Santa and Mrs. Claus
Santa and Mrs. Claus
By GWEN SWANSON
The Daily Tribune (Hibbing Daily Tribune)
December 26th, 2002 09:40:22 AM
HIBBING — Christmas and kids go best together, which is why now is a truly special time for Dave and Glenda Kinghorn.
This rural Meadowlands couple holds a love for children and a giving spirit that could only come from Santa and Mrs. Claus.
Whether playing the jolly holiday pair for youngsters at local malls or helping at home with their kids — 10 total — they are happiest working with children.
The couple began considering adoption after moving from California to Minnesota. They felt the need to help and heard the call to adopt children with special needs.
They first adopted a brother and two sisters — Christopher, 12; Tierra, 10; and Sarah Jane, 7. The group had been in the system and many were willing to adopt the children individually. But the Kinghorns were willing to take in all three.
Jasmine, 7, who was burned badly over much of her body at age two, came next.
Teddy, 8, Dasha, 6, and La’Queenia (Queenie), 7, Christopher, 12, Elizabeth, 16, and Jeffrey, 21, round out the Kinghorn clan.
The Kinghorns deal with a lot in caring for the adopted children — Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in varying degrees, reactive disorders, pervasive development disordery, sensory disorders, and two were cocaine positive before birth.
“It never started out with the idea of a megafamily,” Dave said.
Both agreed they haven’t hit their quota for children yet — and they don’t know when that will come.
“We won’t shut our doors as long as children still need homes,” Glenda said.
Both acknowledge that dealing with the children can be a big job. Both stay home and the children are home schooled. The children can receive intensive one-on-one training that way.
“But it’s neat,” Dave said. “Even baking cookies, you can work in arithmetic.”
Prior to adopting the children, Glenda worked extensively with people with special needs — some in a group home setting, some within the jail system, others through Easter Seals. All gave a picture of the full circle of life with special needs.
Dave said both he and his wife have also attended 20 or more training seminars in parenting children with special needs and transracial adoption. Glenda is a parent liason.
“Some people tell us that we are such a blessing to the kids, but truly, they are a blessing to us,” Dave said.
Sometimes there’s struggles, as in the life of Teddy, who has been with the Kinghorns since March. He was in five different homes and has attachment disorders. Sometimes he acts out on that.
“We tell him, ‘You’re staying, but your behavior is going,’” Glenda said.
The positive of it all is when you see things start to click. They see it some in Christopher, with him even relating things the Kinghorns had ingrained in him. Tierra, as well, has really softened emotionally, they said.
The love for kids is also what got Dave into his work as Santa. In December 1999, the first Christmas they had the adopted children, a single mom in Meadowlands asked if Dave would play Santa, bringing a snowmobile for her sons.
“So I loaded it in the back of the truck,” Dave said. He wore a Santa suit that had a cotton-sheet beard.
“I was thinking that was fun,” Dave said, noting he soon grew his own beard.
He then bought his own Santa suit and played the role for the first time for a group home in Duluth.
“I enjoy it because I love kids,” he said.
Sometimes people ask if the time as Santa is boring, Dave said. But it’s not.
“One kid can make it all worthwhile,” he said, relating several stories.
One boy, presumably on a foster visit, came up, sat on Santa’s lap and whispered, “I want my family to stop taking drugs.”
A girl related her wish for a cure for cancer, nothing else.
An older man with Down Syndrome sat on his lap, his heart in tune with the magic of Christmas, and asked for a CD.
What does the future hold?
More love for kids, for sure. The gift the Kinghorns are looking into now is the adoption of a child with hydrocephaly. There will be enough love for children to adopt and for children coming to whisper their wishes to Santa.