Jaime Johnson
She is a native Arizonian and a graduate of Gilbert High School - class of 1999. She is an ordained minister, and now an Associate Pastor at Life Community Church, the same church in which she grew up. She is the wife of Dan and, in 2018, adopted Declan - a precious and loving little boy. She is a Gilbert Leadership graduate and has a heart for serving people and serving God. She is Jaime Johnson.
Episode Transcription
Guiding Growth. Conversations with Community Leaders. In this podcast, we'll explore the human journey of leaders, their stories of humility, triumph, roadblocks and lessons learned. Come join us as we journey together and uncover the questions you've always wanted to know. This podcast is brought to you by the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce providing resources, connections and belonging for business professionals and rocket space, an event and meeting venue in the heart of the East Valley with a full service for person podcast studio and we've got another episode of guiding growth today.
What do you think Sarah Today is a great day. We're celebrating the presence of a native Arizona and graduate of Gilbert High School class of 99. She's an ordained minister and now an associate pastor at life Community Church the same church in which she grew up. She is the wife of Dan and in 2018 adopted Declan, a precious and loving little boy. She's a Gilbert leadership graduate and has a heart for serving people and serving God she is Jamey Johnson. How was that for an introduction? A great introduction.
Also, I'm also a class of 1999. I just don't know that you could have saved the class. You could have been like, let people guess how old I am. Okay, just kidding. We might have to edit that one out there. Class of she is a graduate 104. I don't want to be that. She graduated high school. What Gilbert leadership class are you? 24 Oh that was almost one of the most of the year before the rebels. There's really only one rough here. Not 24. I'm glad you're in Gilbert leadership.
You do an amazing job working in that program by the way. Thank you. Always impressed with you on that. Hey, but we got something we got to start with and we call that rapid fire around. Sometimes we call it make fun of sarah around but today we're gonna call it rapid-fire round, are you ready? I'm ready. Okay, where is the most beautiful place you've been? Oh I'm gonna say Israel spender or saver Saver. Really bad saver describe yourself in three words, consistent, optimistic is a hustler bad.
It depends how you mean it always working and where you say that the best room in your house, living room. Date night or night in date night. How long does it take for you to get ready in the morning for washing our hair? 45 minutes. What about not washing your hair? Well the eyelashes are off right now so it's zero time. The things you learn on this show. I know beach or mountains name one thing you can't live without. I'm going to say my son. I might have not said that yesterday, but I'm going to say my son day by day toddlers favorite sports team.
Okay By marriage packers in boston red sox, but I'm secretly a cubs fan. I just follow them. I don't know why I like them, but I don't know but I love their song like, hey Chicago but my husband is a huge packers and red Sox fan, so I'm gonna go with that glass half full or half empty, always full. Nice. I see that in you. Yes, I do too. Thank you to phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport for their support with nonstop service to 60 plus cities. Gateway Airport makes traveling just plain easy visit Gateway airport dot com for more information.
Okay, so let's start off talking a little bit about the past if we shall. So talk to us about this 1999 graduation time period of your life when you're getting ready to do different things. What was life like then back there and what was mentoring you back in those days? Yeah. So we moved around a lot growing up when you go to high school, that was the only school I attended like for four years in a row. I mean every year moved schools. So going through high school, there was never really a plan to go to college.
There was nobody pushing me towards that direction, I knew I wanted to do makeup or hair or be a teacher, but I didn't know how to get there. And so when I was a senior in high school, my pastor of my church democracy, who is my pastor boss today, he's like, hey, why don't you while you figure things out, come an intern for me for a year, you know, clean toilets, full papers, just work. We'll give you a little money and you know, it'll give you something to do while you figure out what you want to do and like that sounds great.
So I did that for year one, the second year they brought in more interns, they had me manage the interns and then year three I got my Minister's license and then year 22 I'm doing the same thing, cleaning toilets and bulletins, It's real fun. But yeah, I love it. Got our date in 2007, so I've been in the same position. Obviously those things move around is People come and go my position changes, but pretty much the same position since 1999. So would you say he was the one that kind of got you into this space?
Yes, absolutely. And the church has grown a lot since then. The church has grown a lot since then and I think he saw, you know, young girl with potential and not a lot of direction and jumped in and made something out of nothing. So that's pretty amazing. He's still an amazing leader. He is an incredible leader. Yeah. We have an intern this year who Kind of same story, bring her in, we're trying to get her through college, Jeremy Gilbert Community College. So we're paying for her school and she works for us as an intern.
And I'm like, same story just 22 years ago. So we're still doing that same program and it's awesome to see her and how good she's doing since she started with us, how in your industry. I imagine there are a lot of inspirational people that you run into as you think back into the early years beyond this gentleman that helped you in the beginning, Who else was in your world then? Um, there is a friend of mine named Laura Newcombe, she owns autism Academy and um, a couple other programs that she does, but she was just always so positive.
She, I met her first, she was just a teacher at a charter school that were connected with and I just thought she was always so pretty. First of all just, you know, very, very, pretty optimistic. But I'm like, you're probably pretty because you're so optimistic. You know, she was just that person that could light up a room and any time I had ideas or questions I could just really go to her for good. Sound Godly advice and I mean I'll see her tonight. She's still a good friend of mine today, but definitely she was a big part of all those big moments over the last several years where we're mom and dad in this picture.
So my dad actually passed away when I was eight years old in a plane crash. It was a small plane down south and so it was a very tragic, you know, just horrible, horrible loss. Um he and a buddy were scouting for deer plane crashed. So I was in third grade, when that happened, my brother was in first grade. My brother and I are very close. We were close as kids were still closest adults. I always say it's like my more of a friend, but he is just, my brother were just really, really good buds and my mom was great.
She always say she's a great grandma. She's doing well now, but had a bumpy road for a long time obviously after that kind of loss. And so yeah, she was always around. But really the person when I was junior high high school kind of the closest with was my grandma. Um, she was just home, you know, it was comfortable and she was always there. She was always hilarious. And so we had some of those good stable family members that stepped in and kept everything moving forward while we were growing up.
But my mom was doing awesome and babysits my son every week and she wants to know if he can't have five dinosaurs, why not? I'm like, why? So, she's a wonderful grandma and she's a big part of our lives now. How did you come to discover the church? And how did you get involved at a young age? Um, when I was 11 years old, my aunt and uncle would say, Hey, come stay the night at our house on Saturday will take you to church on Sunday. And I remember going the first time and I'm a little competitive.
So as an 11 year old, they said like if you will memorize the scripture, we'll give you a six ft long Butterfinger and I'm like, I'm going to win that. And so I came back the next week to win this Butterfinger and all they did, it wasn't six ft, they took several butterfingers and just like tapped him to a piece of wood. So I was like, well this is kind of a rip off, but I still got a lot of butter fingers and so it was six ft long.
Oh yeah, yeah, for sure. And so came back the next week and I mean, honestly, it was just a lot of fun. I always had fun there. I was accepted cute boys when you're 11 and 12, that's a big deal. And so I just stayed around and when I was about 14 or 15 I went to summer camp, somebody paid my way to go to camp. So I'm always pushing send kids to camp, it's important and really just created a relationship with the Lord understood That there's just something so much bigger than me and I know that if I stayed close to God, I knew that my life would be better than that.
And so that was about 15 years old. Really found my own relationship with christ and I love that, that's amazing. I heard that you like to travel a bit to do, So talk a little bit about your travels, I love to travel. I think it's the best use of your money because you get to get educated while you travel plus c fun places. And so we cruise every year, we're going again in a couple of weeks, we've been to Israel, we've been to italy, we've been to Hawaii um just all over the place and so when you first get married, I just don't think anybody has a ton of money, which we didn't, and so that was kind of something we really worked and saved for.
And so it's awesome to see all the things that we're able to do and worked for it. I think that's even more rewarding. I want to go back to your ministry for a minute and just I have to say that you actually put some humanity behind a church leader, which was in my first time in my adult life, that I had really seen somebody who um was just very real with um being a church leader, but also accepting of the fact that you're not perfect and you make mistakes and you're overcoming challenges just like everybody else and I really appreciate that and you how how do you allow yourself to do that and be very real while also being a leader in the church.
Um That is a great question because I think it is real for people, you know, everybody is so quick to discount themselves based on, like, well, if you only knew what I did six years ago, you know, you wouldn't think I was as nice and the reality is every single person has that story. Everybody does. And so to take what we know about God and help people understand you and God are fine, nobody's judging you here, you're judging yourself, you're discrediting yourself, you're not giving yourself all the grace that God has given you and so trying to help people understand like you and God are fine.
Let me help you see that. Let's work through all these things, but nobody is perfect. And I think people see the instagram pictures and the stories and everybody's life is perfect except for mine. And that's just simply not true. Everybody has junk. And so it's making that very real common. Let's talk about it. Um, and let's help you work through it. You know, I'm not one to judge, I'm not perfect, but how can I help you walk through this? Well, and and Ben shared earlier that you've probably crossed paths with so many people who have inspired you.
But there's also difficult people in your world. And so to me, it's just, it's eye opening to see somebody who really acknowledges that and has the skills and the patients to work through that in a positive way. So your work in the ministry, I think part plays right into the work you do in the community as well and you do a lot. Talk a little bit about some of the things you're involved in the community. I know a few, but there's probably a lot that I don't know that you do.
Yeah, so we, um, in 2000 and 16 or so, um, I'm sorry, 2014, that was long ago, um, I went to leader cast and they were talking about Gilbert leadership and I knew I was doing well in my position and I knew I have all my, I call them church buddies, you know, like sister churches, we do a lot of stuff with them and not that I've learned all I could, but I'm like, I feel like there's so much more that I could be doing that, I could be learning.
And so I was really interested in Gilbert leadership. It took a year to get my schedule where that would be possible. So I applied, they accepted me got into Gilbert leadership with the purpose of, I don't want to just do this for one year and then be done. How can we take this and serve our community get involved? I mean, I think churches do a great job, but if you don't know what's in your community, it's hard to serve them. And so that was the goal of Gilbert leadership.
Don't you have one regret though, Not being in class 25 and you're going to say that 25 and no, that is not a regret of hers have a few regrets. I'm going to say that's not. Um, um, so after Gilbert leadership was great when we were done, I know that there are a few people in our class that were like oh, this has been such a great experience, but I'm kind of excited to get my time back and I didn't feel that way at all. I'm like, I'm going to miss all these people.
I love the opportunities that it gives you. And so I applied to the board and they accepted me, which I think there's still a little surprising that I, I'm like, I'm like, it's okay, it's probably not going to happen. I'm like, oh, what happened? I don't think I want to be on this board because they do not have good judgment. I'll tell you that right now. So on the board. So this is my sixth year and I just love it. I think there's great ways to network with people, you know, what a great business, How can I help you?
You know, what a great idea. How can we make this happen? And so I think it's you have to know what's in your community to serve your community. Absolutely was the Gilbert leadership program, the first interaction you had with the chamber in their programs or yeah, it was, I actually was not a chamber member, sorry, sarah. Um, but we we've gone back and forth about chamber membership and john Simon is always like small business advocacy, like that doesn't apply to us. And so we just were never really involved in the chamber, but we were involved in Gilbert from Gilbert, so we were always had a float in the parade and we would do like the global Festival and we would do lots of activities and I would always hear about the great things the chamber is doing, but just never became a member.
So I'm really excited to be with Gilbert Leadership and Jamie is what we call a G. S. N. R. So she gets stuff done. That's not right. Actually, let's start that again edit that. She said get G. S. D. Or get stuck, get done. Um It's okay. The wisdom of Sarah's being exploited right now. This is amazing. Yes, skip that. Alright, let's do this. I had the privilege of watching a beautiful pivotal moment or series of moments in your life when Declan came into your life and I would love for you to share that story.
I'm happy to share that story, but it is like many years stories. So I will do the best I can to shrink it up. Um so we get married in 2008, Dan and I met at summer camp actually like found Jesus at camp and my husband at camp, I'm like what my keys go to camp, maybe they're they're so met at summer camp. I was directing the camps for a lot of churches in our area and he came and brought his nephews to attend camp just as a counselor.
Just got to the military. He tried to talk to me the whole time. I was so rude to him, like I'll admit it. And about a year later he messaged me on Myspace and was like, Hey, remember we mailed last year at camp and I thought, Okay, this guy's really interested. So we go on our first date in October, get engaged in November, get married in April. Um, so that was 2008 and best decision of my life, tell the moon story. Okay, so our first date, he was coming in, he lived in New Mexico.
He was coming to phoenix to attend his friend's wedding and old buddy from the military and so he asked me to be his date. That was our date. So the day before the wedding we went out to dinner and went up to South Mountain. You know, we're just like hanging out walking, it's october beautiful weather and he's trying to impress me with his star knowledge and he's like, gosh, I can't find the big dipper. I saw it just last week and I'm like, You saw the big dipper all the way in New Mexico like, you must have an incredibly expensive like telescope.
And then I was like, Oh no, wait, it's all the same sky. Just kidding. Like please still like me after this scope and he knew it was like he was like, Okay to yourself. I love that story. Yeah. So get married in 2008. Um you know obviously you never think get married battled infertility, you always think get married have kids, that's the plan. So get married have a horrible time of infertility, just years and years, lots of money out the window. Um And so we were on medication, we did surgeries, we did all the procedures, everything except for IVF.
And so In 2015 we decided just to pay the money go for it. We proceeded with IVF and with when you do IVF, it's very expensive. It's a long process. Um and by the time you actually can or cannot get pregnant, you only have a 50% chance. So you have all these things stacked against you just starting. So for people that go through IVF and it's considered a success, it's a miracle. I mean every pregnancy is a miracle. So we go through IVF, we get pregnant, which is incredible because we were on just a very long process, so get pregnant.
It's amazing. Several weeks later we lose that pregnancy. So we have to go through, you know, spending all of our money coming up empty handed. It's just absolutely devastating and infertility and pregnancy loss and it's a very common, I mean one in eight couples battle infertility one and four suffered a pregnancy loss, You just don't hear about it, nobody talks about it very much. So, still a taboo topic. So that's something that I'm trying to just be an advocate for and make it a more open conversation, because I think people around you are really struggling and if they don't know that it's okay to talk about this, you know, you're not the only one, let's support each other.
I think that's those are important conversations to have. So I went through IVF lost that pregnancy spend a year, just so angry, you're so devastated to go through this, and it's one thing to be helping people through their situations lean on God, it will be okay, God's timing, and then when it's here goes, you're like, this is ridiculous. Like, I can't believe somebody would say that, and so there's just nothing to hold onto, but God, I know you're good. I know there's a plan, I'm so angry, I'm so frustrated and I think that's what changes your relationship with crisis almost in those moments, like, okay, God is very real because God is all I have going for me, so I better figure out, you know what I'm going to do, and I'm like, I'm just going to take one step at a time, I'm going to move forward, and I'm going to know that God is with us, God is helping us, even when I don't see it when I don't feel it, you know, God is so good and so it's often in times of tragedy and when you hit the bottom that you really, really find that and it shapes your faith, I think for the rest of your life, you know those moments are what you go back to.
Not that it was a fun time, but I'm like, I almost missed that time because my dependence on christ might have been a little different. Um and so I spent a year just so angry. I'm going to, we were getting ready to buy a house, I'm going to buy a house, I'm going to go on a cruise. I'm just going to not do any doctor's appointments, I'm going to enjoy my life and then figure out what we want to do and so about a year and a half later.
Um and there was no, I think people feel a lot of times like I was always meant to adopt or I'll have two kids and then we're going to adopt later. I never felt like that I never thought were going to adopt. I'm like, no, I'm not a boy and a girl, we're going to be done. Like that's how it works, just like the book says. And so we started looking at, do we do IVF again do we do adoption and I'm such a saver and like if we do IVF, we could wind up with nothing, we pay the same amount of money and do adoption, but it could take a lot of time, a lot of waiting but there will be a baby at the end so let's do adoption and not, we're so excited to do this, it's kind of like I can't believe I'm in this position, everybody gets pregnant and I'm here paying you know thousands of dollars and still have nothing.
And those are very real feelings and so you know you want to be very open about that. I think people feel that way and I know I felt that way, so move towards adoption and even though I'm feeling that way, that doesn't mean God's not working, which is pretty incredible. And so moved towards adoption and then we were trying to decide an adoption agency and there was a couple of them we looked at but christian family care agency in phoenix, they do the tax credit so you can fund your adoption with state tax credit.
I'm like well that makes most sense because we can fundraise and save money because I'm the saver. So we went through christian family care, wonderful experience with them, um spent several months getting licensed and get the home study and finally we're licensed. Okay, congratulations. Now just wait here for an unknown amount of time until there's a baby, you know, so wait forever and the way it works is usually you would find a birth mother who's pregnant and you guys match. You decide, yes, this is what we want to do.
And then after the baby's born, you signed paperwork, you take your baby home pretty simple. So our situation is different because we got a phone call on a saturday afternoon and it was a worker from the agency and she said, hey, you know, I was going over your paperwork and you never listed if you were interested in a native american baby, you have to say what races you're open to and we would be open to any race. And I said, oh yeah, I'm like paperwork is confusing.
I don't know why we didn't market. Of course we're open to a native american, have a great night, you know, talk to you monday. And she's like okay, so I'm at the hospital right now. There was a baby that was born last night. The mother came in, did not know she was pregnant, emergency c section. The baby has been in the nursery for 20 hours being cared for by nurses. And I met with him this morning. They chose you. So if you're interested, can you get down here within the next two hours because visiting hours are almost over.
And I'm like, I don't know what is going on right now. And I'm like thinking back that poor worker is like I'm not comfortable giving a baby to this lady because she's not whole thing like she's not skating with the program. So I called dan and he gets off work, we run to the hospital, they sit down with us and explain basically the couple, they're dating couple, very sweet couple. Very young, very very sweet, but just very young and they've chosen adoption, they've chosen you. So sign on these three dotted lines and we'll introduce you to your son.
So we signed paperwork and we walk into a room and the nursery, they have all these private rooms and there was a nurse holding the baby and it was Ellen Pettit who I went to high school with her dad is George Pettit and I'm like Ellen patent, you know your then that's not even her name anymore, but you're the nurse and she's like you're the adopted mom. And so Ellen had been caring for our child you know while he's been in the nursery and they were like okay here here here, he's ready and they're just handing you everything and I remember thinking this baby is so small, like he was only £5 when he was born um so tiny and it felt like an instant the room cleared and it was just dancing on on this baby and dan's like is that our baby?
I'm like I don't know what is going on, I'm like I did not read all the paperwork, I just signed, I did not read the fine print and I'm like I think this is our son and dan's like did we just get a baby? I'm like, I don't know. And so we just, it was very, very wild. I mean it's just high adrenaline and you're like, I think I get to steal this baby tomorrow, I don't know. So they come back in, they explained because he was so premature and he had no prenatal care at all.
Um you know, there's health concerns so they want to keep him overnight, they want to make sure he's just getting monitored properly and because he is size and so they said go home, get some rest tomorrow, you know, come back and we'll finish this up. And so I'm like, I think we get to go tomorrow and take a baby home, I don't know what is going on. So should we go buy stuff? Like, do we need a stroller? We had nothing, but at all, you're waiting for a baby.
But the hardest part is to have like a room stocked and you just everyday see it. So we didn't buy anything. So we went to walmart, made a huge investment into the walmart corporation, But stroller swing, I mean about everything you need for the baby, went home, stayed up till three AM. Putting together bouncers and all kinds of stuff the next morning, went to the hospital and while we were there, um, you know, the agency had said the birth parents do not want to meet you, they don't, they never met the baby, They don't want to meet you.
Um They just kind of want to be done and go home and heal and move on and so I said okay but we're open. You know we're open and why would you ever say that? You know, what would you say? Please can we be friends? And I said if they ever change their mind, we're open to that. Um And so in the afternoon they were they would like okay we'll go ahead and meet them just so we at least know who they are. You know we can say they're nice people.
And so we met in a little private waiting room and right when they came in there was all these connections. It turns out that um birth dad and my husband are from the same area. They actually know some of the same people. Um Just a wonderful wonderful peaceful friendship that had started and we're doing an open adoption and open adoption. I feel like it's such a scary topic because people are like, well what if after a year she wants her baby back and like it's not her baby.
It's our baby. She's the birth mom. You know she gets to enjoy him and see him and gets pictures and we visit every couple of months and then they get to go back and act like normal young adults. You know they are doing school and they do games and they do all kinds of stuff. They don't have all this responsibility, they're just enjoying their life and they get to know that he has cared for. That's the biggest thing with adoption is if I'm putting my baby up for adoption, like if I'm choosing adoption is my child going to be okay because no matter your situation you still have that care.
I want to make sure my child's okay. So she gets to enjoy all of this and we have a wonderful friendship, we see them regularly and it's just, it's something that was completely unexpected on my end. I never thought I would enjoy an open adoption like I do. And so that's been a beautiful surprise. So we left the hospital at like four o'clock in the afternoon in a carrier and I remember thinking like hurry before they stop us, get the car ready, we got to go and we get in the car and we're driving home and I just remember thinking like I can't believe we're taking a baby home, like I can't believe we're taking a baby home.
And so we chose the name. We got to name him his birth certificate said first name, no last name, name. He had no name, that was on his birth certificate until his adoption was finalized several months later. So we named him Declan. Vance Declan means full of goodness and Vance's after my father in law. So super sweet story and I imagine you probably wishing you hadn't stayed up till three in the morning that the night before because now you have a baby, you're taking care of so much adrenaline going on.
I mean we're trying to facetime relatives and let them know, hey, you guys just had a grandchild. What? You know, dan's mom's like, I'm buying a plane ticket right now. Like we don't know what's going on yet and he's crazy story. The most precious boy. I mean he really is my kids um, through facebook. They love to just see videos of him because he is the funniest most precious boy. That's awesome. That's quite the story. Yeah, It's an incredible story. Thank you for sharing that with us.
That's really amazing. Thank you. So Jamie, what's next as we look to the future for you? Where do you think things are going? I know obviously you've got the sun now, that's in your world. That's changed things completely. But do you think things are going next? You have any ideas? Yeah. You know, and I don't, there's nothing big going on. I mean you say nothing big. But I'm like, I feel like everything is big and we're just enjoying raising a toddler living in Gilbert, doing our services being a part of the church and we're just enjoying it.
And so I don't have anything big on the horizon, I would say, but just doing what we always do and just serve people trying to be good friends, you know, trying to be good kids, just enjoying life. Well you've got plenty of challenges with the baby boy going on, I'm sure. So that's enough. Well you do incredible things for our community, very grateful for all you do for Gilbert leadership, but just in the community in general, you're always doing something through the church to serve others and that's pretty incredible.
Thank you. Thanks for being with us today. It's been a great conversation. Thank you like what you heard today and you want to hear more, will subscribe to our drive and and see what you can find out more. We'll send you updates and let you know when there's new episodes coming. We appreciate you listening and thanks for being here, guiding growth conversations with community leaders. Ben, let me ask you a question. How do you see other community members being involved in this podcast? This is going to be a great opportunity for so many people in the community to have a chance to be heard if they want to tell their story or if they just want to be part of this journey with us and help sponsor in a way that helps bring more people to the table with us.
So I think there's many opportunities at hand whether you want to again be on the show, reach out to us, let us know what your story is and how you think you could be part of it. We'd love to hear from you. Reach out, let us know, and we'll see if we can make that connection.
