Ensure Safety and Stability for Abused and Neglected Children

Lakeview Center Child Protective Services : Success Story

Merrie and David Schwartz are to parenting what snowboarding and rock climbing are to sports: Extreme.

Every waking hour is devoted to their children. There are the usual activities: giving baths, changing diapers, washing clothes, fixing meals. Then there are the extreme ones: cleaning ventilators, administering tube feedings, suctioning tracheotomies.

Each of the five youngsters in the Schwartz household has – or has had – complicated medical needs. Three of them are adopted; the other two are foster children. “I felt such a calling to these kinds of children,” says Merrie, who gave up her nursing career to care for kids. “I felt it was God’s purpose for me.”

The Schwartzes are medical foster parents, as well as adoptive parents, of children served by FamiliesFirst Network of Lakeview, which is responsible for the safety, stability and well-being of abused, neglected or abandoned children in Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton counties. Through a contract with the Florida Department of Children and Families, FamiliesFirst works with a network of agencies and community groups to provide foster care and adoption services for children who cannot safely remain in their homes.

The Schwartz children are among those children. Merrie began providing medical foster care even before she met David in 1991 and married him the following year. “We decided jointly that we will take care of children for the rest of our lives,” she said.

In 1994 the Schwartzes adopted Javier Lee, a little boy with autism who came to them out of foster care. Now 21, Javier had a tracheotomy until he was 15 years old and an experimental surgery enabled him to breathe without it. Thanks to another Lakeview Center program, Project Search, he received workplace training that allowed him to be hired as an environmental services technician at Baptist Hospital. “We knew he needed to learn a trade so he could stand on his own,” Merrie said.

The Schwartzes’ two other adopted children are 6-year-old David Jacob – or “D.J.” – and 5-year old Jon Michael. D.J has asthma and other health issues; Jon breathes through a tracheotomy and requires tube feedings to survive.

Another adopted child, Sean, passed away last year. He was so severely disabled that doctors predicted he would not live to be two. He outlived those expectations by a dozen years. Although he required a ventilator to breathe and was never able to walk or talk, Sean enjoyed life, smiling and laughing at the other children, until his final year. “We feel we gave him the best-est little life he could have,” Merrie said.

As foster parents, the Schwartzes must be advocates for their young charges, siblings who are ages 2 and 19 months. Working closely with FamiliesFirst staff, the couple is treated as part of the team. When there have been issues, they have been resolved. “I can voice my opinion and not worry about retribution,” Merrie said.

Last fall Merrie and David were among 180 adoptive or foster parents honored as the nation’s Angels In Adoption by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption. Nominated by Congressman Jeff Miller, the couple was flown to Washington, D.C., where they attended a series of events at the White House and Capitol.

“It was truly a humbling experience,” Merrie said, still sounding amazed by it. “There was at least one family from every state, and all these people did all these miraculous things – and we were one of them!”

The Schwartzes don’t consider themselves special. “We’re just two people who love kids,” said David.

 Read another Child Protective Services Success Story...