After raising 5 children of their own Darlene Burns (50) and her Husband Michael Burns (59) adopted three more children, Avrial, 17, her brother Justin, 6, and another brother (ID TK)16. When the Nevada-based business they owned failed, they lost their home and, homeless, moved to Colville Washington to be near relatives. With the help of Rural Resources, an eastern Washington social service agency, the family is now getting back on their feet. Darlene is in school learning new skills and Michael has found part time work as a health aid for a senior citizen. To make ends met the family grows their own vegetables.
After raising 5 children of their own Darlene Burns (50) and her Husband Michael Burns (59) adopted three more children, Avrial, 17, her brother Justin, 6, and another brother (ID TK)16. When the Nevada-based business they owned failed, they lost their home and, homeless, moved to Colville Washington to be near relatives. With the help of Rural Resources, an eastern Washington social service agency, the family is now getting back on their feet. Darlelene is in school learning new skills and Michael has found part time work as a health aid for a senior citizen.
Rhae Eaton 52, a divorced mother of eight, is receiving public asistance, working part time as a child care giver and living with three of her children in a subsidized apartment in Colville Washington. For many years Eaton and her ex-husband lived in severe poverty in the mountains of northeastern Washington essentially off the grid, in tents and later rustic hay bale and log structures without running water or electricity. After her 8th child was born, another pregnancy ended in a miscarriage and suffering her husband's continued unwillingness to support the family Eaton left the marriage and moved first to Chewelah then nearby Colville. Fiercely independent and surffering from depression, she is uncomfortable with the strings attached to receiving assistance. She grows her own vegetables in the community garden.
