Hope Children's Home preparing for new phase

Set off Jackson's East Main Street is a three-story, red brick house offering hope. Hope for children, hope for families and hope for a community. The Hope Children's Home is reopening its doors to children Jan. 7, with a refreshed mission.

"The main goal of this house is going to be to get [the children] prepared so that when they either go back home or they go to a foster family, they have the essentials," Paul Aydelott said. "The goal is to have them here just temporary: 30 days."

Paul and his wife, Patricia Aydelott, are the new "house parents" of the Hope Children's Home and are looking forward to being part of the organization and its mission, they said.

Olive Caruso, 10, holds two lit candles in the front yard of the Hope Children's Home in honor of children in foster care Sunday during the Light Up the Night candle vigil in Jackson.KASSI JACKSON

Their role as house parents is based on the foundation of giving the children -- who come in to the home for the 30-day time span -- a sense of schedule and organization. Ensuring the children who come into the home have their birth certificate, their Social Security card, an updated physical and a recent dental cleaning are just a few of the pieces the Aydelotts will help put together before the children either return home to their biological families or move to a compatible foster family.

"It's 'The Brady Bunch' on a foster level," Paul Aydelott said.

The Aydelotts are parents to three children -- two biological children, Kelsey, 17, and Lewis, 15, and their adopted daughter, Johanna, 17.

"They have been a great asset to my wife and to us," Paul Aydelott said.

Fostering for just shy of four years, the Aydelotts are focusing on family.

Iris Caruso, 3, visits a home April 28 in Jackson as part of the Tours for Hope.KASSI JACKSON

"We're not just fostering children, we're fostering the whole family thinking," Patricia Aydelott said. "That is their mother and father regardless of the situation, but not every mother and father knows how to parent. So we step in to that parent role for a short amount of time, hoping for reunification."

The difference between fostering and adopting is important to note, according to Patricia Aydelott.

"Fostering is to hope for the reunification," she said.

While the Aydelotts might be the model home for all other foster homes in the 32nd Judicial District, including Cape Girardeau, Perry and Bollinger counties, they say they can't do it alone. They want the community to play a role because the children's success depends on more than having a roof over their heads.

Iris Caruso, 3, holds her mom, Dawn Caruso's hand, April 28 during the Tours for Hope in Jackson.KASSI JACKSON

"It takes a community to raise the next generation," Paul Aydelott said. "We want you to help, we want you to take ownership in it, we want you to do stuff to be involved."

From taking time to tutor the children in the home, cooking with them, going out in the front yard to play basketball or even donating clothes or other items to the house, anyone in the community who wants to be involved is encouraged to do so.

The Hope Children's Home was started in 2010 by Paul and Dawn Caruso, who began fostering in 1999. The couple has 10 children, their oldest being a biological child and the other nine are adopted children -- one through private adoption and eight adoptions through foster care.

Community members gather in the front yard of the Hope Children's Home and light candles in honor of children in foster care Sunday during the Light Up the Night candle vigil in Jackson.KASSI JACKSON

"This is a family that we created, rather than one that was just born together," Paul Caruso said. "To me, that's an amazing experience, because it shows you that if you love and care for people, anyone can become part of your family if you're open to that."

Paul Caruso said anyone who wants to be involved with foster care, can.

"Some people find it in their heart to be foster parents or to adopt children, but that's not for everybody," he said. "There are so many different ways you can support someone and help someone do that. When you do, you'll find that not only will you have a positive impact on someone else's life, but they'll have a positive impact on your own."

Olive Caruso, 10, looks up at her father, Paul Caruso, while her brother Ty, 7, lights his candle with her as they are gathered with community members in the front yard of the Hope Children's Home and light candles in honor of children in foster care Sunday during the Light Up the Night candle vigil in Jackson.KASSI JACKSON

He noted the community concept goes beyond gathering documents and providing health screenings.

"What I thought was a home that we could give hope to children in foster care is now a community that gives hope to children in foster care, And it's been an amazing thing."

kjackson@semissourian.com

573-388-3636