Thankful for life's blessings

It's been a bad year for many Midlanders. Money's tight. Jobs are scarce. Wars are raging. But for some, the past few months haven't been all worry and heartache. Some have celebrated life-changing events — things as small as new jobs or as big as new families. There is much to be thankful for today.

***

Mitzi McCoy ached for children so badly, only drugs dulled the want.

Homeless, addicted and lost, she remembers sleeping on a friend's porch on winter nights six years ago. She and her husband, Brian, had tried hard to have children, failing each time because of a physical condition of Mitzi's. The failure led to depression. The depression led to drugs. The drugs eventually led Brian to prison.

They helped each other through rehabilitation programs. Come March, both will have been sober for six years.

Even though they stopped wanting drugs, they never stopped wanting children.

Once they got clean, the couple moved from Omaha to Fremont, Neb., to dodge their old friends and the familiar drug culture. There, they took in two foster children — twins named Kristian and Jordan. Mitzi and Brian were open and honest about their past problems. They tried to use that experience to try to help the twins' mother get clean, so she could keep her babies. That proved difficult.

Mitzi and Brian followed the state's process to adopt the boys. Just before the adoption was complete, the twins' mother stayed off drugs and alcohol long enough to get a second shot. Kristian and Jordan moved back in with their parents.

“I was devastated,” Mitzi said. “Heartbroken.”

She looked into in vitro fertilization as a last-ditch attempt to have children. The probability was slim, the process expensive. But her father — Randy Christo — urged her to try. He wrote her a $16,000 check to cover the procedure and gave it to her in January 2007.

Turns out, the procedure worked. Mitzi got pregnant with twins in August 2007.

“I was ecstatic,” she said. “We had tried so hard, and so much had happened. I couldn't believe it.”

When she was seven months pregnant, Mitzi got a surprising phone call.

A state official was on the line. Kristian and Jordan's mom was having problems again. She couldn't handle the kids. Brian and Mitzi could have the boys back, this time for good. Of course they said yes.

In April 2008, Mitzi gave birth to twin girls — Bailey and Brooke. This March, the McCoys officially adopted Kristian and Jordan.

In less than a year, the McCoys went from no kids to four. Their Thanksgiving table certainly will be full — and loud — today, but no one will complain.

“We went from thinking we'd never, ever have kids to having two sets of twins,” Mitzi said. “We feel so blessed, so thankful.”

***

At 38 years old, Dawn Schleisman had never held a job.

But the Council Bluffs woman with hearing damage and developmental delays really needed to find one. Her father, with whom she lived, died in March 2008. Her mother had died before.

Schleisman quickly discovered a problem. While the job market was bad for folks with years of experience, it was especially bad for Schleisman.

She turned to Iowa Vocational Rehabilitation Services, which helped her compile a resume and work on skills to land interviews and, hopefully, a job. She began volunteering at a hospital to gain experience.

After a few months, Serita Hammel of Goodwill's Projects With Industry program inherited Schleisman from the Iowa organization. Schleisman began getting invited to interviews but still hadn't received a job offer.

That finally changed in September, after nearly a year and a half of job-hunting. The Hudson Group, which runs shops and food stands at Omaha's Eppley Airfield, offered Schleisman a cashier position at a gift shop. She's been working about 20 hours a week ever since.

In fact, she'll be working today. It may be a holiday, but her shift is fitting. She's thankful for the gig.

“It feels great,” she said. “I'm proud of myself.”

***

The Cherek family's Thanksgiving table will be pretty crowded today.

Saturday, Randy and Cindy Cherek officially welcomed five new members to the family — biological brothers and sisters Nick, Eric, Magdalena, Sophia and Christina. The Chereks — who already have four grown children and four grandchildren — will later adopt two remaining siblings of the five. State law allows only five children to be adopted at a time.

The story stretches to February 2007, when Randy and Cindy took Eric into their Omaha home as a foster child. His older brother, Nick, was living in a different foster home and would come over to visit. He said he'd like to live with the Chereks, too. So in August 2008, he did.

Eventually, the Chereks heard the parents' rights for all seven children were terminated. Randy and Cindy talked that night and said the same words at the same second.

“We need to keep this family together.”

So that's what they set out to do. Because the family they were adopting was so large, they've had to get creative at certain steps in the process — like adopting the children in two waves.

The first five were part of an adoption ceremony in Omaha on Saturday. The next two will hopefully officially become part of the family in the next few weeks.

Even when the adoptions are final, things still won't be easy with so many children. Some of the older kids are having a difficult time because they spent formative years with their biological mother.

“But ultimately they have told us that they are thankful to be here and grateful the process is all coming to a close,” Cindy said.

One of the girls once read something that has become the family's motto: “We may not have it all together but together we have it all.”

As crazy as the new family can be, Cindy wouldn't want it any other way.

“We feel immensely blessed,” she said. “I couldn't ask for a better Thanksgiving than to have them all together.”

Contact the writer:

444-1220, dane.stickney@owh.com

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