76-07-A2
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Special Parents; Special Kids[edit]
Transcript[edit]Remember a few television seasons ago when the educational network carried a series called "An American Family"? Like a fly on the wall, the camera week after week showed us what had seemed to be a happy and typical suburban family simply disintegrating. There was a lot of commentary in the news media about that series. Was the family, as a unit, going to be obsolete, extinct? I'm not sure the final answer is in, but there are a lot of reasons to believe that Americans are beginning to reaffirm the importance that the family unit plays in shaping our values and our potential for happiness. I'd like to tell you about two people and their family who are living proof that family values can work wonders. They are Bob and Dorothy De Bolt of Piedmont, California, and their family consists of 19 -- that's right, I said 19 young people, ranging from elementary school age to adulthood. Now, you may be thinking, the size of the De Bolt family may be remarkable enough, but size isn't the only thing remarkable about it. You see, between them Dorothy and Bob have six biological children but 13 of the De Bolt offspring were adopted. And, everyone of them had some kind of handicap or other. Some had several. But, they are overcoming them to lead happy lives. Young Karen, a black girl with enough energy for 10, was born without arms or legs. Today, she gets around in devil-may-care fashion with artificial ones. Wendy had lost her eyesight. Today she has it back. Young J. R., blind and crippled, was said by experts to be doomed to a wheelchair. Today, he's zipping around the house and back-and-forth to school on crutches. Tich and Anh two Vietnamese boys made paraplegics by stray shells in the war, are now very self-sufficient young men. As proof, they took on the paper route most of the other newspaper carriers turned down: the one that consisted almost entirely of going up and down apartment house stairs! Crutches and all, they turned the paper route into a model of split-second timing and efficiency. The stories go on and on about the De Bolt kids. They are among that group of tens of thousands of youngsters who were once thought "unadaptable" because they had handicaps: physical, emotional, mental, birth defects. The De Bolts, together with a growing group of other parents who have also adopted Special Kids (as they're called) now have a foundation which helps bring prospective adoptive parents together with such youngsters. It is called AASK -- Aid to Adoption of Special Kids. Recently, Nancy and I had an opportunity to meet the De Bolts. They are a warm, unaffected and very happy couple. And, after you hear their own family's story, and learn about the other families who are adopting such wonderful youngsters, you have a renewed faith in mankind in general, and Americans and their families in particular. Now, the De Bolt's story is in print in a new book by Joseph P. Blank titled 19 Steps Up The Mountain. It's named after the staircase in the De Bolt's home. The physically handicapped De Bolt children have made climbing that staircase the test of success for mastering their arms and legs. And, one by one, they are all making it up that "mountain" to the top. You'll like reading 19 Steps Up The Mountain. I recommend it.. if you're prepared to be happy. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for Listening. |
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