Simon Marks, a 37-year-old man, made an interesting discovery. Stated differently, he’s been living in the same house for a long, but he just recently came to terms with the fact that he didn’t know what was hidden in the house he’d bought a few years earlier.
One day, while trying to park his car, he came upon what he believed to be a flowerbed. The wheels on his car got stuck, and he heard strange cracking noises coming from the driveway.
“Well, this day couldn’t get any worse,” he thought to himself.
When Marks knelt down to look into the issue more thoroughly, he saw that the driver had given way because the stones in the driveway had broken. An astounding discovery was made audibly by the sound of the pavers shattering.
Once all the dirt had been removed, he discovered a piece of metal underneath. Uncertain of what might be beneath the driveway, Marks grabbed onto the metal piece and tried unsuccessfully to pull it out. Then he turned back to investigate the mysterious object further.
He didn’t know what to do next, so he called his father for help. When they worked together, they were able to clear away a significant amount of dense muck, eventually exposing an aperture. Curious to explore where the rusty, rusting ladder would lead them, the two men climbed down.
“My dad saw it and knew right away that it was an air raid shelter,” Marks remembered.”We found that there are a lot in this area after browsing on Google.”
It appeared that the shelter they discovered in Marks’ garden was built during World War II.
As per Marks, “the previous owner had to have been aware of its existence and had to have filled it in during the construction of the house and garden.”
These shelters were designed to protect civilians from bombing during the conflict. They are said to have been invented by a man named Sir John Anderson.
Bricks have been used to close off a wall. We don’t know, but I’m 99 percent positive that we won’t find any more chambers. According to Marks, they might have bricked up one of the walls to create way for the foundations when the house was built.”If that’s the case, we’ll just have to leave it,” he said.
His discovery was caught on tape, and his story quickly spread throughout the world.
Marks and his father plan to renovate the shelter because they view it as an important historical landmark. They argue that although if that period of history is behind us, it shouldn’t be disregarded because it offers us a window into earlier eras.
‘Families don’t have to look the same’ – Black couple talks about their experience adopting three white children
Sadie and Jarvis Sampson tried for years to have a baby, using every method they could think of. They eventually accepted that they might only ever be an aunt and uncle. Then, one day, they got a text that changed their lives completely.
The couple had been trying to get pregnant since they got married in January 2018, but when it didn’t happen on its own, they tried everything else.
“We used ovulation tests, took prenatal vitamins, tracked cycles with apps, and used fertility monitors,” the Houston mom told Love What Matters.
“We even tried advice from friends, family, and strangers. For 14 months, we tried, prayed, and waited. Month after month, it was always a negative pregnancy test. It seemed like we might need help to conceive, so we even talked to doctors about it.”
Doctors didn’t offer much help to the couple. They mostly told Sadie to lose weight to improve her chances of getting pregnant. With no other advice, she had gastric surgery and lost 28 pounds.
Sadie’s OBGYN was excited about the weight loss and praised her for it.
“She told me that if I wasn’t pregnant within six months, she would refer me to a fertility specialist because she couldn’t prescribe fertility medication herself,” Sadie said. “I was thrilled! We finally got a positive step forward, even if it wasn’t immediate. We were excited about the progress.”
Unfortunately, the couple didn’t get pregnant after Sadie lost the weight, and they felt like they were back where they started.
“I always felt like I was meant to be a mother,” Sadie said. “Even though my surgeon warned me that I’d be very fertile after the surgery, I still wasn’t getting pregnant. So, we gave up and accepted that we might just be aunt and uncle to our nieces and godparents to our goddaughters.”
Just when the couple had decided to stop trying to have a baby, Sadie got a text from a friend asking if they would think about fostering a baby from a couple she knew.
At first, the couple was hesitant because they were told by a caseworker to take care of the baby while the birth mom was getting treatment. They worried they might get too attached. But then, the situation changed.
“The birth mom has decided she wants you to adopt the baby instead,” the caseworker said.
Sadie remembered saying, “‘Holy crap!!’ out loud when she found out she was going to be a mom.
“We went from having no kids to possibly fostering one, to suddenly being told, ‘You’re going to be parents!’ I was still in shock as I listened to the caseworker. I hung up and called my husband, shouting, ‘Babe!! They want us to adopt the baby! We’re going to be parents!’ He said, ‘Wait! REALLY?! I thought they just wanted us to foster him!’ I told him, ‘Nope! They want us to be his mom and dad.’”
The couple spent the weekend trying to take in the shocking news and getting ready, just in case the birth mom changed her mind.
By Monday, they were not only told that the birth mom still wanted them to adopt the baby, but she also wanted to do an independent adoption and was ready to sign the papers that day.
Their baby boy was born at just 33 weeks, which is seven weeks early. He weighed 4 lbs. 5 oz. “He was so tiny, he literally fit in one of my husband’s hands,” Sadie wrote.
“He was wrapped in a white blanket with pink and blue stripes,” Sadie said. “He had a small tube coming out of his nose because he couldn’t eat on his own since he was born early. But he was so cute!!!”
The couple shared their news on social media and were encouraged to create a registry. They listed 72 items, and within just three days, 55 of them were already bought for them.
Ezra Lee’s adoption was finalized in October 2020, and the couple had adorable family photos taken, all wearing t-shirts that said, “Families don’t have to match.”
In 2021, Sadie and Jarvis became parents to twin girls, Journee and Destinee, through embryo donation. True to their family motto, “Families don’t have to match,” the Black couple now has three white children – a boy and two girls.
For anyone who might judge their beautiful family, they have just one response: their family is built on the strongest foundation ever – love.
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