Several years ago, Deb Thomas, currently UNMC’s associate vice chancellor for business and finance, took her five children to a Shopko near their Lincoln home.
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Pictured from left are: Jim Eske, Aaron Eske, Michelle Eske, Gina DeFreece, Meredith Eske, Andy DeFreece, Deb Thomas and Jamie Eske. Michellle, Merideth and Jamie are three of the four internationally adopted children Thomas and her husband, Jim, adopted. The DeFreeces served as “nanny” and “manny” to Thomas and Eske’s children. |
On this day, the adopted children scattered in different directions. Thomas’ only natural-born child, Aaron Eske, tried to help corral the others but he and Thomas experienced limited success.
Amid the squall, a woman said to Thomas, “I bet all these children are from different fathers and you’re probably just a welfare mother.”
Thomas — at the time the director of the state’s health and human services department — said, “Why yes, madam, they are all from different fathers because they are all adopted. And I guess you could say that I’m a welfare mother because I am the state director of health and human services!”
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Thomas and her husband, Jim Eske, first adopted a child after Aaron was born because she wanted to have a little girl but didn’t want to go through a difficult pregnancy like the one she experienced with Aaron.
They first adopted Meredith, an Indian baby girl. A year later they adopted an Indian brother and sister, Jordan and Michelle, and a few years after that they brought home “the baby” — a young Korean girl they named Jamie.
All the adopted children faced immense challenges ranging from major health issues to dealings with troubled pasts. The book chronicles these struggles through the eyes of Aaron, a Marshall Scholar who wrote the book for his master’s thesis.
“It’s extremely well written and a great story about triumph over incredible adversity,” Thomas said.