Manitowoc couple have opened their home and hearts to 15 foster children

MANITOWOC - Becky Brooks sliced a head of iceberg lettuce on a paper plate in her Manitowoc kitchen, listening to her granddaughter, seventh-grader Bianca Michel, and daughter Danyell, 17, chatter about their school day.

As the mother of five grown children and nine kids adopted through foster parenting, Becky is used to multitasking.

While the girls talked and giggled, the 58-year-old stay-at-home mom boiled water to heat hot dogs for the family supper, sliced buns and pulled out three bottles of salad dressing, stopping the conversation to ask kids — ranging in age from 3 years old to 20 — if they wanted bun or no bun, olives or pickles, milk or juice.

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'I will love you forever': Why one Wisconsin family fosters and adopts dying children

The thought of a child dying alone in a hospital bed is one former bereavement nurse Cori Salchert finds unacceptable.

Salchert fosters and adopts children in her home state of Wisconsin who have a terminal or life-limiting illness. While sheknows she cannot make a difference in the life of every sick child whose parents cannot or will not take care of them due to their conditions, she has made a great difference in the lives of seven kids who would otherwise have no one.

Salchert and her husband Mark, who have eight biological children, first adopted a daughter, named Emmalyn, in 2013. The infant was born without the right or left hemisphere of her brain, and was given a grim prognosis by her doctors. Still the family brought Emmalyn home, caring for her for fifty days before she died in Salchert's arms in their dining room.

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Watch the video and listen to Cori open up about the process.

Background

Wisconsin couple offers home to terminally ill children without families

Cori Salchert and Charlie

SHEBOYGAN -- Two parents from Sheboygan say compassion brings children into their foster home, but it's their faith that allows them to care for these children who may not have much time left here on Earth.

Since Cori and Mark Salchert brought Charlie home in October 2015, they've gotten the post-travel routine down. But it's difficult to say that anything is routine when you offer your home to children who are terminally ill.

Charlie cannot breathe or swallow in his own. He suffered brain damage before and during birth, and he requires 24-hour care.

Mark Salchert with baby Charlie.

"This is a suction machine. It helps keep his saliva down," Mark Salchert said.

"With Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy, generally children don't live past the age of two," Cori Salchert said.

Cori Salchert, a registered nurse, and her husband began fostering terminally ill babies more than three years ago.

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I missed this story a few months ago when it made the rounds.  The Salcherts have already had eight of their own children. This is one of the most beautiful things I've ever witnessed.

Also Sheyboygan Press: Sheboygan family opens home to hospice kids
Live Action: Family opens home and hearts to terminally ill children
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