When Caleb and Ruchala Bone said they wanted a big family, they meant it with their whole hearts, literally.
The Tennessee couple just finalized the adoption of their fourth child, Isabella, at a district court. Like their biological son Griffin, Isabella was born with a heart condition and has spent much of her young life in the hospital.
But instead of feeling overwhelmed, the Bones felt called.
“I don’t know if we’d say we feel chosen or we’re the right people,” Ruchala told News Channel 5, “but we said yes.”
And that simple yes has changed lives.
Their journey began when baby Griffin needed open-heart surgery at just 3 months old. As the family spent countless hours at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, they saw how many children in the foster system were facing complex medical challenges, with no one to care for them.
So in 2022, the Bones adopted Maurice, a little boy who needed a kidney transplant. Thanks to their care, he’s now thriving, happy, healthy, and running around the courthouse with his siblings.
“They are just the best kinds of people,” said Suzanne Jones, director at Youth Villages, the foster program that placed many of the children. “Foster parents have to go through training at the hospital… They have to go through the full medical training to know how to care for their medically needy child.”
The couple receives support through the state’s TennCare program, along with a foster parent stipend. But what really powers this family is love. Love that opens its arms to children like Isabella, who came to the Bones at just 5 months old, already having survived open-heart surgery.
Forrest Saunders of Channel 5 reports the family has now fostered or adopted four children with serious health conditions. And while the path they walk is not easy, their purpose is crystal clear.
Whether driven by faith or an unwavering sense of compassion, Caleb and Ruchala Bone have filled their home, and their hearts, with hope.
Or as Jones put it best: they’re nothing short of “angels on Earth.”
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