“EXTREME MAKEOVER: HOME EDITION” HELPS A FAMILY WHO MADE ROOM IN THEIR BIG HEARTS AND TINY HOME FOR FOUR MORE KIDS ON ONE HOUR’S NOTICE
On July 14, 2009,”Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” traveled to Green County, Missouri to tell the eight members of the Hampton family – all living in a cramped one-bedroom, one-bath cottage, 792 sq. ft. total – that they’ll have a new home in seven days. The original family of four doubled in size not long ago after a fateful phone call from a social services agency. Chris and Niki Hampton were told they had just one hour to decide if they would take in their four nieces and nephews or let them go to foster care.
Chris and Niki didn’t hesitate to open their hearts and home to young Gage, Kira, Lexi and Jacob, who now range in age from two to eight years old. Squeezing out the space for them, together with eleven-year-old son Dakota and eight-year-old daughter Hannah, has been the real challenge. Currently the three boys share one set of bunk beds in the dining room, and the three girls share another set of bunks in what used to be a utility closet. Since the cottage has no closets, plastic storage bins are stacked floor-to-ceiling in every room. Dinner is served assembly line-style, and everyone sits on the floor except for the youngest children in booster seats.
What the family lacks in comfort and space, they more than make up for in love. The children are incredibly close – literally and figuratively – and Chris and Niki look forward to the day when they move beyond full legal custody of their nieces and nephews to become their adoptive parents. Chris, a land surveyor, basketball and football coach, and president of the Missouri Family Rodeo Association (MFRA), and Niki, a saleswoman and MFRA secretary, also have rescued six horses that live on their five-acre farm along with three dogs.
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