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Meet the Tolins
Ordinary People, Extraordinary Love By Teri Brown
Tim and Sue Tolin seem to be an ordinary couple with five grown children, but what has bloomed from their love for one another and their deep faith is far from ordinary. For the Tolins are also the loving parents of 13, yes, 13 adopted children. As if that weren't extraordinary enough, all of the children have special needs and some are severely disabled.
It is almost as if Tim and Sue were born to take care of babies whose mothers were unable to care for them. Tim served his country in Vietnam and worked for years for the Southeastern Michigan American Red Cross. Sue's own parents were foster parents and Tim and Sue followed in their footsteps, becoming foster parents in the late 1970s. They took a break from foster care to help their family through a difficult time when their grandson was diagnosed with cancer.
Their international baby, Gabriel, is 16 months old and arrived from Brazil in January 2004. This newest Tolin joins an already large family: the Tolins' five daughters ages 21 through 32, and their adopted children, Brent, 14, Robyn, 13, Brianna, 10, MaKenzie, 9, Patrick, 9, Kim, 7, Heather, 5, Sean, 3 and baby Aaliyah who is just 10 weeks old.
Like any other family, the Tolins care for their own children without help, and though the task may seem overwhelming at times, the Tolins persevere. "These are our children and we take care of them the same way any other mom and dad take care of their children," says Sue. "With some of our children we just do it a little differently, but all require one thing and that is love with a forever family. My husband and I are a team and, as parents, handle the needs of our children."
However, life is a struggle at times. Two of their adopted children, Raphael and Joey both died of medical complications due to fetal alcohol syndrome. Sue constructed memorials for both of them on the family Web site, www.s-tolin.net