Local couple transforming lives through love

This is the first in a two-part series recounting a local couple’s journey through the Foster Care program, their adoption of 10 children and their challenges and successes along the way. Look for Part 2 in the Sept. 22 edition of the Weiser Signal American.

by Philip A. Janquart
 The world can, and often is, filled with pain and difficulties.
 There are, however, some who are able to convert their struggles into hope for others, transforming their own lives and the lives of people who might not otherwise have a chance at happiness.
Maybe the sentiment is a little heavy, but how else could you describe two people who have adopted multiple children, lifting them out of impossible circumstances and offering them stability, structure and love?
 Sean and Courtney Thompson are two such people.
 Sean graduated from Fruitland High School in 1993, Courtney graduating from Weiser High School that same year.
 The couple married in 1996. Their dream was to raise a family, but were not successful in having children.
 Sean joined the U.S. Air Force following high school, the two living in Colorado Springs, Colo. when Courtney spoke with a social worker who suggested they consider getting involved in the Foster Care program.
 That was in 2000.
 “Sean spent a year in Korea, so when he got back, we started the process,” Courtney explained. “It was a lot of work: you had to do a home study, go through training and after about nine months, we got licensed. They told us it could take up to three months before we got our placement, but it happened in a matter of days.”
 That was the start and, for the Thompsons, there was no looking back.
Their first placement was a five-day-old newborn addicted to methamphetamine. Children born to meth addicts commonly suffer from premature birth, low birth weight, birth defects and sleep, sometimes 23 hours per day and must be woken for feedings, according to adoption.com.
 That was the case with the Thompson’s first placement. The birth parents, however, rigorously fought to change their lives and, unlike many, were ultimately able to reunify their family.
 Only 10 days later, however, the Thompsons received their second placement, 13-month-old Marilla, who weighed a scant 13 pounds and showed up to daycare with a broken leg, and her biological brother, Kincade, who was only three-weeks-old.

“When the social worker brought Marilla in, she was just full of snot, smeared everywhere,” Courtney said. “This was in December and her jammies were very thin, like a summer-type pajamas, and she was wearing a windbreaker that was a size 2-T. She was this tiny little thing and that’s how she came to us.”
 Once Kincade arrived, the Thompsons quickly discovered that he had also been severely neglected.
 “That first night, he slept all the way through. I was expecting him to wake up to be fed, but he was used to not being fed,” Courtney explained. “He was pretty thin; he was so thin, his little cheek muscles were sticking out and it looked like he had little walnuts in his mouth because he had no baby fat.”
 In high school, Kincade was finally diagnosed with a high functioning form of Autism.
 Courtney quit her job in order to care for both babies.
 “We had about 11 appointments a week,” she said. “There was physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, so many specialists we had to see because our children were so neglected and underweight.”
 Marilla also underwent attachment therapy.
 “Attachment is that bond between mother and child, and that was so disrupted due to neglect, bad parenting, just different things,” Courtney said. “I went back to my boss at that time, and I was explaining everything, and she said that maybe I shouldn’t sign up for the long haul on this, but I said, ‘Well, she’s already my kid.’ The moment she came into my house, she was my daughter.
 “Not only that, but when you have your own biological children, you are never guaranteed their physical, mental and emotional health.”
 Marilla, now 21, lives in Nampa with her boyfriend and has a baby of her own, which makes Sean and Courtney, both 46, grandparents.
 “Lucas was born last May and he is happy and healthy,” Courtney said.
 Now 20, Kincade lives in Tennessee.
 When he and Marilla were still nine and 10, respectively, the Thompsons got the surprise of their lives.
 “We were happy, thinking that we have two kids and that’s our life,” said Courtney, the family now living in Weiser. “We thought, we’ll be early empty nesters and go on, but I had gone to the doctor because I wasn’t feeling well and the doctor asked me if I might be pregnant and I said no, but she wanted to do a test, anyway.
 “I was in the car, driving away, when I got a call and she told me I tested positive; I was confused and asked her, ‘for what!?’ and she said, ‘Courtney, your pregnant!’ I just happened to see Sean’s truck outside a work location and called him, asking him to come outside for a minute.”
 “I was, like, ‘Huh?’” said Sean, who is the Weiser School District IT Director. “Did I hear you right?”
 Fynn, who the Thompsons consider a miracle baby, was born, the family overjoyed that they were now five strong.
 “He’s 11 now,” Courtney said of Fynn. “He is just so funny and has enjoyed being the little brother, and everyone just doted on him, and he is very, very close to Sean’s mom.”
 By this time, Courtney had landed a job with the Weiser School District and over the course of time, got to know many of the students and their back stories, which led to more placements and adoptions.