Posted on Aug 29, 2025

Mother Adopts 20 Children From 8 Countries After Divine Revelation Changes Everything

Mother Adopts 20 Children From 8 Countries After Divine Revelation Changes Everything

Sometimes the most extraordinary lives begin with a single moment of divine inspiration. Dr. Holly Joy Richardson's journey exemplifies this truth in ways that challenge conventional understanding of family, service, and faith. As a former Utah state legislator, writer for Deseret News, and creator of the popular "Holly on the Hill" blog, Holly brings unique perspectives to discussions about adoption, political service, and spiritual conviction. Her credentials extend far beyond traditional political experience into the realm of extraordinary family building and faith-driven advocacy.

In this episode of the Why We Believe show, Holly shares her experience with host Nathan Gwilliam; she provides insights into international adoption, special needs parenting, grief recovery, and maintaining faith during unimaginable trials. The scope of her family building efforts, combined with her legislative service, creates a unique platform for understanding dedication, sacrifice, and spiritual conviction in action. Holly's story centers around one of the most ambitious adoption journeys in modern history - rescuing 20 children from across eight different countries while raising four biological children and serving as permanent guardian to her own granddaughter.

The intersection of personal calling and public service defines Holly's approach to both family life and political engagement. Her refusal to separate spiritual conviction from legislative decision-making offers valuable lessons for anyone seeking to integrate faith principles into professional responsibilities. This combination of extraordinary personal experience and principled public service makes Holly's story particularly relevant for those exploring adoption, political engagement, and faith-based living.

The Divine Call That Started Everything  

Holly's adoption journey began in 1989 with a television program about Romanian orphanages that sparked an undeniable spiritual confirmation. As a young mother with three small children, including one with significant disabilities, the logical choice would have been to focus on her existing family responsibilities. Instead, she experienced what she describes as waves of inspiration that left no doubt about her calling to travel to Romania and rescue orphaned children. This spiritual experience was so intense that both she and her husband immediately recognized it as divine direction despite the seemingly impossible logistics involved.

The practical challenges of following this spiritual prompting were staggering. International adoption was far more complicated in 1990 than today, with limited communication options and no internet resources for guidance. Holly embarked on her first trip to Romania completely alone, leaving her husband and three children behind while navigating a foreign country, unknown legal systems, and dangerous conditions in orphanages. The isolation was complete - she could only attempt to contact her family once weekly by traveling downtown and paying in advance to try connecting internationally at five in the morning.

Despite these overwhelming obstacles, Holly's first trip resulted in adopting two children and establishing a pattern that would continue for decades. The experience taught her that spiritual promptings often require faith beyond logical reasoning and that divine timing operates on schedules we cannot predict or control. This foundational experience of following inspiration despite practical impossibilities became the template for her approach to both family building and later political service. The success of this initial leap of faith validated her belief that spiritual confirmation can be trusted even when circumstances seem insurmountable.

Building a Family Across Continents  

Following her initial success in Romania, Holly and her husband continued receiving spiritual guidance to expand their family through adoption from multiple countries. Over the following years, they adopted children from Kazakhstan, Russia, Guatemala, Zambia, Ethiopia, Australia, and the United States. Each adoption required navigating different legal systems, cultural expectations, and logistical challenges while maintaining stability for their growing family. The diversity of their children's backgrounds created unique opportunities for cultural learning and understanding that enriched their entire family experience.

The practical aspects of raising children from multiple countries with various special needs created daily challenges that tested both faith and endurance. Many of their adopted children came with significant physical, mental, and emotional disabilities that required specialized care, therapy, and educational support. Holly learned that mental and emotional disabilities often proved more challenging than physical ones, requiring different parenting approaches and a longer-term commitment to healing and development. The financial, emotional, and physical demands of caring for so many special needs children pushed the family beyond conventional limits.

Managing criticism and judgment from others became an ongoing challenge as their family grew. Holly faced frequent comments questioning their choices, their parenting abilities, and their motivations for adopting so many children with special needs. Some criticism came from within their own community, challenging their decision to continue adopting when they already had significant responsibilities. These experiences taught Holly to rely on her original spiritual confirmation when facing doubt or opposition, understanding that following divine direction sometimes requires standing alone against popular opinion.

Navigating Unthinkable Loss and Grief  

The reality of adopting medically fragile children meant that loss became an inevitable part of Holly's journey. She and her husband faced the heartbreak of losing three daughters, experiences that tested their faith in ways they never anticipated. The first experience with deep grief caught Holly unprepared, as she had mistakenly believed that having strong faith meant she shouldn't experience profound sadness about difficult circumstances. She initially added guilt to her grief, thinking that proper faith would eliminate her need to mourn or question.

Working through grief while maintaining faith required Holly to learn that spiritual conviction and emotional pain can coexist without contradicting each other. She discovered that the Savior's own experience in Gethsemane, where he asked for his burden to be removed, provided a model for acknowledging difficulty while still accepting divine will. This understanding freed her from the additional burden of guilt about experiencing normal human grief responses to loss. The nine-month process of working through her first major grief experience taught her that healing requires both time and deliberate spiritual effort.

Later experiences with loss became more manageable because Holly learned to expect both the darkness and the eventual return of spiritual light. She discovered that during periods of deep grief, the Holy Ghost seems to withdraw, leaving individuals to navigate overwhelming sadness without immediate spiritual comfort. However, her experience taught her that continuing small acts of faith during dark periods - prayer, scripture study, service - eventually leads to renewed spiritual connection and strength. This pattern of spiritual withdrawal followed by renewed light became a source of hope during subsequent trials, helping her support others facing similar challenges.

Faith-Driven Political Service  

Holly's entry into political engagement began with a specific issue affecting midwifery laws in Utah, teaching her that ordinary citizens could influence policy through persistent effort and spiritual guidance. Working with other midwives to change laws that they felt were unjust, Holly learned the legislative process while relying on scripture and prayer to navigate opposition and criticism. The five-year effort to pass their midwifery bill taught her that political change requires both practical strategy and spiritual endurance, often testing faith through prolonged uncertainty and setbacks.

When Holly became a Utah state legislator in 2011, she faced pressure to separate her spiritual beliefs from her political decisions. Various groups and individuals suggested she should vote based on party loyalty or special interest guidance rather than personal conviction and prayer. Holly's response was that she couldn't separate herself into different parts - her political service had to align with her spiritual values because she was one complete person. This integrated approach sometimes created tension but allowed her to make decisions based on principle rather than political expediency.

Immigration policy became a particular test of Holly's faith-based political approach when Utah was debating the Utah Compact on immigration. The compact emphasized recognizing the humanity and value of all immigrants, regardless of legal status, which proved controversial among some constituents. Holly's decision to support immigrant-friendly policies came from her belief that God sees equal value in all people, regardless of their country of origin or immigration status. She received emails from undocumented students who had lived in Utah their entire lives, asking her to remember their humanity when making policy decisions.

Key principles that guided Holly's political service include:

  • Making decisions through prayer and spiritual guidance rather than political pressure

  • Recognizing that policy decisions affect real people with inherent worth and dignity

  • Understanding that different life experiences create different perspectives that deserve consideration

  • Refusing to dismiss others' lived experiences simply because they differ from her own

  • Integrating spiritual conviction with practical governance responsibilities

  • Supporting policies that reflect divine love and concern for all people

Choose Deliberate Faith in Your Own Journey  

Holly Richardson's extraordinary story of adoption, loss, and service demonstrates that following spiritual promptings can lead to impact beyond anything we initially imagine. Her experience adopting 20 children from eight countries while serving in public office shows that divine calls often require us to exceed conventional limits and trust spiritual guidance over practical logic. Whether you're considering adoption, exploring political engagement, or simply seeking to align your life more closely with spiritual direction, Holly's journey offers valuable insights into faith-driven living.

Consider examining your own life for moments when spiritual impressions might be guiding you toward service opportunities that seem beyond your current capacity. Holly's willingness to travel alone to Romania as a young mother, continue adopting despite criticism, and integrate faith principles into political decisions shows that spiritual promptings often ask us to stretch beyond our comfort zones. Your own combination of talents, circumstances, and spiritual gifts may be preparing you for service opportunities that don't yet exist but will emerge at exactly the right time.

Take time to evaluate whether you're being called to serve others in ways that require significant sacrifice and faith. Holly's experience on the Why We Believe show demonstrates that choosing deliberate faith during difficult seasons creates testimonies strong enough to withstand any trial. Whether through family building, political service, or other forms of ministry, your willingness to follow spiritual direction despite practical obstacles may be exactly what someone else needs to experience hope and healing in their own life.

Thank you for reading this week's blog post inspired by the Why We Believe show. If you are interested in more stories like this, you can check out our other blog posts and episodes at WhyWeBelieve.com.

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