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Show ICovejlStocy: by VICKI BROWN Lana Photos by Rick Brenda Barker lives with Faith... and Grace, Joy, Melody, Samuel, Daniel, and Andrew WOV MV NrWI Ini (ImImma nutuJT CnHinll otd I H 1 At Brenda Barker! home, the washing doesnt like die machine always tuns, homework is constant, and someone always dinner menu. We have this bosket in the laundry room that u filled with locks. (My chil-dren) come and dig them our, and about once a month, someone will ion them," Bmxk says with a laugh. Such in easy sense cf humor comes in handy; partial- lady when you're the mother to seven children. Mfclody, 8, especially loves when her mom teases het "She calk me funny names and tickles me," she says. . Each of her children gets special moments with Mom. "The toughest thing is making sure everyone's needs ate met. But it's really a joy. Each one is different and unique. I just love sitting and calking with them, seeing all their different gifts, Brenda says. - ' . '' Pngw Indeed, a large family can be a challenge, but its one fbr which she and her husband, Ken, would go eo the rads of the earth. Because they did. Twins Faith and Grace, 13, are from India. Joy, 1 1, is from China. Sam, 9, and Andrew; 8; are from Latvia. And Melody; 8, and Daniel, 4, both are from Vietnam, The couple from Brentwood, Tam., didn't set out to become die parents of' seven children. "No way" laughs Brenda, whose personal success with intrma-tional adoption led her to work in die field and become an outspoken adoption advocate. "We struggled with infertility far five yean and then starred looking into adoption. We didn't scut out and say, Why dont we adopt seven kids?'" When they began looking into both U.S. and international adoptions, die first babies available were Gtace and Faith, twins from India. "She (die mother) had American Profile 1 OT M - MTI Wf MM BMi I MX aUU seven! children nd they mm vcty impoverished," Brenda says. Tt was really where God led the ays of that fiat international adoption in 1968. a,' The family - gTOWS ' Ken, from a family of four; always had expected to haw two or three children, but once he and Brenda went to India ro get their girls and saw poor chiklimbeg- ging far food, things changed. "She jure wanted to adopt all the orphans in the world, Ken says of his wife, Still, caring for twin girls was a challenge for the new parents. "It took us a few years to recover;' Brenda says. .When the twins were .4, die Barken decided to adopt again. Joy joined the fainily about a year later; a new arrival from China. "Then , I said. What about a boy?1 and we adopted Sam he's 9 from Latvia when he was 3 months old, Brenda says. Samuel, who had a deft lip, required five surgeries in the first year he was in the United Scares. Brenda heard a missionary speak pbfxirhow anm children with cleft lips were killed in other countries because of superstition tW they were pos- sessed by demons. Brenda, whose own sons lip had been repaired, was moved by die plight of those children to adopt again. I thought, well, we can take one more, she says. The Baskets asked fbr a rhild with medical needs. After they had waited for awhile, a boy from Latvia without medical needs was up fbr adoption. So Andrew joined the family in 1994. TWnda can-Although the wait often thnrw than fcr Amiw rinw rhr inwnarirral i 3nnn $70,000 Srr ttav- rn h rwfy |