president singled out an ohio couple who has devoted her life to changing that by fostering over a dozen children, and most come from parents who struggled with addiction. listen. jesse and cindy have provided a loving, stable home to children affected by the opioid crisis. martha: they joined me now. you guys are incredible. have taken so many of these children into your home. what was it like to be recognized today at the white house? very surreal. we still haven t put it all into words yet, still feeling very overwhelmed. martha: jesse, talk to me about how you and cyndi decided you were going to start doing this. you have twin boys he got when they were just babies, and tell us about your family. we currently have five boys in our home.
for them to to go back? we have maintained contact most of the families. it is difficult because you get attached, and they tell you not to get attached, but you do, but it is part of the process, and we know that, so we love on these families, not just the kids, but the entire family. martha: amazing. well, in the case of two of your boys, brandon and caleb, you decided to adopt them, right, cyndi? yeah, we have kind of a general standing agreement in our home that if a child is in our home, you know, the foster care system, we aren t baby snatchers. we don t want to fight to adopt these children from the beginning. we really want to work alongside the families. we want to see reunification happen. we want to see health and healing for the parents that we want the children to get back with their family and have a happy and healthy life. so that is always our primary
goal. but when that doesn t happen, we have made the commitment that if a child is in our home long-term and unable to reunite with their family that they are home. we can t be a part of this problem and then contribute to the problem by sending a child who is stable and secure and attached in our home for a period of time back into the system to another family, so we just kind of have a general rule that if we aren t willing to take a child long-term, long-term meaning permanently, and we don t say yes from the beginning. martha: you guys have said yes in a huge way that most people don t have the capacity to do, and you are angels, really, for these children. and i so admire what you both have done, and we wish you all the best in the future. cyndi and jesse, thank you for talking with us tonight. thank you. thank you. martha: so this moment, back in history, was one that really changed america, and it
martha: sidney, when you look at this sydney, cyndi, n you look at this problem, you probably have a better idea than most people it needs to be done to try to stop this problem. what would you do? come gosh. i mean, i have a few ideas, but my picture is very, very small. i see things from a different lens, and i don t have enough background from the full scope of things to really give an educated opinion on what i think needs to be done. i feel like it would be kind of foolish for me to try and talk about that. martha: i think you know more about it that a lot of these folks. jesse, when you deal with the parents, a lot of times they want their children back. you are keeping these children to keep them safe. what goes through your mind when you have to give them back and you wonder, i m sure in some cases, whether or not it s okay
she still is. and he says to his kid, who he hasn t seen in ten years, so what do you like? i mean, what else do you say? the children were taken, kalib and his brother, from their parents when they were two years old and thank goodness for the kindness of strangers. thank goodness for cyndi and jesse, who have taken them in and 15 years, most of them from parents addicted to opioids and other drugs. now we see what happens. right? now he s been sober for 18 months because he almost died from an overdose. can he stay sober, brooke? can he rebuild somewhat of a relationship with his son and his other children? maybe. we ll see. but i was just blown away that this 12-year-old, not only wanted to see him again after all that, but said, i want to help be the reason to keep him clean. you ve got 50% of the kids in ohio s foster system, they re there because their parents are on drugs and more than half of