Dad Adopts Four Kids, Gives Them Childhood He Never Had | Humankind

I was the youngest of 10 kids one of the memories was our biological father holding a gun to our head and saying which kid do you want to shoot first and they would laugh so the abuse was bad it was bad not only physical but sexual abuse and then my parents died when I was 10 to me it was the greatest gift I thought I could ever have little did I know that going into care it was probably just as bad when it came to the mental abuse having all your belongings in a trash can going to a home that you knew that you weren't loved or really probably wanted and then when I became 18 I was a senior in high school and I became homeless the statistics were I should have been a drug addict and should have dropped out of high school and but I just knew my life was gonna be something different so I joined the military I didn't join the military because I loved my country I was going in it because I was hungry I was cold I was scared and I had nowhere to go I made something to myself I got out I started working in an office but I really never told many people about my story and then I met Reese we had a beautiful home and an amazing relationship but I wanted to be a dad if you were gay it was two things that you knew wasn't gonna happen you weren't gonna be a parent and you weren't gonna get married well we were seeing on the horizon marriage was happening and we decided that we were gonna adopt overseas and Reese looked at me and said now explain to me again why we're not adopting locally in foster care when we do this he said do you really I realize how many kids you're doing a disservice to by not telling your story so we decided that we would take any child under the age of five and so we put our application in and we waited we got a phone call saying that we have a brother and sister they were troubled and they said the boy he's a biter you sure you got to make sure you want this one you [Music] I'll Ford them arrived in our haunted trash bags I was absolutely shocked that after all of these years since I had been in the system carrying a trash bag these kids were carrying a trash bag what are we not doing to change this we then started working on being a family of six and we filed adoption for all four kids and we went in for the fight and it was a fight we went to trial we were told we were unfit because we were gay we were told we were gonna turn the boys gay we were told that our house and our home was not fit because we were gay the one thing that we did know is that they needed a love they needed to feel safe they needed to feel wanted I know I needed to feel wanted we're gonna have to talk about it now I didn't realize I needed to feel wanted we talked about what it's like having two white dads and they don't really care what the color of our skin is I can't tell them what it's like to be black I can't tell them what it's like to be gay even I'm I'm gay and I don't know how to explain that also I can tell them is how to be a good person how to love how to respect each other to me that's what's important I came outside and we found out that makai had severe alcohol fetal syndrome it was daily that Reese was having to go to school because of Makai and finally one day he was reading a book and it said that if you raise a child with alcohol fetal around water and animals that it could help their frontal lobe and the next thing you know we bought a farm three years ago we came into this home and Makai was just getting by now Makai is so different Makai is a chicken whisperer and he always normally has a chicken under his arm and my husband only walks to the bus stop for him to get on the bus and he stays all day at school and my husband doesn't have to go to the school any longer and sit with him see I'm really hoping that one day someone is gonna look at me and say you know what Rob we're gonna ban trash bags from ever being given to a child in foster care so we decided that we were gonna put some cases together and we were gonna give some local foster children a case then they'll take their blanket they'll put the blanket in the case I felt like everyone had given up on me my country had given up on me my community they've given up on me but I want kids in foster care to know that that's not true that we do care about them we do love them [Music]

Channel: USA TODAY

Views: 9,466,840

Rating: 4.8856964 out of 5

Keywords: 5319032358001, UPWORTHY, vpc, vpchumankind, humankind, humankind usa today, humankind stories, acts of kindness, random acts of kindness, adoption, adoption story, inspiration nation, kindness, good people, humankind relationships, people are awesome, incredible acts of kindness, inspirational, good deed, incredible, dad, dads, inspirationnation, real life heroes, real heroes, emotional, parents, foster care, foster kid, foster kids

Id: d9QoK8L1YWo

Length: 5min 33sec (333 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 10 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/IwillNoComply]

what a magnificent human being.

[u/ivanesg]

This man is one of a kind. With all the abusive childhood, parents separation, and etc he was able to live through life and show others how to be a loving human being. We really need more people like him!

[u/krayzeek]

Wow this is really heartwarming.. I honestly nearly shed a tear when he started to cry. This man is truly one of a kind and I wish the best to him, his husband and his children.

[u/liketo]

His next video/feature:

Makai: Chicken Whisperer

[u/elarobot]

Astonishing that the guy who takes 4 kids into his home to raise...then wants to adopt...then changes his whole life around and buys a farm to help one of his adoptive son's pre-existing conditions in any way he can, and THEN starts an initiate to give even more foster kids a helping hand with his "comfort cases"...and yet this is the person society decided ahead of time was bad for these kids simply because of who he chooses to love. I can't even imagine the imbeciles that used this rationale, or the disgusting and unchecked audacity to say something like that to his face. And yet, when confronted head on with unfounded bigotry, this person continued to only do good - to try to put love out into the world and still fought to help children in need.

[u/willie1707]

I live in Alabama and work with a gay guy that has an adopted child. This dude is one of the most kind people I have ever met, and he and his husband care so much about their child. Of course being in Alabama, I have heard co workers say some super harsh stuff about him and it always hurts my feelings.

[u/spekkke]

"I know they needed...to feel wanted"

"I know that I needed to feel wanted"

hooo boy. shit that one hit me right in my water faucets

[u/[deleted]]

[removed]

[u/RecklessNotNegligent]

These kids hit the fucking jackpot