MODERN FAMILY
ALL IN THE FAMILY AN OKLAHOMA RANCH CULTIVATES CONNECTION FOR FOSTER FAMILIES
BY N AO MI S C H A E F E R R I L E Y
D
There are also a basketball court and a soccer field, a playground and a esie’s eyes grow wide as she peruses the menu at Cattlemen’s pool complex, a pond where the kids can fish, and a barn with 17 horses Steakhouse, a popular destination for tourists and cowboys for equestrian therapy. near Oklahoma City. The eight-year-old girl doesn’t get to go out for Now the Terrys’ oldest son is 18 and just finished high school. But they dinner often — with nine other children in her family, it’s logistically haven’t stopped growing their family. Since they moved to the ranch, and financially challenging. But she’s anything but intimidated by the they’ve adopted another five brothers and sisters, and they’re fostering range of options. another boy. Dinner at Cattlemen’s with 10 kids is more serene than you Desie first came to stay with Ashlee and Matt Terry when she was might expect, even after we had to wait an hour for a table. They repay eight days old, as a “Home for the Holidays” emergency placement. the setback with kindness, asking polite questions and making conversaChild services brought her right after Thanksgiving in 2012, while they tion. For Desie, the patience pays off. “I’m going to start with the shrimp figured out what to do with her. Instead, she never left. She was the cocktail,” she announces. Terrys’ fourth foster child. Their first came in 2011 — sisters Evie and Piper — followed by their biological sister Bella a few months later. By 2014, with four daughters, three bedrooms and only one shower, they decided they didn’t have the space for more. “I said that P E P P E RS RANC H opened in 2002 as a home for MORE THAN 70 PERCENT OF when God provided more bathrooms, we would reabused and neglected boys, on 160 acres of donated SIBLINGS IN open our home,” Ashlee says. land. After a few years, things seemed to be going FOSTER CARE ARE God seemed to answer that prayer when the OK for the boys, but their sisters were just being SEPARATED. Terrys were offered a spot at Peppers Ranch, a dropped off at a local shelter. More than 70 perONE REASON: IT’S foster community in Guthrie, about 30 minutes cent of siblings in foster care are separated, even HARD TO FIND FAMILIES THAT HAVE from Oklahoma City. The ranch harnesses an though keeping them together generally reduces THE CAPACITY TO old- fashioned understanding of family, neighbehavioral problems and increases the chances TAKE IN GROUPS OF borhood and community to solve the problems both will adapt to their foster homes and perform SIBLINGS. of a new generation of displaced children. There better academically. One reason: It’s hard to find they could live in a newly built house, paying only families that have the capacity to take in groups of a couple hundred dollars in rent and receiving a siblings. So Peppers Ranch decided to try somesmall stipend in addition to what the state offered thing different. for foster care, if they were willing to open their home to at least five Starting in 2009, the community adopted a family model, offering foster children. homes to couples who were licensed to do foster care. Today, there are So in 2015, the Terrys moved to a community set amid farmlands 16 homes on the property (with plans for more), all larger than 3,000 at the end of a dirt road that’s prone to flooding. The landscape feels square feet. The typical unit has four bedrooms, a large living area and sparse; each family has a backyard equipped with all the trampolines an industrial-size kitchen and pantry. The newer ones even have hookand play structures you would find in a typical suburban neighborhood. ups for two washers and dryers as well as larger garages for parking
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DESERET MAGAZINE
