Curtis family adopts five children at once

By CHARLES W. JOHNSON / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

The Curtis family now has six children, all adopted. Pictured front row, from left, are Zenia, 7, Carmen, 10 and Shelby, 4. Second row, Daniel Ray, 3 and mom MariAnn. At back, Andrew, 11, dad Daniel and Johnny, 8. (Charles W. Johnson photo)

Going from one to six children almost overnight might be a daunting thought for most parents, but not for Daniel and MariAnn Curtis. This big-hearted couple, who had already adopted one child, felt a family of five Hispanic children shouldn’t be separated and decided to take all five into their home.

The decision wasn’t a sudden one. It was the culmination of several related events that lead to this life-changing move.

“We adopted our first son,” said MariAnn referring to her oldest son, Andrew, who is actually her second cousin. “And a couple of years later, he wanted some siblings, and we felt it would be best if we adopted again.”

The couple considered Andrew’s feelings when they made the decision to adopt again, rather than have a child of their own.

“We didn’t want him to feel different,” MariAnn said, “to feel if we had our own child that we loved it more. I didn’t ever want to think that there was a difference, so we adopted.”

While their goal was adoption, the original plan didn’t include taking on five extra children.

“In the program, we were about midway through, we found out that there was a sibling group,” MariAnn said. “We didn’t expect to get five children,” she added with a laugh. “I should say that.”

“That wasn’t part of the plan,” husband Daniel agreed.

The couple found out about the children when the case manager who was teaching the Parents as Tender Healers (PATH) class the Curtises were taking used them as an example of siblings who had been separated, since they were split up between two families at the time.

“And, I don’t know, as soon as they were giving this example, I just felt like those were the kids we needed to try to get,” she said.

Reaction among friends and fellow foster parents was understandably mixed at first.

“I think the people we went to class with thought I was joking at first,” MariAnn said. “But, after the class of course, Daniel and I talked and I told him that I really wasn’t playing, that I really wanted to check into that particular sibling group,” MariAnn recalls.

The next week they talked to the case manager who was giving the classes and told her they were serious about taking the siblings and she made it possible for the couple to get the children.

MariAnn says their focus was to try to keep the siblings together. She noted the oldest girl, Carmen, who was 9 at the time, had been the mother figure for the group.

The children, who range from 3 to 10, are well adjusted considering their ordeal. The Curtises said that many children move in and out of the system for years in some cases before being adopted.

Their reasons for taking on what many would consider a monumental responsibility are pretty straightforward.

“Why did I do it? These children needed a home,” MariAnn said simply.

“If you want to make a difference in the world,” Daniel said, “you can make an amazing difference in a child’s life and affect the whole rest of their life by taking them in. There are a lot of things you can do to make a difference, but if you really want to make a difference in this world, then help a needy child.”

Though great strides have been made in foster care, much still needs to be done. According to Jennifer Fuqua, coordinator and monitor for Warren County Foster Care Association, and a foster parent herself, there are currently 125 children in the county eligible for foster care and only 11 families qualified as foster families.

Statewide there are 125,000 children in the system.

Fuqua says there is a new law that will make major changes to the way things were handled in the past.

For more information on adopting a child, contact the Department of Children’s Services at 931-473-1524 or 931-473-2472.