Trumbull Children Services honors families for overcoming adversities

By ED RUNYAN

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

Kristen Trumbull and her fiance, Justin Bishop, got a call last summer from Trumbull County Children Services about little twin girls, 6 months old, who had been taken from their mother and father because of abuse.

The girls, who are Trumbull’s nieces, had not developed as fast as would have been expected because of the abuse they suffered.

“When we got the call, it was like, ‘They are our blood. We can’t just let them go into the system.’ We had to be their advocates,” Trumbull said.

The couple worked with the children’s services agency in Columbiana County where they live to prepare for the girls. They received temporary custody the following month.

Rising Up - Moving On

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“They couldn’t crawl or sit. After about a month, they were crawling, eating, doing the things they should have been. They gained a pound in the first month they were with us,” Trumbull said.

“When we went to the doctor’s office, they said, ‘Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it.’ I was so excited. I was doing my happy dance in the doctor’s office.”

They have flourished in Trumbull’s home and are now sitting on their own, walking and, according to Trumbull, “eating them out of house and home,” said Jessica Watkins, Trumbull Children Services case worker.

Watkins and about 200 others attended the 19th annual “Rising Up and Moving On” luncheon at Ciminero’s Banquet Hall to honor Trumbull, Bishop and several other Children Services families for overcoming adversity.

The couple also has three other children, including a baby girl born last year, so it’s a busy family.

The couple’s boys “fell in love with their new ‘sisters’ right away and enjoyed jumping in to help out when they could,” Watkins said.

Also honored were Chris Cates and Stephanie Yash, who were able to regain custody of their daughter, Madysen, after the girl was placed out of their care because of their struggles with substance abuse.

“They were committed to their sobriety and their daughter and overcame obstacles such as sharing the one vehicle they had to ensure they made all their appointments,” said Heather Buck, another Children Services case worker.

Yash said after the ceremony that a person never overcomes addiction.

“I can’t put my fiance first. I can’t put her first,” Yash said while holding her daughter. “I have to put myself first or I’m no good for her.”

Others honored were Nathan Payne, who lived in the agency’s residential center when he was a teen and has been sober more than a year; Pastor Todd Johnson of Warren’s Second Baptist Church, who received the Service to Children Award; and Bonnie Wilson, who has served many area agencies and received the executive director’s award.

Speaker was LeeAnne Cornyn, director of children’s initiatives for Gov. Mike DeWine.