My name is Ezekial Dice. I live in Tampa, Florida, with my wife, Estella, and our thirteen children, who range in age from two on up to twenty seven. I am a minister; my wife, meanwhile, is a homemaker and certified homeschool instructor.
That way, she can be home with the children, in case something were to happen.
Six of our children are our own; the other seven, meanwhile, are adopted.
The five younger children are also children who happen to have special needs.
Our children are: Ezekial, Jr. (27; he is married and he and his wife are moving to Orlando within the month), Rashawn (25), Demetrius (24), Yasmine (22), Terrell (20), Jaquan (18), Ipswich (16), Cordelia (15), Foster (14), Foxx (12), Fiona (10), Opal Marie (6), and Vanecia (2). All but one (Fiona) are African-American, just like Estella and myself. Fiona, meanwhile, is Hispanic; she was born in Mexico.
As I just mentioned above, five of the kids all have special needs. Vanecia has sickle cell anemia and is often in and out of the hospital. Opal has fetal alcohol syndrome and is mentally delayed. Fiona has severe asthma and allergies. Foxx, meanwhile, has bi-polar illness. As for Foster, he has cerebral palsy and is in a wheelchair; he cannot talk, walk, feed himself (he is fed by a tube), or dress himself: he requires total care. This is one reason why Estella stays home, so she can take care of him and his needs, as well as the needs of our other children. She is a very good mama, if I do say so myself.
Originally, it was just us and Cordelia, Ipswich, Jaquan, Terrell, Yas, Demetrius, and RaShawn, but then we got involved in foster care, and Foster, Foxx, Fiona, Opal, and now Vancia entered the picture, and so, as a result, our family grew by leaps and bounds. We went from seven kids to 13 seemingly overnight. It's been a rather interesting, if somewhat bumpy, ride.
We ended up adopting the "fosters". So they are our kids as well. Ipswich and Cordelia were adopted by us, too. So we adopted seven total, in addition to our own six.
We have learned much about the needs of our kids, particularly Vanecia, Foster, Foxx, Opal, and Fiona. It seems like at times that the hospital (or doctor's offices) have become our second home because emergencies occur, and then we have to be ready to help our kids before they end up in trouble or (God forbid!) dying on us. Like the time Foster aspirated on his secretions and ended up with full-blown double pneumonia or the time Vanecia had a sickle cell "crisis" or the time Foxx attempted to commit suicide by trying to hang himself in his bedroom. One can never tell what will happen, but when it does, we'd best be prepared!
Estella and I would give our very lives for our kids. We have all fallen in love with each and every one of them; we now cannot imagine our family without them. Even when they aren't being loveable, we still care deeply for our children and we would do anything possible to keep them happy.
We have made foster care and adoption our ministry; we have started sharing our story with other families and try to promote foster care or adoption. So many kids are in need, even here in America; this is why we started fostering and adopting kids nobody else would otherwise want because they need a voice and someone to let them know that someone cares and loves them.
