WEST POINT, Neb.—It’s not every day that people are officially called “angels.”
But Steve and Shelley Brune of West Point recently earned that title when they were honored as 2009 Angels in Adoption Award recipients at a banquet in Washington, D.C.
People from across the nation received this award from the Congressional Coalition on Adoption.
At present, the Brunes have adopted three of their foster children and are in the process of adopting a fourth.
The couple have a biological daughter, Mikayla, but decided a few years ago that they wanted to help a child in need. They took foster-parenting training and were licensed.
In 1999, they got a telephone call about a baby boy who needed a home. They picked Jonathon up from the hospital.
Then a second baby, from the same biological parents, was born in 2001. The Brunes welcomed baby James into their home.
The Brunes officially adopted Jonathon in 2001 and James in 2002.
“Now we thought we had our perfect little family,” Steve Brune said. “We had a girl and two boys.”
On May 13, 2002, Jonathon and James’ biological parents had a daughter.
Time passed.
In April 2007, Brune, who’d spent 15 years in Clearwater, thought it would be a good time for a career move. So, he and his family planned to relocate in West Point.
In the middle of their move, the Brunes got another call.
Five-year-old Mary Ann, sister of Jonathon and James, had been removed from her home and was in temporary foster care.
“We had no little girl toys in our house,” Brune remembered.
But they took Mary Ann and formally adopted the girl recently.
“She’d been through some difficult times, but she’s made very good progress,” Brune said.
The Brunes’ family life continued.
Steve Brune is a banker at Charter West National Bank, and Shelley Brune teaches second grade at West Point Public Schools.
“Now, we think we have our life figured out,” he said.
Then on April 24, another girl was born to the same biological parents.
Steve Brune got another call.
Would they take a fourth child?
“We thought we were done and weren’t going to do this anymore,” he said. “I guess we couldn’t enforce that ‘no more.'”
On April 27, Madeline Grace came to live with the Brunes.
“I thought we were done with the minivans when we moved to West Point,” Steve Brune said. “We haven’t had a baby in the house for years. Now we’re adjusting to the baby things.”
They’re also doing all the kid things again, like the church and sports activities.
“We’re kid busy,” Steve Brune said, “And we will be for a lot of years.”
But that’s OK. The Brunes are proud of their children.
“They’re very good kids,” he said. “You can tell there’s a bond between them. You can look at them and clearly tell they’re siblings.”
And other people are proud of the Brunes.
Steve Brune said someone with Nebraska Health and Human Services submitted a story about them to Sen. Mike Johanns, who nominated them for the Angels in Adoption Award.
“Raising the fifth child is a whole lot easier than the first one,” Steve Brune said. “You get seasoned.”
———
Information from: Fremont Tribune,
