In Edmond, Oklahoma, a nursing facility administrator, Savanah Patt, was stunned to discover a frightened and malnourished 9-year-old girl, Renlee, hidden behind a recliner in a resident’s room. The child was silent and unkempt, without shoes, and had been secreted away in her grandmother’s room for a week after being left there by a neighbor. This neighbor had found Renlee living in a cluttered trailer in southeast Oklahoma City with her older brother, surrounded by numerous cats and dogs, amid squalor and neglect.
Renlee’s life was marked by deprivation, not just of food but also of parental care. Her parents, struggling with addiction, had used Renlee to beg for money on street corners, which they would then trade for drugs. She also suffered from a severe lice infestation, preventing her from attending school, until Savanah intervened.
Savanah, deeply moved by Renlee’s plight, made the decision to adopt her. A decade later, Renlee, now 19, has spent more years with her adoptive family than with her biological one and credits her adoptive mother with transforming her life. Despite being born into a life of addiction, Renlee has found stability and love with Savanah.
In another twist, a few years after adopting Renlee, Savanah was given the chance to also adopt Renlee’s older sister, Cheyanne, who had been abandoned at a gas station. Savanah, surprised by the offer, willingly took in Cheyanne, becoming a mother to two girls.
Renlee and Cheyanne have both achieved milestones that no one else in their family had, with Renlee on her way to earning a nursing degree. Renlee aspires to provide care and love to others in the same way she received it. She also hopes to adopt a child in the future, extending the same love and security she was given.
Savanah reflects on her experience, feeling that in saving the girls, they also saved her by inspiring her to be better. Renlee’s brother, meanwhile, was adopted by another family, and Renlee looks forward to the possibility of reuniting with him someday.
This story highlights the plight of over 390,000 children and teens in foster care across the United States, all in need of a permanent, loving family.
