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
Oh well, then I next time Georgia Tech.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Georgia Tech was we were we were about an hour
south of Atlanta where we were, and so it worked
out he could either go to Georgia Tech or Auburn
and ended up choosing Georgia Tech.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
So and our plan was I would work.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
While he finished school, and then once he started working,
I would start staying home and having babies.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
Normal. Yeah, normal, right, very very rational r not crazy.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
No normal, No, just very.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
Rational, honestly wonderful, boring love story, but boring and and
really unremarkable. Everybody normal wife, that's it.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
Yep, So what the hell happened? All right?
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Well I'll start and then I'll I'll let Scott pick
up with how he felt. I don't think anybody else
can share how he felt when I said this. That. So, so,
before we got married, we had really rededicated our lives
to the Lord. We'd he had brought us back as
a couple, Yes, as a couple, and church became extreme
(16:00):
important too, is I would say, pre children. Besides my
job and his schooling, church was everything to us. We
were very involved in our church, and so we had
only been in Lagrange. I think I think we were
in our second year there in the Grange, Georgia, right, sorry, yes,
in our second year there. So we were very young,
still newlywoods and I laid down to take a nap
(16:24):
one day because we had a strange little January term
that had just started, and I wasn't teaching and he
wasn't taking a class, and so we had all this
time and God spoke out loud to me and said,
you're going to adopt internationally.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
Is that the first time that thought had been in you.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
As far as I can remember, Yes, Well.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
This wasn't a thing you thought about as a child
or no, a teenager.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
No, no, I'm an only child.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
I don't remember, you know, really thinking a whole lot
about kids in general from this, because I was still
I don't know, twenty nine, I think at this point,
I was still pretty young. It was the only time
he has spoken out loud to me.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
But it was clear. It was completely clear.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
So I assume at some point you share this switch.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
I got, I got out, I got out of my nap,
you know, I got up from my nap and went
and started looking on the internet, like, are you kidding? No,
that quickly I was like, that's how clear it was.
Speaker 6 (17:21):
And our computer was in the downstairs room where our
TV room was, and and I was it was a
Sunday afternoon, I'm watching football.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Yeah, So all right, so he comes, you know, he
comes in, and I'm like, so I need to tell
you what God said and I did, and I'll let
him give you his reaction.
Speaker 6 (17:40):
And you know, you know, having been in the military
and submarines, things things change, and you're like next thing up, whatever,
and you're out this.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
You know, you're out the scene. It's just she said that,
and I was like.
Speaker 5 (17:50):
A second, it's third and three.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Maybe Detroit wasn't playing it.
Speaker 6 (17:56):
And I was just like, okay, we'll see this goes.
I have no idea what you're talking about. And you know,
I never have any idea when God's involved. It's like, yep.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
You know, when eberneze or Scrooge saw the the first
vision of Christmas past, he thought it might have been
just some undigested out.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
That's exactly what could have been. Could have been, It
could have been, it could have heavy. Except that within
a week.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
Just one second, Yeah, Alex, you saw just evoke Charles Dickens.
You see that, right, really good Charles Dickens in this center. Gosh,
that's pretty cool. Right, I'm not impressed that you cited
or something. I give you a break. I'm sorry, go
(18:53):
back to.
Speaker 5 (18:55):
Keep going.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
So I might believe you, Bill, except that within a
week we had signed with our adoption agency.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
It was that fast.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
Wow, And that was going to internationally. That's a big,
big footprint.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Yeah, that's well, so somewhere in there God had just
narrowed it down for us very quickly that it was
going to be Kazakhstan.
Speaker 5 (19:17):
Okay, when I read that Alex put that in the prep,
I laughed.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
Out loud, because it's because I've been to Uzbekistan and
I've done business there, and so I know a little
bit about this place.
Speaker 5 (19:32):
It's completely landlocked.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
Yes, it's Russia to the east and its China really
to the west, and in these mountain region stands in
the middle. And the people are these beautiful mix of
East Asian West Russian folk, yes, largely muslim m and
(20:02):
beautifully kind, very poor for the most part, people, lots
of agriculture and all of that. And for centuries these
places have been invaded and taken by larger countries around
it for their natural resources.
Speaker 5 (20:21):
That's the stuns. Sure, so let's go there. I mean,
come on, are you crazier? The crazy?
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Well, it was just you know, I mean, it was
where God let.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
Us, nobody even thinks about the stars we exists.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
So this was two thousand and one.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
At the time, if you looked up countries to adopt from,
Kazakhstan was actually a pretty popular country for adoptions.
Speaker 5 (20:47):
Oh, okay, it was easy, it.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Was fast at the time.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Now, I don't think it's even I don't think international adoptions,
at least in the US, are even allowed.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
But it was.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
It was easy and fast, and they had young children,
which most people who were adopting they did it for
infertility reasons and so they wanted to have the experience
of a baby, right, so you could actually adopt a
baby if.
Speaker 5 (21:11):
You, on the other hand, did it because of a map.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
I did it because of a nap. I did it,
you know, And.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
So happened when you're well rested.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
We actually because at the time we thought, you know,
Scott's in school. We need children that can go into daycare.
So we were actually wanting to adopt older.
Speaker 5 (21:27):
Yeah, you didn't want an infant, you wanted so much.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Right at least too at least two years old was
kind of our So anyway, somehow we ended up at Kazakhstean.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
I don't know. That was a long time ago.
Speaker 5 (21:36):
Crazy so take me.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Yeah, well, you know, it's a it's a process.
Speaker 6 (21:43):
You've got to you can watch videos and then you
put it in a referral. Well, for the first little
boy that we were looking at you with a lot
of prayer and watching the video over and over and over.
We fell in love with this little boy. But someone
was in line ahead of us, and so we're like,
oh my god, if we put all this into this
is this is gonna happen, is not going to happen.
(22:05):
And it was a Sunday morning, so we're, you know,
getting ready for church because we got to go early
because she's involved the praise team.
Speaker 5 (22:13):
You know.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
I worked with the.
Speaker 6 (22:13):
Techno group, and I went to take a showers. She
went downstairs check the computer again, see what's up with
the referral. And the house that we were in at
the time was three stories, so I'm all the way
upstairs in the bathrooms store. She's all the way downstairs
with the computers, and I hear screaming, and of course
I'm in the shower with a spider.
Speaker 5 (22:33):
On the walls. Screaming or joyous.
Speaker 6 (22:37):
Through two floors, you can't tell tell screaming, and I'm like,
out of the shower, grab a towel.
Speaker 5 (22:45):
Maybe on the way I.
Speaker 6 (22:46):
Go and find out because I think it could be
somebody in the house got for everything, and I'm I'm
ready to kill or just get a hut. Don't our
referral had gone through the other couple that had been
looking at the little boy dropped out and we found
out that Arstin was ours.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
So that was that was good kid.
Speaker 6 (23:04):
Of screaming solos a very you know, it's start, joyous
start to the rest of the process.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Which is well.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
And so the one thing that you find out very
quickly is international adoptions are delayed constantly, constantly, and that
can be from our side, that can be from their countryside.
Speaker 6 (23:26):
It is.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
Yes, when I was reading this, this popped into my
head and people are going to hear this, and there's
going to be a number of people that say hmmm
and look into it.
Speaker 5 (23:41):
So eyes wide open kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Yeah, it's not cheap, no, no.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
But beyond that, in some of these third world countries,
forget adoption for a second again, I've done business there.
Speaker 5 (23:59):
You run into a lot of people with their handout.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Oh absolutely, and if you don't put the money in
the pall, oftentimes that leads to delays and oh this
paperwork got lost, and I'm sorry that they. People can
people with just a modicum of administrative power can make
lives miserable in places like this. If you don't grease
the palms. I don't do it. I don't want my
(24:24):
business involved in it. I don't think it's ethical. So
if it comes down to doing business or not, in
that situation, we walk. I'm just curious for the delays
because some people were wanting things that you were unwilling
or unable to give.
Speaker 5 (24:41):
Or is it just the administrative.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
Process and these places are so jacked up it just
takes forever.
Speaker 5 (24:47):
It was.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
It was a delay across the board. It wasn't just us.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
It was no families would travel during this period of
time because the laws were changing, or they took the
summer off. Yeah, they took they took the summer off.
Speaker 5 (25:02):
Were done.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
They did seriously, I mean they were you know, they
were part of the SOVIETI they were the second largest
country to come out of the Soviet Union when the
Slovie Union broke, so very different way of doing things.
But we traveled exactly when God had his plan to travel.
Now I was not so that sounds like, oh, isn't
she just so faithful? No, I was pacing many times
(25:26):
saying God.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Why, you know, why, why why?
Speaker 2 (25:28):
But in the middle of it, we did decide we
get it up to so it did allow us to
bring home two little boys instead of one.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
In this process.
Speaker 6 (26:01):
Then it's because you travel with other couples, and one
of the couples that we were traveling that we got
to know they were debating about a second little boy
because he needed a very special type of heart surgery
that you really can only get here in the States.
And so part of the delay process was God working
on their hearts provide this opportunity to get move them
(26:21):
to that point. So while that was happening, you know.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
We're bored.
Speaker 6 (26:27):
So we were continuing to look at pictures on the
same website and we came across another little boy who
we just thought, isn't he cut?
Speaker 3 (26:36):
And he was, and it is.
Speaker 6 (26:37):
He's a very handsome young man now. And so we
ended up adopting two little boys. And this was more
on like I said, this time on her leading that
this was the thing we needed to do. So this
was Arson and Seric. So they were the first two
that we adopted.
Speaker 5 (26:56):
Yes, so.
Speaker 4 (26:59):
You people sing, the reason I'm pausing is to have
a chart of all these kids and their ages and
where they're from. And now I'm boxing in Arston. Arsta
N and Sarah ser I k who were the first
two of the family, both from Kazakhstan.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Five weeks apart in age?
Speaker 5 (27:19):
How many five weeks?
Speaker 4 (27:20):
Five weeks apart in age biological tie? Who were your
first two children? Yes, and they were adopted in two.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
Thousand and one, September or August of two thousand and one.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
Yeah, which is interesting because when you went to get
them and were flying back, it.
Speaker 6 (27:36):
Was September eleventh, and we did not make it back
to the United States of America.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
We made it to Canada.
Speaker 4 (27:43):
Unbelievable. So here was my next question. I read that,
which is your planing got diverted to Canada?
Speaker 5 (27:50):
Right right? Grounded everybody.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
So now you got two Americans in Canada trying to
get back home to the United States with two brand
new Kasah children.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Who didn't have a and who didn't have a Canadian visa,
so they were a passport. I mean, so in Canada,
all that work, all the Canadian people, bill they were,
they were so incredible. They pulled us aside, immediately, processed
visas immediately.
Speaker 5 (28:23):
Was it because they knew you had a background and beer?
Speaker 3 (28:26):
It could have been Well, I've been to Nova Scotia.
Speaker 5 (28:32):
Cruised by their coast and a nuclear with me. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
They treated us with so much respect and we're so kind.
Speaker 5 (28:41):
Where were you in Canada?
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Were Toronto?
Speaker 5 (28:43):
They so you weren't at least you're just a cross border.
Speaker 6 (28:46):
Yes, which was again another God said, because at the
time my parents were still alive and being from Michigan,
the borders you know here on sorry on, they opened
the border and allowed people to cross. My parents. How
did you get You walked? I guess you walked. We drove,
We drove my they you know, they drove hotel and
(29:08):
stuff when we were kind of stuck down in Rockford,
which is a really nice area of Toronto, if you know,
that's like Toronto raptors. So lustan'sa airline put us up,
paid for everything. So we had three meals a day,
We had hotels.
Speaker 5 (29:24):
Were they at the time.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
What one had actually just turned to one was about
to turn to So they were in the middle.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
Get you and then you get back and.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
Drive to Georgia.
Speaker 5 (29:36):
Yeah, and drive to Georgia.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
After all that, they got to meet their grandparents and
the inn.
Speaker 5 (29:42):
You know, so look look what we did. Yeah, here's
your grand grandson's too, So here you are.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
Yeah, now we were so happy thirty or so.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Yeah, and you go, oh, I should say Scott had
you know, he had planned to start Georgia Tech that fall,
but we had to defer because of the delays. Right,
so you didn't get to start till the spring. So
we get to spend that whole semester home with the boys.
Speaker 5 (30:07):
Got it? Oh?
Speaker 3 (30:07):
Yeah, so new Dad.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
Here are new Dad arstin Surk. Everything's great, you're about
to go back to TAG. You're working your job. Happy
family woke up from the nap shot, not one verse two.
Speaker 5 (30:24):
We're good to go. We are and life moves on.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
But not really, because too far we had seen those
We've seen the kids.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
We had seen the children.
Speaker 6 (30:36):
When you're there, because you visit twice a day in
the baby houses.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Is an organ I mean orphanage.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
It's an orphanage, right, I mean these are we don't
have a it's hard for us to comprehend. I mean,
these are babies and toddlers that live in an orphanage.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
Right, we don't see that. It's hard for us to understand.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
In a picture of what a Kazakhstan orphanage looks like.
Speaker 6 (31:00):
If you've seen the construction of the basic type of ability.
Most of them are these cookie cutter put together concrete buildings. Yeah,
square building, square windows, two to three stories whatever. Leaky
heat and you know the steam heat that comes in
and does everything, and you see it leaking up through
the streets. Everything's you know, metal fenced concrete, so it's
(31:20):
not welcoming.
Speaker 5 (31:22):
There's no pictures of little miss tough at eating or.
Speaker 6 (31:26):
Nothing like that, but you know inside the places were clean.
The caregivers were phenomenal. They kept these kids in line.
The way to keep them in line was after they
were fed and clothed and got everything ready, they'd walk
them for two hours morning and afternoons.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
These kids could.
Speaker 6 (31:41):
Walk, but you go outside when we had our time
with them and playing with the boys and being outside,
they would be walking the groups. The other little kids
would see their friends and they would see these adults
who they didn't recognize. They know why they're there. These
kids didn't know English, so they knew two words bomby
and daddy, and as a group they would come like
(32:03):
a little herd, running screaming those.
Speaker 5 (32:04):
Two words, looking for mom and dad.
Speaker 6 (32:06):
Right, yeah, and so the two little boys were so
we're out with Arsen serc we a couple of times,
a couple of days, and the fear in their eyes
when they clung to our legs. You know, you're kind
of getting to know each other and you haven't done
a whole lot of the hugging and that kind of stuff.
Yet all of a sudden, they're clinging to us because
they're afraid we might choose someone else.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
You know, there's a scene in the musical Annie where
perspective parents are coming to the orphanage and all of
the kids are running around, arguing and putting on the
nicest clothes they have and everything because they want to
act as best they can to possibly be picked.
Speaker 5 (32:50):
That's this, yeah, oh yeah, but in a very real way.
Speaker 4 (32:53):
Yeah, it's heartbreaking because you know you're leaving and the
ones you leave behind, and yeah, and I can get
a mommy and daddy, right.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
And those kids no legs, they see that happen, and they.
Speaker 5 (33:05):
And what happens in Kazakhstan when kids don't get chosen ultimately, well.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
They I mean they keep moving up.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
They move from you know, they age out to the
next orphanage. And honestly, I don't know exactly what happens
today at the time we had were adopting the oldest kids.
They would age out at about sixteen, and it was
whatever you could do at that point.
Speaker 5 (33:34):
It's heartbreaking too.
Speaker 4 (33:35):
Yeah, yeah, okay, So how long after the arrival of
child one and two do we decide we need to
go back to Kazakhstan and get some more of these kids.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
So we were home in September. We started the process
again in January.
Speaker 5 (33:53):
Oh five months stops.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Yeah, yeah, we celebrated first a breathe. Yeah, why why?
Speaker 4 (34:08):
I mean, I get I get the emotional todd of
those kids, but y'all you're young. You haven't even finished
school yet.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Even started new program started. You hadn't started started it right.
Speaker 4 (34:21):
And and and you're actually thinking, let's go get two more.
Speaker 6 (34:26):
Yeah, And it was and this time around we were
talking about, yeah, we're going to do this when and
we're looking at Demir, who's our oldest son, and looking
at his pictures and the videos and stuff, and we're
just going back forth when we found out he had
a half brother. And I remember the conversation because I
had actually started. I was, I was driving to Atlanta
(34:46):
every day, so I started at Georgia Tech, and I
remember Lydia asking me, she goes too, really do you
think we need.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
To do too this time?
Speaker 6 (34:56):
And I was I listened to talk radio. Well, I'm
in a hard because, you know, you gotta have something
to take your mind off the fact that you're on
the road with you know, ten thousand other people or
we have normal folcus. It's not a bad thing to
listen to. Yeah two yeah, you know. So you you know,
you drive with people on the roadhore willing to kill
you to get to work.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
And I'm just going to school.
Speaker 6 (35:18):
But I'm listening to this, and the voice on the
radio changed and it basically told me that you are
doing the right thing. You are going to take two
boys again. You will take that second child home.
Speaker 5 (35:30):
So you go back to Kazakhstan.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
Yes, so we go almost a year to day, same city.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Yeah, it was very close.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
Different baby house, but they're in the same city.
Speaker 4 (35:38):
They call them baby houses too, And so you roll
in and you find the mirror and his half brother.
Speaker 5 (35:49):
How long does it take.
Speaker 6 (35:51):
The process while we're staying over there, Yeah, okay, it's
it's about a month. So you stay there for a month. Yeah,
you're living in an apartment. Is the whoeverything she will throw.
The organization went through. They arrange all that.
Speaker 5 (36:04):
You have to stay there a month, you visit twice
a day.
Speaker 6 (36:08):
It's it's an hour and a half on the visitation
was watching my parents came down from Michigan, stayed in
our house and family effort.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
It has always been always been.
Speaker 4 (36:26):
So yes, so you come home a month later with
these two.
Speaker 6 (36:32):
So now yeah, we went six, well, well with those
it's it's so yeah. There's six of us in the
house plus two dogs. Of course would but we went
from being parents of nothing to parents of four boys
under the age of five within a year.
Speaker 4 (36:53):
And that concludes Part one of our conversation with Lydia
and Scott Rosenkrantz.
Speaker 5 (36:57):
And you do not want to miss port too.
Speaker 4 (37:00):
It's now available to listen to you together. Guys, we
can change this country, but it starts with you. I'll
see it in part two.
Host
Bill Courtney
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