Isiah

When I first met Isiah I was taken aback by the sadness in his eyes. He immediately went and stood at the front window to watch for his brother’s. Isiah and his little sister Sha’kala live together but their two older brothers live far away from them. They had not seen each other in over a year. It took a long time for Isiah to warm up to me; I had to play a game with his sister for a while before he would acknowledge my presence. He helped her but you could tell he thought he was “too cool” to play with us. He and I finally began talking when his sister went for her photo shoot and he got bored with waiting for his older brothers. He had a Coby Bryant jersey on so I asked him if he liked Basketball. “Yes!” His eyes lit up for the first time. He wants to be a pro ball player for the Bulls and wants to be a superstar like Michael Jordan. He also likes to play football with his friends. He doesn’t like school but likes to go to see his friends. His favorite food is cheese pizza. He likes rap music and was surprised that I knew who fifty-cent and 2-Pac were. These are his favorite rappers. He soon lost interest in me and started playing with the props around the studio. I let him play for a while. To regain his attention I went back to the basketball subject and asked if he liked Coby Bryant. “Who?” he asked. Uh-Oh….I thought I got the name wrong so I quickly said that I was trying to sound like I knew about Basketball players, but wasn’t doing a very good job. “No”, he said, “You’re doing a good job.” Here was this 10 year old boy with such an uncertain life trying to put me at ease. When I asked him what he wanted in a family he said he would like to have someone take him fishing, hunting and camping and he wanted a dad that would teach him how to swim. At this point it was time for his photo shoot. I stood around and watched the shoot; I could tell he didn’t have much confidence. When his brothers arrived he seemed a little reserved. I was surprised by his reaction, he had been so anxious to see them. When the photo shoot was over Isiah became very upset and I realized that he had just been putting on the “too cool” act for his brothers. It was a heart wrenching scene and as I left the studio I said a prayer for these four children to find a home together. ~ Dawn

 

Photos by: Oopsadaisy

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Joemarian & Corderius

JoeMarian and Corderius were late for the shoot and preparing for their TV interview so we could only observe them and was unable to take very many photos.

When they arrived (very last from Ft. Worth) they came strolling down the sidewalk in black suits. They were such gentlemen. Their foster parents had given them a little road money and Joe spent his on snacks for his siblings. They all seemed at ease and were so excited to be there.

We found out that they had not had a sibling visit in a year.  Isiah was glued to the window until we distracted him with his photoshoot. I put on a silly hat and talked him into throwing rings at me.

When their social worker talked to them about what we were doing I listened. She told them we were trying to find them a forever family. JoeMarian, who it seemed had not been listening, was saved by Corderius. “You are trying to find us a mom and dad.” “Yes- Would that be ok, JoeMarion?” He paused, “Yea, as long as we get to be together.”  I had to think about how much good we could do by getting their photos on the website and out on tour instead of the situation at hand. ~ Denice

 

 

 

           

Shakala,

Sha’kala

 Sha’kala was quiet the opposite from her brother Isiah. She went straight for the games when she arrived. Her favorite foods are cheese pizza and chicken nuggets. She likes to watch TV and Spongebob is her favorite cartoon. She had a great time playing dress up for the photo shoot and you could tell she loved the attention. She was excited when her older brothers arrived but immediately said, “yall look different”, she hadn’t seen them in over a year.

Shakala’s main concern was getting into a costume. She saw a photo on the wall of this mermaid and she had to be it. She posed happily (costume was way too big) and she smiled anyway. Then she decided to really open up and show us her wink- it was on! Once she realized we were amused the winking was pretty constant, we had to ask her to stop and smile. Then she told us about how they had run out of princess costumes at Halloween and she had dreamed of being a princess. We found things that would fit and she glowed. She is a little princess. I have to say that all four of these children were the most well behaved sibling group I had ever seen. ~ Denice