Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
NEWNow you can listen to Fox News articles!
For the nine Baker children, ages 2 to 13, the year 1962 began tragically and ended triumphantly, not unlike that first Christmas more than two thousand years ago.
The disaster occurred on January 12, a snowy Friday night. Although comfortable and safe at home in Battle Lake, Minnesota., her mom and dad, Walter and Regina, were drinking and driving, and in that deadly order.
It was a car accident on a cold, lonely road. There were no witnesses, but we know that Mrs. Baker, who was driving, lost control of the van. It rolled, tossing them both. They died of suffocation in the snow.
ADVENT 2024: RECOVERING CHRISTMAS: LIVING BIBLICAL LOVE
Without a will, her nine children were placed in foster care, in various homes in the area. Because noise makes news and tragedy travels fast, the plight and anguish of the Baker Nine became something of a national concern.
The ‘Baker Nine’ in 1962. L-R: Loretta Baker, Susan Baker, Sally Jo Meyers, Jim Meyers, Jerald Baker, Jeffrey Baker, Teresa Baker, Karen Meyers, Timothy Baker, Pauline Baker, Monica Jo Baker, Philip Baker, held by Jean, new mother.
More than 1,300 miles away in Charlotte, North CarolinaDon and Jean Meyers were reading about the terrible accident. However, there was one phrase from the story that grabbed them and wouldn’t let go:
“The children will not stay together,” one of the neighbors told the journalist.
“Children need parents, and if these children were put in this world together, they should stay together,” Jean told Don defiantly. “We need kids. We want these kids.”
This is where the many layers and providential twists of the story begin to emerge.
With two biological daughters, the Meyers had also previously adopted three children, two of whom were twins. When the only twin son drowned, the Rev. J. Paul Bryon of St. Gabriel’s Church in Charlotte reached out to offer help. Grief can sometimes open previously closed hearts, and that’s exactly what happened. The Meyers, grateful for the love and support, ended convert to catholicism.
So, after seeing the Bakers’ story, Don Meyers called his pastor, Father Bryon, who called Monsignor Michael J. Begley of Catholic Charities in Raleigh. The monsignor then called Catholic Charities in St. Cloud, Minnesota, which was handling the Baker case.
“There is room here in our home and in our hearts,” Don Meyers said at the time. “God has blessed me with a generous income. I can afford to spend money on raising children. It is a small reward for the blessings we have been given.”
It is increasingly out of fashion to see children as blessings, as priceless gifts. Instead, modern culture too often views babies as an expensive burden to be avoided. This narrow-mindedness not only deprives families of fun and satisfaction, it threatens our very existence. This is because societies die when couples do not marry or have children.
The birth of Jesus in Bethlehem was the most famous adoption of all time, and it was a far cry from the idyllic picture painted on cards or sung in Christmas carols. (iStock)
The Baker Nine arrived and met their new parents at the Charlotte airport on December 17, 1962. There were many smiles and hugs. The love was new but true. It would be good Distinctive Christmas movie Yes, that’s where the story ended, but it’s really where it began.
Monica Harbes, who was only two years old when her parents died and three when she arrived at the Meyers’ house, remembers the plane ride. “It was very exciting,” he told me. Monica, along with her husband, Ed, now run the Harbes family farm in Mattituck, on the North Fork of Long Island. She says the Meyers “ran a strict ship with a lot of rules, a lot of structure.”
The team of 13 siblings adopted a familiar, if not challenging, rhythm and routine. Her mother, who was a seamstress, stayed home to raise the children. They attended parochial school. Everything was going well until tragedy struck again in 1969, when her adoptive mother died of lupus.
“The family imploded,” Monica acknowledged. “Our father remarried. There were other children. There was favoritism. We all started to go our separate ways.” At age 14, Monica ended up moving to New York to live with her sister Pauline and her new husband. They were difficult years.
But it was only because he had moved to New York who met her beloved Ed. It was Ed who led Monica to the Lord, who led her to everything good. They have four sons, four daughters and nine grandchildren.
CLICK HERE TO REVIEW MORE FROM FOX NEWS
“Over the years, I’ve had to forgive,” he recalled. “But all of us have to go through forgiveness. Our family’s story is redemptive. It’s a little confusing, but so is life.”
Last December 17, as they do every year, the original Bakers (two of them have since passed away) connected by phone or group text message to remember and commemorate that dramatic and pivotal day in 1962. It is no coincidence that coincides with Christmas. .
that’s because The birth of Jesus in Bethlehem It was the most famous adoption of all time, and a far cry from the idyllic image painted on cards or sung in Christmas carols.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
It’s a raw story: a single mother, an adoptive father, a baby born in filth far from fame and fortune, in a broken world with a king who felt threatened and wanted to kill the baby.
Christmas reminds us that life, like adoption, is unpredictable, often messy, also mysterious, and still beautiful. It shows us that one child (or 9 of them!) can change everything for the better, and not just one day, but every day and for all eternity.
