{"id":16509,"date":"2015-05-21T15:52:46","date_gmt":"2015-05-21T15:52:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baylorproud.wpengine.com\/?p=16509"},"modified":"2016-05-20T17:15:23","modified_gmt":"2016-05-20T17:15:23","slug":"baylor-senior-finds-her-true-family-inside-the-baylor-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/2015\/05\/baylor-senior-finds-her-true-family-inside-the-baylor-family\/","title":{"rendered":"Baylor senior finds her true family inside the Baylor family"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ali<\/p>\n

[We sometimes talk about the “Baylor family,” because that’s how\u00a0Baylor people act — as a family. But three of the\u00a0key players in this story — a Baylor student, an alum and a professor — have taken\u00a0that term to a whole new level.]<\/em><\/p>\n

Born in Kentucky to a mother who may have suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, Ali was\u00a0homeless off and on for the first six years of her life. From age 6 to 10, she bounced back and forth between her biological mother and\u00a0Child Protective Services. At age 12, she was adopted by a military couple, eventually moving\u00a0to Fort Hood.<\/p>\n

With her adoptive father in Iraq, Ali’s relationship with her mother quickly deteriorated. By age 14, the relationship had reached its end, and Ali moved to Waco’s Methodist Children’s Home<\/a>. There, she began to discover her faith.<\/p>\n

\u201cT<\/span>here\u2019s no reason I should have survived and then gone on to be functional,” Ali told The Baylor Lariat<\/em>. “It\u2019s only my complete dependence on Jesus that makes anything good.\u201d<\/p>\n

[READ a longer version of Ali’s story in this Baylor Lariat<\/em> feature<\/a>.]<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a senior in high school, Ali became interested in Baylor, but figured it was a pipe dream given her\u00a0financial situation. But when scholarships came through, she found herself a college freshman — still searching, in some way, for a true family.<\/p>\n

That’s when God stepped in once more. Ali’s best friend was Katie Fry, BFA ’14, a recent Baylor graduate with whom she attended church. During Ali’s sophomore year, Katie’s family\u00a0approached her with a radical idea: adult adoption.\u00a0In December 2011, the\u00a0Frys adopted Ali.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s powerful to realize what God can do with anyone\u2019s circumstances and use them for good,\u201d says\u00a0Cindy Fry<\/a>, Ali\u2019s second adoptive mother and a Baylor computer science professor.\u00a0\u201cShe\u2019s amazing, and you can so clearly see the hand of the Lord on her life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Ali is a senior studio art major, specializing in ceramic art.\u00a0She says that in some ways, her art helps her learn and share\u00a0an important part of God\u2019s character.<\/p>\n

\u201cCreator, you know, is the first way that God revealed himself to the world,\u201d she says. \u201cI think we were made in God\u2019s image. He\u2019s our dad, and our dads love it when we\u2019re like, \u2018I\u2019m being like Daddy.\u2019 I\u2019m mimicking my Father. I just believe that it\u2019s reflecting Him, and the Lord finds so much joy (in it).\u201d<\/p>\n

Sic\u00a0\u2019<\/span>em, Ali!<\/p>\n

[Photo courtesy <\/em>The Baylor Lariat; Rae Jefferson, photographer]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[We sometimes talk about the “Baylor family,” because that’s how\u00a0Baylor people act — as a family. But three of the\u00a0key players in this story — a Baylor student, an alum and a professor — have taken\u00a0that term to a whole new level.] Born in Kentucky to a mother who may have suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-extraordinary-stories","category-faith","category-student-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16509\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}