Emily Christensen

Keeping Kyrie Emily Christensen

How much can a life change in just five years? For Emily Christensen, that span began with her conversion to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and ended with the adoption of six children with special needs. But the highs and lows between those two points are almost too hard to believe: enduring cochlear implant surgeries, meeting and marrying the man of her dreams, grieving the death of both of her parents, becoming a chaplain, and fostering more than seventy children. At the core of the story is an account of her ongoing efforts to save the life of her youngest daughter, Kyrie (pronounced keer-ree-ay). Born with captivating eyes and a full head of curly hair, Kyrie also came into the world with Pierre Robin Sequence, a disorder where her lower face and airway were not properly formed. First as a foster mom and then as an adoptive mother, Christensen has fought her way just to help her daughter breathe.