Bryan Naegele

7 Gotcha Days and Counting: A Conversation with Bryan *Robert: Take me back to the photograph and the story behind it.* **Bryan:** The photo was taken in Toronto at MPI in 2019. I was helping produce the event, and my message was about my three daughters, biological sisters whom my wife and I adopted from foster care. We went from no children to three almost overnight. September 2019 marked our seventh Gotcha Day, the anniversary of the day they legally became our daughters. *Robert: What does Gotcha Day mean to your family?* **Bryan:** The girls moved in around Memorial Day weekend and had to live with us for ninety days before we could legally adopt them. After court, we celebrated at Chef Mickey’s at Walt Disney World. That became our tradition. Every year, we have a meal at a Disney restaurant to remember the day our family became official. *Robert: What led you and your wife toward foster care adoption?* **Bryan:** We knew we wanted children, and my wife’s best friend had adopted three children from foster care. We explored other paths, but kept coming back to the children here who needed homes. We realized building a family mattered more than having an infant. *Robert: What was the adoption process like?* **Bryan:** It forces you to be honest about what you can handle: age, gender, race, medical needs, background, and siblings. We hoped for two or three children, as young and healthy as possible. Then came the call about three sisters. From that point forward, they were never simply our adopted children. They were our kids. *Robert: What have you learned about parenting, and how has your wife shaped that journey?* **Bryan:** Children enter foster care because something difficult has happened, so you have to understand that history and be prepared to parent differently. It takes patience, consistency, and a willingness to keep learning. My wife is the heart of all of it. When our middle daughter needed a different educational environment, she left the classroom and homeschooled her for five years. She later returned to teaching and is now back in a third-grade classroom. *Robert: Why does “home” feel like the right value for this story?* **Bryan:** Before the girls arrived, we had already bought a house with extra bedrooms, good schools, and a neighborhood where we hoped to raise children. Two rooms were sitting empty, waiting for a family. We opened our home and trusted God to bring the children who were right for us and whom we were right for. The house was there, but it wasn’t complete until they arrived. They gave those empty rooms a purpose and gave our idea of home its meaning. *Robert: What do you hope people understand from your family’s experience?* **Bryan:** Family is not defined by how children arrive in your life. It is built through belonging, commitment, and choosing one another every day. Our daughters are our children, and becoming their parents has been an adventure I would not change for the world.