sower
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A
O
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Clockwise from top left: Four
year-old Alex gets some ex
tra help from his dad during a
game of basketball, (from left)
Aaron, Brenda, Bob, Donna,
and Cody debate over how to
arange the growing number of
candles on their dad’s birth
day cake. Cody and his
mother Peg leave through the
back exit of their Wahoo
Church after a Sunday service.
Tony and Aaron keep their
concentration on the televi
sion despite their sister Terra's
struggle to ward of another sib
ling . Aaron and his sister Terra
find that It takes some effort
from both of them to inflate a
oversized bubble.
jy had been abused in three of
vious homes in which he had
id Alex was the seventh child of
ar-old cocaine addict,
se children all found refuge with
ndts. But it wasn’t easy.
:ause the Brandts had just added
lildren to their already large fam
ley was becoming scarce. They
jcraped together enough money
ex to Nebraska from New Jersey.
), who keeps his humor in any
n, said, "I called my banker and
need some money to buy a kid."’
ht children were beginning to
the Brandts’ three-bedroom
the Brandts did what they could
lat they had. They added another
m, and Alex and Aaron slept in
cribs in the dining room.
But an accident that
seemed devastating at the
time turned out to help the
family financially and
proved that they could sur
vive anything God handed
them.
It was a snowy evening
shortly after Christmas in
1989. Peg, accompanied by
five of the children, was
forced off the road by an im
patient driver. Their van slid into a ditch
and then crashed into a row of trees.
The children escaped with a few
bruises and minor injuries, but Peg was
not so fortunate. Her eye was severely
injured. She already had one weak eye
caused by a birth defect. But in the
acident she injured her good eye. The
family feared she would be blind.
Peg was laid up for weeks, and Bob
tried to balance his job with raising eight
children, including an infant overcoming
a cocaine addiction.
Photos by Trosls Heying
“Lord, they hurt us! They are in the
way. They are all over. They are hun
gry; they are consuming us! We can’t
do anything anymore! As they come
in, they push the door and the door
opens wider. Lord! Our door is wide
open.
“We can’t stand it anymore! It’s
too much! It’s no kind of life for us!”
That was when another social
worker called and asked the Brandts to
take in 17-year-old Melyssa. She was in
a psychiatric hospital and was severely
depressed, almost suicidal.
“You don’t know what we have been
through," Bob told the caseworker.
But Melyssa had been through a lot,
too. So Bob and Peg decided to meet
the young girl.
After meeting her, the answer be
came clear.
“If the good Lord asked us to do it
right now, then it must be the right thing,"
Bob said. “He’ll take care of us."
So they welcomed Melyssa to their
family.
Peg is now legally blind, but her eye
sight did improve. And with some of the
insurance money, the family was able
to purchase a roomier house and a
swimming pool, basketball hoops and
a pool table to keep the children enter
tained. *
"We’ve always got to put money into
things that keep the kids around the
house," Bob said.
Family is high priority for the
Brandts. The children aren’t bothered by
a night at the movie with their parents,
or by spending a Friday evening at a
church service with the family.
The children aren't always angels.
They sometimes miss curfew, swing pool
sticks at each other or call each other
“butthead."
But overall, their lives are better than
they would have been without the
Brandts.
Stephanie, one of four birthmothers
who has stayed with the Brandts, agrees
that her life has changed for the better
since living with the Brandts.
Stephanie stayed with the Brandts
from April to December 1993 to get her
life back on track during her pregnacy.
During her stay at the Brandts, she
worked and saved more than $3,000 to
go back to college.
“If I wasn’t here, I would just sit around
and feel sorry for myself," she said.
• A
un uec. id, biepnanie gave Dirui 10
a healthy baby girl, Sophia Marie. After
being dismissed from the hospital,
Stephanie brought Sophia back to the
Brandts’ house and handed the baby to
her adoptive parents, who happen to be
friends of the Brandts.
Bob and Peg say they have gained
more than they have given by caring for
desperate children.
“The rewards are overwhelming,” Peg
said.
When times get tough and the job
doesn’t seem so rewarding, Peg concen
trates on the last line of their prayer.
“Don’t worry, God replied. You
have gained all. While children came
to you, I, your Father ... I, your God,
slipped in among them.”
P
