MOORE — This is a story about a family.
A big, big blended family, mind you.
It’s a story about two divorced adults who struggled, then found each other.
It’s a story about six little kids who joined forces to become brothers and sisters.
It’s the story about four other little girls who might have been lost, had it not been for the gentle, hardworking plumber and his loving wife.
This is a story about Steve and Maylene Sorrels.
It’s also a story about Taylor, Cody, Michael, Nicole, Aylee, Gabriella, Breanna, Dalton, Victoria and Jaden.
Yes, this is the story of one big family, but mostly, it’s a story about love.
nnn
The first thing you notice when you arrive at Steve and Maylene Sorrels’ home in Moore is the shoes.
They’re everywhere.
Small shoes. Tennis shoes. Boots. Overshoes. Snow boots. Casual shoes. More tennis shoes. They’re piled on the porch on a curved black shelf, just to the right of the door.
What, at first, looks like the remains of a Wal-Mart sidewalk sale, is actually one family’s shoes.
Each pair belongs to someone different — and in the Sorrels family, that’s 12 humans.
Past the shoes, inside the house, it’s bright, clean and the walls are covered with family photos. To the right, a handful of kids watch a movie; in the kitchen two girls bake a cake.
At any moment, there are six, or maybe seven, kids scurrying back and forth — but the noise level is low, and the kids are polite and happy. A smaller girl slips away from the TV for a hug from mom. One of the boys starts to wrestle with his brother; he’s gently reprimanded and sent for a brief time out.
He’s back quickly — and his mother smiles.
Because this small boy is part of a family that’s been blended several times over. Call them the Brady Bunch, plus four.
“At first, it was kinda’ hard,” Maylene Sorrels said. “At first the kids were … skeptical. It was hard on both of us.”
Things have gotten much better.
nnn
Maylene wasn’t looking for a boyfriend.
An employee of Old Dominion truck lines, 2003 had been a rough year for this round, pretty woman with bright eyes and a smile which fills her face. She had just survived a nasty divorce and was trying to move on and raise her three children — a girl and two boys.
“I was just trying to live,” she said. “It had been a difficult time.”
Then, there was a problem with the office water fountain.
“We called a service man to come fix the water fountain,” she said. “And when he walked through the door, I thought ‘wow!’”
She’d had her first glimpse of Steve.
And, she couldn’t help but flirt “a little.”
“Yeah, I flirted with him,” she confessed. “I was real impressed.”
The plumber flirted back.
“I walked in there one day to fix the drinkin’ fountain and change the air filters and we’ve been talkin’ ever since,” Steve said.
In fact, he left that day without ever fixing the water fountain.
“I had to go out and get him,” Maylene said. “I had to bring him back in.”
Steve smiles.
Strong, and muscular with dark hair and a day’s worth of beard, he says he couldn’t stay focused on his work. “It was kinda’ hard to keep my mind on what I was doing.”
It didn’t take long before phone numbers were exchanged.
Slowly, a relationship blossomed — the conversations ran long. And even though each tried — for one final time — to reconcile with their ex-spouses, they remained friends.
“We each tried to reconcile,” Maylene said. “But it didn’t work.”
By the end of the 2004 they were inseparable.
“We dated for about a year-and-a-half,” she said. “Then in February of 2005 we got married.”
Two adults. Six kids. One dog.
For most families the story would stop there. Steve and Maylene had found their soul mate, blended themselves into one large — though cramped — family and life was OK.
But fate had other plans.
nnn
For several years, Maylene Sorrels had grown more concerned about her four nieces. Taylor, Nicole, Gabby and Breanna, were loved deeply by their aunt, but their visits were infrequent and Maylene knew the girls’ home life was rocky.
“We would only see them when my sister would come around for money, or when she needed something,” she said.
Sometimes she didn’t see the girls for years.
“For long periods we didn’t get to see them, we didn’t know how they were. We were afraid of something happening to them.”
And even as she built her new family, Maylene Sorrels worried more and more about her four nieces.
“They were all born addicted to meth,” she said. “Many times they had lice. She (her sister) had dogs, and they never cleaned up from them. It was awful.”
Steve saw the pain, too.
“When they would come over it was wonderful,” he said. “They were like my own.”
But he couldn’t stand to watch them leave.
“Maylene would have to take them back by herself,” he said. “I couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t watch them go, it was awful.”
Around Christmas 2003, the trouble reached a climax.
“My sister took her four girls to a friend’s house and said she was going Christmas shopping and she’d be back,” Maylene said. “She never returned.”
By Christmas Eve the friend was frantically calling family and others trying to locate the girls’ mother.
“She called around for a day and a half,” Maylene said. “Then she called the Department of Human Services.”
At that point the children were taken from Maylene’s sister and placed in foster care. Later the girl’s grandparents — of their biological father — took them in.
“Their grandparents were raising them, but it was pretty tough,” Maylene said. “And after a while, they felt like they could no longer take care of them.”
At this point, Steve had an idea.
“I wanted to adopt them,” he said. “I asked her ‘Who’s going to take care of them if not us? Who’s going to know them like you do? Who’s going to help them?’”
Over the course of a week, he convinced Maylene to start proceedings to adopt her sister’s children.
Three years later they succeeded.
And on July 24 the couple who built a family of six, added four more.
nnn
From the time they met until today, Steve and Maylene Sorrels’ lives have changed dramatically.
Each went from having three children, to a family of 10 — four boys and six girls. They watched their living space shrink, their disposable income fall and their expenses increase.
They’ve also seen the love of a child who was sure no one cared.
“I have kids in my arms all the time,” Steve says, smiling. “They’re like freckles — they’re attached.”
Still, there’s a house to manage.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner are well planned culinary maneuvers. Two freezers, stuffed full of food, live in the garage and, in this house, there’s no such thing as leftovers.
“Just imagine …we go through 15 gallons of milk a week and two boxes of cereal a day,” Maylene. “Family outings involve two vehicles. Getting ready for church begins the night before especially with six girls who all want their hair curled.”
And while it’s often late before the adults have time to chat, talk or even spend a little time together, the pictures hanging on the beige walls speak volumes — this is, simply, a family.
A family that blended six, then adopted four more.
In fact, the Sorrels’ adoption of Nicole, Gabby, Breanna and Taylor was the first public adoption at a Oklahoma Department of Human Services meeting. The DHS commissioners served as witnesses.
But it’s not the history, nor the notoriety that moves Steve and Maylene. It is, they said, the warmth and the love of a child. The fact that in this neat, two-story house in Moore, lives have changed, people have come together and a family was born.
A family, that Steve says, is truly unique.
“It’s like that country song,” he said. “I am a lucky man.”
A big, big blended family, mind you.
It’s a story about two divorced adults who struggled, then found each other.
It’s a story about six little kids who joined forces to become brothers and sisters.
It’s the story about four other little girls who might have been lost, had it not been for the gentle, hardworking plumber and his loving wife.
This is a story about Steve and Maylene Sorrels.
It’s also a story about Taylor, Cody, Michael, Nicole, Aylee, Gabriella, Breanna, Dalton, Victoria and Jaden.
Yes, this is the story of one big family, but mostly, it’s a story about love.
nnn
The first thing you notice when you arrive at Steve and Maylene Sorrels’ home in Moore is the shoes.
They’re everywhere.
Small shoes. Tennis shoes. Boots. Overshoes. Snow boots. Casual shoes. More tennis shoes. They’re piled on the porch on a curved black shelf, just to the right of the door.
What, at first, looks like the remains of a Wal-Mart sidewalk sale, is actually one family’s shoes.
Each pair belongs to someone different — and in the Sorrels family, that’s 12 humans.
Past the shoes, inside the house, it’s bright, clean and the walls are covered with family photos. To the right, a handful of kids watch a movie; in the kitchen two girls bake a cake.
At any moment, there are six, or maybe seven, kids scurrying back and forth — but the noise level is low, and the kids are polite and happy. A smaller girl slips away from the TV for a hug from mom. One of the boys starts to wrestle with his brother; he’s gently reprimanded and sent for a brief time out.
He’s back quickly — and his mother smiles.
Because this small boy is part of a family that’s been blended several times over. Call them the Brady Bunch, plus four.
“At first, it was kinda’ hard,” Maylene Sorrels said. “At first the kids were … skeptical. It was hard on both of us.”
Things have gotten much better.
nnn
Maylene wasn’t looking for a boyfriend.
An employee of Old Dominion truck lines, 2003 had been a rough year for this round, pretty woman with bright eyes and a smile which fills her face. She had just survived a nasty divorce and was trying to move on and raise her three children — a girl and two boys.
“I was just trying to live,” she said. “It had been a difficult time.”
Then, there was a problem with the office water fountain.
“We called a service man to come fix the water fountain,” she said. “And when he walked through the door, I thought ‘wow!’”
She’d had her first glimpse of Steve.
And, she couldn’t help but flirt “a little.”
“Yeah, I flirted with him,” she confessed. “I was real impressed.”
The plumber flirted back.
“I walked in there one day to fix the drinkin’ fountain and change the air filters and we’ve been talkin’ ever since,” Steve said.
In fact, he left that day without ever fixing the water fountain.
“I had to go out and get him,” Maylene said. “I had to bring him back in.”
Steve smiles.
Strong, and muscular with dark hair and a day’s worth of beard, he says he couldn’t stay focused on his work. “It was kinda’ hard to keep my mind on what I was doing.”
It didn’t take long before phone numbers were exchanged.
Slowly, a relationship blossomed — the conversations ran long. And even though each tried — for one final time — to reconcile with their ex-spouses, they remained friends.
“We each tried to reconcile,” Maylene said. “But it didn’t work.”
By the end of the 2004 they were inseparable.
“We dated for about a year-and-a-half,” she said. “Then in February of 2005 we got married.”
Two adults. Six kids. One dog.
For most families the story would stop there. Steve and Maylene had found their soul mate, blended themselves into one large — though cramped — family and life was OK.
But fate had other plans.
nnn
For several years, Maylene Sorrels had grown more concerned about her four nieces. Taylor, Nicole, Gabby and Breanna, were loved deeply by their aunt, but their visits were infrequent and Maylene knew the girls’ home life was rocky.
“We would only see them when my sister would come around for money, or when she needed something,” she said.
Sometimes she didn’t see the girls for years.
“For long periods we didn’t get to see them, we didn’t know how they were. We were afraid of something happening to them.”
And even as she built her new family, Maylene Sorrels worried more and more about her four nieces.
“They were all born addicted to meth,” she said. “Many times they had lice. She (her sister) had dogs, and they never cleaned up from them. It was awful.”
Steve saw the pain, too.
“When they would come over it was wonderful,” he said. “They were like my own.”
But he couldn’t stand to watch them leave.
“Maylene would have to take them back by herself,” he said. “I couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t watch them go, it was awful.”
Around Christmas 2003, the trouble reached a climax.
“My sister took her four girls to a friend’s house and said she was going Christmas shopping and she’d be back,” Maylene said. “She never returned.”
By Christmas Eve the friend was frantically calling family and others trying to locate the girls’ mother.
“She called around for a day and a half,” Maylene said. “Then she called the Department of Human Services.”
At that point the children were taken from Maylene’s sister and placed in foster care. Later the girl’s grandparents — of their biological father — took them in.
“Their grandparents were raising them, but it was pretty tough,” Maylene said. “And after a while, they felt like they could no longer take care of them.”
At this point, Steve had an idea.
“I wanted to adopt them,” he said. “I asked her ‘Who’s going to take care of them if not us? Who’s going to know them like you do? Who’s going to help them?’”
Over the course of a week, he convinced Maylene to start proceedings to adopt her sister’s children.
Three years later they succeeded.
And on July 24 the couple who built a family of six, added four more.
nnn
From the time they met until today, Steve and Maylene Sorrels’ lives have changed dramatically.
Each went from having three children, to a family of 10 — four boys and six girls. They watched their living space shrink, their disposable income fall and their expenses increase.
They’ve also seen the love of a child who was sure no one cared.
“I have kids in my arms all the time,” Steve says, smiling. “They’re like freckles — they’re attached.”
Still, there’s a house to manage.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner are well planned culinary maneuvers. Two freezers, stuffed full of food, live in the garage and, in this house, there’s no such thing as leftovers.
“Just imagine …we go through 15 gallons of milk a week and two boxes of cereal a day,” Maylene. “Family outings involve two vehicles. Getting ready for church begins the night before especially with six girls who all want their hair curled.”
And while it’s often late before the adults have time to chat, talk or even spend a little time together, the pictures hanging on the beige walls speak volumes — this is, simply, a family.
A family that blended six, then adopted four more.
In fact, the Sorrels’ adoption of Nicole, Gabby, Breanna and Taylor was the first public adoption at a Oklahoma Department of Human Services meeting. The DHS commissioners served as witnesses.
But it’s not the history, nor the notoriety that moves Steve and Maylene. It is, they said, the warmth and the love of a child. The fact that in this neat, two-story house in Moore, lives have changed, people have come together and a family was born.
A family, that Steve says, is truly unique.
“It’s like that country song,” he said. “I am a lucky man.”
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