How many children do James and Myka Stauffer have? All we know about former family vloggers

The story of James and Myka Stauffer has been covered in a three-part HBO documentary series called— An Update on Our Family. The Stauffers are an Ohio-based couple who used to run a family vlogging YouTube channel called The Stauffer Life that had amassed a following of 717,000 subscribers.

They have four biological children and had adopted a son, Huxley, from China in 2017. Their oldest daughter, Kova, was born in September 2011; their second daughter, Jaka, in December 2013; their son, Bradley, in 2015; and their youngest child, Onyx, in 2019.

They documented their journey as a family, particularly their experience integrating Huxley into their lives and navigating the challenges of raising a child with special needs, which attracted significant attention on social media.

However, their story took a controversial turn in May 2020 when they revealed in a YouTube video that they had made the decision to place Huxley with another family better equipped to meet his needs.

Huxley was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder level 3 and described as 'profoundly developmentally delayed.' While the Stauffers initially documented their efforts to support him through therapies like applied behavior analysis, they eventually disclosed that his needs were far greater than they had anticipated and beyond what they felt capable of addressing. Myka Stauffer shared emotional reflections on her Instagram, expressing love for Huxley and the struggles she faced in parenting him.

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Why did James and Myka Stauffer rehome their adopted son?

On May 26, 2020, Myka and James released a video where they informed their followers that they had to rehome Huxley. As reported by Distractify, in the video, James Stauffer said:

"With international adoption, sometimes there's unknowns and things that are not transparent on files and things like that. Once Huxley came home, there was a lot more special needs that we weren't aware of, and that we were not told. Over the last few years, Huxley's been in numerous therapies to try to help him with all of his needs,"

Critics accused the Stauffers, particularly Myka Stauffer, of exploiting Huxley’s adoption and medical struggles for social media clout and financial gain, reported Distractify. Their content, which heavily featured Huxley, was seen as a central factor in growing their platform and attracting sponsorships. Many people expressed outrage over the couple's decision to rehome Huxley, viewing it as a failure to honor their commitment as adoptive parents.

Amid the intense criticism they faced, Myka Stauffer has remained inactive online since 2020, while James continues to share updates through his car-focused Instagram account, Stauffer Garage.

Highlighting the dangers of family vlogging, Shari Franke, the daughter of disgraced YouTube vlogger Ruby Franke, also shared the horrific experience of her and her siblings being the star of her mother's vlog 8 Passengers. A web series called 'Mormon Mom Gone Wrong: The Ruby Franke Story' depicted the story.