Jada Pinkett Smithis honoring a couple who expanded their home and hearts to their seven adopted children.
In a PEOPLE exclusive look at a special Mother’s Day edition of Facebook Watch’sRed Table Talk,Pinkett Smith, her daughterWillow Smithand her motherAdrienne Banfield-Norrishost Pam Willis, a mother of 12 who adopted seven kids with her husband, Gary, after their parents died in a car crash.
Willis says she calls her children her “Second Chance” because it allowed her and her husband “a second chance at parenting” and for her children to have “a second chance at life.”
The mother of 12 said she knew that if her family had not adopted the children, the siblings would’ve been separated.
“We knew right away, you can’t separate them,” Willis says.
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Pinkett Smith showed her admiration for Willis and her family, saying it was “divine love at work.”
In March, Pam toldTODAYshe had learned of the siblings through a Facebook post and that they’d been in foster care for more than a year after their parents died.
Pam and Gary, who have five biological adult children, had fostered before, but they had never discussed adoption, she toldTODAY. She tagged him in the post, not knowing if he would feel the same.
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“I thought Gary was going to tell me I was wacko — we were getting ready to retire,” she said.
However, Pam said that Gary felt the same. “We knew deep inside that this mission was being placed before us. If not us, then who?,” she wrote in anInstagram post.
She added toTODAY: “I can’t explain it — I just knew I was supposed to be their mom.”
Red Table Talkairs on Facebook Watch on Wednesdays at 9 am PT/12 pm ET.
source: people.com
