James and Virginia Lawrence

Angels in Adoption 2005 - Tennessee

Selected by Representative Jim Cooper

James and Virginia Lawrence of Nashville, Tennessee, have devoted the last 12 years of their lives to caring, loving, and supporting more than 200 children who have come into their home through Tennessee's foster care system. After raising four biological children, Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence took their first foster child into their home in 1992. They didn't know it at the time, but this was the first step in what would become a lifelong commitment to helping children in need. The Lawrences stand out as foster parents for two reasons: their absolute devotion to the children who have come into their home, and their tireless work to reunite children with their birth parents. According to Mrs. Lawrence, many of the birth parents "needed parenting themselves. We taught many of them how to be parents by providing counsel, offering advice, and by our example." Whenever it became clear that returning to a birth parent was not a good option for one of their foster children, the Lawrences knew what to do. They simply adopted the children. The Lawrences have adopted Alisa, now 24, Peggy, 21, and Shelby, 18. Before retiring from the city's police force, Mr. Lawrence said he was greatly affected by the many children taken from their families. That experience moved him and Mrs. Lawrence to open their home to children in need of a family. But helping children has, Mr. Lawrence said, been a blessing for him and his wife as well. As Mrs. Lawrence said, "having the kids around keeps your heart beating another day." Clearly, the Lawrences have remarkable hearts. It is evidenced in more than 200 children they have reached out to over the years, and in their willingness today to open their doors to young people in need of a warm, secure, and loving home.
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