Griffis family is fostering in faith

Brianne Griffis knows how pretty Instagram photos look and the illusion they give that life always is great. But many times, life — although beautiful — is down-right messy and chaotic.

She and her husband, Daniel, have found a way to share their family’s complicated story of a firefighter/paramedic and a healthcare provider’s journey through their son’s medical diagnosis and through fostering children in need.

The Griffises have started a YouTube podcast channel they call Ohana Unfiltered: Faith, Family & the Beautiful Chaos. The couple talks about love and marriage, parenting and homeschooling, meal prep, bio children, miscarriages, fostering, adoption, courtroom visits, trips to Walt Disney World — and a glimpse into a full household that always puts faith first.

“Our whole purpose is essentially to bring awareness to different things, so many things we fumbled through, from the foster care journey and the adoption journey and (Tyler’s) epilepsy journey, and if we can share and someone can benefit from it and not fumble from it,” Brianne Griffis said. “There are days that aren’t easy.”

They work around their work schedules — he is an Orange County firefighter with 24 hours on duty then 48 off, and she is a lactation provider and CEO of Pumpin Pal, a breast pump accessory company.

LIFE WITH ETHAN AND TYLER

The Griffises have two biological sons, Ethan, 13, and Tyler, 8.

Ethan is a seventh-grader and takes his role as big brother seriously, even to the babies the family is fostering.

Tyler is fighting intractable, unmanaged epilepsy, which has led to severe memory loss and rapid progression despite intense medication and infusion treatments.

In 2023, the Griffises received a call from his school that he was unresponsive and showing signs of a stroke. He was diagnosed with epilepsy, and he has seizures every few days. He struggles with memory and currently is homeschooled and has a private tutor.

“Some days we’re learning sounds and putting sentences together, and other days we’re back to learning the alphabet,” Daniel Griffis said.

Tyler had heart surgery later that year when a congenital heart defect was discovered.

“We were super thankful to find that in the midst of our journey,” Brianne Griffis said.

The epilepsy likely saved his life because doctors found the heart issue when conducting a head-to-toe work-up of his body, the Griffises said.

Once a month, Tyler and his parents go to New York for infusions. This is when the wrap-around care and the church community step in to help the Griffises with Ethan and any children staying in the household.

HEARTS FOR FOSTERING

There is plenty of life and loudness and love at the Griffis home in Winter Garden. Since 2021, they have fostered more than 25 children — including three little ones currently in their care — and accept both short-term and long-term placements.

They began their fostering journey with Safe Families and now work with Family Partnerships of Central Florida (formerly Embrace Families). The couple’s role is to bridge the gap between a parent needing help and having their child taken away.

They have welcomed teenage girls who otherwise would be sleeping in the office of the Department of Children and Families and are grateful for a hot shower, good meal and a bed. They loved on Baby P, a newborn whose mother abandoned him at the hospital when she learned he was terminal.

“We welcomed him and his hospice team for three months until he was able to meet Jesus,” Brianne Griffis said.

“One little boy, he was shocked that he got to stay in a room because he had never slept in his own room before and never slept in a bed,” Daniel Griffis said. “He didn’t know how to lay his head.”

“School-age kids has tugged on our heartstrings the most,” Brianne Griffis said. “Sometimes they will come to the front door, and you’ve never met them before, and they say, ‘Are you my mom and dad for the night?’”

It’s easier for the Griffises to accept short-term fosters because their plate usually is full. Sometimes these children arrive at 9 p.m. and are out of the door in the morning for school.

“It hurts us more to have an empty bed, because we know there are kids who need it,” Brianne Griffis said.

When they stepped into longer-term placement, they received a gift bigger than expected.

BRINGING ELIJAH HOME

Newborn Elijah came into the Griffises’ lives in June 2023 — and after 661 days in foster care, he will be a Griffis when his adoption becomes official April 11.

The plan was to accept one long-term placement and then take in several short-term, but God had other plans.

“It’s hard to hear the voice of God when we’ve already made up our mind,” Daniel Griffis said.

In October, the Griffises got a call for a baby girl who needed a place to sleep for one week. Baby K still is with the family while her birth mother works to get her daughter back.

“I’m just loving them today, giving them the attachments so they know what’s that like,” Brianne Griffis said. “Healthy attachments and healthy love, so if they do reunify, and if they’re facing (hardships) later in life, they may not remember Ms. Brianne, but they will remember what healthy love and attachment is, even if we’re not a part of it. And that’s how we give back.”

In February, the week after Elijah’s adoption date was set, they got a call that his birth parents had their 10th baby, and that’s how Baby G was welcomed into the fold as a foster.

“We look at it like we accepted our son’s brother,” Brianne Griffis said. “This gave him an opportunity to be a part of that.”

TIME TO CONNECT

To keep their 14-year marriage strong, the Daniel and Brianne Griffis are very intentional in everything they do and say. They communicate daily with a daily temperature reading, date weekly and get away quarterly. They also are adept at pivoting.

Sometimes the “date” is watching a movie together in a hospital room with Tyler. Other times it’s sitting together, just the two of them, on their back porch.

The Griffises have attended Mosaic Church for 10 years. The church is known for its mission of fostering and adopting children, and care communities are assigned to families that open their home to fosters. These people help by providing transport, making a Target run or assisting in building a backyard playground. They help with dinner and laundry so the couple can spend time with their older children.

The Griffises have opened their door to find boxes of diapers and Christmas presents for the children.

“These are people who understand they can’t foster, but they can care,” Brianne Griffis said. “People think, ‘(Fostering) is so sweet (but) I could never do that.’ But can you watch them for a day?”