Better Together
For years, the kids knew Eriq as their grown brother – the fun guy who’d come to visit and take them for vacation time in the summer.
Eriq was always solid. He was always dependable in ways their own parents were not. And he came for them when it mattered most.
When life turned inside out.
This is how Eriq went from easygoing brother to father of five, ages 4 to 12.
It was summer when Eriq got the call from social services: His siblings were headed into foster care – likely into separate homes – unless he offered to take them himself.
He didn’t exactly leap at the proposal, he says, remembering the shock.
But he did what needed to happen. He took the kids – and he hoped for the best.
Maybe, he thought, their stay would be short – like an extended summer vacation. Maybe their parents would do the work required to get them back.
He was wrong, it turned out.
But he was right on everything that mattered.
Eriq ended up adopting the kids – all five of them. And he surrendered his uncomplicated single-guy life for the good of his family.
These days, the alarm wakes Eriq at 5 a.m. He drives morning and afternoon school bus routes and, when he’s not working – or taking care of the kids – he’s in classes, or clinicals, or studying to be a mortician.
“Sometimes I wish I could still be a brother,” he says. “But I’m willing to do anything to keep the kids together and plan a future for them.”
A fiancé is part of that future. La’Shuan is a longtime friend; the kids have known and loved her for years. It’s nice to have a partner in parenting, Eriq says, and La’Shuan has a big heart for children.
The job of raising five kids is easier now; time has made the family better together. “They are awesome kids,” Eriq says. “And I know that – regardless of how they were given to me. I’m going to be grateful for the chance to raise them.”
Clockwise from left: Cam, Lola, Honey, AJ, Koko, La’Shuan, Eriq