Jeff and Amy Bryant never envisioned the extraordinary journey ahead when they met in college at the University of Tennessee almost 27 years ago.
Jeff was in graduate school for engineering, and Amy was an undergraduate education student when they met in 1998. Engagement followed three years later, and marriage the following year.
In the early years of their marriage, Jeff worked as a structural engineer until he changed his focus to teaching, and in 2003, “God opened doors and led me to a teaching job and football coaching opportunity at South-Doyle High School,” Jeff recalls.
Amy recalls her reaction when Jeff decided to change careers. “I was so hesitant. I was scared of the salary and that our future children would never see their dad, but God worked in my heart. Teaching and especially coaching have been the biggest blessings in our family’s life.”
Jeff taught computer aided design/ architectural and engineering design and coached at South-Doyle High School for 20 years.
Jeff and Amy wanted a family, planning to adopt children after they had their own. After six long years of hope and anticipation, the couple faced the heartbreaking reality of infertility. During this childless journey, the couple poured into the football players at South Doyle. Amy recalls their relationship with students. “We prayed for them, had them over for dinner, shuttled them back and forth to practice, provided tutoring, homework sessions, visited football camps and campuses all over the Southeast.”
The Bryants continued to plan for a family when, in 2008, “the Lord laid adoption on our hearts again and we started the process to adopt from Taiwan.”
In March 2010, they traveled to Taiwan to bring 6-month-old Mya Michelle Bryant home.
Amy: “The moment we drove down that gravel road in the middle of the mountains of Taiwan, we saw the most beautiful baby we had ever seen, and all of a sudden, all of the struggles made sense … we were not meant ever to get pregnant, this child was born to be ours! Through this adoption, we learned that the Lord is faithful and he is always working even when we can’t see it. His plan is always perfect, and He knows best every time.”
Amy, Jeff and Mya Bryant (Mya’s Gotcha Day; Puli, Taiwan, 2010)
Mya quickly became a part of the South-Doyle football family, spending lots of days being pushed around the track in her stroller, helping her Daddy paint the field, handing out cookies she helped bake for the players, playing water girl for the team, and riding the sleds pushed by her Daddy’s “stinky boys,” as she affectionately called them.
Both Jeff and Amy are grounded in faith and began searching for a church home, but this, too, had an unexpected impact on their journey. Mya suffered from separation anxiety with every church visited, crying every time she was left in the kids’ ministry. It was after visiting at least their sixth church that they were invited to visit Grace Baptist Church. Mya stayed the very first time and didn’t cry one tear, and Grace became home for the Bryants.
Mya attended the preschool at Grace for three years. The two public school alumni and public school teachers knew they wanted Mya to attend GCA for kindergarten after her experience in their preschool. “We knew Mya could learn math and history anywhere, but the biblical world view is what attracted us to Grace; we wanted her to be surrounded by people who would be pouring the same thing into her at school that we try to at home… Love God, Love Others,” explains Amy.
The Bryants felt a divine nudge to adopt again while Mya was in kindergarten. The same week they said yes to adoption, Meggi was placed in the orphanage, and the adoption process to adopt a daughter from India was started.
The couple traveled to India in February 2017 to bring home daughter Meggi home. She was 21 months old and only 15 lbs. and was a very sick little girl.
Jeff, Amy, Mya and Meggi Bryant with Mr. Singh (Meggi’s Gotcha Day; Khunti, Jharkand, India 2017)
Knowing the blessing Mya had received in the pre-k program at Grace, the Bryants enrolled Meggi, and she thrived.
As her children flourished in pre-k and kindergarten, Amy enjoyed volunteering, serving as room mom, giving campus tours, and taking advantage of any other opportunity that came along where she could contribute to the school.
Even before they brought Meggi home, Jeff and Amy prayed for Amy to get a job at Grace when Meggi began kindergarten, but their answer came when Meggi was in pre-k.
Amy began working as the admissions assistant at GCA; providing tours and helping prospective GCA families through the admissions process.
Amy was not the only one with a door into Grace. In 2022, Jeff felt a door open for him as well, and he began coaching football.
A year later, Amy was promoted to admissions coordinator, a position she still holds today.
In 2023, Jeff made the career move to GCA as an administrator to serve as the dean of students and work towards starting vocational classes at GCA while continuing to coach football.
The Bryants: “We are blessed to get to go to work as a family each and every day… we literally get to go to work and school at a place that shares the gospel every single day with its students and get to see lives changed for eternity. We are blessed by the relationships we have with other families and our co-workers, who all share the same beliefs and values that we do to love God, love people, and share Jesus each and every day with our words and actions.”
Jeff, Amy, Mya, Meggi Bryant (Watching the Vols win the National Championship in Omaha in 2024)
The Bryants have a family verse from Ephesians 3:20. “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
The parents also instill in their daughters to “Remember who you are and whose you are.” This is to remind the girls that they are a Bryant (coming with responsibility to love God and serve others) and that they are daughters of the King!
From the serendipitous meeting in 1998 to the countless milestones celebrated along the way, Jeff and Amy Bryant’s amazing life journey has woven a rich tapestry of love, faith and unforgettable memories that continue to inspire them and those they encounter.
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