TAMPA – The din of Room 168 at the Economy Inn on East Busch Boulevard occasionally drowned out conversation.

Twelve children ranging in age from 6 months to 11 years old spent the past week there, scrambling across the floor, bouncing on beds. Their eyes filled with resignation Wednesday morning; they were hungry and dirty – wearing the same clothes as the day before and the day before that.

Angel Adams, the mom, was asking for help as the children rambled about the room. She was homeless and hopeless, she said. A relative paid for the motel room for a week, and after that, who knows. Her fiance is in prison.

You can read the full article here, but there are three things that just kinda stood out:

• “Three fathers. One Mother. Fifteen Children.”
• One of them, a 1-year-old, is named John the Baptist Brown.
• The 12 kids are the youngest of 15, she said. Three have “aged out,” meaning they have turned 18 and are on their own, no longer a part of the child welfare system.