Jerry, left, and Sandy Tucker are caring for 50 children. (Clay Jackson Photo)
Born Free
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Jerry, left, and Sandy Tucker are caring for 50 children. (Clay Jackson Photo)
By LIZ MAPLES
lizm@amnews.com
The wishes of "Happy Mother's Day" to Sandy Tucker could be deafening.
She and her husband, Jerry, have 27 children and are now caring for a total of 50. Through the years, more than 800 infants and children have come to be part of the Tucker family at the Galilean Home in Casey County.
The Tuckers first started adopting foster children when doctors told Sandy she couldn't have babies. They felt led to take handicapped and abused children.
In 1991, they had their hands full when a minister called to ask if they could watch a baby for a woman while she was in prison.
"That led to another and another," Sandy said.
At the time, there was a ministry in the South that was taking care of incarcerated women's babies, but it wasn't giving the babies back.
So the Galilean Home's Born Free Ministries was born.
The Tuckers always give the babies back to the mothers. Of the more than 500 babies that have passed through the ministry, there has been only one mother who did not come back for her baby.
"Our ministry is just to make sure the woman has the desire to get out and stay out," said Sandy. "Their babies give the women something to hope for ..."
The Tuckers get temporary custody of the babies by filing a one-page document at the courthouse.
The care-givers don't preach to the mothers, choosing instead to show Christ through their actions.
"Some women in prison are victims of circumstance, being in the wrong place at the wrong time and often with the wrong man," Sandy said.
Others, she said, were raised in dysfunctional families laden with drug and alcohol problems.
Sandy points out that one of the Bible's first families was dysfunctional. Cain killed his brother, Abel, in a fit of jealousy.
She believes prison is harder on women then men. The visiting room at a women's prison is empty, but it's full in a men's prison.
"Men don't follow their women into prison, but women will follow and support a man through his prison term."
Born Free exists to prevent another tragedy in the woman's life. If the ministry did not exist, the children would probably go into foster care, and the mothers could lose their parental rights.
Ministry helps mother keep parental rights
A mother would lose not only her freedom, but her baby, too.
The ministry assures that one day the women will have a chance to share Mother's Day with their children.
In a book about the Tuckers' experiences, "Faith, Love and Room for One More," Sandy writes about a Mother's Day in 1989.
There were 63 children living in their home. It was 15 years after she and Jerry were saved at a revival near Grove Ridge.
The Lord had spoken to them about taking children into their home.
The children brought Sandy carnations, dandelions, green strawberries, handmade cards and faded plastic flowers one child had "picked" from a cemetery up the street.
Sandy described them as "those special gifts only a child will bring - gifts unspoiled by price tags and designer labels - gifts close to every mother's heart."
The cook was off that day, so Sandy made breakfast: 15 dozen eggs, 200 large pancakes and 10 pounds of bacon.
Nearly two decades later, the Tuckers are still taking care of children, even through Sandy's battle with cancer.
They have never been able to say "no."