Some families grow through careful planning, others through surprise, but for Taylor Gumz and her fiancé, Kyle Baird of Morganfield, Kentucky, family arrived quietly on a March afternoon when two children needed a safe place “just for a night.”
What they assumed would be temporary, turned into something deeper almost immediately, and before long, their home began to look and feel a lot like a family that had always been meant to exist.
The turning point came on March 9, 2023, when one of Kyle’s employees arrived at work visibly distressed. Taylor’s concern shifted instantly to his two kids, and she called a lifelong friend at the local school to request a wellness check.
In a town where everyone knew everyone, the responding officer – one of her former classmates – called back to say that social workers were overwhelmed and that the children needed somewhere safe to stay. Taylor and Kyle agreed without thinking twice, believing they were helping in the moment.
But, as the hours stretched on, caseworkers struggled to find placement. By the following day, the “afternoon visit” had turned into a weekend request.
By Monday, they were told that if a home wasn’t found soon, the brother and sister might be separated or placed in a group home. Taylor remembers trying to navigate the first days of parenting “by the seat of our pants,” not realizing how quickly everything was shifting.
The clarity came from a simple exchange. When Taylor asked 12-year-old Tatum whether he liked staying with them, she expected a typical answer about games or the barn. Instead, he said quietly, “We have food, running water, and electricity here.” The honesty in his voice made everything inside her stop. “It reframed our entire perspective,” she says. “There was no way we could let them go somewhere uncertain.”
The next day, she and Kyle began emergency foster paperwork – training, background checks, home studies, and a crash course in the realities of the child-welfare system. Months rolled by with shifting case goals, delayed hearings, and long conversations about what might come next.
Despite the uncertainty, everyday life began forming around all four of them – school drop-offs, sports practice, barn chores, and dinners around the table. People who didn’t know their story often assumed they were a family by blood, and Taylor laughs when she says, “We were told the kids really resemble us even though there’s no blood relation.”
As the months passed, the kids flourished. Tatum, now 15, became a freshman at Union County High School, playing varsity football and getting involved in FFA. Taylor says he has always been “100% all boy,” happiest farming with Kyle, putting out round bales, or helping with anything that requires a tractor.
Kolby, now 13, settled in just as naturally. She started eighth grade at John Paul Catholic School, joined the basketball team, and became Taylor’s everyday barn partner – the “blue-soul girl” who never misses a chance to help with chores, visit the babies, or take riding lessons with trainer Amber Darnell.
Through everyday life, the idea of permanency stopped feeling like a question. It felt like the obvious truth. But Taylor and Kyle wanted to make sure the kids felt the same. “Before making any final decisions, we asked the children what they wanted and if they wanted to be Bairds. Kolby didn’t hesitate when she said, ‘Isn’t that what we already are?'” That moment confirmed what they already knew: they weren’t caring for children who were passing through, they were raising their family.
Once parental rights were terminated, the adoption process began. It was long, emotional, and administrative in all the ways they expected, but it brought them to the moment they had been waiting for. On adoption day, the judge invited the kids to strike the gavel themselves, formally sealing what had already been true in their hearts. Even though they had functioned as a family for nearly three years, Taylor describes the moment as unexpectedly profound, “not just relief, but gratitude and completeness.”
Their new grandmother, Amy Gumz, felt the same sense of fullness. “Yesterday was a big day,” she said afterwards. “Our family officially grew with Kolby and Tatum’s adoption. We are so blessed to have two grandchildren who are so very special in so many ways. I think this completes everyone involved, and I’m proud of Taylor and Kyle for not only taking this journey, but excelling in it.”
Looking back, Taylor says, “If you had told me that Kyle and I would one day adopt two teenagers, I never would have believed you. But God clearly knew what we needed before we did. They were the missing pieces of our family, filling spaces we didn’t even know were empty.”
