Dozens rally around foster family
Volunteers build home for couple who raised 14 kids
Lori O'Brien doesn't understand what all the fuss is about.
She doesn't see the work she and husband Dan do - over the last two decades, the O'Briens have given more than a dozen foster children a loving, caring home - as that different from anyone else.
"We're no one special," Lori said. "We're just doing what God's called us to do."
But members of the community have seen how special the O'Briens are - and they are doing something about it.
A project to rebuild a burned garage on the O'Briens' Brookfield property has blossomed into an effort to give the O'Briens a new house, one that's big enough to meet the space needs they have with six kids - all adopted - at home. The work also will ease structural concerns about the 70-year-old building.
Dozens of volunteers, from individuals to companies, have offered to donate time, money and manpower to the task, which started in April but picked up steam in the last few weeks as an existing garage was torn down and preliminary site work began.
"I'm just awe-struck at the love and the compassion of the community to all join together and do this," Lori said.
Family has raised 14 children
The O'Briens, who have three biological children, took in their first foster child almost 20 years ago. They have since expanded their brood to 14, including a nephew they raised and two more children, ages 11 and 13, whose adoptions have yet to be finalized.
Lori and Dan have focused on sibling groups, trying to keep the children they bring into their home with their brothers and sisters.
"If someone would have told me 20 years ago that we were going to have 14 kids, I would have laughed at them," Lori said.
She said she wants to bring in children who have faced abuse or hardship to show them they "can experience love and equality and normalcy and know they have a home."
"A lot of times the system will say, 'If they can't make it at the O'Briens, then they're not going to make it,' " Lori said.
She said it's a miracle to watch her children's lives change, especially when some were written off as a lost cause.
"We're just providing the framework and the love," she said.
Support amazes organizers
Now their neighbors are providing something of their own.
The O'Briens' garage burned down last fall, and members of Victory International Fellowship, the O'Briens' church, decided to rebuild the garage.
But those talks took off, and pretty soon the goal was to build the O'Briens an entirely new house. Andy Horn, pastor at Victory International, contacted Hometown Heroes, a Grafton-based charity that helped build a local home with the crew from ABC's "Extreme Home Makeover" show.
Brookfield-area churches and restaurants - including Chili's, which is donating a portion of its sales through Aug. 31 to the project - have joined the cause, too.
"We're kind of amazed daily that people step up and say, 'Hey, I want to help,' " Horn said.
Tom Schwalbach, a friend of the O'Briens who is helping head up the effort, said he is impressed by the community support the project - dubbed Heaven House - has received.
"It's just been an amazing story," he said.
Schwalbach said the project could take six months to a year, depending on donations.
AT A GLANCE
The O'Brien kids:
• Naomi, 26 (biological)
• John, 26 (adopted)
• Danny, 24 (biological)
• Sarah, 22 (biological)
• Stephanie, 21 (adopted)
• J.C., 20 (nephew, raised by O'Briens after his mother died)
• T.J., 19 (adopted)
• Adam, 15 (lived with O'Briens from 2 to 5 and 13 to 14; still stays in touch with family)
• Joe, 15 (adopted)
• Anna, 14 (adopted)
• Elizabeth, 12 (adopted)
• Elijah, 10 (adopted)
The O'Briens also are in the process of adopting two more children, ages 11 and 13
ONLINE
To learn more about the Heaven House project, visit heavenhouse.vifonline.org. You also can search for "Heaven House Project" on Facebook.
FYI
WHAT: luncheon and silent auction benefiting the Heaven House project
WHEN: 12:30 p.m. Saturday
WHERE: Outback Steakhouse, 1260 S. Moorland Road
TICKETS: $20; call Victory International Fellowship at (262) 783-2900 or Tammy at (414) 380-9014
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