Photo courtesy of Janie Giffin.
Sam and Janie Giffin and their kids
Sam and Janie Giffin are raising six children whose lives stretch from Alabama to Utah.
On Broadway Street in Homewood, there is a house where the dinner table is always full, the rooms are brimming with chatter and the Christmas pajamas read “Better Together.” It’s more than a holiday slogan for the Giffin family — it’s a testimony.
At the center of this lively household are parents Sam and Janie Giffin. Sam is a financial planner with Edward Jones in Hoover. Janie teaches eighth grade science at Homewood Middle School and was recently named Teacher of the Year for the 2025-2026 school year.
Together, they are raising — and cheering on — six children whose lives stretch from Alabama to Utah. Robinson, 25, works for Hillrom, a medical equipment supplier, in Salt Lake City and is the proud father of 2-year-old Ian. Jack, 23, and Lily, 21, are both engineering students at Auburn University. Angela, 22, is a nursing student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Samantha, 19, and Jefferson, 18, are both seniors at Homewood High School. Samantha plans to pursue a career in cosmetology, while Jefferson intends to study business cybersecurity at the University of Alabama.
Robinson, Jack, Angela and Lily are all graduates of Homewood High School — a school and community the family credits with loving them well through every chapter.
“From the schools, to the churches, to our neighbors, our children have been loved and cared for,” said Janie. “We are so grateful that we moved to Homewood prior to walking through the adoption process. It has been the absolute best place to raise a family.”
A sister’s prayer
Adoption was always part of Sam and Janie’s story.
“From our early years of marriage, we discussed the possibility of adoption,” Janie said. Inspired by her own mother’s adoption story and relationships close to their family, the idea lingered for years.
But it was their daughter, Lily, who turned conversation into calling through persistent prayers for a sister.
“Lily would pray for a sister every day and even signed us up for a foster care seminar at church,” Janie said. “She was the driving force behind our decision to dedicate several months to praying about the reality of growing our family through adoption.”
After family meetings and prayer — including work with Lifeline Children’s Services — they felt led to pursue international adoption. Mission trips to Central and South America had already shaped their hearts, and eventually they connected with a program serving waiting children in Costa Rica. Though they felt ready as a family to adopt children waiting for a permanent home, the road was not easy.
“Adoption paperwork involves a lot of jumping through hoops,” Janie said. “It is an emotional rollercoaster.” The matching process, she said, carried both extreme highs and lows. “These kids have waited their entire lives for a family. You long to have them home.”
A difficult morning, and a forever bond
Angela and Jefferson were 11 and 7 years old, respectively, when the Giffins traveled to Costa Rica to bring them home. Sam, Janie, Jack and Lily learned Spanish, stocked their shelves with bilingual books and prepared their hearts. Despite their deep commitment and dedicated efforts, they still experienced an unexpected heartbreak.
“The morning we were flying home, we were told that Jefferson’s U.S. visa was not ready,” Janie said. Sam remained in Costa Rica with Jefferson while the rest of the family returned to Alabama. “Angela’s grief was overwhelming. Angela and Jefferson slept apart for the first time in their lives.”
Eventually, Sam and Jefferson were reunited in Alabama with the rest of the family. For Angela, staying with her little brother was everything.
“Adoption means the world to me,” Angela said. “It brought me my forever family and friendships that will last a lifetime. It gave me the chance to stay with my little brother.”
That bond — forged long before Alabama became home — remains one of the family’s greatest treasures.
One family, No distinctions
Life inside the Giffin home is full, fast-paced and hectic.
“Lots of schedules, a variety of needs to meet, money flying out the door … but lots of laughter and never a dull moment,” Janie said. “It is fun — but exhausting!”
“Adoption brought my smile back and put light back into my eyes,” Angela said. “It gave me hope and the realization that God never gave up on me.”
Today, Angela is studying nursing and looking ahead to the future and creating her own family. “One day, I want to adopt so I can give children the same love that I received and be someone that they can always count on,” Angela said. “No child deserves to feel unwanted or unseen.”
A front-row seat to changed lives
Janie is quick to correct a common misconception faced by many families that encompass adopted children. “The biggest misconception that we have encountered is when people refer to our biological children as ‘our kids’ and our adopted children as though they are not ‘our kids.’ All six Giffin kids are ‘our kids,’” Janie said. “We honestly cannot remember life before they were here.”
The Giffins have been intentional about ensuring each of their children feels recognized and valued as an individual. They set aside monthly one-on-one “date nights” with a parent and celebrate each child’s “gotcha day” — the day they officially became part of the family — with their favorite meals. Sam and Janie also honor their adopted children’s connections to their birth cultures, allowing them to determine how closely they wish to maintain those ties.
Adoption, Janie said, has reshaped everything.
“A strong family unit can do hard things. The hard work is completely worth it. Loving people well requires a daily sacrifice to self. The meaning of ‘family’ is much deeper than simply ‘blood-related.’”
Perhaps no moment captures that transformation more than Angela’s junior year at Homewood High School, when the once painfully shy girl who “hardly smiled for the first 11 years of her life,” as Janie described, won the school’s 2021-2022 Miss Heritage pageant.
“It’s those moments that warm our hearts the most — we have had a front-row seat to four completely changed lives,” Janie said.
If there is one message the Giffins hope readers carry with them, it is this: “It’s hard, but it’s worth it. Every child deserves a forever family.”
On Broadway Street — where rice and eggs are still a staple, where UNO games once helped bridge languages and where six children are simply “our kids” — the words on those Christmas pajamas ring true year-round.
They are, without question, better together.
