Holly Yzquierdo

John Nystedt had never considered adoption. He wasn’t against the idea, it had just never occurred to him. He already had three biological kids. But his wife Annette dreamt of bringing children into her home—children who had no one else— and making them family.

The experience proved more difficult than most of the students anticipated. “I now understand it’s a lot harder to do the regular things you do every day," said an eighth grade student. "Before this, I always wanted to know what it was like to be a teen mom and now I know, and it makes me want to wait and live my life as a kid.”

Ken remembers serving in the U.S. Army in the Gulf War, but he doesn’t like to. “We killed a lot of people,” said Ken. “People think that war is just a cake walk, but its not.”

After leaving the military in 1991, Ken spent more than 20 years walking a trail of heartache with five broken marriages and time in jail.

“I was one of the few in my hometown in Ethiopia who made it to high school and then college,” said Merie. “Education has a lasting impact on independence, self-sufficiency and becoming a contributing member of the community.”