I’m a stage-4 cancer survivor (Metastatic Melanoma in liver).
I just celebrated 8 years past my life expectancy. I am not sure why God has kept me alive, but since I am alive, I try to live in a way that Makes Life Better for others.
My beautiful wife, Debbie, and I have been doing foster care for a couple of years now and we had currently have five children (four boys & one girl) under the age of 9.
Debbie and I have adopted two children already. We adopted Ben from Russia when he was two and half. He had severe heart problems, which were fixed at Children’s Hospital and he is now 18 and a great athlete and fine young man. We adopted Kaylie (Colombian) in the middle of my cancer battle and she is a wonderful young woman and great addition to our family.
So, what do you do at 56 years old as a stage-4 cancer survivor? Start foster care!
First, we took in Zack through foster care and this past October, we adopted him into our family. Zack (aka Blaze) has grown so much and is healing from a catastrophic start to life.
I have to emphasize that Debbie is exceptionally gifted with children. Her giftedness helps to bring out the best in our children. There is still work to be done.
Social Services called a few months later and had a sibling group of 4 that needed a home and would we be interested in taking them. We prayed about it and felt like God was saying to bring them into our home.
I have to admit there are days when I walk up to the house and hear all the screaming coming from the inside and I say to myself: What have I done?
There are so many children who need a healthy home. There are many ways to help: Foster Care, Adoption and Foster to Adoption. It is not for everyone, BUT it might be for you.
We now have 13 children: 6 natural, 3 adopted and 4 foster (we also have 6 grandchildren). What a joy! We are trying to Make Life Better for others and it makes our life better.
Just the other night, I had the five little ones snuggling me in bed watching the family movie The Spy Next Door for the fourth time! It was great!
You can go here to get more information about foster care and adoption:
http://jfs.ohio.gov.
