The father of a large brood writes of his life and the love for his family, which is mostly made up of adopted kids who have special needs.
William Joseph Sandusky is my name, and you have probably met my wife, Louisiana, and some of our children through their writings. You have also probably met my father-in-law and his wife.
Well, I am the husband and father to this crazy brood that I affectionatly call "my family", and they have really made my life interesting! I have been married to my wife, Louisiana, for nearly 12 years now, and we have 50 beautiful children to raise. Now, we DID have three children of our own, but all died, two while still babies; and we still miss them very much even now. Our three deceased children were named Pierre Armand, L'Acadia Marie-Antoinette (the only girl), and Aron Jakob, and they all died unexpectedly. Pierre died of SIDS when he was just six days old, and the other two died of meningitis. One (the girl) died at the age of 16 days in the NICU nursery, and the other (Aron, the oldest boy; he was born first) died on the day he was to have been four years old. He died right on his fourth birthday. Instead of celebrating his birthday with ice cream, presents, and cake, we were saying goodbye and were then looking for a funeral home to make arrangements for the burial of our little son.
Of course, as you can very well imagine, we were both utterly devastated over the loss of our children; but then God gave us the opportunity to persue adoption; and we haven't stopped since. We adopted children people often considered to be "unadoptable" (children older than the age of two, children of different racial or ethnic backgrounds, or children with significant special physical or mental needs, some with both). We started with two (a boy named Johnny and a girl named Ronee'; she came a week after Johnny did), and then went from two to 11, and so on and so forth. Now our family numbers over 30 children. In fact, we now have a grand total of 50, with four being away from home. That is correct: 50 children, children of all ages and sizes, and children of all colors and nationalities. Brown ones, tan ones, yellow, red, pink, and every shade in between. The whole spectrum.
It has gotten to the point to where we can't imagine our family without ANY of the children. Each child has since left an indelible mark on our hearts that will never go away, and they are each a Blessing from God. If it were not for God, we wouldn't have a Johnathon, a Ronee', a Gemini, a Porter, a Jodie, or even a Michael. God brought us these dear, precious Miracles into our hearts and home, and we are indeed grateful. He knew we had wanted a family after the deaths of our three biological children, and he has blessed us in more ways than we can ever imagine!
I am Native American Indian (Alonquin and Cherokee on my mother's side, and Mohawk on my father's), and I have the dark, reddish skin, black hair, and the dark eyes of a lot of the Native American people; and I happen to be extremely tall: 6' 9 1/2", to be exact. I am the third youngest of NINE, all boys, in my family, and I was born on November 25, 1967, in Henderson, North Carolina. My brothers are named: Jamieson ("Jimmy"), Carl, Douglas (my twin; he and I look just alike), Marvin, John, Wayne, Daniel, and Charles. (All of the boys, and even our Mom and Dad, are still alive, I am happy to say, and all but Jimmy are married with families of their own.)
Most of my brothers live in either Tennessee or Louisiana, but Jimmy or Carl do not. Jimmy still lives back home in North Carolina with Mom and Dad, and Carl lives in Utah.
I used to be quite the athlete, but then in high school, I blew out my knees, and now I am quite disabled. I also was a champion clog dancer, and won awards for my dancing; but then my knees got really bad, and I had to give up my dancing; and now my dancing days, regrettably, are over. I walk on forearm crutches, and I also have back problems (osteoarthritis and sciatica; I have had two back surgeries; but they proved to be only mildly successful; I still have the pain in my lower spine and down both my legs). In addition, I also have allergies and asthma, and I also have high blood pressure. Both the asthma and high blood pressure are controlled by medications. So I am not that healthy, and I get disability each month (but not as much as I used to). I was unemployed, but two years ago last month, I was hired in at Wal*Mart to be a greeter, and I have been there since. I love my job very much, and I love meeting new people. I find my job very satisfying, and it is better to be working than sitting at home, twiddling my thumbs and waiting for my monthly disability check. (I usually use just my crutches, but if I have to do a lot of getting around, I use my electric scooter or a wheelchair; anything to make getting around easier for me.)
I have many varied interests: reading, being with my family and my friends, working (I work 5 days a week, am off on Sundays and Fridays), going to church (I was raised nondenominational/Assembly of God/Pentecostal; I got saved when I was just 10 years old), playing with my kids (if I am not in TOO much pain, that is!), going to country music shows, traveling, playing the guitar or singing, and writing on the computer. My wife, who is a nurse at a local hospital, is just as busy as me (if not, more so), and now she is busily engaging in writing a book about our International Family (tentative title: "A Family Made of Rainbows and Miracles"). And that is between working AND raising our large brood!
That is my story. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!
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