This article appeared in the Worcester Telegram and Gazette on Friday, June 02, 2006.
Jean L. Hill Wachusett Watch
jhill@telegram.com
Julie Sargent smiled joyfully as some of her siblings arrived home from school and scrambled around the table for snacks, chatting about their school day and after-school plans.
At 13 years old, Julie describes herself as “kind of in the middle” in her family. “Robin, Anna and Scott are above me but then everyone else is below me,” the teenager said as she talked about what it was like to live in a larger-than-usual family.
Now a seventh-grade student at West Boylston Middle School, Julie suddenly became sister to four more siblings adopted by her parents in March 2005, bringing the total to 9 siblings plus her, with most of the family members involved in multiple activities. Of Deborah and Carl Sargent’s 10 children, ages five to 18, three are biological offspring and seven are adopted. To Julie, one of the biological children, it makes no difference how all the children came to be in the same family. She is simply happy they are all together.
“Emily, Robin and me are not (adopted). Everyone else is,” Julie said.
“I like it. It’s really fun. You always have someone to do something with,” Julie said as her youngest sister, Stariona, 5, popped in and out of the kitchen, making sure a slice of Julie’s attention focused on her.
A calm child with an easy, ever-present smile and a bounce to her voice, Julie seems happy among many siblings. She has a passion for the Red Sox, is working toward a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and has an art studio near her bedroom where she can work free of distractions.
She names her brothers and sisters and states each age, facts she knows by heart. “Stariona, she’s 5; then Shawn, he’s 6; Cora, she’s 7; Rocky, he’s 9; Justin, he’s 10; Emily, she’s 10 too, a month apart; then there’s me and then Scott who is 14, then Robin is 15 and Anna is 18.”
Julie describes life in one word: “Busy.”
Thinking back to when the first siblings were adopted, Julie remembered her parents trying to explain what was happening. “I was 5,” she said. “They kind of told us what was going on, but one day I got off the bus and Anna and Scott were standing at the bus stop. Anna was 10 and Scott was 6.”
According to Mrs. Sargent, the youngest child they have adopted was 3 years old at the time, and some have learning difficulties, which the West Boylston schools tend to admirably.
As Julie talks and takes a visitor on a tour of the Sargent house, her place in the family becomes clear. She relishes her role as older sister and helpmate to the younger children and is proud to be a shaker and mover in her parents’ pro-adoption movement.
Her mother, herself an adoptee; and her father, a believer in the need and joy of adoption, are the founders of USAdoption Solutions, a newly formed company for which they intend to hire social workers and other professionals to help people decide whether adoption is right for them, and navigate their course through the adoption process.
The house tour started in the mud room where each child has two lockers arranged in groups around the times the children come and go, so they do not bump into each other, explained Julie.
A theater-style movie room, with 20 theater chairs, accommodates family and friends. The recently enlarged house also has a couple of family rooms, a dining room, kitchen, bathrooms, 11 neat bedrooms, and Mr. and Mrs. Sargent’s offices.
Each of the 10 children’s bedrooms are decorated according to interests, Julie said as she opened the door to Justin’s room and announced: “He’s a big Patriots fan.”
Mrs. Sargent is a self-employed wedding photographer. Mr. Sargent said he helps with the photography business, does some investing, and is busy developing USAdoption Solutions, for which he has applied for non-profit status.
Julie said the company needs funding to help some of the “500,000 children in foster care get permanent homes.”
She is promoting her family’s upcoming “Drive to Denali” in Alaska, for which her parents are accepting pledges for each mile driven. Julie said the family’s travels in a camper over about 30 days this summer will raise awareness about adoption.
She invites people to check out the web site at USAdoptionSolutions.org.