arriving
at their
castle
She could not care less about her future. Dedication seemed pointless. By second grade, school dropped to the bottom of her priorities, and when she did manage to go to school, she would get in trouble. When she came home, the door to her life of turmoil swung open. All she had was a grandmother who could barely provide for her and a grandfather who seemed to only occasionally care about the girl’s whereabouts. Sometimes she wondered if food would be on the table when she got home. Although her life was rough, she knew her brother’s was worse. As a photo by jeff back baby, he was left to himself in his crib for majority of the day, neglected even more than she was. To this day, she does not know why her parents favored her. Fortunately, change soon came for East senior Anita Smalley and her brother Joshua Robert (JR). For once, she felt like a regular girl. More than that—she would feel like “a princess.” “I was in an unstable family,” says Anita. “I wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for this experience. I might not even be a senior.” The sister and brother were adopted at seven years old, and two years old respectively. The couple who would eventually become their parents, Travis and Robin Smalley, Anita and JR’s uncle and aunt, had started out wanting to become involved in foster care. “We were unable to have children. We went into foster care and then we started [foster] training and all that kind of stuff. After that training, an opportunity came to us to adopt through private adoption,” says Robin, who runs the English as a Second Language program at the Lakota Hills Baptist Church where her husband is a pastor. “We took that opportunity, and that’s how we got Anita and JR.” Travis believes that as a pastor, he is fulfilling a higher deed to God in adopting and caring for Anita and JR. “The Bible says that one of the things you do to show your true religion is to take care of the orphans and widows. To take care of the
by Irfan IBrahim
fatherless. To model the love the God has shown us,” says Travis. “The Bible says that when somebody comes to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, He adopts them into His family. And we’re called children of God. I don’t even think of Anita and JR as adopted, they’re just my kids. I guess that’s where willing to be an adoptive parent came from.” As Travis and Robin endured the adoption process, the couple came across several difficulties including and a birth mother who changed her mind regarding giving consent for adoption. “Our first lawyer was not very good. We did everything. [On our final court date], the one when we were going to adopt JR, the birth mother had said no,” says Robin. “We still left with JR, we still had JR, but we just had custody again. He was not ours, adopted, or anything. We found a new lawyer, and Anita was available, and so we actually adopted them at the same time.” The intervention of biological parents at the conclusion of the adoption process is not uncommon. Focus on Youth, an adoption and foster care agency, founder Cindy Skinner says that court cases do not always play out smoothly. “It’s called legal risk adoption because the children haven’t been permanently committed yet. There hasn’t been a legal termination of parental rights,” says Skinner, who founded Focus on Youth from her basement and now has an established location in West Chester Township. While the Smalleys faced many changes of heart and mind from the biological parents, the support they found from friends at the church never faltered. Travis recalls how the congregation would comfort and support them when they went through the court cases and adoption training. Throughout the adoption process, the congregation ensured that Anita and JR would come home to a safe, loving and religious environment. “The church just walked with us through that [chaotic adoption]. You have to have home studies, and the whole court process, and you The Smalleys sit and discuss the hardships they faced during the adoption proceedures.
31 | Spark | lehsspark.org