Dave and Julie had six kids in three years: triplets, twins, and a baby boy. Julie and her husband Dave once thought they would never be able to have children because of fertility issues.
In 2014, following the birth of their twins, Julie told the Deseret News, “Dave once said in his prayers, ‘We’ll take as many spirits as you will send to this home. We will teach them the gospel and we will raise them up to you.’ We must be serious about that because He’s sending us all these kids. We really couldn’t be happier about it.”
At that point, Julie and Dave had no idea that the Lord still had one more child to send to their family. Read the following excerpt to learn how a dream prepared them for their twins and a prompting led to their youngest child, Jonathan.
Listen to the full episode in the player below or by clicking here. You can also read the full transcript here.
This excerpt has been edited for clarity.
Morgan Jones: So you all had six kids in three years, triplets, twins, and then another baby. … So when did when did or how did you reach the decision to have a sixth child after having triplets and twins?
Julie Grygla: Oh, well, you know, it was that prayer of, “Heavenly Father we’ll take however many you want us to have.” And I don’t know … I had this—at the time we thought it was just a crazy dream, because I have really, really crazy dreams. I have my whole life. And I was pregnant with the triplets. And I had a dream that we had twin baby girls, and the triplets were just barely walking around.
And all of a sudden Dave’s waking me up and it’s the middle of the night. And I was so angry because falling asleep and staying asleep pregnant with triplets is like a real challenge. And I’m like, “Why? Why did you wake me up?” And he says, ‘You were yelling ‘No! No! No!’”
[Laughter]
He says, “What were you dreaming about? I’ve never heard you yell in your sleep.” And I said, “David, I just dreamt that we had twin girls when the boys were like 14 or 15 months old.” And he says, “Honey, that’s not a dream, that’s a nightmare.” And we laughed about it. And I was still had enough time during the day that I was journaling regularly and I wrote it down in my journal.
And the triplets were like six months old, and I wasn’t feeling very well. And I was thinking, ”That’s strange,” and Dave came home from work and he says, “Honey, you’re just glowing tonight.” And I’m like, “No. No, no, no, no, no.” And I had an extra pregnancy test leftover from the many, many that we had taken trying to get pregnant with the triplets. And I was like, “There’s no way this is going to be positive. How many times have I sat and waited for this test to come back, just for it to be negative?” And when I looked down and it was positive, I just stared at it. And I was like, “Oh, no, we’re having twin girls.” And I took it out and I showed it to Dave and he thought it was a joke. He thought it was one of the positive tests from the triplets. And I said, “Honey, I’m really sorry. This is not a joke.” And he just looks at me and I’m shaking. And I said, “You know what this means right?” And he goes, “Twin girls, right?” And so, the twins were just this miracle and you know, the boys took their first steps right after they got home from the hospital. It was exciting. And but we really thought, “My gosh. We got five kids in one year. Like that’s got to be some kind of record.”
And we went to a big family reunion his family is part of the Jonathan Heaton family out of like Moccasin and Alton, Arizona. And so we went to this huge family reunion that his his mom had organized. And I was wearing the girls, one on front, one on the back. And we had the triplets in our triple Radio Flyer wagon. The twins were how old? … two or three months old and the triplets were like 15 months old, and we’re walking down the main street of Moccasin all these people, Spirit of Elijah, so strong. I mean, this event that his mom and her cousins planned, it was amazing. It is maybe the only time I’ve ever had this experience. And it was not like words that I could hear audibly, but it was specifically these words, “There’s one more. It’s a boy. And his name is Jonathan.” And I just started bawling. Because I’m like, “Oh my gosh, I just had five kids in one year. Why are you telling me this?” And Dave looks over and he goes, “Honey, what’s the matter?” And I told him and he said, “Okay.”
I’m like, “What do you mean ‘Okay’?” And he says, “Well, not right now.” I’m like, “Oh, thank you.” And I said, “Well, when?” He goes, “Honey, I don’t think we need to worry about that right now. I’m pretty sure God’s going to tell us when it’s time, if we’re open to it.” And so we’re laughing, walking down the street a little bit further. And then he looked at me and very seriously said, “But honey, I don’t think he’s going to come on our own. I think that you have to be prepared that if we really want him, it’s going to take help, again, like we had with the triplets.”
And that was really scary for me … and it was true, I couldn’t get pregnant again. And I really had to come to grips with, “What if it’s more than one baby?” Our track record was that we dealt with multiples. And finally, I just had to get to the place where I said—I remember that voice like it was yesterday, that there was one more. And if God wants to send me another one—more than just Jonathan, we told Him we’d take them and find a way. But thankfully, it was just one and it was a boy. And we named him Jonathan, and he’s basically the best.