There’s a local high school soccer coach who set up a ‘Cleats for Feets’ program here in our community that has benefited my children in immeasurable ways.

There’s a $50.00 registration fee in order to play rec league soccer per child. I have 14 children playing twice a year. This same coach initially bought cleats, shin guards, soccer socks and soccer balls for my children as well.

Since then I’ve met many parents on the field who donated their children’s out-grown equipment to us and I shop at yard sales.

This is the kind of help that I greatly appreciate. I did not know this coach before this, none of my sons were on his team, and as our county has grown, we’ve now been split into two different high schools. My kids attend the new school and this same coach still supports their soccer dreams.

There’s no way that I could have come up with this amount of money. Critics might chime in and suggest that I shouldn’t then have adopted so many children if I can’t afford the amenities of life to which I’d argue back gently, “If not me, then who?”

There were no other home studies sent in on the siblings groups that I’ve adopted. If not me, then they’d have remained split up, angry and left in foster care until they aged out.

Many of them are still angry; mad at what society, birth parents and circumstances seem to have dumped on them while I remain dedicated and committed to keep trying to show them that they can be stars. They can all achieve success, blessings and a happy, contented life if they’ll allow themselves to heal emotionally.

People like this soccer coach, who will also host them this week at soccer camp at a deeply discounted, nearly non-existent, fee; these are the unsung heroes in the adoption world. These are the people, this coach and his team, that allow people like me to parent special needs children, large sibling groups, and in our case, multiple sibling groups.

This coach has seen some of my kids come unglued at soccer camp, or be distracted, or worse yet, fighting with a sibling, but somehow he merely considers the source and has never complained to me about the very same children he is trying to help. Always patient and smiling, my kids look up to him for his leadership role in their lives.

I pray God’s blessings on a man and on a team like this. They have no idea how much positive impact they are having on the lives of my children. We are so very grateful for this type of help.