In 2015, Officer Jody Thompson responded to a 911 call about a case of child abuse.
Thompson was dropping his partner off at the station when he overheard the dispatch; he was technically off-duty, but he offered to help anyway.
“I’ve investigated child abuse cases before,” Thompson explained. “I thought I’d better go ahead and respond.”
When he arrived at the scene, he was horrified by what he saw.
He found John, then a severely underweight eight-year-old boy, with his wrists bound by belts, partially submerged in a trash can full of cold water. John’s back was covered in bruises and there was a large, swollen knot on his head.
“He did not have a spot on his body that didn’t have a bruise of abrasion,” Thompson remembered. “It was the worst thing I’ve ever seen.”
Thompson wrapped John in a blanket and hurried him to the Oklahoma Children’s Advocacy Center. There, detectives and investigators took photographs of John’s condition to ensure that they could bring whoever was responsible to justice.
Thompson then brought John to the emergency room, where he was treated overnight.
“I sat with him,” said Thompson. “And when he was admitted into the intensive care unit, I sat all night until the next day.”
Why did Thompson spend the night in a hospital, taking care of a child that wasn’t his?
“When I’d seen him in that house shivering and his hands tied- just soaking wet and confused- I knew at that moment the only time I would be satisfied and sure that he was safe is if he was with me,” responded Thompson.
The day after John was released from the hospital, Thompson became a certified foster parent. Two days after that, he brought John home to live with him, his wife, his 15-year-old son and his 8-year-old son.
“They trusted I was doing the right thing before they even knew what happened and heard the story,” Thompson remembers.
Two days after the Thompson family welcomed John into their home, they learned that Mrs. Thompson was pregnant with another baby boy.
Seven months later, Thompson learned that John’s biological mother had given birth while serving a jail sentence. The Thompson’s brought this new baby girl into the fold as well.
“We literally picked her up in the hospital the next day when she was a day old and brought her straight home,” said Thompson.
The Thompsons have since formally adopted both children.
“Never in my life did I dream of having a large family, but God had different plans and so here we are. And I’m loving it all.”
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