Family makes commitment to five boys

Tammy and Larry Thompson had fostered several children, but they had never seen a child like Joseph.

At 5, the little redheaded boy was so neglected and malnourished, he looked and acted like a 2-year-old. He had not been potty-trained, frequently broke into terrible temper tantrums and although he could not speak a single sentence, would curse up a storm.

The Thompsons became Youth Villages foster parents five years ago after their daughters, Rebecca, now 25, and Allison, now 21, were nearly grown.
They soon met Joseph’s birth parents, a young couple with few parenting skills and their three additional children. The two families spoke regularly, and the Thompsons helped the young couple with parenting tips and visits with Joseph to facilitate family reunification.

But when the three younger boys came into state custody as well, the Thompsons didn’t have to think about taking them in.

“We fell in love with them,” Mrs. Thompson says.

Joseph’s biological mom had a fifth child before the couple split up for good. To keep custody of her youngest child, she moved into a shelter with her son. But a few weeks later, she made the hardest decision of her life: she gave up her baby and surrendered parental rights, along with the father. The baby joined his siblings at the Thompsons’ home.

“We got this huge home and big, ol’ hearts for these kids,” Mrs. Thompson says.
Of all the children, Joseph showed the greatest developmental delays and needed the most help. But he has made huge strides since. He has just entered kindergarten and is doing well with speech therapy and counseling.

“He used to not be able to speak without pitching a fit,” Mrs. Thompson says. “Now he speaks, knows his colors, his ABCs and can count to 100. He has grown so much. I am so proud of him.”

While Youth Villages’ primary goal is to keep families together or to reunify them, we realize that this is not always possible. For children like Joseph and his brothers, adoption by someone they trusted and loved was crucial.
This year, Youth Villages helped 67 children find adoptive homes. About 60 percent, like the Thompson boys, were adopted by their Youth Villages foster parents.

“You don’t know when you’ll get your blessings,” Mrs. Thompson says. “We are very proud of our daughters, but Larry always wanted a boy, and I had always dreamed of a large family. God waited until now to bless Larry with boys and me with a large family.”