by Amy D Hernandez (USA, blogger, mum of three)
I was not sure what to expect when I first interviewed Shannon Pinkerton, but I knew I was in for an epic conversation about adoption, Down syndrome, and what it means to be a family.
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non’s childhood, this is what they have always known, and hannon (49) and Troy (53) Pinkerton are raising six they are glad to help out. Shannon and Troy have adopted young men with a learning disability on adopted six young men: Joey, Tracee, Anthony, Julian and forty acres in Wyoming, U.S.A. Five of them have his brother Cameron, and Devlin. Marybeth also lives with Down syndrome, and one has dwarfism and other the family. special needs. They also look after Marybeth, 63, who has When Shannon was four, her parents took in MaDown syndrome. rybeth, then eighteen. Marybeth is now sixty-three and I interviewed Shannon over two phone calls. The has lived with Shannon’s own family for the past nineteen second call occurred during a bout with a stomach bug. years. Shannon describes Marybeth as “the princess” of All of us know the misery that brings to a household, so I the house who lets everyone know that she is the boss. thanked her profusely for even picking up the phone! Such All the Pinkerton children were fourteen or older is life when you have so many responsibilities. There is just when they were adopted and a few came from challenging no time to be sick. circumstances. From the time she was very Joey is twenty-one. “He was young, Shannon grew up around from a young age, Shannon the first and youngest to be adopted people with disabilities as her mother was running a group home. knew she wanted to have at age ten. Cody, one of our biological sons, then aged nine years old, was Maybe that is why from a young her own child with Down actually the one who discovered him. age, Shannon knew she wanted syndrome Cody had a friend with Down synto have her own child with Down drome and now wanted a brother with syndrome later in life and was not Down syndrome, so he took it upon himself to find one! deterred by those who said she was crazy for feeling this Joey is the character of the house, always playing jokes on way. everyone! He is a great lover of Sponge Bod and Captain Troy and Shannon knew each other from school and America. He is also our lazy guy and spends more effort on lived just up the road from one another. When they were getting out of a chore than it would take to complete it!” first married, they worked in a men’s group home together. says Shannon. Shannon, never forgetting her childhood wish, started Tracee, 24, was next to be adopted when he was sixlooking into fostering and adoption, and Troy agreed to teen . Tracee had been living in an institution where he was jump in with both feet. Moving to Wyoming from Southern California almost chained to a table! Tracee is non-verbal and is autistic but twenty years ago gave the Pinkertons the space they would now gets his point across through gestures and dancing, which he loves! He also needs his beads at all times! need for their large family. They have now fostered over Anthony, 22, was lucky to have a loving foster family thirty children, most of whom have been reunited with their when the Pinkertons discovered him at the age of fifteen. families. He has many nicknames: “Mr Clean” and “Hall Monitor” beThe Pinkertons have two biological sons and two ing two of them because he loves things clean and orderly. biological daughters, all of whom are now adults and live nearby. Their biological children are helpful and give their parents respite, though it is mostly a case of big siblings taking an interest in their younger siblings. As with Shan-
The Pinkertons: Just an Extraordinary Family Marybeth, Anthony, Joey, Cameron, Julian and Tracee 4
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