June 14, 2007~

Dear Louisiana Sandusky~

My name is Colleen O'Grady. I live in St. Louis, Missouri, with our seven children, four boys (Jaden Michael--12, Emerson Cole--9, Corrin Ryan--6, and Kingston Phillip--2) and three girls (Skylar Eliza--8, Essence Danielle--5, and Spirit Joy--3). Our children are all adopted; most have special needs, too.

I came across your book quite by accident; after I read it I felt compelled to write to you. I hope you don't mind.

I can't imagine parenting over four dozen children. Seven is, at times, more than enough for me! Still, it is a job I wouldn't trade in all the world: I love our children too much! My children are my life!

To tell you a little about myself, my name's Colleen, and I live in St. Louis, as I mentioned above. I work as a daycare teacher and also work on the weekends at Golden Corral. My husband, Lionel, cannot work because he has breathing problems. He still can take care of the kids, though, plus his mom helps out if he is having more problems breathing than usual.

Our children are healthy, I am happy to say, but the two youngest (Spirit and Kingston) do have some delays: both attend early childhood stimulation classes, which help with their physical, motor, and cognitive deficits. Both seem to be doing very well. The others are healthy, but several do have some learning disabilities and are benefitting well in special needs classes at school.

Our children were adopted from China (Skylar, Emerson, and Kingston), Jamaica (Spirit), Russia (Corrin), and Africa (Jaden and Essence). They may not look like Lionel or myself (let alone, sound like us), but they have come into our home--and our hearts--, and they are learning to assimilate themselves into American culture--and our family. Times are difficult for them (language barriers being the main problem), but I am sure it will get easier for them once they learn more in the way of English.

What lead you to adopt the children you did? Who was the most challenging, and have all your adoptions been difficult? How did you cope with the waiting periods, the parent interviews, all the paperwork, the dreaded home studies? How do you handle such a varied amount of disabilities/health problems, and how do you manage to keep your cool whenever medical problems arise? How did you cope when your children died?

So far, I haven't experienced that (I hope I never do!); that must be so difficult to outlive your children like that! I don't think I could parent children who have severe medical, physical, or mental disabilities! It takes a special person to parent children who are like that!

Well, Louisiana, I will let you go; Lionel needs to have a breathing treatment and have a snort of oxygen; his breathing is sounding a bit on the raspy side. The kids are also screaming for their lunch; they are hungry from their raucous play. Do take care and write soon; I'd love to hear from you!

Cheers!

~Most sincerely, Colleen Maire O'Grady in St. Louis, Missouri. :)