Five pair of feet move around the large, yellow home nestled on Copperas Hollow in Morehead. Some slap across the hardwood as children run from kitchen to living room with homework questions. Some swirl and jump around the carpeted floor in a little girl's bedroom. Others, laced up in tennis shoes, crunch across the gravel driveway as someone launches a basketball toward a goal. The sounds are generated by five of Suzanne and Troy Meadows' children.
Suzanne, 48, is the mother, teacher and caregiver of her family. With six children ranging in age from 21 to 4, she has molded her life around serving her family.
Suzanne and Troy, 52, adopted their first child, Noelle, now 21, in 1998. After adopting Noelle, Suzanne noticed that there was something lacking in her community. Thinking of Noelle's birth mother led her to found Hope Pregnancy Center, a place to provide care and support for expectant mothers in Morehead.
"I just thought to myself, 'If there was a place like this in Morehead, what would her mother have done?'" Suzanne says.
Over the years, the Meadows family continued to grow. "The only ones we planned were the ones we adopted," Suzanne jokes. She and Troy went from one adopted baby girl to three adopted children (Noelle, Solomon, 18, and Celeste, 12) and three biological children (Cedric, 16, John-Harrison, 9, and Lillian, 4).
Wanting to do what was best for their family, they decided to home school.
"I love being involved in every aspect of their lives, and with home schooling I can tailor to their learning styles and the way they're wired," Suzanne says while taking a break from helping John-Harrison with history lessons.
As the family grew, Suzanne began to feel stretched between her work and home. Now, she works from home as a life coach and home schools the five youngest children. Noelle attends college.
"To be honest, a lot of people send [their children] away all day to school to be taught by someone who may have a different worldview than you, whereas I feel like I have a lot less catching up to do with regards to that," Suzanne says.
Being a woman of strong faith, Suzanne has one goal she hopes to achieve through spending most of her time with her children.
"I absolutely want to pass on my faith in God," she says. "I don't have to think about that for a second. Hopefully, I teach them by example."
Suzanne now begins her days with breakfast, chemistry, math and reading. She teaches, serves and loves on her children from morning to night and says she hasn't once regretted the ones she bore or the ones she chose. Suzanne stands in the kitchen putting together dinner for her family after a day of teaching, laundry and running after her youngest, Lillian.
"You're worth every second, aren't you," she says to Lillian, who smiles and nods in agreement.
