Seven for Christmas
/The Bishops celebrate the adoption of their fifth child, Lily
By Jo Murphy
photo by shane darby.
Anni and Travis Bishop are hometown folks with a meet-cute story straight out of a Hallmark movie. Nobody wants to be stuck on a broken amusement park ride, but that is where Anni and Travis found true love. She graduated from TASD. He went to school in Hooks. When mutual friends decided to take a daytrip to Six Flags, they both tagged along. Fate must have given them the idea of getting on that ride together. When it broke, Anni and Travis sat at the top of Six Flags for over an hour, talking about the things that mattered most to each of them. By the end of the day, they were both thinking, “That’s the kind of person I want to marry.” They fell in love.
Elijah, Salem, Naomi, Anni, Shiloh, and Travis Bishop, holding Lily on Lily’s adoption day. submitted photo.
However, as every dedicated Hallmark connoisseur knows, “happily in love” does not always mean “happily in sync.” Anni wanted to adopt a child; Travis did not. And, after the birth of their fourth child, Anni’s conviction to adopt became so strong that it was impossible to keep it in. “I really started nagging him,” she said, “and it was going nowhere.”
Anni had always prayed about adoption, but at this point, her praying took a different course. “I prayed for God to change one of our hearts,” she said. “If adoption wasn’t for our family, I wanted him to change mine, and I wanted him to change Travis’ heart if it was.”
Lily’s first day with the Bishops at just 3 weeks old. Submitted photo.
Anni said that about two weeks into her prayers, Travis called her from work to tell her that he’d had a change of heart. Not only did he now feel that they should pursue adoption, he felt that the best path to adoption for their family was through the foster care system.
“The need [for adoptive families] is so big,” Anni said. “I beg of you: if you have the tiniest interest in adoption, the tiniest nudge in that direction, take it seriously. Do what I did: pray for God to open your heart if you’re supposed to do this.”
Anni and Travis got to work becoming foster-to-adopt parents. They said that their caseworkers and the entire foster-care community in Texarkana were “phenomenal,” often going above and beyond their job requirements.
When Baby Lily was placed with the Bishop family at just 3 weeks old, the strawberry-blonde infant weighed just 5 pounds. Anni had never seen such a tiny baby. They were in love.
submitted photo.
The Bishops expected early on that they would adopt Lily. Her birth father, Anni said, “absolutely loved his baby, but was older and knew he couldn’t care well for her.” He advocated for her to the best of his ability. She was several months old when he requested that a home study be done for a family friend whom he hoped could have custody of Lily.
“That day was scary, because the idea that she could leave us felt like my heart could be ripped out of my chest,” Anni said. She and Travis requested a meeting with Lily’s birth father to ask him to reconsider. Anni said that Travis cried while sharing about how much he loved Lily. “That was only about the third time I’ve ever seen him cry,” she shared.
Lily’s first Christmas with the Bishop family, including her cousins. submitted photo.
Although very scary, that meeting was the beginning of a special relationship with Lily’s birth dad, which continues today. They even learned that Travis already had a working relationship with one of Lily’s biological family members. The next day, when Travis went to work, the family member took one look at Travis and ran to hug him, crying, “I can’t believe you have her! She’s in such a good home.” This family member started advocating for the Bishops to be Lily’s adoptive parents. Lily’s birth father came to agree.
photos by shane darby.
Now, at 21 months old, Lily is officially a Bishop. In some ways, nothing has changed. Anni and Travis have loved this baby like their own since before they knew who she was, since before she was born. In other ways—ways that foster-to-adopt families identify deeply with—everything has changed. “I feel that I can breathe now,” Anni said. “This Christmas will feel different.”
Anni wears a simple gold necklace that displays the number 7, representing the seven members of their family. Baby Lily has been in her heart for years and in her arms for months. Finally, legally, Lily is the seventh member of her family.