Mike Shortt- Adoption is an Option

This is Andy Thomas from the Masculine Journey Podcast where we discover what it means to be a wholehearted man. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Welcome back to another episode of It's Time to Man Up.

Mike Short, welcome to the Man Up show. Hey, it's great to be here again. Always look forward to it. Great to have you here and in studio. I know we've had John before. Of course, we've done some Q&A segments with you. You've had some pretty profound questions, Mike. Wow, cool. And you have some pretty profound answers, right? You are quick, and so that's great. Well, I'll humbly accept that and say thank you, and for real, I appreciate that.

But man, it's great. I appreciate your ability and flexibility to come on down into the studio. Of course, you're local to the Winston-Salem area, right? Yep, yep.

Just up across the bridge, they say, over in Davie County, so just about 15, 20 minutes outside of Winston-Salem proper. So they make fun of us sometimes out there, but it's okay. Robby knows about it, too. Yeah, well, Robby knows a lot about a lot, I'm just saying. But Robby Dilmore, of course, we're referring to the Christian car guy. Hey, if you are not familiar with his show, The Christian Car Guy, dial in, tune in, Truth Radio, go on the podcast, and listen to Robby Dilmore. Great show. Yeah, it is a great show, isn't it? Especially if you're within Truth Radio, of course, you can get the app, right? The Truth Radio app, and listen to all the shows and all the podcasts, not just the Mad Up show.

Man, there's so many great ones to choose from, like The Christian Car Guy. And I want to get into a little bit about, Mike, what you're doing over there in Davie County, across the bridge, as you call it. But you said something in conversation about the Tri-Cities area, Kingsport, Bristol. So now, are you originally from that area, or what? Yep, so we grew up, my wife and I both did, actually, about an hour or so would be northeast of Bristol, which is the one part of the three part Tri-Cities.

You have Bristol, Johnson City, Kingsport. And so we grew up over in a little tiny town. When we were growing up, I think the population was about 1,000 people.

And it's not much more than that now. And so it was a little bitty town called Honecker, Virginia. But it was over in the coal fields.

And so my family and her family, a lot of those folks were involved in the coal mining business, and as laborers, not in the business of coal mining itself, but a lot of mining roots there and heritage on both sides of our family. But when you had to go somewhere, you know, if you wanted a McDonald's hamburger, or if you wanted to buy a new car, well, you had to go to Bristol, Johnson City. You had to go that way, right?

Yeah, so that's where you went. So it was about an hour from Bristol and then another 45 minutes from Johnson City. Or if you went the other way and went to Kingsport, another 35, 40 minutes there. But yeah, that's kind of where we grew up. So did you have some family trips like, hey, load up the car, we're all going to Bristol today, or that kind of thing?

Once a week or so, yeah. My parents a lot of times would buy groceries in Bristol. Not to say that we didn't have little small country stores there, but if you wanted to go to a bigger market, then again, you had to go to Bristol.

Or Sunday dinner sometimes. After church you'd drive to Bristol, you know, to have a meal or something. Shopping mall, hey, we're going to go to the big shopping mall. Bristol mall, yeah.

The Bristol mall. That's the place, yes, yes. How about Freedom Hall? You ever heard of that building? Yeah, I've been to Freedom Hall a lot.

Yes, and there's lots of wrestling matches there over the years and some good Christian concerts we had there back in the day, back in the 80s, early 90s, when contemporary Christian music was kind of coming into its own. Who were some of the concerts, who were some of the artists, do you remember any? Mylon Le Fevre and Broken Heart was at Freedom Hall. That was a great concert, and I don't know if you know Mylon or not.

Hold on, hold on, so here's what's funny about you. I was just sharing the other day the story about Mylon Le Fevre, like, because nobody, forget who, I'm trying to remember now who I talked to, but they had not heard of him, because Atlanta Rhythm Section, right? Atlanta Rhythm Section, yep. Was that not his secular band?

Yep, yep. And so we had Mylon at our church, the Refuge Church down in Kannapolis, North Carolina, got the opportunity to meet Mylon, bought kind of his life story and a book, and fascinating story and stories that he talked about, you know, running with the Mick Jagger's and all the rock and rollers, man, and, you know, and meeting George Harrison of the Beatles and... Pink Floyd. You're listening to The Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. Hi, Nikita Kolov. Be sure to check out The Man Up Show, now available on television, broadcast and podcast. Go to MorningStarTV.com or The Truth Radio Network, check out your local listings, or better yet, download The Truth Network app today. If you would like to support Kolov for Christ Ministries, for a gift of $25, Nikita will send you his two CDs, Adoration and Declaration. For a gift of $50, Nikita will include his book, Wrestling with Success, and for a gift of $100 or more, Nikita will include a signed copy of his newly updated life story, A Tale of the Ring and Redemption.

Go to www.kolov.net and donate today. You're listening to The Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. Yeah. Yeah, just all of them, right? All those guys, yeah.

And that was not... I mean, honestly, I wasn't a huge rock and roll guy growing up, but I remember Atlanta rhythm section, right? Yeah. And knowing he grew up in a gospel singing family, and did you know this part of the story that when he was like 16, 17, he had wrote a song, the family was doing a concert in Memphis, Tennessee. You heard of the story?

You're shaking your head. You know my bail of the song, right? After the concert, somebody comes to him and says, hey, somebody wants to meet you, and he has no clue.

In fact, he has not even any clue. It was Colonel Parker who came to get him and took him back to this private viewing room, and it was Elvis. And Elvis said, I wanna record that song.

Amazing. And it was one of the very few times that, I guess, that Elvis ever did a song, but didn't retain the rights to the songs. And Mylon, when I met him just a few years ago, said he was still getting royalties off all these years later, off of that song. Yeah, set him up.

He really helped a long way out. And he was, the way I understood the Traveling Willoughbys, I guess they called themselves, it was like... Oh, the Wheelbarriers. Yeah, Traveling Wheelbarriers, I believe. Is that right?

I think that's how you pronounce it. Is that what it was? Orbison and... Petty? Tom Petty, yes. Gosh, and then Harrison. And anyway, fascinating story to me, you know, because I knew a lot of the names, not necessarily a lot of the music, but then how God got a hold of his life, and then he formed the Christian band you're talking about. So all that to say, he put on a great concert.

He done a great job. He was one of our, again, he was one of the forerunners to that contemporary Christian music, kind of coming into its own there in the late 80s. He and the Garmo and Key and Petra and all those, and matter of fact, I think Petra was in Freedom Hall.

We went and seen them many years ago, and they put on a great show. But you know, Mylon, there was something special about him, and not that there wasn't about the other ones, but there was a sincerity, I think, that you felt from Mylon a lot of times that maybe was not quite as evident that you might get at a concert, but he was just so solid about the gospel and about getting the word out. The music was secondary to getting the gospel message out. And so I think that's what drew a lot of people to him and his concerts. And as you mentioned, he came to your church there, and I think he's been in ministry, speaking ministry now for a number of years. It's a great illustration of how someone can grow up in the church and drift away, let's just say, by his own testimony, drift away, because man, part of his testimony was in the sex, drugs, and rock and roll days, there was an awaking moment. I wasn't high, like on something.

He said, I mean, I'd wake up and get high and stay high all day. He goes, whether it was through concerts or business meetings, contract signings, whatever, until God just got a hold of his life and brought him, in a sense, full circle back around really to serving the Lord, right? So fascinating, fascinating story. And just as you said, helping to pioneer the whole contemporary Christian music industry. And so you attended concerts there. Did you attend some wrestling matches? I'm trying to remember if we got a wrestling end up there or not. I don't think we did, but I do so remember, man, there was a lot of promotion in that area at the time, especially around Freedom Hall and wrestling, wrestling.

Yeah, local independent shows as well as the NWA and other markets. David Crockett was a big promoter back in the 80s, I'm sure you know who I'm talking about. I think, yeah, I think David Crockett, Jim Crockett. Jim Crockett, that's it, sorry. Well, David was the brother though. So there was...

Okay, gotcha. Yeah, yeah, no, no, you did... Because David did a lot of the commentary on television, so that's probably where you remember David Crockett and then Jimmy. Jimmy was the president, but the whole family, when Jim Sr. passed, Jim Jr. stepped in as president, the whole family was up, but Jackie Crockett was a camera guy for all the TV shows, running the cameras.

Oh, wow. Francis Crockett did the marketing, so yeah, all four children became a part of the wrestling organization. So even though you may not have gone to any live matches, were you a fan of wrestling at all? Big, big fan of wrestling growing up, and again, Crockett and those guys, that's what we would get on our television sets on Saturday mornings. Mid-Atlantic wrestling. Championship wrestling. So yeah, we grew up watching those guys.

Do you have any favorites? You know, there was always... Besides Nikita Kolov. Besides you, yeah, and so they did come to our local high school one year, and I think I was maybe 16, 17 years old. And this was the first time, this was before any of these guys really got big. But one of the guys that came, and he was kind of one of the heels at the time, was Tully Blanchard, right?

Yes. And so Tully comes in with the big square, sunglasses on, he's got that, you know, the curly hair. And of course, we're all sitting there, I can't even remember who you razzle, but whoever it was, you know, we just wanted somebody to just pow-drop the guy, right? Yep, didn't like the guy. We did not like Tully Blanchard. Of course, I know Tully's other life.

He's living a different life now, so you don't have to hate him anymore. That's right, yeah. That's right. But yeah, all those guys in that time, you know, you had Flair, and you had Dusty Rose, the original. Dusty kind of spoke with the list sometimes, but he... You're talking about the American dream, not the Rosebud?

The American dream, there you go. Son of a plumber from Austin, baby, is that who you were funny tonight? Yeah, yeah, that was Dusty. Yeah, yeah.

Minnesota. I just love it if it's Danny Dusty. So many others do, but anyway. Super powers, baby, I'm just saying.

I know. And he could charge up a crowd, right? I mean, holy smoke. He had mic skills. Yes. He's very, let's just say, very charismatic.

Yes, yes, yes. And for a big guy, you know, he wasn't like the picture of fitness back in those days, right? He was...

But, yeah, he really... He might have had a couple extra pizzas towards the latter part of his life, but... Do you know he played professional baseball? I did not know that.

Yeah, minor league, he never made it to the majors, but he was a very gifted athlete in his day before he kind of let things slip away a little bit from him, but in his day, he was a very gifted athlete. Wow, I didn't know that. I did not know that. Yeah. So, okay, so you knew... Are we at least familiar with some of the guys? Oh, yeah. And of course, as you said, the Mid-Atlantic. And you know, back in those days, it was a different business because it was territorial, and like you said, there were a lot of different promoters, different shows that would come to town, and some on a larger scale than others. Yeah.

So at what point... Okay, so where did you meet your wife? So, we grew up in the same town, went to the same high school. There was a couple years difference in our age. So, while we were in high school together, we were there, but we really didn't know each other, so we actually ended up meeting in church. And so, she was attending a local church that her dad was a pastor for 40-some years, not at this particular church, but she was at this church, and I was kind of in a church transition at that point.

So, the church was just, you know, I could almost hit it with a rock literally from where we lived at. So, I started going to their youth group there when I was almost 18 years old. And so, we met there.

We met there and dated for a couple of years and got married on March the 5th, 1988. So, we've been around each other for a while. A long time, and congratulations on that. Thank you.

In today's world, those are milestones. Don't hear about it much anymore. Still be together. Still be together.

And of course, children, grandchildren? Yep, two boys, got two grown children. One who is a pastor out in California. He's up in the Sacramento area.

His name is Brandon. And then my youngest son, 24, still basically local here. He's living in Charlotte. Going to get married at the end of this month.

He's in the Charlotte area. And then we adopted a little girl. Her name is Riley from Russia. I think I may have mentioned that to you before. The motherland. The motherland. Y'all may be related or something.

Maybe from my backyard. That close, but okay. She came to us when she was 18 months old. And she just has turned 14 July the 1st. So she's been a great blessing to us. So what prompted you to go down that path?

So you have two children of your own. The Lord put it on your heart, your wife's heart. Said, hey, we should adopt. And then of course, I guess the natural question, why Russia? Would be the other part of that question for me.

Well, it's a great question. It came about, we were in church one Sunday. And our pastor at the time was preaching a sermon about the adoption of us into the kingdom.

You know, how he adopts. And there was something about that Sunday, I think, that just really resonated with my wife. It started with her before it did with me.

Probably because she's just that much better of a person than I am. So it started with her. And that message he preached, and we left there that day. And it was a burden.

It was just a burden that she could not shake. So as she began to share that with us, and at the time both boys were still at home, it was like, yeah. It just clicked, right?

It was just almost immediate. The other three of us was like, yeah. Why wouldn't we do that?

Why wouldn't we do that? That kind of thing. And at the time in Russia, I think that was the leading of the Lord as well through my wife. And there was, there's lots of children in Russia, in orphanages. And I think at the time there was maybe around 800,000 or so kids in orphanages in Russia.

And not always in the best of circumstances. Russia, as much as they would want us to believe the other way, they tried to be Western. But you can travel an hour outside of Russia, Moscow, and it's like driving into a third world country. And so I think that was one of the pieces of the burden that she had, that there was just so many kids in Russia that were in need of being adopted. And with little girls especially, usually by the time they worked their way through the system over there, they would kind of boot them out by the time they were like 15, 16 years old.

Yeah, basically, yeah. In many of those countries, because I was in Moldova and I was in a number of different countries, that they're like, I guess they call it age out, is the typical term. And then unfortunately, not to interrupt your story, but unfortunately, the sex traffickers know that. And they're just kind of waiting in the shadows. And as soon as these countries kick them to the curb, so to speak, they snatch them up. That's right.

If not before then, but they definitely by then, they snatched them up into the whole sex trafficking world, which is a major, that's a whole another show, another story in its time. So God puts it on your heart to die. You begin the process of researching and come across. And one thing leads to another. And so you find this little baby in Russia.

Yeah, yeah. And it was quite a process. When we first started the process, they told us it would probably, eight, nine months, we would probably be able to complete that process.

It ended up taking about two years. So the Lord allowed us to kind of walk through a time there where we're invested, we know we're answering a call here, but man, did it get sort of drug out. And so again, two years and four trips to Russia to get that child here. But we could really tell how God had worked some patience and some extra praying and fasting along the way there because there was just so many times that we were just so in the dark about what was going on with the process. And so we look back on it now, and we started the process actually before she was even born.

Wow, yeah, okay. And so as time went on, we got her here, and she's very much a Southern American girl. Now, the Russians would be mad.

And she even has an accent. People are mad. They look like they've Americanized me now at this point. People are mad about that.

That's true. Kitty, you've become soft. You're American now.

I've always been American. I was going to ask you, did you visit in the four trips to Russia? Did you visit my home while you were there? Yeah, we tried to find it.

Tried to find it? Yeah, they wouldn't. So Mike, what would you say to those listening out there that would maybe, maybe they are considering, maybe they haven't considered. I mean, obviously in today's climate with everything that's going on here in America, but even around the world, right? As mentioned, sex trafficking is a major ordeal, but to help rescue certainly some of these little girls, but even boys, and what would you say to those, someone listening out there, maybe they're considering adoption, or they're kind of on the edge. I don't know, should we, shouldn't we? I mean, your experience has been what that would say to them. You know, just say yes. There's plenty of children that want to be adopted, right?

Like a home, a good home like yours. Yeah, well, I appreciate you saying that. One of the little stories that my wife found as we were kind of putting the video of her homecoming all those years ago now, and I'll probably botch the story, but it really speaks to, I think, and answers your question is there was this story about this little girl who early in the morning was walking along the beach, and there was all of these starfish that had washed up on the beach, and of course, the longer they sat there, you know, they just kind of dry up and die. So there was a gentleman who watched that this little girl was making her way along the beach, and she was picking up the starfish and throwing them back in to those, just as many as she could, and the man finally, as he walked toward her, got to where she was, and he asked the little girl, he said, do you see all these starfish?

There's no way that you can possibly save all of these starfish. Why would you just, one and two and three? And the little girl answered and said, it was important for the one that I saved.

And I think about, you know, Christ leaving, you know, the story we have in Scripture about him leaving the 99 and going after the one, right? And sometimes it is just about saving the one, right? And God bless these parents who adopt multiple children, you know, not just one or five and six. Yeah, I have a dear friend. In fact, you got to actually sit in on the conversation Megan Hyatt, who's adopted five. Amazing.

Yeah, just, it really, really is. And some of them out of foster care and others out of the adoption program, but you should be the first to say that there are a lot. You may not be able to, to the point of your story, you may not be able to save them all, but if you can at least save some, right? We may not be able to rescue as much as we want to. In fact, there's an incredible show, Lantern Rescue as part of Truth Radio Network, right, Robbie? Part of Truth Radio Network.

Robbie's my main man here hanging out with me, making sure that you enjoy all these shows. But that specifically that that is their task. That is what they've been given, the task they've been given is to go into these, all these different countries and rescue these children out of sex slavery, out of sex trafficking, human trafficking. I mean, slavery has not gone, it has not gone away. It's there.

It is maybe, maybe you're oblivious to it, but it is there. But through the process of adoption, through the process of foster care, and through organizations like Lantern Rescue, we may not be able to save, so to speak, every single one. But I love the story about the starfish.

Hey, I might not be able to save every starfish, but man, if I just save one, or if I save some, some is better than none, right? Absolutely. And so, and I'm sure that that baby girl of yours is so thankful that you came along as adoptive parents and have been raised near her for now, you said 14 years, right?

Yeah. And gave her a life that she may not have otherwise had most likely grown up in an orphanage in Russia. And I've been around the world and to 30 different countries, I've been in different orphanages in Africa and different places, and they're not the top of the line care in many of those places. And so I just want to encourage you as a listener out there, maybe God puts that on your heart to adopt a child, whether it's out of foster care or from a foreign nation, whether it's Russia or somewhere else, to consider, consider, you know, especially as these girls now maybe hopefully make a choice to have the child as opposed to abort a child, to actually have a child, put that child up for adoption, or maybe they end up in the foster care program, to just pray about that and consider that.

And I'm guessing it's been a credible experience for you and would recommend that to any family out there, whether they're able to have children, not have children, right? Absolutely. And I think more to your point is, I think that is kind of the, speaking in Christianese here for a second, that is kind of the trick of the enemy a lot of times is to say, well, what really good is that gonna do, right? It's just one, it's just one.

But I think if you feel the Lord dealing with you about that and kind of the conviction to go that way, you know, don't let the enemy trick you into, well, it's just one, because just one matters. And thank God. He left the 99.

I was one, yeah. Left the 99, get to one. Well, you know what, Mike, we're out of time. We didn't even get to talk about your car business. This was better. No, this was better than that. You and the Christian car guy can relate because you've been in the car business for many years.

At least do this for us, though. You're in Winston-Salem area. What's your website for your car business? Yeah, so you can go to, so it's Winston-Salem Motor Car. So the website is wsmc1.com, wsmc1.com. Yep.

So I want you to very least do this. Since we didn't get to talk about his marketplace business, his car business, you heard his heart when it comes to adoption. And so go check out his website. If you're in the Winston-Salem area, what's the address?

Yeah, we are at 2775 Peters Creek Parkway, just down the road from Cookout and just across the street from the big Goodwill store. So it's easy to find. Thanks for coming in the studio today. Oh, man, my pleasure. I appreciate what you do. Well, thank you for dialing in to another episode of Man Up. Why?

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