Two years after losing my wife and six-year-old son to a drunk driver, I was barely functioning\u2014work, takeout, TV, silence. Then, at 2 a.m., I saw a Facebook post that stopped my thumb cold:<\/p>\n
\u201cFour siblings need a home. Ages 3, 5, 7, and 9. If no one takes all four, they\u2019ll be separated.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n I stared at their photo\u2014four kids pressed together like they were bracing for impact. The comments were full of \u201cshared\u201d and \u201cpraying,\u201d but no one saying I\u2019ll take them.<\/em><\/p>\n By morning, I\u2019d called Child Services.<\/p>\n In Karen\u2019s office, she laid out their names: Owen (9), Tessa (7), Cole (5), Ruby (3).<\/strong> She explained the system would split them if no single home stepped up.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll take all four,\u201d I said, shocking even myself.<\/p>\n The process was brutal\u2014background checks, therapy, court. The therapist asked how I was handling grief. \u201cBadly,\u201d I admitted. \u201cBut I\u2019m still here.\u201d<\/p>\n When I met them, Owen watched me like an adult. Tessa demanded, \u201cAll of us?\u201d Ruby hid. Cole asked if I had snacks.<\/p>\n The first weeks were chaos\u2014nightmares, slammed doors, \u201cYou\u2019re not my real dad.\u201d Then came small miracles: Ruby asleep on my chest. Cole\u2019s stick-figure drawing labeled \u201cus.\u201d<\/strong> Tessa handing me a form with my last name after hers.<\/p>\n A year later, an attorney showed up: their parents had left a small house and savings in trust\u2014and a written plea: don\u2019t separate our kids.<\/strong><\/p>\n I hadn\u2019t known.<\/p>\n I\u2019d just seen four siblings about to lose each other\u2026 and said, \u201cAll four.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Two years after losing my wife and six-year-old son to a drunk driver, I was barely functioning\u2014work, takeout, TV, silence. Then, at 2 a.m., I saw a Facebook post that stopped my thumb cold: \u201cFour siblings need a home. Ages 3, 5, 7, and 9. If no one takes all four, they\u2019ll be separated.\u201d I …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3626"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3628,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3626\/revisions\/3628"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}