When Pastor Ronnie Stewart and his wife Krystal Stewart saw a homeless family of four – including two small children – camped out under the awning of their refuge church in Florida, they knew they had to do something.
When storm clouds appeared, the couple approached the parents and asked if they could take the kids home to wash them and keep them warm during the storm. The parents said yes.
“[Krystal] had to bathe them twice, I think three times, just to get the dirt off of them,” Ronnie told Bay News 9.
But when Krystal and Ronnie tried to get the family into housing, the parents weren’t quite receptive to the idea.
“They chose to, because of their lifestyle of substance abuse and drugs, they wanted to live out with their homeless population,” said Krystal.
Ronnie and one of his new additions to the family
However, after speaking with a social worker, who told them their boys would be put into foster care, the parents asked the couple if their kids could live with them.
The boys, now aged 2 and 11 months, stayed with the Stewarts – who have three children – for five months, and then were formally adopted.
The five kids
“Our prayer is that our story inspires others to also take generous leaps of faith when your moment arises,” wrote Krystal on GoFundMe.
The couple started the fundraising page to help raise money for the cost of the adoption. They are currently just shy of $20,000.
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