COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — You know how it is. It often seems the people who make the most difference never get recognized. Well, not this time. An award is coming to someone who's changed the lives of hundreds of children.
An adoption specialist through Youth Villages, Suzanne Jones has gotten more than 330 children adopted.
"I would like for it to be 500 or 700," she said.
I've actually been to a few adoption days Jones made happen.
There was the Bone family, parents with big hearts who have fostered or adopted children with complicated medical situations.
Then there was the Pointers, former metro school bus drivers who have fostered twenty children. They were adopting siblings on the day I met them.
Another couple important to Jones is James and Pam Buck. Since 2001, they have adopted 14 children and fostered hundreds. About a dozen of the Bucks' adoptions were through Jones.
"I always wanted a big family," said James Buck. "This is just how the Lord saw fit for us to have a big family. We're a restaurant. We just don't charge!"
Speaking of restaurants, when one of their sons was getting a first job at McDonald's, Pam Buck got a job there alongside him. She coached him.
"That's one thing about my wife, she will go overboard for her children!" James Buck said.
Jones works with families who care that deeply.
"I was a foster child, so I understand the real need," Pam Buck nodded.
People have noticed how hard Jones has worked.
She's about to leave on a trip to Washington DC to do some work with the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute, the CCAI.
"We get to meet with legislators and talk about challenges that our kids face and things we want to keep going, like the adoption tax credit to encourage families to keep adopting," Jones said.
"You have to be driven by more than just a job to do what she does," James Buck said of Jones.
While Jones is in DC, she'll be one of the honorees in the CCAI Angels Celebration.
"I feel unworthy of it, but at the same time, it's just a huge honor," Jones said.
This is not a stopping place. Jones wants to keep helping children. She knows families who will do the same.
"If God has blessed us to give, then that's what we want to do," said Pam Buck.
"Keep on, keeping on," Jones smiled. "We've got more to do!"
Do you have a positive, good news story? You can email me at forrest.sanders@newschannel5.com.
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