53. Brady and Andrea Murray with 'Rods Heroes' and Inspiring Families to Answer the Call to Adopt Children in Unique Circumstances

Brady and Andrea Murray are the parents of 11 children, 7 of them they adopted into their family. Their journey with adoption and their passion for advocating for children began after their first son was born with Down syndrome. Soon after that, they became aware of the fate that many children born with Down syndrome around the world face of being abandoned or left in orphanages.

That fueled their idea to create a nonprofit to help many of those children find families and homes. The mission of their nonprofit now is to inspire families to answer the call to adopt children with Down syndrome or other unique circumstances, and they call their nonprofit Rods Heroes.

This was an inspiring episode! Brady and Andrea are very honest about some of the realities of adoption and the feelings they’ve experienced along the way with their journey, but they also share the light, hope, and joy in bringing children and families together.

Listen to the episode  to learn more about their nonprofit, some of the programs they do to further their cause, and the many miracles they’ve seen along the way.

Links mentioned in the episode:
Rods Heroes Website
Rods Heroes Instagram
Rods Heroes Facebook
Rods Heroes App
Brady and Andrea's Podcast 'See the Miracle'

Follow the podcast on social media:
Do Something More Instagram
Do Something More Facebook
Do Something More YouTube

Transcript

Melissa: Brady and Andrea Murray are the parents of eleven children. Seven of them they adopted into their family. Their journey with adoption and their passion for advocating for children began after their first son was born with down syndrome. Soon after that, they became aware of the fate that many children born with down syndrome around the world face of being abandoned or left in orphanages. That fueled their idea to create a non profit to help many of those children find families and homes. The mission of their nonprofit now is to inspire families to answer the call to adopt children with down syndrome or other unique circumstances. And they call their nonprofit Rods heroes. Rod's heroes fulfills their mission in many ways, but one of their main goals is to help remove the financial barriers many families face when feeling the call to adopt through grants and raising awareness. This was an inspiring episode. Brady and Andrea are very honest about some of the realities of adoption and the feelings they've experienced along the way with their journey. But they also share the light, hope, and joy in bringing children and families together. In this episode, learn more about their nonprofit, some of the programs they do to further their cause, and the many miracles they've seen along the way. As Brady says in this episode, if you allow yourself to get caught up in a cause bigger than yourself, you will witness miracles. Welcome to the Do Something more podcast, a service oriented show where we highlight the helpers who inspire us all to do something more. I'm your host, Melissa Draper. Thank you so much for being here. Welcome to another episode of the podcast. And this week we have the great opportunity to learn more about this inspiring nonprofit called Rod's Heroes. And what they do is work with adoption and raising money to encourage others to adopt children with special situations. So I am excited to learn more about all of the good things they do. But first, I want to welcome to the show the founders of Rod's heroes, Brady and Andrea Murray. Welcome to the podcast.

Andrea: Thank you.

Brady: Thanks for having us on.

Melissa: All right, well, why don't we just start off with you, Andrea. Just give us a little introduction of your family and a little bit of this story, story behind what kind of started your nonprofit.

Andrea: Okay. Yeah, I'd love to do that. So Brady and I, we both grew up in Cache Valley, and we met while going to Utah State. We have been married for almost 22 years now, and we have eleven kids. So that is kind of amazing, even to us, because we didn't actually plan on having eleven kids, but we're glad that we do. And so we, our oldest right now is 18. She's a senior in high school, and then we pretty much have one every year until our youngest, who is five of our eleven children, seven of them are adopted. We have four biological children. And then our oldest son, Nash, he was born with down syndrome, and we also have another son with down syndrome. His name is Cooper. And we adopted him from China in 2016 when he was four years old. And we also have two little girls that we adopted from foster care. They came to us when they were two and one years old, and they're the babies of our family. We just adopted them in 2022 and officially adopted them, but they have been with us, you know, since they were little, like I said. And then most recently, we just adopted a sibling group of four from Columbia, and they are ages 17, 1513 and eleven. So that's how we came up with the eleven children in our family. And just. I'll let Brady talk more about how Rod's heroes got started and our organization got started. But our family, of course, has been probably our biggest inspiration in the work that we do in our non crop.

Melissa: Most definitely. I grew up in a family with eleven kids, so I know how energetic and exciting that can be.

Andrea: Oh, wow.

Melissa: And I love, I love hearing that with your story. So, yeah. Brady, why don't you just give us a little more details of how you got into actually starting the nonprofit and doing the work that you do.

Brady: Absolutely. So when Andrea and I welcomed our son Nash, into this world about ten minutes after he was born, is when we found out that he had down syndrome or he has down syndrome. Honestly, for me, that was, that was hard. Like, that was a very, very difficult, raw, emotional time in my life. Andrea handled it so much better than I did, but it was very difficult. And Andrea and I believe wholeheartedly in all, with all of our hearts, that we are entrusted experiences, that these experiences come to us for a reason. And the best way to be able to work through experiences that may be difficult or raw or hard is to serve the pain that you know best. And after a short season of just really getting to know our son and really starting to understand what our life was going to look like, we thought, you know what, it's time to go to work. And we wholeheartedly embraced the down syndrome community. It was through that embracing that we learned about something that honestly changed our lives forever. It shook us to our core when we found out about this. And what we learned is that when a child is born with down syndrome, like Nashville in many countries, that that child is abandoned, that that child is left, and that child immediately goes to, whether that's in an institute or an orphanage or oftentimes in foster care, that that child, in essence, does not have parents. And so when we learned about that and we saw images and pictures of kids that are the same age as our son, just a little, you know, toddler that are crib ridden, that are skin and bones, that just. That light in their eye that is so amazing in individuals with down syndrome just didn't exist. We felt in our heart that we needed to do something about it, and that's ultimately how Rod's hero started.

Melissa: Wow. And you kind of evolved over time. So it kind of started out. You had a. I saw your story of you doing an Ironman, and you've kind of evolved with that. So do you want to go into that a little bit, too?

Brady: Yeah. That was unique. And so we. You know, when we're like, we got to serve these kids, we got to help these kids. We had picked a child that was in Lithuania, and at the time, nobody had ever adopted a child from Lithuania that had down syndrome in the history of the country. Right? And so this little boy just called to us. We wanted to help him, and so we started to research and find the best way to help him. And what we found is that there's actually many families that are willing to adopt a child with down syndrome. It's just the financial burden that comes with adoption was just too much for them to overcome. On average, it's about 40 grand to adopt internationally and as well as domestically in many cases. And so when we found that out, we thought, you know, what? What if we raised some funding to be able to help this young man to be able to be adopted? We saw a real miracle transpire. In just a short period of time, we were able to raise a large adoption grant for him, and within just a few weeks, a family had committed to adopt him. And so that's what sparked the interest. And, like, okay, I think we're onto something. And as we were brainstorming ideas on ways we can raise funding and awareness, Andrea said, I've got a great idea. Brady, why don't you do an Ironman triathlon, which I had never done, and.

Melissa: That'S a good wife to encourage, right.

Brady: Honey, maybe you should do an Ironman triathlon. But ultimately, I committed, went all in, and I learned a very valuable principle during that time. Our whole family did. And that is, if you allow yourself to get caught up in a cause bigger than yourself, you will witness miracles. And we witnessed a miracle a short time after starting to train for this Ironman, we actually were invited to race in the, not just an Ironman, but race in the Ironman world championship that year in Kona, Hawaii. And they featured our story on NBC. And so that was the, the thing that catapulted Rod's heroes into the stratosphere, if you may. And so Rod's stands for racing for orphans with down syndrome. And that stems back to just that first year in that Iron man that I did.

Melissa: Yeah. And I saw on your website you've now branched out to include other children, not just necessarily just down syndrome.

Brady: That's right. The mission of Rod's heroes is to inspire families to answer the call to adopt a child with down syndrome or other unique circumstances. And other unique circumstances could best be described as underdogs. And so those cases, those kids that have the smallest percentage chance of being able to be adopted, those are the ones we really like to advocate for. So other disabilities, older children, we have children that are, you know, 1516 years old that are getting adopted that we've been advocating for, which is just like a one in a million chance of those kids getting adopted. And also large sibling groups, you know, when you get two, three, four kids that are siblings that need to be adopted, that's also a very difficult or unique circumstance. So that's where we like to focus.

Melissa: Yeah, that's inspiring. And I love how you said when you get caught up in a cause, you will witness miracles. So, Andrea, what are some more of the miracles that you have seen as you and your husband have run this nonprofit together?

Andrea: Oh, that has been the best part is we have literally seen so many miracles. The biggest miracle of all, I think, is really just seeing the children be united with their families. I mean, it's a miracle how the children change and how Brady talked about the light in their eyes, how that comes back. And you see these kids come home and they have that light in their eyes, and they have confidence and they're healthy and just have the support that they need. And it's incredible to watch what they do. That, for sure, is one of the miracles. But I would say that one of the other miracles that is just incredible to see is how these kids change their families and how the families respond to that. And especially as we witnessed it firsthand, you know, as we brought our son Cooper into our lives, it's just incredible. You know, like people will say to us, oh, it's so great. Like, you're such a blessing to him, but really, truly, like, he is the biggest blessing to us, it's just incredible to see, like, the love that he has and the ability that he has to just bring out the best in people. And so he's amazing in our family, but he also just has this huge reach of everyone that he comes in contact with is better because of him and with his friends at school and his teachers. It's incredible to see those miracles. But also, I would say, just with opportunities that we've had to advocate for children, we've seen a lot of miracles that way. We've just seen doors open that, you know, we would have never imagined, like, the opportunity that we were given to go and work in Colombia and do some work there. That was an absolute miracle. And I don't know, there's just, like.

Brady: All Armenia, just this last year, that, that was one that came to my mind as well. We, we went to Armenia, like, kind of a last second, got a, a special opportunity to travel to Armenia, which, honestly, was doing next to no adoptions. And we went over there, started to work with their government, started to work with the local authorities, and within a week's time, we had found and identified 23 children that have down syndrome that are aged six and under, the youngest being six months old, that are in need of a family. And that was an absolute miracle as well that I was thinking of when you were talking, hon.

Andrea: Yeah, for sure. Yep. It's really awesome to just see, you know, the things that do happen that we just, like, we don't even plan. It's just things that. Incredible things that happen when, I guess, when you're kind of willing to be able to do that work.

Melissa: Most definitely. I love that you took the time to kind of educate us on some of those situations and international places, because I don't know that all of us are aware, kids being put in orphanages or different ways. I don't think many of us would be aware of. And the work that you're doing.

Brady: Yeah. And I would also add, it's not just international, but definitely domestically as well. Right now in the United States, there's over 400,000 children that are in foster care, with 100,000 plus of those that are eligible to be adopted. And so we take every opportunity to advocate for children in unique circumstances or that have down syndrome here domestically as well as overseas.

Melissa: Right. Well, there's so many ways that you do that through your nonprofit. So you mentioned raising funds so that families can look at that as a possibility to adopt. Just go through some of the other things that you do through your nonprofit to kind of fulfill this goal you have.

Brady: Yeah. There's one that is just near and dear to my heart that's at the forefront of my mind right now that we call Heroes Club. And this is something that was an idea that came last year to our team. And the idea was to be able to go back to our roots of running or doing endurance type events, but really have a focus on children to be able to do it. So we created a summer running club, a summer running program, and is, you can probably start to pick up with some of our trends. We love to do hard things. We love to get outside of our comfort zones. We love to have children and our children get outside of their comfort zones. So last year we had seven locations in the state of Utah. Over a thousand runners, almost 1100 runners that signed up to run every day, five days a week throughout the summer. And so I know with my kids, the thought of, like saying, hey, guys, like, how about for this year, every day during the summer, we get up and we go over to the park and we run for 30 minutes. Like, my thought was, what kid is going to do that? But again, going back to this concept of getting caught up in a Cosby and yourself, this thing took off like wildfire, and these kids loved it. In fact, my own kids, as well as many other families, said the same thing, that we, you know, mid season would have a family vacation to wherever we're going to go. That's super fun. And our kids would actually pressure us in saying, we can't go until after run club on Friday, and we've got to be back by Monday to be able to get our miles in. And we tracked it and we were able to give recognition and awards to these kids. We had dozens of kids that hit over 100 miles, ran like, do the math on that, of how many eight year olds, nine year olds are running 100 miles in a summer. And we were witnessing that. And what they were doing it for was this concept of kids with families, running for kids without families, and being able to do this to help those kids that are just like them, that just need a shock. They just need somebody to believe in them. An integral part of Heroes Club as well is we wanted it to be a very inclusive environment. So we had dozens and dozens of kids that had special abilities, as we like to refer to disabilities that would come in wheelchairs or walkers or kids with intellectual disabilities that probably run a lot, but they were there every single day. And so it was just a miracle that we saw transpire this last summer. In fact, over the summer, the goal was to run all the way around the world, and we exceeded that. We had over 25,000 miles ran by these children. And bless their hearts, they also raised $25,000 for children like them to be able to get adopted. So that's something that we're super excited about this summer, we're expanding. Our goal is to go three x on what we did this last year, our inaugural year. I'm excited to see where this goes, because, honestly, I actually could see Heroes Club, this program, not just being a Utah thing, honestly, not even being just a national thing. But I feel like this is something we could do worldwide because kids just gravitate towards it.

Melissa: That's great. I'm a runner myself, so to me, that sounds like the greatest thing ever. But I know for kids, they love to be part of a cause they love, and teenagers as well, that is something that really speaks to them. And so putting those two things together, creating that sense of community and being part of a cause and being active and fun during the summer, it's just a lot of good things in one area.

Brady: Trifecta, for sure.

Andrea: For sure.

Melissa: Andrea, do you want to share any other things your nonprofit does to kind of support your mission and your cause?

Andrea: Yeah, absolutely. I would say one of the most important things that we do is storytelling. We try and do that through social media, which has been one of the most powerful ways we found to just, you know, have a bigger outreach, create more awareness for the children. That's how we've been able to connect a lot of children with their families. And so that's something that, you know, we love to have the opportunity to meet these children in person so that we can get to know them, so that we can, you know, just share the light that they have with others. And we do that, you know, through pictures and little write ups about the kids and things they like and just the things we found out, you know, as we get to know these kids. And so that's been a really special way that I think when or when a family wants to adopt, if they're able to, you know, see pictures or even a little video of a child, that child, you know, becomes really real to them, and it's a lot easier to maybe, like, make feel that connection. And so I feel like that is a really important piece of what we do at Rods heroes. And it's one of my favorite, favorite parts as well, because it's just always amazing to meet these kids and to just, like, fill their strong spirits and see the light that's in their eyes and to just have that opportunity to interact with them and advocate for them.

Brady: I would add on that we actually have an app, a Rods heroes app that's available on Apple and Android devices, that we have 139 children. The app right now that we are advocating for, these are children that we have met, that we've gone in country and met these children, and it's a great way to be able to tell their stories. And we're obviously very vocal and active on social media with our rods heroes channels. And then Andrea and I, with our Instagram channels, love to be able to share just our journey and also the journey with Rod's heroes. So pretty, pretty fun to see.

Melissa: How do you find all of these children? Is it through community organizations? What's kind of the process there?

Brady: It truly is just miracles. There's countless stories of how individuals will have maybe seen an article on the news about Rod's heroes and had an idea and knew of a child that needed to be advocated for, that would reach out. We've had scenarios where doors have opened. Like I said, Armenia. That was just, that was not on the strategy last year to travel to Armenia. But just in a, in, like a last minute, that door opened and just their hearts were right, and their hearts were opened, and, you know, miracles happened with those 23 kids, five of which we already have families committed for. So it really goes back to that principle of miracles and also just being anxiously engaged and putting yourself out there. And these things tend to find. Find the right people.

Melissa: So, yeah, it's amazing when you just get started how the opportunities do open up. Well, I want to kind of switch from the children that you focus and advocate for to the families, potential families that you come in contact with. So I'm curious, do most that you communicate with, do they come to you wanting to adopt, or do you do a lot of education through what you do? Because you both mentioned, or Brady, you shared some of the trepidation you had in your own experiences. So do you also see that as part of your cause is to educate and maybe encourage families to kind of open some of those preconceived ideas or kind of open up maybe the possibility that it actually might be something a family would want to do?

Brady: I can touch on that a little bit. You know, when we started Rod's heroes, the concept was we would choose a child that we're going to advocate for, like Eli in Lithuania, then advocate and, you know, hopefully find a family. And we've actually switched that up to where the actual mission of rods heroes. Our statement is we inspire families to answer the call to adopt a child with down syndrome or other unique circumstances. So really, our focus is in working with the families and being able to help the families to be able to really find an answer that is right for them. And we're the first ones to say, adoption is not for everybody. And it is a very personal and even sacred decision that families need to make. Both husband and wife both need to be on the same page. Oftentimes, you'll have one spouse that's all in and another spouse that's maybe dragging their feet just a little bit. And so a large part of our organization is to be able to work with these families. We have a licensed clinical social worker that works very closely with these families who have done, who's done many, many adoptions and helped many adoptions for families. And so that's a large part of what we do. And then I would say the work doesn't stop there. Once a family answers the call, we're just right alongside them all throughout the adoption process. And even more importantly is the support groups and just the tribe, if you may. That community that we have after somebody is able to come home. And so we are not an adoption agency. We don't put that out there. We work closely with adoption agencies, but we definitely are advocates and supporters.

Melissa: Right. And, Andrea, would you be able to share maybe some of the ways people can get involved, maybe that don't feel that call to adoption, but they still feel strongly about supporting what you do or supporting these families and children?

Andrea: Yeah, absolutely. So, like Brady said, we have our social media. That is a simple, easy way to support, you know, by following and sharing that information and passing that along to others. There's also the opportunity to donate, of course. And I feel like some of our biggest advocates are just people who, who are not afraid to jump in and, you know, get to know people with different abilities. And just. Just by doing that, they are, they share the light they're passionate about, like a friend or a neighbor or a student or somebody that they know that has a different ability. And as they express that to other people, I think it really opens hearts and prepares people to just accept those children. There's a lot of inclusion that happens, and it makes the community better in general.

Brady: Well, definitely one really fun thing that Andrea and I have taken on as a personal project is we launched a podcast a couple of years ago. We're almost to 100 episodes called see the Miracle Podcast. And truthfully, the last four months have been pretty raw and uncensored as we've brought these kids home from Columbia. But the purpose of the podcast is just to share our experience in just a very open and vulnerable way as to the goods, the bads, and even the uglies of what adoption is like. And so I'd say that's a good resource as well for our families.

Melissa: Yeah. Oh, that's great. I will leave links to all of those in the show notes, and I'm sure it is a real raw experience. I think most things that end up meaning the most to us in life, though, are a combination of all of those feelings and experiences.

Brady: I agree.

Melissa: It's definitely true for adoption. Well, we have listeners from all over, so I just, I love always ending with some general advice. So I'd love to hear from you, advice that you would give to someone that's maybe thinking about adoption and wanting to get involved in that area, or even advice, again, to someone that lives somewhere else, how they can just get involved with it in general if maybe they don't feel the call to adopt.

Andrea: My advice would just be that, like, when you feel something in your heart, and we like to call it, if you feel like you have even the slightest heart for adoption, take the time to. To nourish that seed and to, you know, to really ponder those feelings, where they're coming from, what it would be like. And then don't be afraid, you know, to reach out to other people and to learn about their experiences. Because I feel like when you do that, when you allow that little seed to grow, incredible things can happen. And that's just, you know, what we experienced and are experiencing in our own lives is just being able to, you know, sometimes you really do have to go outside of your comfort zone and sometimes little bit scary. But it's also just really amazing and incredible to see the growth that comes and the opportunity that you have to just, like, grow and expand and connect with new people and to just feel like more love in your heart than you ever knew was possible. There's definitely a huge sense of community.

Melissa: And anyone that I've talked to that has gone through that process has felt that sense of community of others as well. So that's great. Brady, do you want to share how someone that maybe doesn't fill the call to adopt the ways they could get involved in their community, no matter where they live?

Brady: Yeah, for sure. I actually want to provide one insight on that first question on people that are considering it. And it's actually a message specifically to husbands to dads, and I'm guilty as charged. We've done adoption three different times. In all three cases, I was the one dragging my feet, and Andrea was the one leading the way. And oftentimes it's the mom, it's the spouse that the wife that fills those inklings primarily in the beginning. Oftentimes the husband doesn't. And there's a hundred reasons why they don't want to pursue adoption. And I can just speak from my own experience. Andrea has been such a support to me as a professional, allowing me to get my education, allowing me to pursue, you know, gainful employment and really, like, dive headfirst into businesses that I've been involved in and just really on the professional side and that opportunity to provide for my family. She's been such a tremendous support. And like so many amazing women out there, Andrea just has a heart for being a mother and for being able to be with children and raise and nurture those children. And I would say that for those husbands that are out there that maybe your wife does not or does want to adopt and you kind of don't, I would just encourage you to, like, truly ponder it and, like, open your heart to it. And one, be recognize the amazing things that your wife has done for you. But two, like, truly open your heart, because adoption is beautiful and a very, very special thing. And, you know, for some families, adoption is just not in the cards. And we'll be the first ones to say adoption is not for everybody. And for those families, truly one of the biggest roadblocks that families have that, like, both husband and wife are on board, they want to adopt. It's just the financial means. Like, truly, it's just the cost of international adoption. And so if you felt in your heart to be able to sponsor adoption grants or to be able to donate, to make it possible for a family to be able to bridge that gap that is feeling called and ready to answer that call, I think that would be, be a great thing as well.

Melissa: And it's amazing what a little bit of education can do to help us in that process. Wherever it is we end up, it's great to have places we can go to learn and understand more. And so I'm so grateful for both of you being willing to come on the podcast today to share your thoughts, your experiences, and the miracles that you've witnessed as you ran Rod's hero. So, any final words that you would like to share?

Brady: No. You're awesome. Thanks for. Thanks for doing this podcast and the great work that you're doing to be able to share just amazing light in the world with your guests. So thank you for the blessing of letting us be on.

Melissa: Thank you so much to both of you. It's been a pleasure. That concludes my interview with Brady and Andrea Murray. And again, so many inspiring things in that episode, so many good things that they've done. But I especially loved what they shared there at the end. Those reminders, that encouragement for anyone that's felt, that call to adopt, especially that sweet, tender message that Brady shared with the fathers, with the men. And also the reminder that if you haven't felt that, there are so many ways you can support those families, especially through donations and help, because those financial barriers really are one of the biggest things that keep families that want to adopt from being able to. So thank you so much for listening to this episode. Just a couple things. If you thought of someone while you listen to this or you know someone that feels passionate about adoption about this cause, please share this episode with them and let them learn about some of the good things that Rod's heroes doing. Or you can also leave a review for the podcast, of course, as always, on Apple Podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and we'll see you next time.