In early October I was greenlighted for a last minute trip to Washington, D.C. to continue my story on
The Johns family. They were being presented with an "Angels in Adoption" award through the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute. Here are the pages, the pictures, and the story. Enjoy!
For Kurt and Andrea Johns, having a family was always the plan. So when they discovered Andrea was unable to bear children, they chose to adopt.
They said it was common sense for them to adopt their children, Austin, 11, Katie, 6, and Aliyah, 3, and accept them wholeheartedly as family. Every child deserves a family and they gave that chance to local foster children.
So, in September, when they received a call from the office of U.S. Rep. Dave Camp, R-Midland, saying they were the recipients of an Angels in Adoption award through the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute, they asked themselves, “Why us?” (The award recognizes people for their work in the adoption, foster care and child welfare community.)
“I didn’t think that what we did with our lives so far, that it’s really anything that spectacular,” Kurt said. “We wanted to make a family ... it was the route we took in life to have the kids the way we had them.”
The award came with the opportunity to visit Washington, D.C., and take part in the awards ceremony and gala. It also provided Kurt and Andrea the opportunity to spend one-on-one time with Austin, something he had been receiving less and less since his sister Katie’s diagnosis with brain cancer. The past year has been a battle with Austin, Kurt said, describing him as a deer in the headlights. While everyone was focusing on Katie, Austin’s schoolwork “tanked,” because he either wasn’t doing it or he wasn’t turning it in, cramming it into folders or into the seats on the bus. But now he’s learning, striving to understand what cancer is and asking questions he was afraid to ask, including “What makes it come out?” Or, questions that addressed his fear of getting cancer himself, because his sister has it.
“You can definitely tell he’s different now,” Andrea said. “He’s doing a lot better right now compared to what he was, but I think it changed him.”
With news of the award, arrangements were hastily made, plane tickets and hotel were booked, and on the first weekend in October the Johnses dropped Katie and Aliyah off at various family members’ houses and headed for D.C. They spent the weekend visiting museums and attractions, and whatever remained open during the government shutdown. One of Austin’s highlights was the International Spy Museum and he and Kurt spent much of the rest of the week recounting the interesting gadgets they saw on display.
The week’s activities had only just begun. Monday included a bus tour of the city (the tour time trimmed due to monument closures), Tuesday was the awards ceremony and Wednesday they were given the chance to meet with Camp in the Capitol building, and then attend the closing gala.
However, along with the various events and trips, came a series of phone calls from home that disrupted their trip.
As the weekend heat and blistering sun gave way to a blustery, rainy Monday morning, Kurt’s grandfather had taken a turn for the worse. Fluid was continuously filling his lungs after a car accident the week before. When they had left, he was recovering, but now he wasn’t getting any better.
“It was a complete 180, now they’re talking that he’s going to be on his deathbed,” Kurt said. “It makes you not want to be there, plain and simple.”
Andrea knew she had to be strong. She had to talk to Austin about death, something he hadn’t really experienced yet, let alone with someone so close. She called back home and asked family members to take Katie and Aliyah, who both had already called her crying asking them to come back home, to visit their great-grandfather and say goodbye. But, it was hard for her when all she wanted to do was crumble.
Over the next few days, Kurt and Andrea kept close tabs on what was happening at home. Katie was fighting going to school because she wanted her mother to take her. Kurt’s parents were delivering frequent updates as his grandfather continued on a downward spiral. Still, the Johnses made sure to appreciate the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity presented to them.
As they prepared to meet with Camp on Wednesday, who was unable to attend the awards ceremony the day before, another call came through for Andrea. Katie, who was at a chemotherapy appointment, had counts so low she practically had no immune system. Sores had appeared in her mouth over the weekend and she was complaining about her legs hurting.
It wasn’t easy to hear this. Andrea hung up the phone, wiping tears from her eyes, and was met with blank stares from Kurt and Austin. Everything seemed to be falling apart, but they put on their sweaters and headed out.
Camp took them on a tour of the U.S. Capitol building, showing them the Capitol rotunda and the geographic center of D.C., and to the balcony looking west over the National Mall, the same spot where presidents have delivered inaugural speeches.
“I was grateful that we were there,” Andrea said. “But in my mind I’m thinking, ‘What is the expense for the next ticket to get out of here?’”
And that feeling was multiplied after they left Camp’s office and prepared for the gala. While in Ann Arbor, Katie was given a prescription for the mouth sores, and Lynnette Miller, a friend who had taken Katie to chemo, went to fill the prescription and noticed that Katie felt warm. She was running a temperature of 101. So Miller called Andrea and took Katie to the emergency room in Midland.
By all accounts, Kurt and Andrea were in the wrong place at the wrong time. But again, despite the concern for the adversity at home, they changed their clothes and hopped on a shuttle bus for an eventful evening. And though it seemed to come at the worst possible time, it was just what they needed.
“Grandpa was taking some of his last breaths, Katie was at her worst,” Andrea said. “But (the gala) also had a lot of humor in it to make my mind not dwell on everything we couldn’t help.”
By midnight Wednesday, Katie had been moved to an Ann Arbor hospital. Hours later, her family was airborne, heading home to be by her side.
“You could tell she was absolutely exhausted,” Kurt said.
Over the next few days Andrea stayed in Ann Arbor by Katie’s side at the hospital as Kurt drove back and forth, bringing clothes and other necessary supplies to his wife and daughter and then driving back to Midland to be by his grandfather’s side.
“It’s hard to switch gears like that. To be there for her but then also be thinking about what’s going on here,” Kurt said. “When I’m down there I want to be up here with my grandpa, and when I’m up here I’m thinking about Katie.”
The road became Kurt’s respite: the only time he had to himself, to reflect and collect himself before diving back into the thick of everything.
On that Friday, Kurt’s grandfather passed away.
“I thought at one time, maybe this is God taking one angel to leave an angel for us,” Andrea said, who stayed with Katie until she was released from the hospital on that Sunday.
