Calvin Spigner was in his late 30's when he took a bus home and saw the face of a happy father and three smiling children on an ad from across the aisle. He didn't remember what was being advertised, only that something about it hit his heart. A voice in him said, "I want that."

A devoutly spiritual man, Calvin paid attention to his inner voice. Almost instantly, he knew his next steps would be to adopt a child. Shortly thereafter, he found Marcel, then 12, his first son. "When I saw Marcel. I just knew it," says Calvin.

At first, Calvin considered adopting an even younger child. However, he found he was gifted with being a father to a teenaged child. Calvin treated his son with the respect he needed and knew they would get nowhere without trust. "When you stick by kids, it gives you points in their eyes. I stood by Marcel and defended him, and earned my points," says Calvin

Three years later, Calvin heard that voice again and found Williard, his second son, whom he adopted by working with Adoptions Together, a Silver-Spring, Md.-based agency. "When I saw Williard, I was so nervous. It was a happy nervous," Calvin remembers. "I couldn't believe God would send me such a beautiful kid."

Now the father of two teenage sons, Calvin thought his life was complete, but it turned out that he wasn't finished yet. While at work last year the call came again. "This time I saw Teako and thought, 'that's my son.'" In November 2003, Teako became an official member of the Spigner family.

Today, Calvin is a happy and proud father of three teenaged boys. "I don't know how. I'm just doing it. My pastor says I have a heart for it." Now, seven years since that fateful bus ride, Calvin looks just like the man in the advertisement. "My sons helped me grow up. Until Marcel I was worried just about me, but now I understand responsibility. they have even helped me heal because now I am doing for them what didn't happen for me."

"The best moment of being a father was when the adoptions were finalized. To keep them from that road of rejection, abuse, being unwanted ... It felt right," he says.

Calvin's advice for people hearing an inner voice about adoption but were unsure about following it: "Follow your heart. It will never lead you wrong."

The Next Generation Awareness Foundation ('NGAF') partners with Adoptions Together on various awareness projects. Project "If Not Us," an initiative of Adoptions Together, specializing in working with individuals like Calvin that welcome an older African-American child into their hearts and home. It is designed to find adoptive homes for older African-American children.

If you wish to receive more information on Adoptions Together, visit them at www.adoptionstogether.org or you can call them at 301-439-2900. Let them know you read about them on www.InsiderEntertainment.com. You may also email Sabrina McAllister, project director, directly at IfNotUs@AdoptionsTogether.org.

For more information on the Next Generation Awareness Foundation and its many programs, visit the website at www.NGAF.ORG.

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