Reece’s Rainbow Report #68: Sellers Family

The moment the music loudly fills the room, each Sellers family member knows exactly what to do: dance their hearts out. 

And mid-groove, Christy Sellers has a thought, shocking in its implication: We could have missed this. 

“I often tear up thinking what if we didn’t say ‘yes’ to her,” says Christy, a 47-year-old stay-at-home mom. She’s talking about Glory, the now-seven-year-old Bulgarian she and husband Matt adopted in 2020. But she could just as easily be discussing any of the five children she and Matt have adopted from Ethiopia, China, Bulgaria and the U.S. 

What if the couple had stopped after their three biological children? It’s a haunting thought. But it’s one Christy can easily shove aside during a family dance party, each child’s personality shining above the instruments and lyrics. 

“We have a unique, but beautifully chaotic life,” Christy says. “I just wish everyone could experience the life we get to live. It is amazing.” 

That life took root early on in Matt’s and Christy’s dating relationship. When one said, “I want to adopt someday,” the other readily agreed. It was settled: adoption — especially of a child with Down syndrome — would play a part in their family’s story, though both imagined doing so in the States. International adoption simply wasn’t on their radar. 

Then, a friend of Christy’s sister started her adoption process from Ethiopia, the largest and most populated nation in the horn of Africa. Her agency had the file of a baby boy with Down syndrome named Endale, and he needed a family to step forward to avoid an imminent move to an institution. Christy’s sister proposed a crazy idea, knowing they had expressed interest in adopting a kid like Endale from America: Would the Sellerses be interested in him instead? 

“We were terrified and had no idea what we were doing,” Christy remembers, “but we said, ‘Yes!’” 

That was over a decade ago. Twenty-month-old Endale immediately stole their hearts, cementing the Sellerses’ future path. 

“We fell in love with this charming little Ethiopian. He is a gift,” Christy says. “He is the reason we knew we could adopt again.” 

And again and again, it turns out. Initially, however, Matt and Christy figured they would adopt just one more — maybe a girl — and be done with it. Ethiopia had started closing its doors to international adoption, so they began looking elsewhere. The couple found “Rayne” on Reece’s Rainbow, a three-year-old in China who also had Down syndrome and was just three weeks younger than Endale. Perfect! 

But then their agency reached out. There was another little boy with Down syndrome in the same orphanage, a four-year-old named Levi who also needed a home. Would the Sellerses take him, too? That’s exactly what they did, bringing home both Levi and “Rayne,” whose real name was Lilly, in November of 2015. 

“When Lilly was placed in my arms in China, she was like a ragdoll, shaking like a leaf,” Christy recalls. “Today, she confidentially bosses….I mean, leads her siblings around and is a mother figure to everyone else in the house. She loves to be helpful and nurturing.” 

Levi, meanwhile, now a teenager, is the family’s resident problem-solver, builder and puzzle-maker. He’s a quiet worker bee, unless you count his humming when he’s happy or tired. 

Four years later, Christy was cruising through the Reece’s Rainbow website when she saw “Tina,” a sickly-looking toddler in Eastern Europe with Down syndrome and heart failure. 

“She was so frail and fragile, and we knew we had room for one more child,” says Christy. 

“Tina,” who would soon be known as Glory, came home to New Mexico four years ago weighing only 13 pounds at age two and a half. Months later, after her first open heart surgery as a Sellers, doctors told the family that Glory was also profoundly deaf. She has had seven surgeries total since being adopted. 

“Today, she is a feisty, busy seven-year-old who is a complete and total joy to everyone she meets,” her new mom says. “We are so thankful that fear didn’t cause us to miss her.” 

That lack of fear has led to significant changes within the Sellers household — not the least of which is Matt, a 48-year-old pastor, and Christy themselves. 

“We are different people through the miracle of adoption. We have learned what a gift it is to lay down our lives for another,” Christy says. “We’ve learned how worthy everyone is despite their special need, their beginning or their loss.”

To that end, they have stopped saying, “We’re done!” after the completion of each adoption. Instead, they now see themselves as simply available to whatever plan God has in store. Even while parenting eight children ages 23 down to seven, they are saying “yes” once again. This time, it’s to two older children from Haiti, a country infamous for its instability, corruption, violence and government inefficiencies. 

“We were drawn to Haiti and our kids, because it seemed like they were constantly being overlooked because of the uncertainties,” she says. “At this point, we’ve completely trusted God with the direction of our life and family, so these adoptions will be no different. We know He will make a way and we can’t wait to bring our kiddos home.” 

That “we” includes the biological Sellers children, ages 23, 18 and 16. Christy says each has welcomed their new siblings, even in the chaos, and have become more patient, loving and sacrificial. 

“I think the trajectory of their future has been forever changed because of adoption,” she says. “I pray that they have gotten a tiny glimpse of the magnificent love that our good, good Father has for them through adoption.” 

No, the life they have chosen isn’t a fairytale. Yes, there are challenges to tackle, from medical to social to educational (Christy homeschools those who still live at home). No, Matt and Christy are not fearless, especially when it comes to their adopted children’s complicated needs and futures. And yes, parenting five kids with Down syndrome (12-year-old Mark was adopted domestically) is often flat-out exhausting — and who knows what traumas and behaviors their Haitian son and daughter will bring with them? 

No matter. Like a wall hanging in their house says, “Being a family means you will love and be loved for the rest of your life, no matter what.” 

That’s what make the Sellerses blessed, Christy says: the opportunity to love children who need a forever family. 

And sometimes, a family dance party.