When God Speaks: How Amy Clary’s Family Expanded Through Divine Intervention

Anthony Codispoti: So this episode is a little bit different because it happened spontaneously and was not intended to be published. Amy Clary was a guest on our show a while back and it was a terrific show. She has an amazing energy and a great story to tell. Sometimes I’m fortunate enough to meet people on my show that I get to stay in touch with. Maybe we’ll discuss some business opportunities. Sometimes I make helpful introductions to other people in my network for them. Or we’ll find other common bonds that keep us in touch.

Amy and I had found one of those reasons to reconnect and at the end of our conversation we found ourselves on a rather fascinating conversation topic. A story that years ago had her family part of a viral video had her being featured on national TV right after the president was on. And even bigger than that this had her talking directly with the big man upstairs. Fortunately I had my screen recorder running and later received Amy’s permission to share the story with all of you. It’s a story that will make you cry, laugh and ultimately warms your heart. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Amy Clary: This is a few years ago of that one but this is my favorite picture of my kids because they all actually…

Anthony Codispoti: I mean it’s hard for me to see but they almost look like all the same age in that picture.

Amy Clary: They are pretty close. Yeah so they’re in order of age right there. The one with the boots on is the oldest and the one with the little slippers on is the youngest.

Anthony Codispoti: And they’re in order. And your Chinese… is that a boy? Your son? Uh huh. Uh huh. When did you adopt him?

Amy Clary: We adopted him. How did you know I told you that? We were like ABC person of the week and everything.

Anthony Codispoti: I can send you the link. Like ABC, like the news program?

Amy Clary: Yeah, like David Muir. What? Yeah. Well, I don’t know, I’ll send it to you.

Anthony Codispoti: And they wanted to hear your story about adopting overseas?

Amy Clary: Yeah, sorry, it went worldwide. It went viral. And like worldwide, I’ve seen it in 27 languages. It’s the coolest thing. So I do a lot of speaking engagements for adoption. Because I think it’s amazing adoption. Let me see.

Adoption. Let me see if I can just Google it. YouTube, hold on. I’ll send it to you real quick.

I can probably do that as fast. YouTube. And then you just go to like orphans for United ABC. My favorite one was the CNN story. Nine ABC. Let’s see. That’s on it.

Anthony Codispoti: Is there something. You need about your story or is it the fact that you’re so vocal about adoption in general that.

Amy Clary: Hold on. Let me turn that volume off. No, honestly, I can send you the whole thing, but God spoke to me, which I know sounds like a totally nutty. No, I want to hear it. So God literally spoke to me and I’m sending you this now.

Anthony Codispoti: No. I want to hit another guest who on the show. Very different context, but talked about how God spoke to her. And it was a really cool story to share. So I really, yeah.

Amy Clary: And maybe see. Okay. This is just the link to it on YouTube. But yeah, so literally we had these, I’ll give you the more abbreviated version, but because it is a little bit long story about sending you the real story because I’ll have it written out from my last time I just presented it last year at the night like Christian adoption scale. But basically, you know, we had just had Bexley, my baby.

And, and, and yeah, I was, we had some friends come up. She was only two months old. We had some friends come up from Austin and they had two twins that they were fostering. And it was a little boy and little girl and they were about two years old. And the little girl had, when she was taken away from her parents, had four cracked ribs. And the little boy and their twins had eight cracked ribs, a broken femur and brain damage. And their name were Lilith and Jet.

Names were Lilith and Jet. Really just so sad. And so just, I got so angry with God. I just started getting like really anxious and angry with him. And I was like, Lord, you know, if you’re wanting me to worship you and you’re telling me that, you know, that you can do all things, you know, and I’m supposed to believe in that, then where’s the proof? You know, where’s the proof? Like, I don’t get it.

Like I, you’re not even taking care of the least of these, which is what you are saying, you know, that we should be doing, you know. So anyway, they left and I moved on and, you know, life happens. And so a few weeks later, my, my cousin’s girlfriend comes over and she has this little girl with her named Violet. And Violet was stunningly beautiful. Like literally the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen in my life. I mean, my girls are beautiful, but this girl was like a Disney princess. Like eyes like this. And in the midst of our kids playing together on the water table, she tells me that Violet’s been molested.

And I’m like, what? And again, my heart just sank and I got that icky feeling of just the world is such crap and why, why does God allow this? And again, I went to bed just angry at God and, and I woke up just feeling really sickly.

And meanwhile, I’m still like waking up every night, twice a night with a two month old baby. And so I don’t think that probably helped. But that day I was driving to work that morning. I mean, I pulled it together and, and fortunately for, for me, but unfortunately for most people in DFW, I put my makeup on in the car. I don’t even have makeup at home. I just do it in the car. So which I probably should not advertise that, but, but, this isn’t being published.

Anthony Codispoti: So I’m driving to the office and, and all of a sudden, I’m sitting there and I’m just sitting there just thinking about Violet and about Lilith and Jet. And I’m just mad. And, and I listened to Christian music mostly. And that I, this song came on that was something about. And it was called Do Something by Matthew West.

I don’t know if you ever listen to Christian music, but he do something by Matthew is amazing. And he says, and he basically part of the lyrics are, I see, I see people living in poverty and children sold into slavery. And in my head, I’m imagining like these young Muslim little girls who get sold to these old disgusting men, you know, obviously against their will.

And, and they’re just children. He says, I see, I see people living in poverty and, and, and children sold into slavery and I shook my fist at heaven and I said, God, why don’t you do something? And I was like, right there with Matthew West. I was like, thank God there’s a song that. This made me cry. I don’t know why, but like it tells how my heart feels, you know. And, and yeah, and right there is the craziest thing.

If you haven’t listened to the song, the next line of the, the next verse of the song is he said, I did. I created you. And every time I get checked up, I’m sorry, but literally the voice of the Lord came down in my car and like everything stopped. The car fell away. And he literally through the song, all I heard was the resounding voice of the Lord saying, I did, I created you. And I was instantly like transported to this kind of like other dimension. I know this is sounding super loony tunes, but I said, I said, I said, but God, and this is crazy because I felt all, I don’t know if you’ve ever read 90 minutes in heaven or any of those books where they talk about heaven, but they talk about how you can hear all these instruments and you can hear them all at the same time, but you can hear them all very clearly.

Or you can see all these vibrant colors, but you can see them all simultaneously, like almost like a, like a glowing colors, like the, the gates of heaven are like this glowing pearl-esque colors and gold and all this. So anyway, he said, so I said, but Lord, like I have, I have a new baby. Like what do you want me to do? But so all of those things, the reason I was telling you that is because for me, I felt all these emotions simultaneously. I felt overwhelming joy, like you could never describe, overwhelming gratitude, like you could never describe. I felt overwhelming guilt and just like literally all these emotions. And so of course I was arguing with the Lord, which is what, you know, all the good people do in the Bible too. So at least I have good company, you know. So I said, I said, but Lord, I said, I have a new baby.

I don’t know what are you, what are you coming to me for? And he said very clearly, you’re welcome. And when I say overwoman gratitude, it was like, oh, that was a gift from God. I mean, it was like instant, like that was a gift from God. Like why am I throwing that in God’s face?

Right? Like I’m too busy because I have a baby. And so then he said, and I said, but Lord, you know, I started helping Austin Iceball raise it’s over a million dollars in a night for big brothers, big sisters. Like I did that, you know, I’m good. Like I’ve already like feather in my hat, Lord, you know, check that box, right?

Yeah, I’m a good person. And, and literally he said back to me, Amy, I have blessed you today. Today is your day.

Get off your hands and act. And so I said, okay, well, here I am, Lord, what do you want? And then all of a sudden I was in my parking lot at the office and the car comes back around me and I’m literally like, like my face is just, I mean, I got tears running down my face. I’m just like pulling myself back together and he, and he’s gone. It’s all gone. And I’m like, what just happened?

I don’t have any recollection of the drive between the time he said, I did, I created you and me asking the Lord what, okay, what? Now what? And so anyway, I texted my manager at the office and I said, hey, I’m going to be late. And so I just kind of sat in the car like thinking like, do I call Chris and my husband?

Do I just like, I don’t know what to do. Trying to get the Lord back on the hook. Like, hey, I’m still here. You’re not, you disappeared. How did, where’d you go? Knock, knock, you know, and, and so I pulled myself back together.

I, you know, like got all, and I was like, dude, I sound like a crazy person. So I went and got into the office and I was like, hey guys, I’m here. You know, good morning. That’s what I say every morning, you know, and ended up like just thinking about it all day. Of course I’m like, did that happen? What just happened?

Is that even real? You know, so that night Chris and I were on our back patio having a glass of wine and I said, babe, I need to talk to you. Umm, famous, famous words that will get your husband really nervous. We need to talk. And so, yes, we need to talk and he’s like, okay, what’s up. And we just gotten all the kids to bed and we just had dinner and I’d been kind of like, really at peace the whole day, like, I wasn’t anxious to tell him, but I was also kind of like, how’s he gonna receive this. And so I just told him, I said, you know, this is what happened to me today.

I think God spoke to me and I he wouldn’t even baptize at the time. I thought he’s thinking like, you know, like he’s like, like, hey, wife, like you need to get on meds or like all way, I’ll take the wakeups tonight. You know, you need a couple nights to sleep. And, and he didn’t, he looked at me and he said, and actually this wind kind of came through and I have a big relationship with the wind and the Lord. So it was really weird because he just kind of sat there looking at me like, and so I told him everything I just told you. And, and he just looked at me like, hmm.

And I said, well, what do you think? And he goes, I think if God’s talking to you, we better be listening. And I mean, we were like, I was like, OK. And so we prayed right there. Lord, if you’re talking to, he’s like, Lord, if you’re talking to Amy, please make it known to us what your desires are, what your intentions are for our family.

And which, like I said, he wouldn’t even baptized at the time. Like it was super weird that out of the blue that would happen, you know, because I would have, I really thought he was going to be like, I think we should call a shrink, you know, you need more sleep. You need more sleep. Like something’s off.

Something’s off up here, wifey, you know. But anyway, and then not even kidding you, the next day, we get a call from my cousin’s girlfriend who says, hey, Violet, a little sweet girl, Violet. And in the story that I’ll email you, I think I’ve changed your name because I didn’t really want to. I didn’t want to. Maybe I’ve said the name.

I can’t remember. But anyway, there’s a lot of violets. But anyway, so my friend’s girlfriend said, Violet’s mom wants to go smoke meth in some trailer village.

And would you keep her? And I was like, wait, what? And so I told Chris, I said, do you think this is what God’s calling us to do? And he’s like, I don’t know. He’s like, I think we should we should pray about it.

So pray about it. And then he we call. He actually calls our attorney and says, hey, this is a situation.

You know, what do you think? And the attorney said, no, no, you don’t keep somebody else’s kid because if he’s saying that you that this little girl’s been molested before, then what’s he going to say about you? What’s she going to say about you? You know, this, you know, you have a lot of stake.

You have a lot to lose. So Chris and I said, OK, then maybe this is what God’s calling us to do. So we both went to bed that night and I’m kidding. Not we both woke up looking at each other. And I said, I had a dream last night. He said, so did I. And he said, I said, the Lord was very clear. And he said very clearly to me, she will be safe with you.

She will not be safe without you. And Chris called the attorney back and said, OK, so if we go against your advice, then what is your advice? And so he drew up some guardianship agreements and Violet that that same day we met Violet’s mom, Caitlin at the bank and signed off, had a bunch of witnesses sign off saying that basically she gave this guardianship of this little girl. And I hated I hated her mom. Her mom.

I mean, I don’t know that I’ve ever loved somebody so much in my life. And her mom had like a stripper shoe tattooed right here. And she had a burning Bible. She was wearing a midriff and had a burning Bible on her on her tattooed on her midriff.

And just such trash, you know. And I hate to say that because then my a different cousin’s wife comes over one day and she says, so wait, how do you have this extra baby? And I and I told her the whole story and she said, can I have her mom’s name and number?

And I was like, sure. And she goes, I want her to know that Jesus died for her too. And I had never even thought that to be honest with you. I had never thought that I had thought what a piece of crap person I had never even thought about extending grace to the mom.

Anthony Codispoti: And so anyway, there’s your you’re in protective mode of the child.

Amy Clary: Yes, but there I’m like there’s much better people in the world than I am because I was like really like, oh my gosh, this is just she’s amazing. Anyway, the mom ended up getting choked out. She ended up living through it was like naked choked out in a trailer and the guy she was with stole a car.

And my cousin’s girlfriend and my cousin’s wife was able to get her a get her into a better women’s shelter. But sadly, we didn’t have. I mean, we didn’t own violet when our daughter. So, you know, when you go through those sort of things, you know, Caitlin, she just wants to be loved. Right. So she first thing she did was say, I want violet back.

You know, I want somebody to walk this journey with me, even though this child is ill equipped for that walk, you know, which is super sad, but we didn’t have a choice. You know, even Chris loved her. I mean, Chris, my husband was like, you know, we have enough money to go to Mexico. Yeah.

And now I see this calls being recorded. But anyway, we didn’t go to Mexico. He’s like, we, he’s like, we would not have to. He’s like, we could, we could disappear. And I was like, yeah, but this.

That’s not the plan, you know. So anyway, we gave violet back in the last steps of her. The mom had a picture back with the me to movement on Facebook of her wearing electrical tape over her nipples and an X and a thong with a sign that says, I’m still not asking for it with violet right there next to her, which makes me sick to my stomach. But anyway, how old would violet be now? She was just a little bit old and Charlie came. She’d be 13. She’d be 13 now. And she was 3 when we had her.

So yeah, it’s been about 10 years. So anyway, the crazy thing is violet left and I had this hole in my heart for her and Charlie K. My oldest was at preschool and she comes home with a little sticker that says eat a chick for life or spirit night. She’s our oldest. So we had no idea that that was like an optional thing. We thought like, oh, we all have to go to play tonight for spirit night for the preschool. So we show up at Chick-fil-A and there’s 2 girls there that I know and they’re talking to each other. Although I knew 1 from the country club and then I knew the other 1 from preschool. And I say, well, how do y’all know each other?

And they said, oh, we are in. We are in Sunday school together. And I said, oh, you know what church you go to?

So we start talking about it. And as they’re talking, they pull up Facebook and they’re talking about a girl in the Sunday school. And I said, there’s this girl in the Sunday school and I’m sharing and she is in China right now adopting this little girl. And so they pull up her post and we’re all looking together on her Facebook as pictures are popping up 1 at a time. And she says, and Sharon says, there is this little boy whose best friends with our new daughter in China and I just cannot leave him here in China.

If anyone could adopt this little boy, we would be so grateful. So Chris had taken our 2 oldest to the play area and I was sitting there with Bexley and Chick-fil-A where God does a lot of his good work. I don’t know. Do y’all have Chick-fil-A up there?

Do you know what Chick-fil-A? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Delicious. My kids love it.

Yeah. So I’m sitting there and I jokingly say, well, we’ll adopt him. And so when we, when Chris gets out of the meeting or out of the play area, he says, my other friend says to Chris, hey, Amy says that you’re going to adopt this little kid from China. And Chris goes, well, I’ve always wanted to go to China.

Anthony Codispoti: So he was on board that fast.

Amy Clary: Well, no, not really.

Anthony Codispoti: Because he was just making a joke to. Yeah. So that night I said, I said, Hey, do you think that’s God’s plan? And he said, no, very clearly.

Amy Clary: And I don’t think that’s the plan. So that night we were praying and Chris was like, and Lord, if you could get that little Chinese boy, a family that would be great. And so I pipe in and Lord, if it’s us, please let us know. And so I don’t know.

It just like, I said, well, can I pull his file? So I reached out to Sharon. I’d never met her before. And I asked her if she knew like, what’s what are even the steps?

I mean, the options not on our radar. We’re not looking to adopt, you know, but like, what’s it even involve? And so anyway, she hooked me up with the agency.

Gladney, which is here in Fort Worth and she hooked me up with the agency. And yeah, like when you talk about make straight the path, like God just was like, this is

Anthony Codispoti: the path putting the things there in front of you.

Amy Clary: Yeah, this is it. And he has hydrocephalus, which is crazy. It’s water. And so, and so we went to you by, by, you have to go to a pediatric pediatrician to review the file. Well, it just so happens that the pediatric pediatrician that reviews adoption files in our area is our pediatrician. Yeah, all of them. And there’s one. So I’m like, her name is Dr. Lee. And I’m like, are you kidding me? Like, how is everything’s lining up?

Everything lines up. So she tells me, she says Amy, I said, she said, you know, hydrocephalus is pretty serious, you know, water in the brain. That’s the brain. It could be, it’s probably going to be lifelong prescription drugs. It could be seizures. It could be ADHD. It could be autism. I mean, there’s a lot of things that can happen with the brain, right?

When you have that pressure on there at multiple surgeries, et cetera. And I started crying. I was like, in my head, I was envisioning like a, like an adult child.

You know, and I don’t know that that’s something I could take on. And I was like, like an adult, like he would grow up to be like, never leave the house all this. So anyway, I was like really freaked out about it. And I was like, Chris, I don’t think we can do this.

I’m a good person. We tried like, and he right there in the, and I’m crying, the pediatricians crying, but she’s like, I have to tell you the truth, you know. And Chris put his hand on my leg and he said, babe, if God’s calling us to do this, we can figure it out. Which is crazy because in my defiance, like Chris was like a strong one, which is like, this is just the craziest thing. So anyway, if you know him, you would know that was not his character.

I mean, he’s a great, great guy, but not his character. So anyway, he, so we ended up, yeah, adopting Dawson and literally the, like the next day, as they, as Dawson and Hannah, his little friend from China, they have this reunion video in the airport. And it was like a 17 second video and Sharon put it on her Facebook and I shared it and a couple other friends shared it and it went viral like that. And within three days, we had five to six interviews a day with.

Anthony Codispoti: What, what about it was, why did it go viral? What was in the video?

Amy Clary: Because God, because God called me to adopt. That’s 100% there’s nothing really kids having in the airport. That’s it. And at one point, this is during the, during the Trump Clinton election. And, and at one point, and we’re on all, I’ve seen it in 27 languages. I mean, it’s the craziest thing.

And at one point we’re at, we’re with ABC International syndicate. And I know, of course, we’re like, yeah, and I literally, I just close my eyes. I said, Lord, thank you for the opportunity to talk about adoption, something so close to your heart. Literally, whether you like Trump or not, he’s going to stop speaking. And then I’m going to have his entire audience to talk about something that is so near and dear to the heart of the Lord.

It’s like, how do you get that opportunity? But you know, God told me I did, I created you. I created you to make a difference.

And that’s what happened. And so I opened up my Facebook to be public and all these people from around the world reaching out about adoption. And since then, I’ve probably not me has gotten like through me, like 15 or 16 kids adopted around, like, even Dawson’s pre-school teacher told me. She goes, I’m so in love with Dawson. She goes, so when John asked me what I want for Mother’s Day, I’m going to tell him I want to adopt. And she ended up, I said, well, I’ve got a kid for you.

And I found her kid Max. And she’s like, I don’t want, I don’t want a boy. I want a girl. I’m a girl. Mom. I’ve got two girls. And then that night she called her that day.

Next day she called me back. She goes, Amy, you know, John would love to be a boy dad. We have two girls. He would love to be a boy dad. He goes, and my oldest is very much the oldest and my youngest is very much the youngest and this one’s right in the middle.

And I think that would be perfect for our family. And so she said, so when I talk to John, I’m going to tell him I specifically I want to talk to him about this boy. And now that boy lives with them. And I see it, my neighbor in Austin, I never would have picked them for adoption. I shared a kid on Facebook who has like, like fused fingers or fused digits.

And now he’s, he’s now a beloved son. So it’s just been, and these are the ones I know about. I mean, I know about a bunch of them. But it’s just so amazing, like getting, I call it front row tickets to watching God work. I think God is so blessed has blessed me so much with that. So yeah, what a story. It’s a story. Yeah, for sure.

Anthony Codispoti: Thank you for sharing that with me.

Amy Clary: Sorry, I know we’ve gone way over. You probably have another call.

Anthony Codispoti: Luckily, I did not. Typically, my days are pretty full, but maybe somebody made sure that this part of my schedule was open so that you could share that with me.

Amy Clary: So yeah, that was pretty cool. Mysterious ways, you know what they say. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti: And this feels like such a trivial question to ask, because it misses the whole point of your story. But I’m curious that when God spoke, spoke to you or maybe still speaks to you, is it something that you audibly hear or is it more like a, like a knowing inside of yourself, your soul, your being, your brain?

Amy Clary: Okay, sorry, say that again, Jason and message me back so I can get it.

Anthony Codispoti: Just sort of the, I want to apologize for asking the question because it seems so trivial. It misses the whole point of your story. But when I hear stories like this, I’m always curious to know when God has spoken to you, is it something that you feel like you hear through your ears, or is it more like an internal voice that’s like a knowing inside of you?

Amy Clary: I honestly feel like I was like transposed, like I was like taken to a different realm or something.

Anthony Codispoti: But for me, I think they’re all different. I’ve heard a lot of you. You sort of left this place. Yeah.

Amy Clary: I mean, I don’t remember anything from the time that that song came on to pulling up to the office. I just remember like, almost like just like, you for a feeling, glowing. I don’t know. I don’t know. It’s a weird thing. I’m telling you it’s the weirdest thing. I hope everybody has a God encounter.

I really do. I would, I would, I’m a prayer journal right here. I’m going to write that down that everybody has a God encounter because that is, it’s really transformed. It transformed. I mean, if everybody did, I think the world would be a totally different. It would be heaven, right? Right. Right.

Anthony Codispoti: You’d have a lot more believers and a lot fewer haters. Yeah.

Amy Clary: Yeah. Well, you probably wouldn’t have any haters because everybody would be like, whoa, I just got called out.

Anthony Codispoti: Right. How can you not believe it when you go through something like that? Thanks for that ray of sunshine. It was a great story.

Amy Clary: Yeah. Thanks. Yeah. It is a good story. God is good.

Anthony Codispoti: Yeah. There’s a part of me that wants to go back through and edit out the names of what we did and post this, but.

Amy Clary: Well, you can. I’ll say it’s a story written down to I have it because I just had just read it out. I mean, it looks like it’s written for the. It looks like it’s written for a presentation. So it’s not, it’s like, you know, then do this, then do that, like notes to myself too, you know, so that I could follow it easy.

Yeah. Let me see if I can find it real quick. Anthony. Okay. Man, my computer keeps flopping back and forth on all this stuff. It’s like frustrating. I think it’s under.

Anthony Codispoti: And God said you’re welcome for the baby. That’s crazy. What do you want me to do? I got a two month old. Oh yeah. Amy, you’re welcome. Yeah.

Amy Clary: I think this is it night like Christian adoptions. Let me just double check that this is the right attachment.

Anthony Codispoti: If we were to do that, Amy, what are the things that you would want omitted?

Amy Clary: And yeah, probably the. Probably the part about trash talking Caitlin because I don’t, I mean, I’ll send you let me see. Let me see. Yeah. I mentioned her name when I give it. I said her real name. I probably wouldn’t put anything in about Caitlin, the mom. It’s not a, I mean, I think it’s okay to say like I didn’t like the mom and that’s bad on me because I think it’s good to have that part of the story as that’s the real, that’s real life, right? That you don’t like everybody, even if you try and even if you’re Christian. And I think people don’t get that about Christianity.

They always say, well, what, what would Jesus do? What should you do? You should do what Jesus would do. Well, you know what? That’s why I’m not Jesus. And I thought. And I find.

Anthony Codispoti: Right. Cause I think there’s this, this perception that you’ve always got to be. Polier than that. Right. Like there’s no missteps and there’s no ill feelings. We’re all human beings. Right.

Amy Clary: I saw this thing the other day and actually I resaved it on my phone because I loved it so much. Let me see if I can find it. It’s just like a meat. You know, there’s all these like funny memes and stuff. Something to the effect of, at least I thought I did. Like how Christians don’t act like they should, it was something to the effect of Christians don’t act like they should.

And then it said, that’s okay. Cause God doesn’t want actors anyway. You know, something to the, you know, God’s not looking for actors in this, in this, but I’ll find it again.

But it just, let me see if I can find it. Cause it was to me, that’s every time I tell myself like, well, probably shouldn’t drink on a Friday night. Every Friday night. I probably shouldn’t do a, you know, a custom much and I gossip and I have all my shortcomings. And then I think, well, you know what? All the people in the Bible had a lot of shortcomings, you know.

And so when I point my finger at people and say, you should do this or you shouldn’t do that. It’s really irrelevant because God could be using people that are sending every day. Cause he uses me and I send every day, you know, so it’s no different, you know. So. Yeah, none of us are perfect. None of us, not even close.