Teacher adopts her student with Down Syndrome after his mother passes away : 'Fell in love with him'

There are many people in the world who have big and kind hearts. Their compassion and generosity appear when they make some extraordinary life choices. Such is an example of Kerry Bremer. She is a teacher from Massachusetts who adopted her student with Down Syndrome after his mother died from breast cancer, making him an integral part of her family. In 2015, Jean Manning and her son Jake moved from Florida to Massachusetts to get better treatment for terminal breast cancer. However, she did not know how the action would change her son's life, reported ABC News.

Manning found a school for Jake, who has Down Syndrome. The school was near their home in Ayer, Massachusetts. Kerry Bremer, Jake's teacher, said that she "fell in love with him instantly." She wondered what would happen to Jake once his mother passed away. Later on, Kerry spoke to her husband and came up with a plan. She said, “If you need a backup plan for Jake, then our family is happy to make him part of our family."

When she shared her plan with Jake's mother, her happiness had no bounds. She told Bremer, "I’ll sleep better tonight than I have in a long time.” In the next few years, Jake got to know the Bremer family better and became relaxed with them. Dave Bremer said, “But when we first decided to do this and I met him again, he said: ‘You’re the dad? You’re Dave, the dad?’ That was it for a very long time. I was Dave the dad."

Then in 2019, Manning sent her son to school and went to take a nap and never woke up. Kerry was always ready for this moment. She and her family officially welcomed Jake to their home and decided to raise him as one of their own. “My mom went to heaven,” Jake said. “She’s always in my heart.”

In another heartwarming story about adoption, Gay Masters adopted a 7-year-old girl named Oksana Masters. She was born with one kidney, a half stomach, six toes on each foot, webbed fingers on each thumbless, lacked shinbones in both of her legs, and her left leg was six inches shorter than her right. And today, she is a multi-sport paralympic athlete.

Gay told Courier Journal about the first time she met Oksana. She said, "I had intended to adopt an infant because I know through my line of work how important the first year is for development, but then I was given a black and white photograph of this little girl. There was a sparkle in her eyes and I knew, even though this child was not who I had set out to find, this was my daughter."

She was advised by a speech pathologist at the University of Louisville not to adopt a girl of that age who had that many physical challenges. But Gay went ahead and did what she wanted to. It took 24 months for Gay to complete all the paperwork and to come and get her. 

And when she came, she knew who it was. "I know who you are; you are my mother," she pulled a picture of Gay, which was kept safe on the bedside table. Once they moved to America, Gay "had figured out by that point that sports were a kind of therapy for her, and I signed her up for horseback riding lesson."

For Oksana, sports were her escape and therapy, she said, "I didn't like the idea of a sport that was geared towards people with disabilities," she said. "I wanted to feel like everyone else."