Tom and Jean
Gaunt are the proud parents of sixteen children, some being
homemade (natural birth) and others being hand picked
(adopted). They have fostered well over 100 children over a
period of sixteen years while raising their family.
Growing up in close proximity to one another in
northeastern Indiana, Tom and Jean were destined to meet in
high school and later marry in college. His goal to become
an engineer and hers, a teacher, would be achieved in round
about ways as they put their family first.
After building a couple of homes, the second home being a
self-sufficient earth home, they moved their four birth
children and three foster children to Indianapolis to
advocate foster and adopted children. Two of the three
foster children were eventually adopted by the Tom and
Jeanne.
Jean knew first hand the importance of permanency having
been the daughter of a former foster child adopted by his
foster parents. While Jean’s father died of cancer when she
was twelve years old and her mother died when she was a
young adult, Jean felt blessed coming from a stable home.
Her husband Tom was supportive of his wife’s desire to give
back to society for the blessings of her parents’ lives.
Advocacy on the behalf of children which included trips to
Washington DC, including speaking before a Congressional
Committee, to Indiana’s State Legislature, and serving on
state committees wasn’t received well by some in the child
welfare agency. Tom and Jeanne found themselves no longer
welcome to have foster children in their home: the results
were devastating to them as well as to their children –
foster and birth.
Fast forward almost nine years to 1999 when on Mothers Day
Jean reads an article in her Sunday morning paper outlining
the need for a home for a sibling group of nine children.
Reluctant to share their desire for the nine siblings with
others, understanding the complexity of a family with many
and special needs, Tom and Jean submit their home study
consideration…
