Acres of Hope

This inspiring memoir by a mother who has adopted eight special-needs children calls readers to regard every child as precious in God's sight.

Anglin and her husband, Harold, made a commitment, while fostering 50-odd children through the years, to adopt "the ones no one else wanted." These include two crack-addicted babies born to a 13-year-old prostitute; a son with severe emotional problems whose birth parents had tortured him with cigarettes and hung him upside down for punishment; a Nigerian boy born without lower arms and legs; and a five-year-old quadriplegic from India who weighed only 16 pounds at adoption.

Anglin emerges not as a self-righteous attention-seeker but a woman of deep faith firmly committed to the individual nurturance of children. She tries hard not to judge the children's biological parents for their various faults, though her fierce mama bear instincts show clearly in harsh words for the social care system. In particular, she criticizes the growing practice of barring cross-racial adoption as a "a subtle form of racism," describing her tooth-and-nail custody fight against an insensitive case worker who, she says, almost sacrificed a child's life for an ideological principle.

Today, the Anglins live and home-school their large family, which includes seven biological children, on a 200-acre Wisconsin farm called "Acres of Hope." Both full-time caregivers, they were able to purchase the $62,500 tract because a local bank president financed the entire amount, saying the community needed more people like them. That's an understatement.

This is an awesome and inspiring book about a family's unselfish sacrifice, to care for and nuture children born to undesirable situations. We all should sit down with our families and show our children what love really is all about. Patty Anglin and her family are great role models in a decaying age of violence and hatred. Read this