It’s Dad’s day
By Ruth Schenk | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Each child came with a phone call.
Mark Chaddic was working with autistic children at Churchill Park School when he agreed to be a foster dad. By then, he had been divorced a long time, and his
daughter was mostly grown. During the day, Chaddic worked with kids, but the house was quiet at night.
At first, he cared for 17- to 18-year-olds who needed a temporary home as they aged out of the system. But one day in 2004, he answered a call about a
7-year-old boy living at Ten Broeck Hospital in Louisville. Chaddic agreed to give him a place to stay for the night. Jack, now 15 years old, became the first boy
Chaddic adopted.
Jack remembers settling into the foster home that became permanent.
“Before Dad came to get me, it was the same thing every day,” Jack said. “Wake up. Go to school. Come back. Watch a movie. Go to bed. Every once in a while,
Having a dad was a whole new concept for Jack.
“Every Friday, after he came home from work, we would do something just for fun,” Jack said. “We would go to Chuck E. Cheese or to the mall or a movie. I
wasn’t used to that. I was used to staying with 12 to 20 different kids.”
Chaddic adopted Jack seven months after that first visit. He said that they chose each other.
Two years later, Chaddic’s phone rang with another need. This time, it was about a 7-year-old boy living at St. Joseph’s Children’s Home. He talked it over with
Jack before saying yes.
“I’d been thinking before that call that I would like to have a brother,” Jack said.
The two went together to St. Joseph’s to meet Craig, who moved in with them soon after that first visit.
Craig often talked about his 11-year-old brother, T.J., who was living with another foster family. Chaddic found him in northern Kentucky and began picking him
up for weekend visits.
On Sept. 28, 2006, Chaddic adopted both Craig and T.J.
“It’s been amazing to know I can never be moved,” T.J. said. “I’m permanently here. Before that, nothing was permanent in my life. I was taken away from my
mom the day after my seventh birthday. That was the beginning of foster care for me.”
Now, Jack is 15, T.J. is 16 and Craig is 13.
Chaddic said the boys bonded with him quickly, but it took time to work with them on trust, hygiene, reading, homework and taking responsibility. He’s the only
dad any of the boys have ever known. The house runs on a structured schedule with time set aside for homework and reading from 3 to 5:30 p.m. every day. The
boys learn to help out at home, serve at church and help one another.
There are no excuses for missing family dinner at night.
“That’s the time we talk,” Chaddic said. “We often go around the table so each one can talk about the best and hardest parts of their day. And sometimes I ask
them to tell three nice things about each other.”
The boys have come a long way in seven years.
“These kids are smart,” Chaddic said. “Some couldn’t read when they came. Now they’re getting the highest scores on achievement tests. Jack plays the
trumpet, French horn and mellophone. T.J. is a great cook, and he loves to serve at church. They’re all loving, wonderful kids. I couldn’t ask for better sons.”
Family time together might include a game of basketball on the driveway, a cookout or a sporting activity. Over the years, Chaddic has built an extensive home
library with used books. Now all three boys love to read.
They have big dreams. Jack isn’t sure exactly what he will study in college, but he is considering several careers. T.J. wants to be a chef, and Craig wants to be
an Air Force pilot.
They joined Southeast as a family on April 4, 2010. That day, Chaddic was baptized, then turned around and baptized the three boys.
T.J. said he loves coming to church.
“We all usher, volunteered every night during the Easter Pageant and Momentum,” he said. “We learned that we could cover a lot of the auditorium when we
worked together. I love serving at church. I wish we could do more.”
A few weeks ago, Chaddic answered another call. Corey, a 10-year-old living in a foster home in Waddy, Ky., needed a home. The whole family piled in the car to
get him.
Corey already is on track to become a Chaddic.
T.J. said having a dad means he has a father figure who will be there no matter what.
Corey says his new dad “helps me brush my teeth and he plays basketball with me.”
Chaddic said building his family through foster care, then adoption has been pretty amazing.
“I didn’t just go out and say to these boys that they should come and be my sons,” he said. “We chose each other. We formed this wonderful group, weather
bumps in the road together and have a lot of fun. “If I didn’t have these kids, I’d be lonely and bored.”
Celebrations are big at the Chaddic house. Each boy in the family celebrates three birthdays a year: the day he was born, the day he was adopted and his
spiritual birthday—the day he decided to follow Christ and be baptized. With four sons that’s a lot of celebrations, but no one is complaining.
Chaddic does not see himself as a “hero dad.”
“My ministry is to love and serve these kids,” he said. “There is a big need for families to foster and adopt children who are 10 years old and up. All it requires is
patience and grace. These kids will make a ton of mistakes you wouldn’t even imagine because you didn’t raise them from babies, but the rewards are
amazing.”
Chaddic said that he wants to retire to a condo in Florida someday, but he doesn't know when that will happen.
What he does know is his family dynamics could change with the next phone call from an agency seeking to place another foster child.