Ministers' group asks ex-missionary to go; Association wants group for foster kids to move in; mom, 8 kids refuse to leave.
Indianapolis Star, The (IN)
Author: LYNDE HEDGPETH LYNDE.HEDGPETH@INDYSTAR.COM
SHELBYVILLE, Ind. -- One of Kathy Blackburn's 28 adopted children is touring the country with a church choir. Four others are serving time in the Shelby County Jail.
Another child is studying criminology at Indiana State University. One has a mental handicap, and another works at Denny's in Shelbyville. Almost all of them have drifted from her home and into adulthood.
The home -- a 12,000-square-foot prefabricated dormitory, built nearly a decade ago by Shelby County neighbors who rallied to the ministry of Blackburn and her husband -- is at the center of a dispute signaling how far their ministry has drifted. Dan and Kathy Blackburn are divorced, and the Shelby County Ministerial Association wants the building back.
Blackburn, 55, says she's fighting to stay in the 15-bedroom home where she raised the children whom she and her husband took in as missionaries in Haiti. When Shelbyville residents united in 1993 to build it, local and national media described the new home as a triumph of charity and goodwill.
But the house deteriorated as the family broke apart. The fountain of charity dried up.
In May, the Ministerial Association, the charity that owns the house, asked Blackburn and eight sons who still live with her to move out. Blackburn refuses to leave.
The Ministerial Association offered to pay $600 a month for her and her four children who are under 18 to live in a smaller house in Shelbyville for three years.
The association wants to give the property to Solid Rock Ranch, which works with foster children in New Castle. President Rod Beheler said the ministry will use the property wisely and be accountable to a board of directors.
"They will have the proper amount of adult-to-child support," Beheler said. "They're just set up for handling this type of property."
Blackburn acknowledges she has trouble with upkeep.
Her only income is $200 a month in child support and food stamps. In the past year, she rarely left the house except to go to the doctor for her circulation problems, which caused physicians to amputate half of her left leg in April.
A bungee cord holds the door to the house shut, and years of stains spot the carpet. The walls are patched and dirty, and plumbing problems have given the house a faint scent of urine.
"My income won't maintain this house," Blackburn said. "I can't buy fancy furniture. I can't repaint. I can't have the carpets professionally shampooed."
Blackburn said the house was built with money donated for her family, and she is the house's rightful owner.
She and the association met with their lawyers in mid-July and could not work out an agreement about the house.
The Ministerial Association told Blackburn its offer was good for 30 days. As the deadline passed last week, Beheler said his group was waiting to see if Blackburn makes a counteroffer.
Blackburn said she won't leave the house without a court order.
In 1993, when the Blackburns suddenly found themselves without a home for their large family, Shelbyville residents collected the land, materials and money to build the house. The Blackburns have lived there without paying rent or signing a lease.
"It was all in good faith," Beheler said.
The association's faith in the Blackburns was shaken, though, when the two sides argued over who should have the deed to the house just before moving in.
Then came the Blackburns' divorce in 1996. When Dan Blackburn gained custody of the children, the house deteriorated so badly the Shelby County Health Department declared it a public nuisance.
He since has moved away from Shelbyville and declined to comment for this story.
Kathy Blackburn regained custody of the children and returned to the house. She cleaned the house, but then some of the Blackburn boys started going to jail for burglary, cocaine possession and other charges.
Shelbyville contractor Carl Mohr donated the land for the Blackburn home. He and his wife have watched the Blackburn children grow up.
"I really think there's been disappointments," Mohr said, "but not nearly as many disappointments as there's been blessings."
Three of the children are in college. Others have gotten jobs and started families in Shelbyville.
"I have one dream," Blackburn said, "and that's that my kids would walk with God. That doesn't mean they have to be missionaries or preachers."
In the past year, Blackburn rarely left her bedroom at the top of the stairs.
She recently drove her younger boys to the Wal-Mart in Shelbyville, where they pushed her wheelchair around the store while shopping for school supplies.
Only Caleb, 16, and the three 15-year-olds, Mike, Mark and Andy, could live with Blackburn if she took the Ministerial Association's deal. Four older boys who live there would have to move.
But they, like Blackburn, are confident that won't happen.
"We're not moving out," 21-year-old Aaron Blackburn said. "It's our house. They built it for us."