s
} sower
> ■
►
By Kristine Long
Senior Editor
It’s 5 p.m. on a Friday at the Brandts’
house.
Six-year-old Aaron sits in the living
room and watches "Popeye" while he
writes with his stencils.
In the basement family room, Cody,
Tony and Terra play Mario Brothers on
the Nintendo. Terra, a senior in high
school, talks about a date she is dread
ing that night. Tony, a high school junior,
is tired because he had basketball prac
tice at 6 that morning. Cody, a high
school freshman, concentrates on the
video game.
Upstairs, 4-year-old Alex runs
through the house exerting his abundant
energy.
In the kitchen, Bob sips a glass or
Diet Pepsi as he relaxes after a week of
work as the principal at St. Wenceslaus
grade school. Peg stands nearby, stir
ring the spaghetti noodles that are just
beginning to boil on the stove.
Then the doorbell rings.
A social worker brings two more chil
dren to the already busy house.
Ashley, 9, and Zach, 7, have come
to stay for the weekend. Their mother has
been diagnosed with AIDS, and the
Brandts have offered to adopt the chil
dren if their mother dies soon.
They are only two of the desperate
children the Brandts have taken in.
Soon after the two children arrive,
Bob announces that dinner is ready.
Terra rushes upstairs to help her mother
pour milk for the crowd.
Tony and Cody immediately turn off
the Nintendo in the middle of a game and
go upstairs. They both agree that a
Nintendo game is not as important as
supper with the family.
Just before everyone sits down tor
supper, another person, Donna, arrives.
She is an 18-year-old Boys Town gradu
ate who stays with the Brandts on week
ends and during her vacations from work.
She has no other family in the Midwest.
After Donna drags her luggage to the
basement, everyone settles at the table.
The chairs and benches surround
ing the wooden table are full. But more
chairs could have been squeezed in had
the rest of the family been there. Brenda,
a freshman in high school, is still at bas
ketball practice. Tasha, Tia and Teresa
attend St. Benedictine College. Melyssa
is in Lincoln learning to become a hair
stylist, and Stephanie is at work.
But even with those six gone, the
family is large enough.
After the food is served, the family
bows their heads and prays in unison.
Bob and Peg say their faith is what has
kept them sane with so many children
around.
“Some days I just ask, ‘Why are we
doing this?’" Peg says. But then she
reads a prayer that reminds her of their
mission.
“Lord, why did you tell us to love
all our brothers? We have tried, but we
came back to you frightened.”
“Lord, we were so peaceful at
home. We were so comfortably settled.
It was well-furnished, and we felt cozy.
We were alone. We were at peace.
Sheltered from the wind and the rain,
kept clean. We would have stayed un
sullied in our Ivory tower.”
That was how their
life was 15 years ago —
safe and sheltered.
Bob was a football
coach at Wahoo
Neumann High School.
Peg stayed at home to
care for their three young
children, Tia, Tasha and
Tony. They were com
fortable living in their
small home.
They lived a simple
life. The only aspect that
wasn’t quite perfect was
that Peg sometimes suf
fered from a bone dis
ease she had developed
in college. But she was
receiving treatment and
was doing much better
than doctors had ex
pected.
Then, slowly, their
family started growing.
A senior at Neumann
High School lived with
the Brandts for a year in
1979. Then another stu
dent did the same the
next year.
In 1983, Elizabeth, a
foreign exchange stu
dent from Venezuela
stayed with the Brandts
Another Venezuelan gir
ventured to the Brand
house the following year
After their experi
ence with the foreign ex
change students, the
Brandts considered be
ing missionaries in Ven
ezuela. But Bob and Pec
wanted their three young
children to attend school in the United
States. So they decided to do their own
missionary work from their home in Wa
hoo.
In 1987, they got their first chance.
The Brandts received a call from an
adoption agency asking them to help a
young girl in an orphanage in Korea who
had developed thyroid cancer.
Bob flew to Korea four days later.
He brought 11-year-old Terra back
to the United States to get treatment.
Terra’s mother had died of cancer, and
therefore Terra and her sister, Teresa,
were in the orphanage.
The family barely scraped together
enough money to bring the girl home. But
finances were the least of their worries.
“We’ve just honestly never worried
much about money," Bob said. "There
were times when we didn’t have money
at all."
But somehow, money always
seemed to appear — sometimes out of
nowhere.
Before Bob left for Korea, a friend
stopped by his office and offered to give
him money for the trip. Other money
seemed to miraculously appear. Anony
mous donors left cash on Bob’s bus seat
and in the Brandts’ bank account. With
the money taken care of, the Brandts
concentrated on Terra’s health.
Terra’s treatment worked, and the
Brandts adopted her. Soon after, Teresa
flew to Wahoo to join the family.
That was just the beginning of the
Brandts' mission of helping desperate
children. Their prayer reminds them that
many children need a family.
“But, Lord, you have discovered a
breach in our defenses. You have
forced us to open our door. Like a
squall of rain in the face, the cry of chil
dren has awakened us; like a gale of
wind, a friendship has shaken us;
stealing in like a shaft of light, your
grace has disturbed us.
“As soon as we started to open the
door we saw them... with outstretched
hands, anxious eyes, longing hearts
... like beggars on church steps.”
The prayer was becoming reality.
The Brandt family added three more chil
dren to the clan in 1988 and 1989: Aaron,
a 1-year-old black toddler whose mother
needed relief from child rearing; Cody,
an 11 -year-old Korean boy who had lived
in five previous homes before the
Brandts’ home; and Alex, a 2-month-old
baby who had been addicted to cocaine
since birth.
“Now they have come from all over
in successive waves ... pushing one
another, jostling one another. They
have come from all over town, from all
parts of the country, of the world ...
numberless, inexhaustible. They don’t
come alone any longer but in groups,
bound to another. They come bend
ing under heavy loads ... loads of In
justice, of resentment and hate, of suf
fering and sin. They drag the world
behind them, with everything rusted,
twisted, badly adjusted.”
The children were indeed badly ad
justed. Aaron needed secure role mod
els, Cody had been abused in three of
the previous homes in which he had
lived, and Alex was the seventh child of
a 24-year-old cocaine addict.
These children all found refuge with
the Brandts. But it wasn’t easy.
Because the Brandts had just added
three children to their already large fam
ily, money was becoming scarce. They
barely scraped together enough money
to fly Alex to Nebraska from New Jersey.
Bob, who keeps his humor in any
situation, said, "I called my banker and
said, ‘I need some money to buy a kid.”'
Eight children were beginning to
crowd the Brandts’ three-bedroom
house.
But the Brandts did what they could
with what they had. They added another
bedroom, and Alex and Aaron slept in
cribs in the dining room
But an accident t
seemed devastating at
time turned out to help
family financially i
proved that they could i
vive anything God ham
them.
It was a snowy ever
shortly after Christma:
1989. Peg, accompanie<
five of the children, \
forced off the road by an
patient driver. Their van
and then crashed into a
The children esca
bruises and minor injuri
not so fortunate. Her e'
injured. She already ha
caused by a birth de
Photo* by Tr»»l* Hoylng