This time around Eric Bradshaw is “a hero of a different color” – with apologies to Shakespeare in “Twelfth Night” – along with his wife, McKenna. Two weeks ago today, in an Anderson County courtroom their adoption of three children – two brothers and their little sister – became official.
“All I can say is that this was meant to be,” Eric says. “We felt led to adopt. We decided as a couple to do this so we started taking classes for foster care last year. It’s all about your priorities in life.”
Adoption Day after court on Oct. 10, 2022: Already a family, they now share the name ”Bradshaw.”
Eric, 27, is a Rural Metro firefighter working out of Station 44 on Watt Road in Farragut. In November 2021 we first featured Eric and he was a hero of a different color then, honored for saving the life of Madison Kay Harber, then 23, after a horrific accident on East Emory Road in April 2021. He was inside the crumpled car with her for the better part of an hour administering medical care and rode in the ambulance caring for her. Her life is not the only life he’s ever saved either.
These days he is truly enjoying this new phase of his life with McKenna, 26, a kindergarten teacher at Ridge View Elementary in Rockwood. The couple, married for three years, live near Oak Ridge with the three new “Bradshaw” kids.
And those kids are Reece, 9, a fourth grader; brother Carter, 7, a second grader; and little sister Avery, 6, a first grader. Every morning they ride to school with McKenna in her SUV. The Tennessee Department of Children’s Services (DCS) intervened a few years back and removed the kids from their parents’ home. It was bad and we’ll leave it at that. Their grandmother cared for them until she was unable to do so and DCS placed them into the foster care system.
A week after McKenna and Eric finished foster care classes in 2021, DCS called and said it had five children under 3 ready to come to a new home. “We were not ready for five and very soon they called and told us about these three kids,” Eric said. “We met them and had to do the paperwork and it worked out perfectly. The whole process was so smooth and that’s why I say this was meant to happen – these kids with us. I knew it right away.”
In late June 2021 the kids jumped out of a DCS van to see their new home and for the first time ever, to see their own bedrooms and beds. “They’d never had their own rooms and had always slept on air mattresses,” he said. “They felt right at home real fast. I expected the kids to be shy but they acted like they had known us for a long time and wanted to see the house and their rooms and play with the toys.”
The Bradshaw Bunch, top to bottom: Reece, 9, Carter, 7 and Avery, 6.
Eric had to buy and assemble bunk beds for the boys. He pretty much handles the cooking at home and needed a big new pot for soup. McKenna had to start shopping for Avery. “And man, she loves doing that,” he said.
The children did not know anything about religion. “We gave them their first Bibles,” Eric says. They had never been to church; had no computers or phones and they’ve now been to two Florida beaches for a pair of family vacations. The boys knew nothing about sports but asked for some new clothes with sports logos on them that they’d seen other kids wearing. “I took Reece to his first football game in Athens, Georgia, to see Georgia and Kent State play,” he says. Eric is from Georgia and a Bulldog fan.
Here is what Eric says about each of their children:
“Reece … he’s smart and analytical and pays attention to everything and is constantly asking me questions. Not many 9-year-olds ask about taxes and bills and how much things cost. He loves science and math at school. He’s really enjoyed playing youth football in Kingston, too.
“Carter is a go-with-the-flow kid. He’s a happy-go-lucky kid and he loves to play football.
“And Avery. Oh, my Lord. This little girl’s off the wall and very sassy. She’s going to be a handful. She is not one bit shy. Avery’s hooked on ice skating and takes lessons and skates at Cool Sports Icearium twice a week.”
Eric says they had prepared for drama with three kids who are siblings (he’s an only child). “But they get along really good and they don’t fight too much, just the usual kind of stuff. But the drama has not happened. I’m telling you … they were meant to be here.”
There was a special moment for Eric and McKenna this past summer, moments they will never forget. It took a year for those moments to happen. “In a short period of time all three started calling us Mom and Dad and I’ll never forget the first time it happened. What a memory,” Eric said over a big frog in his throat.
And on adoption day, these three children’s last name became “Bradshaw” and that too deeply touched McKenna and Eric.
We asked Eric how all of this has changed his life? “How has it not?” he said. “It’s changed everything for the better. It’s given us a better and different perspective on life. I am as happy as I can be and it’s what I want in life. I have a great job that does not feel like a job and I have a wife and our kids to share a loving home with. Love is all over our home. There’s not much more a guy can ask for in life.”
Tom King has been the editor of newspapers in Texas and California and also worked in Tennessee and Georgia.