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Show FAMILY VARIETY By ROSELYN KIRK The Gerald Siout family o( eight in West Bountiful is different than most families because three of the children are brown and the other three are white. THREE of the children, with blue eyes and blonde hair have i been born into the family. I The other three have been j adopted. Angela 6, is a Mes i calero Apache, Mindy 2 is Korean and Mark 4 is Mexican American. "The color of the children is unimportant," Jeri Stout, the mother of the six, said as she showed four year old Mark, who joined the family in April, how to put his puzzle together. "Love bridges the gap between races and we're all a family." THE NATURAL born children, Jason 11, David 10, and Adam 4, learn to lend and play with the younger children. Although the family is hoping to adopt more children, "we'd like to keep them in the eight year old range," Jeri said. "We'd like the oldest boys to keep their places in the family and continue con-tinue to be the oldest." AM of the three children . have come in April. "We're not sure what will happen next year, but we keep our ears open to find another child." MARK, WHO just joined the family two weeks ago, already seems to fit in, Jeri says. He is bilingual, but understands everything in English. "But you can teach anything j through love. These children seem to devour all the love ! they're given." When Gerald j and Jeri went to El Paso, Tex. 1 to pick up Mark, they took a Grover puppet from Sesame Street with them. "We talked to Mark first through Grover. The puppet was our go-between." Even, now if Mark has any problems, ne takes them out on Grover. He reads and sleeps with the puppet. Taking the puppet really wasn't an inspiration. Jeri said. "I just thought what any four-year old would like and 1 decided on Grover." JERI says she and her husband hus-band Gerald have plenty of ' room to adopt children because they live in a 74 year old house ai 739 North" 800 West, with lf rooms and six bedrooms. The property con tains two acres and a barn where the children can run and play. Gerald is a building contractor, who is currently remodeling the house. But it goes slowly, Jeri says. "We planned to get a new couch and chair, but we got Mark instead." in-stead." The Stouts decided to adopt children when they discovered they could have no more of their own. Angela came first. "Adopting is just the same as having a child. Angela was 10 days old when she became a member of the family. "SHE IS terrific with animals and has no fear around them." Her mother told of finding her one day sitting sit-ting under the belly of the horse with the cat in her arms. Jeri was terrified, but the animal didn't move until the little girl crawled out. Angela doesn't cry easily, which her mother believes is a part of her cultural heritage. The family is anxious to introduce in-troduce her to her own culture whenever she shows an interest. "We want to introduce in-troduce her to the contributions contribu-tions that Indians have made." The family is starting to teach their children about their cultural background, beginning with the holidays. THE NEXT child to enter the family group was Adam a blond, blue-eyed child born into in-to the family. "He was the baby we thought we'd never have," Jeri said. Adam and Mark are almost the same age, though Mark is four months older and may start to kindergarten kinder-garten first. Mindy, the next child adopted, adopt-ed, had been abandoned and lived in a Korean orphanage. She was five months old before the family heard about her. It took another six months to cut through the red tape before she could be brought to this country. JERI'S brother, Greg Rigby. who happened to be in Korea on a mission for the LDS Church, talked to the adoption agency and visited Mindy. He sent the Stouts their first picture pic-ture of their new daughter. Jeri's parents went to Korea to pick up her brother and saw Mindy off on the airplane to her parents in West Bountiful. Mindy has been with the family for one year now and just celebrated her second birthday in America. When she first came a year ago, she When the Gerald Stout family is called to dinner, they won't all look just alike, for three of them were born from different races. Enjoying riding are, 1 to r, Adam, Angela, Mindy and Mark. was speaking her first Korean words. "She was so terrified that I carried her with me all the time in a Korean back pack. I slept with her in my arms." MINDY IS stubborn, but that's natural because only the strong children survive in Korea," Jeri said. When Mark, who comes from Mexican American heritage, heri-tage, first met his new brother Adam at the airport four weeks ago, they acted like brothers from the first meeting. meet-ing. "They immediately started start-ed wrestling," Jeri said. The two sleep together in a big 16 by 20 foot room in the old house. MARK LOOKS like his sister Angela, Jeri said, although he is Mexican American and his sister is In- dian. Mark is the only one of the children who came with a past. "He's at an age when his past is important," Jeri said. He brought his big wheel, a box of toys, and some pictures of his parents. When the Stout family first decided they wanted more children, "it hit us both at once. Why don't we adopt a child of another race?" There are very few white children, but many are available from . other races." The Stouts hope to adopt at least one more child. They are looking for an older child since older children are easier to adopt. JERI TALKS about going grocery shopping with her children. "It's kind of a shock to people to see brown, white and yellow children all in the same shopping cart," she said. When Angie was the only brown-skinned one in the family, one day she tried to wash the brown off. She wanted want-ed to be 'white like Mommy,' but now she feels more comfortable com-fortable with a brown brother and sister." While Jeri talked, she kept running out of the room to check on Adam and Mark who are having trouble resisting the three baby puppies that had been born that morning. It was their dog Ginny's first litter. lit-ter. JERI said that day was one of those days when she didn't quite make it through the house to straighten it up. She looked around at Adam and Mark playing with their puzzles on the floor. Jeri sighed and said, "I guess I need to be more organized. My first priority is to keep them all fed. After that, I do what has to be done. Today my first priority was Ginny and her puppies." rk |