A popular college town minister and his wife want to adopt a four-year-old girl but learn she has three older brothers and decide to welcome all four children into their home. Janey (four), Charlie (five), Billy (six), and Dick (seven), arrive from a bleak county children’ s home, bringing with them invisible histories of neglect and abuse.

This true story, based on case files and family interviews, opens with the children’s background and the oldest boy’s determined struggle to keep his family together. The four children barely survive ever worse threats as they lose the adults in their world to imprisonment, abandonment, and death. When all seems hopeless, a talented social worker intervenes, trying to change their fate .

The story then shifts to describe how their foster parents put in place programs to restore the physical and emotional health of their instant family while the children struggle to adjust to the upper middle class culture and university-sponsored grade school into which they have been plunged. Dick resists surrendering his role of “child parent” to his younger siblings. His attachment to their imprisoned biological father further complicates the picture while the eccentric personality of their clergyman foster father challenges all four children.

This is a lively and sometimes humorous story. Children of the Manse entertains as it describes how four wounded children respond to intelligent and loving foster care.

"His story exposes human frailties while it exalts human kindness and generosity.  The road travelled by the four Luchs siblings leads to a triumph of the human spirit."

-Pierre L. Van Rysselberghe, Senior Judge,
State of Oregon Circuit Court, Retired

CHILDREN OF THE MANSE IN THE NEWS:

KIRKUS REVIEW - MARCH 2011
CASA MAGAZINE BOOK REVIEW - OCTOBER 2010
KVAL TV SEGMENT - MAY 2010
KPNW RADIO INTERVIEW - APRIL 2010
REGISTER-GUARD ARTICLE - APRIL 2010
KEZI TV NEWS SEGMENT - APRIL 2010
PRESS RELEASE - JANUARY 2010