DANVILLE, Ky. (CNN) – A Kentucky teacher went from being part of a family of two to a family of six pretty quickly when one of his students said he needed to be adopted.
He and his wife, Kasey, not only took in the boy, but his three siblings as well.
Kasey Padgett knows it’s funny how things just work out.
“I had been praying for months,” Kasey Padgett said.
Not long after their wedding, Justin Padgett, who is a seasoned teacher, crossed paths with a boy named Jayden.
“Jayden was in my classroom. It was in the midst of COVID,” Justin Padgett described.
Justin Padgett was tutoring Jayden when he caught a glimpse of his fifth grade student’s computer screen.
“He called me over and he typed, ‘I have to be adopted.’ It was very simple, ‘I have to be adopted,’” Justin Padgett remembered. “And I was like, ‘Oh really?’ And that started the conversation.”
Jayden was in foster care that spring. He had just learned his birth mother and father would not regain parental custody.
That meant Jayden would not be going back home, so Justin Padgett saw a chance to go beyond the usual call of a teacher.
“I go home that night. I’m like, ‘Hey, there’s a little boy in my room and he needs to be adopted.’ We were already doing foster care classes. We were wrapping those up,” Justin Padgett said.
The Padgetts decided to open up their home.
“He had told me from the very beginning of our relationship and said, ‘One day, I’m going to bring a student home and we’re just going to adopt them,’” Kasey Padgett said.
Jayden became that student the Padgetts adopted, along with his siblings; all three of them.
Hailey is the big sister at 16 years old.
“She’s the oldest. She is our most shy,” Justin Padgett remarked.
Then, it’s Jayden, who is now 14.
“He’s a little more outgoing,” Justin Padgett said. “When he gets to know people, he’s kind of like a class clown.”
Little Alexis is 12 years old.
The youngest, and perhaps the chattiest, is 9-year-old Jase.
Since March 2022, they have been the Padgett family.
“We went from husband and wife to a family of six pretty rapidly,” Justin Padgett said.
They pray, eat and travel as a family.
Justin Padgett now applies his teaching skills as a director at the Kentucky School for the Deaf. He fills the role of teacher at home, too, sharing it with his wife.
“It’s a very rewarding career when you see students that are learning and they’re developing, and when you can have, there’s so many things that are taking place outside the educational realm to mold kids to be a good role model to understand,” Justin Padgett said.
Teaching can be an often-thankless job, but in the Padgett’s home, there’s no shortage of appreciation or dedication that extends beyond the classroom.…Read more by CNN Newsource
