“‘Will you take my babies? Will you do this for me?'”

[Anonymous]

I find this story simultaneously heart breaking and heart warming. I would hope that if faced with such a situation, I would have as big a heart as the friend did. It is a huge responsibility and commitment, emotional and financial, to adopt 6 children, and I think not everyone would act as selflessly as the friend and her husband did. What good people, and I hope that they, in turn, are surrounded by a community of similarly good hearted people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I stopped reading when the article noted the dying mom was a single mom to 6 kids and not one of the fathers (note the plural) was in the picture. Nope wouldn't give a penny.

I'm not as blunt as this pp, but yes! Where are the fathers? They have a fiduciary responsibility to provide for these children. It's ridiculous they weren't in these kid's lives previously. Men need to start stepping up and providing for their offspring or stop having them. What deadbeats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I stopped reading when the article noted the dying mom was a single mom to 6 kids and not one of the fathers (note the plural) was in the picture. Nope wouldn't give a penny.

I'm not as blunt as this pp, but yes! Where are the fathers? They have a fiduciary responsibility to provide for these children. It's ridiculous they weren't in these kid's lives previously. Men need to start stepping up and providing for their offspring or stop having them. What deadbeats.

This is actually a mutual responsibility. I mean men and women are equally responsible. As much as I hate deadbeat dads, let's be fair.

[Anonymous]

The children are entitled to child support from their father and will also be receiving social security death benefits as minors until they are 18.
I also realized there were 6 children and not one father mentioned? Really no family at all of these 6 fathers? Not a grandmother, aunt, brother, nothing?
And then I don't believe there is more to the story and there is some not right about it and move on.
Plenty of families to help, Op, to answer your follow up on why people clicked and didn't comment/donate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I stopped reading when the article noted the dying mom was a single mom to 6 kids and not one of the fathers (note the plural) was in the picture. Nope wouldn't give a penny.

I'm not as blunt as this pp, but yes! Where are the fathers? They have a fiduciary responsibility to provide for these children. It's ridiculous they weren't in these kid's lives previously. Men need to start stepping up and providing for their offspring or stop having them. What deadbeats.

This is actually a mutual responsibility. I mean men and women are equally responsible. As much as I hate deadbeat dads, let's be fair.

I agree, but the mom didn't walk away, just the dad. So I think that shows that the dad didn't want them and shouldn't have had them. The burden is more on him if he's not going to stick around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The children are entitled to child support from their father and will also be receiving social security death benefits as minors until they are 18.
I also realized there were 6 children and not one father mentioned? Really no family at all of these 6 fathers? Not a grandmother, aunt, brother, nothing?
And then I don't believe there is more to the story and there is some not right about it and move on.
Plenty of families to help, Op, to answer your follow up on why people clicked and didn't comment/donate.

+1 well said.

[Anonymous]

full article cut and pasted from the wash post

but yeah there are plenty of great option for donating time and money. and if I was independently wealthy I'd be able to donate to all of them.

But as others mentioned, 6 kids, one mom..... where are sperm donors to stand up and claim their kin...

It was a heart-wrenching moment for two best friends — one lying in a hospital bed, the other sitting by her side. One dying from breast cancer, the other promising to care for the young lives she was leaving behind.

At a hospital in Virginia, the two women started to cry.

“‘Will you take my babies? Will you do this for me?'” 39-year-old Stephanie Culley, from Alton, Va., said her friend, Beth Laitkep, asked her. “I told her yes, I would do it in a heartbeat.”

[Why a Georgia state trooper waited to tell four children they were orphans]

Laitkep, a single mother to six children, found out she had breast cancer in 2014, when she was pregnant with her last — a boy named Ace — Culley told The Washington Post on Saturday in a phone interview. Ace was delivered by emergency C-section at 30 weeks, she said, so that Laitkep could begin aggressive chemotherapy treatments.

By the next year, the treatments appeared to be working, Culley said, and Laitkep and her children moved from Texas to South Boston, Va.

In June 2015, a month after the move, Laitkep’s cancer came back; it was a time, Culley said, when the two women, who had been friends since high school, started to reconnect. Culley said she started helping Laitkep with the house, taking her to doctor appointments and, then, sitting by her bedside when the medicine was no longer helping.

“I felt this pull to reconnect with her,” Culley said, “this pull that I could not stop.”

The cancer hit Laitkep’s bones. Although more chemotherapy treatments seemed to beat down the disease again, Culley said, Laitkep soon started to have pain in her back and in her legs. The cancer, she said, had spread to Laitkep’s brain and spine.

“The doctor told me that there was nothing that could be done,” Culley said. “That’s when we started talking about the kids.”

Culley said that the father to the older children wasn’t in the “picture” and that the father to the younger children left as Laitkep was battling cancer. She said she could not speak further while the Culleys are in custody proceedings.

Laitkep wanted her children to be cared for in the same way she would have cared for them. She wanted them to be kept together — not split up.

Culley laughed as she told The Post about her best friend’s “silliest” request — she wanted them dressed with matching bows in their hair.

“At that point, we took the kids down to the hospital for her to talk to them about it,” Culley said. “We said, ‘If you do not get a miracle for mommy, who do you want?’ They all pointed to me. That melted my heart.”

Culley added: “We all decided that was what we needed to do — take all of them and keep them all together as our family.”

[A firefighter’s touching gesture to comfort a child hurt in a grim car crash]

On May 19, Laitkep died at 39, and Culley and her husband, Donnie, kept their word — taking the children as their own.

“She fought as long as she possibly could,” Culley wrote on the family’s GoFundMe page, which as of Saturday afternoon had raised more than $3,900. “She was tired.”

“I want to thank every one of you that has shown your love and supported Beth and her family during this time,” Culley added. “From making monetary donations, all the meals and just being there when needed. It’s been unbelievable, the support in our community. As for the future, we’re going to take one day at a time, keeping her memory alive and making new ones together as a family.”

Culley said she and her husband have temporary custody of the six children and are set to appear in court this month to obtain permanent custody. The family will talk about adoption in the future, she said.

Over the past few weeks, the Culleys have expanded their family to care for nine children, ages 2 to 15. Culley said the youngest, Ace, turns 2 on Sunday — a Mickey Mouse-themed day that she hopes will create lasting memories for the children.

“They know she’s an angel — they know she’s with us every day,” Culley said. “Their favorite thing to do is get balloons and send them up to her.

“Actually, maybe we’ll do that at the birthday party.”

Culley said her friend’s death was “the most difficult thing I have ever watched.”

“It felt like I was in slow motion,” she said. “It was heartbreaking.”

Culley said her family has been blessed — and that’s why she believes they were chosen to bless someone else.

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“People call me an angel — say I’m a hero, but I don’t think anyone in my shoes would have done anything different,” she said, adding: “We believe God has blessed us in our lives, and this is the best thing we can do.”

As for the promises she made to her friend, Culley says she has kept them all.

At Laitkep’s funeral, the entire family showed up in pink — and the girls wore matching bows in their hair.

“They are exceptional kids. You can’t help fall in love with them,” she said about the newest members of the family. “That day was the first day of our new life. I feel like our life is complete now. Those six kids were the six links we were missing from our lives.

[Anonymous]

I hate to say this, but....
The friend says that the father of the younger 3 left when she was ill
. From a grieving friend.
And now they are going to court to try to adopt these children who have a father?
I'm not sure this is going to work out as they hope. It says nothing about the father abandoning the children, just that he left.
You can break up with/divorce someone and still have visitation and custody, even never have a relationship with someone, and still be legally be a parent to mutual children.
And a 2 year old to 6 year old agreeeing at the hospital with the best friend that they want to stay with the friend, in the friends presence, is not really compelling enough for a judge to award custody to non family over a father or other relative.

This story is feel good on the surface, and great for asking for money, but doesn't make a lot of sense in reality IMO.

[Anonymous]

Actually I stand corrected! They were awarded full custody a few days ago.
I'm shocked that neither father or any family attempted for even joint custody or any visitation?
I'm very surprised. And wrong

[Anonymous]

I would give to the GoFundMe. If I knew the family personally, I would strongly urge the adoptive family to pursue child support for these children whose fathers are so disinterested in them.

[Anonymous]

On the one hand I'm glad those kids have someone to care for them, but sadly I don't think this will end well. I know DCUM likes to think so but money doesn't fix everything . 9 kids is a lot 6 of those kids will have serious trauma issues just from losing their mom and being abandoned and who knows what else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I stopped reading when the article noted the dying mom was a single mom to 6 kids and not one of the fathers (note the plural) was in the picture. Nope wouldn't give a penny.

Agree. Totally irresponsible. Also, I would not take the kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I stopped reading when the article noted the dying mom was a single mom to 6 kids and not one of the fathers (note the plural) was in the picture. Nope wouldn't give a penny.

Agree. Totally irresponsible. Also, I would not take the kids.

Judging the mother therefore penalizing the innocent children? And that last part had nothing to do with your not taking the kids, unless the reason you wouldn't relates to the mother's actions before her death, then it would.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I stopped reading when the article noted the dying mom was a single mom to 6 kids and not one of the fathers (note the plural) was in the picture. Nope wouldn't give a penny.

I keep telling myself that I will not come back to this site because I really don't need to see responses like this. You are pretty much everything that is wrong with human race today.

Yes, the children asked to be born into a broken home. Yes, the children asked for their mother to get cancer and die. Yes, the children should now be broken into several homes just so you can feel better about it.

You are a horrible human being and I hope you never have children.

This article was about a family that did something that 90% of would not do (or would not be able to do). Instead of being happy for those children, or at least sigh some relief that they'll be together after losing their mother, you you have to say is "mother fucked around, her kids deserve to die alone." You are scum!!!

[Anonymous]

All the money in the world cannot buy a child a loving home. Not sure if Dcumers can understand that.