Cheaper by the
Seven
By Emma Orner
their three biological children, the family totals up to twelve. Someattention. When we travel and go how they all manage to pile into through the airport security, it is two mini-vans, squish into three a lot of kids to be taking off their bedrooms, and are still able to shoes and getkeep the conflicts to a ting all their stuff “People give us looks like minimum. Mrs. Porter on the conveyer they don’t believe they all has taught/is teaching belt. Just bebelong to us. But they do.” them all English while ing anywhere, spending nearly the -Mrs. Porter people give us whole day chauffeuring looks like they don’t believe they all everyone to events and activities. belong to us. But they do.” Without her, adopting these kids Mr. and Mrs. Porter have three would be impossible. Leslie Porter biological children, all sons. They’re offers the opportunity for children quirky, hilarious, and extremely to prosper in a safer environment tall. Living in a single story house surrounded by culture and commuon a boringly normal street, they nity through adoption. resemble a typical American family. Leslie Porter is a thin However, the Porter’s are far from woman of about average height. normal. Over the past eight years, She has short golden brown hair Mr. and Mrs. Porter have adoptand could very much be the nicest ed seven kids from four different person ever. Mrs. Porter is a stay at countries. Combining them with home mom. Although this implies
“We tend to attract a lot of
a relaxed lifestyle of laundry and reruns of How I Met Your Mother, Mrs. Porter rarely has time for herself. Ever since 2005, Leslie Porter has been involved in the adoption process of seven children from four different countries. Starting with Llana from Russia, she’s traveled to many countries in search of chil-
Name
1. Luke 2. Colin 3. Jake 4. Llana 5. Megan 6. Amy 7. Kali 8. Tulum 9. Toby 10. Lee
Birthplace Biological Biological Biological Russia Russia Guatamala Ethiopia Ethiopia China China
dren that she can open up everyone to stay focused. her home to. Her husband Mrs. Porter has homesdescribes her as being “best chooled all of her children in California at the adoption as well as taught many of process.” them English. Having so Walking onto the many kids at different levels Porter residence, you imof education, she didn’t want mediately notice the large them to feel the pressures of array of sporting equipment having to adapt in an atmostrewn about the lawn. The sphere that pushes them bedoor is normally answered yond their level. Mrs. Porter by a child who doesn’t speak believes “it’s nice to know English, and you will come that they have kids around to realize that silence is an them that went through the unknown word here. Inside same thing and are very the house, children with supportive.” toys run wild. It’s an expe Once a week, Mrs. rience that will take you a Porter takes all the kids to couple minutes to get used a PE class at a local park. to. Mrs. Porter can be found All the kids file out of the walking about the house minivan in an extremely unchecking on children, clean- organized fashion. A child ing up toys, and preventing complains about their shoes future conflicts being untied while from occurring. Mrs. Porter has another rummages Today, however, homeschooled all around the back she’s working on of her children. seat for shoes to a homeschoolwear. “Lee has no ing program with her kids. shoes,” someone explains Located in their garage, a to Mrs. Porter. Being one of table is set up for everyone the newer additions to the to sit around with florescent family from China, Lee still lights giving the room a yel- hasn’t any shoes for himlow glow. Her voice is stern self. Finding a pair of pink as she constantly reminds cleats, Lee walks out content
while his shoes clack on the blacktop. Mrs. Porter laughs, “once we get the time, we’ll get him a pair.” Time is a constant topic that comes up in the Porter lifestyle. There are no calendars of daily events for Mrs. Porter to refer to at the house. She is a one person show most of the day. Mr. Porter finds that “there’s some things about
Top Left: Toby from China Top Right: Amy from Guatamala
“There’s some things about affection and love that [the kids] haven’t experienced before, and all of our kids have reacted strongly and positively.” -Mr. Porter
affection and love that [the kids] haven’t experienced before, and all of our kids have reacted strongly and positively.” The priority for both parents is making sure each child gets an equal amount of attention. When bringing home a new child, they often celebrate a birthday or the event itself to epitomize how important the child is to them. It’s almost been two months since Lee and Toby have joined the Porter
family from China. Mrs. Porter is continuing to teach them English as well as helping them adapt to American society. When asked if they were going to adopt more, the response was a quick no. But then they have said that multiple times before. They “weren’t just doing it because [they felt] sorry for them. [They] felt that [their] family could have more kids both from a compassion perspective and from a family dynamics perspective and it’s
worked out really really well.” “It’s easy to get caught up in yourself and your possessions and everything else. It’s really made us think. Colin will see a really nice car and then he’ll look at me and say, ‘yeah I know Mom that could be enough money to run an orphanage.’”