Good Morning Church! I Met Joy Today — And His Name is Tye!

4 min readDec 25, 2016

Tye is just three years old with big black curls, bright dark eyes and a smile so big and bold it makes my cheeks hurt just to imagine smiling that big for even a few moments — much less continuously as Tye does.

A few weeks ago Tye was in the custody of his mother. He is now in the custody of Shane and Kristen.

They are seeking adoption and with the child rights laws in our state I believe they will be successful.

You see, Shane met his soon to be son just a few weeks ago when he responded to an emergency call involving a prostitute.

As they took care of the woman Shane couldn’t pull himself away from the little boy there with her — wearing just underwear and a t-shirt — watching sadly as he stood shirvering in the cold night air.

Shane said the images of Tye haunted him.

So he and Kristen began to visit Tye — but nothing they saw or heard was as it should be in the world of a child.

Finally they asked his mother, “Would you consider letting us adopt him?” The answer was, “Yes!”

The details are pending so as you read this please pray everything resolves quickly and in favor of Tye and his new family.

Because what I witnessed when I met Tye was pure joy!

Joy from a little boy who just weeks ago was standing, shivering in the cold dark shadows of abuse and neglect .

Tye was now wrapped up in so much warmth and love it simply makes my heart want to burst.

I could not take my eyes off this little boy.

He never sulked or frowned as most children do — not once.

It was as if he was now incapable of anything but joy!

Smiling — laughing — giggling — as he jumped and danced and played with absolute reckless abandonment.

It was as if he had just discovered how beautiful life was to live — and maybe he had — because as I looked into those dark, bright, now smiling eyes, I could not imagine what they had witnessed in their brief time on this earth — and I prayed that those things quickly dissolve away and never haunt his mind again.

And then I thought about how similar we all are to what I saw in this child — adopted into love — rescued from darkness into the family of God.

Shouldn’t that be all we need to live like Tye?

Displaying our joy with the same reckless abandonment?

Because no matter the darkness around us nothing can take us from what we have through Christ — neither life nor death nor angels nor demons — the light of HIS joy cannot be overcome.

This is where I originally ended this story — I wrote this post earlier this year right after I met Tye for the first time. I shared it privately with Shane and Kristen and planned to share it publicly once the adoption was finalized.

Just a few weeks ago — December 9th 2016 — the courts confirmed what Shane and Kristen’s hearts have known from the moment they met Tye.

Meet Tye Samuel Wilson

If you ask Tye what happened that day? The biggest news for him?

He got a sucker!

Less than a year with his new family has already healed this sweet child’s spirit.

The joy we saw in him those first few weeks is as exuberant and infectious as ever — you can’t look at this child without smiling.

The entire world changed for Tye with that chance meeting last winter because Shane and Kristen saw a child in need and instead of looking away stepped into his messy world to bring him home.