By Mackenzie Clark
When Taci Garner, student, married her husband Dan, she inherited three children from his first marriage. Eight years ago, they decided their family was still incomplete and chose to adopt three more children – all of whom have special needs.
One by one, Arrissia, 12, Samuel, 11, and Cody, 10, left foster care and became members of the Garner family.
“[The kids] have taken me directions I never thought I’d go,” Dan said. “There are so many things you don’t know and you don’t see, and you get blindsided by that. It’s a rollercoaster.”
Arrissia was born addicted to crank and with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). She experienced severe abuse as an infant.
“She was raped at 18 months old and beaten beyond recognition at age 2,” Taci said.
As a consequence, Arrissia suffers from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), reactive attachment disorder (RAD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and other conditions. At age 4, she was binging and purging.
Samuel was born addicted to cocaine and also has FAS. He has shaken baby syndrome and a rare genetic disorder of his chromosomes. He has mild retardation and has to wear braces on both legs due to weak muscle development. Before he was taken from his foster home, he was found in a closet, neglected. He also experiences sensory issues.
“Most kids like hugs, [Samuel] doesn’t like them,” Taci said. “He doesn’t like to be touched. Certain fabrics, he can’t handle.”
Before Samuel came to live with the Garners, he was rejected by three separate families who couldn’t handle him.
Cody, who has the same birth mother as Arrissia, was also addicted to crank at birth and has FAS. He has high-functioning Asperger’s syndrome, and also suffers PTSD and night terrors after being physically abused and neglected in foster care.
“[We deal with their needs] one day at a time, one moment at a time; sometimes it’s one second at a time,” Taci said.
Recently the Garners were fortunate to add another member to their family: a 1-year-old service dog named Hikari. He is trained to calm Cody down and sense whenever he needs special attention.
“The very first night [Cody] got the dog was the first night in eight years that he didn’t have a night terror,” Taci said.
The Garners had to get recommendations from Cody’s doctors and therapists and research to find a dog they could afford. Usually service dogs run between $18,000-$35,000, but members of the Garners’ church, Faith Chapel, helped raise the $3,000 necessary to get Hikari from an organization called Canine Assistance Rehabilitation Education and Services (CARES).
“We had a garage sale, we had a silent auction…we tried to involve everyone in it, so we had a bake sale,” said Lola Abbott, the Sunday school teacher at the church who initiated the fundraising efforts. “Just all the right people at all the right times offered their services and their abilities, and it just went together very smoothly. We were more than pleased with God’s blessing to the Garners as well as to our efforts.”
Hikari also helps the other children.
“[Arrissia] went into [a fit] over the weekend, and her fits can run- usually the lowest one is about two hours but they can go to eight hours, and the dog got up in her lap and it lasted ten minutes,” Taci said. “That was worth it.”
The Garners have had plenty of difficult times, but they are a very close-knit family and say they feel blessed to have all six of their children.
“It’s not an experience I’d tell a weak person to take on,” Dan said. “I’ve asked myself if I’d do it again, but I wouldn’t take a million dollars for any of them.”
Contact Mackenzie Clark, features editor, at mclark68@jccc.edu.
These special children are so lucky to find someone in their lives with such compassion and love. I wish them and their incredible family a lifetime of happiness. Thank you for sharing.