Answering prayers

NATIONAL ADOPTIOn MONTH

Answering prayers

Iowa agency, Charles City step up for children in need of families

In the summer of 2013, Matt and Vicki Bruening’s six kids were hanging outside, bored and hot. There wasn’t time to visit the pool, so Vicki gave them a few buckets to fill with water, figuring they’d just splash around. The boys –– John, Patrick and Bill, brothers adopted from the Republic of Congo –– knew what the buckets were meant for.

“Immediately what they did, they filled the buckets up and carried water on their heads,” Vicki remembered. “The girls were like, sweet, I want to do this too!”

It was only a few months previously, in March 2013, that the Bruenings introduced the boys to their new sisters, Maya, Mayzie and Kirstyn.

Now the six kids, between the ages 10 to 4, seem as seamless as any sibling set could be. They are only one part in the story of adoption and foster families in Iowa. Although there are no hard statistics on occurrences in state, there is a strong need both for international adoption –– the path the Bruenings followed –– and domestic adoption or foster families, said Kara Magnison,

By Kate Hayden khayden@charlescitypress.com