At the top of the news feed, a friend’s post caught his attention and would not let go. It linked to a Children’s House International story about three Polish siblings, two girls and a boy ages 6 to 12, on the verge of being separated into different foster homes in just two weeks.
An Angels Camp couple who added their seventh child earlier this year are making room for their eighth, ninth and 10th via a rescue adoption in Poland that they hope to complete in about six months.
Brook Moes, 37, an accomplished violin and martial arts instructor, felt compelled to check his Facebook account one last time before he went to bed on July 13. At the top of the news feed, a friend’s post caught his attention and would not let go. It linked to a Children’s House International story about three Polish siblings, two girls and a boy ages 6 to 12, on the verge of being separated into different foster homes in just two weeks.
“I looked at them and I just knew those were Moes children,” he said.
The trio were removed from a deeply troubled home and placed together in foster care three years ago. Moes said it was an emergency arrangement intended to last no more than two weeks. With no one lining up to adopt them, time had run out on the effort to keep them together.
“They might never see each other again, and according to the psychiatrist’s report, this is the greatest fear these children have,” he said. “All they have had of stability in their lives is each other.”
Moes said he is not one to rush to a life-changing decision and admits he will have second thoughts about something like buying a new vehicle. But something clicked with these children and not just for him. He got nothing but support for the idea of a whirlwind international adoption from wife Tonya, 36.
“It was just kind of, sure, why not?” she said. “There’s no challenge for us so far as to why not. That seems like you should.”
Eight hours after he saw the Facebook posting, Brook Moes was on the phone with the adoption agency. Their interest would be enough to put things on hold in terms of separating the three, who cannot be identified by name by Polish law but the Moeses refer to by the pseudonyms Faith, Jack and Cleo.
The Moes’s Facebook adoption page.
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