Daniel Giles/TimesDaily
Haylee Cain with her new family, Judson Emens, his daughter, Nadia, and wife, Donna.
Posted on 08/09/2010 4:43:11 PM PDT by St. Louis Conservative
If Haylee Cain were telling you her life's story, it would begin Thursday.
The 21-year-old said she would always remember it as the day she moved out of the nursing home and into the lives of Donna and Judson Emens, of Tuscumbia.
"I'm just so excited," she said. "I said I wouldn't cry, but I might."
Because she suffers from cerebral palsy and because her grandfather, James Thomas, was no longer able to care for her, Haylee was forced to live in a nursing home. No state agency exists to care for individuals such as Haylee who suffer from physical, rather than intellectual, disabilities and who are 21 or older.
The Emenses read about Haylee's plight in the TimesDaily earlier this month.
"Judson brought the paper to me, and he showed me the photo but he covered up her name," Donna Emens said. "I knew right away it was Haylee. I couldn't believe there she was and that she was living in a nursing home. Something had to be done."
Donna and her husband had developed a close relationship with Haylee 17 years ago, when Haylee was 5 and enrolled in the Colbert County Head Start program.
"I would bring her home with me after school sometimes, and she'd sometimes spend the weekends with us," Donna said.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesdaily.com ...
Bless those people. Takes a lot of nads to take on such a responsibility. Great people.
Love happy endings. Wish them all the luck and prayers for the entire family
There are some truly incredible people in the world. Donna and Judson Emens are two of them.
We might call it ‘a responsibility’ these precious folks take on, but I would bet they perceive it as a blessing they may be engulfed with.
I'm here to care for those [that] no one else wanted ...I could have sworn I was hearing Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta ...
They will reap neverending rewards for this act of kindness.
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
Go God!
Be it people or animals, the ones abandoned by others, who have no hope anymore, to watch them blossom and reach potentials and happiness, and the joy they give you just by being themselves, it is an honor to take of little ones like these.
What is very cool about adoption that most people don’t really think about, is that all of us Christians are adopted into God’s family. We’re all adopted by God. Those that adopt kids that aren’t biologically theirs are actually even more ‘closer’ to how God adopts us.
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