Revisiting the Toms River family who took in six homeless siblings. How did it work out?

TOMS RIVER — At the end of a brutally hard 2020, it was a story that reinforced your faith in humanity: Toms River residents Becky and Bob Kolas, who already had four children, took in six siblings who needed a home.

The incredible act of kindness struck a chord with Asbury Park Press readers, some of whom showered the family with gift cards.

“One gentleman gave us $1,000 in cash,” Becky Kolas said. “He said he came from a really large family and our story really touched him, and he wanted to pay it forward.”

He’ll be happy to know it was money well spent. The Kolases put it toward a desperately needed addition onto their four-bedroom, 1,900-square-foot house. Now they’ve added an extra 650 square feet, including two bedrooms, a laundry room and a walk-in closet.

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One of Becky’s biological sons, Dylan, no longer has to sleep in the basement, where he’d voluntarily relocated to make room for the new arrivals. And three sisters no longer share one small bedroom.

“People were so generous,” Becky said of the donations. “It was so nice. It really was.”

The backstory, in brief: As the biological mother of three boys (and stepmother of a fourth), Becky wanted to adopt a girl. So she did. Turns out, that girl had five siblings who needed a home — one parent died, the other was out of the picture. Bit by bit, the Kolas family took all six Fuller siblings in. Their current ages range from 9 to 19.

“Our heart broke for them because of all the hardships these children endured,” Becky said last year. “They’ve been in and out of various foster homes their whole lives. We wanted to keep them together.”

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Becky and Bob had asked New Jersey’s Division of Child Protection and Permanency, which facilitated the fostering process, for assistance in creating more space.

That didn’t happen.

“They pretty much stepped away and didn’t help,” Becky said. “But it was worth it to us anyway.”

Becky is managing attorney of the Community Health Law Project, which advocates for people with disabilities. Bob is employed by the Tom River Public Works Department. They took out a second mortgage to cover the six-figure project.

“Love is boundless,” Becky said. “Nothing is stopping us from giving it out.”

Of course, anything this monumental includes bumps in the road. The arrangement didn’t work out for one of the Fuller siblings, who moved to another foster family. Home-schooling during the pandemic’s early stages gave everyone headaches; there was nowhere to go for privacy as various teachers squawked through the laptops. Everyone kept COVID-free until last month, when 10-year-old Ella contracted the virus.

“Somehow no one else got it,” Becky said. “We all wore masks and it worked.”

The teens hold jobs, so getting everyone to work and back requires more than a little hustle. There’s talk of buying a fourth car.

“It’s like a roller-coaster than doesn’t stop,” Becky said.

They actually expanded the household this year, adopting two more cats and a second Great Dane. That makes four cats and four dogs total. Plus eight full-time residents, a college student who’s back and forth, and a young cousin of the Fullers who stays over at least one weekend a month.

Each of the humans made gingerbread houses, a family Christmas tradition. This year, though, the dogs ate four of them.

“We had to take ornaments off the Christmas tree,” Bob Kolas said. “The dogs were eating them, too.”

Such is life in a full house. The hope is that one day, like the man who gave them $1,000 last December, these kids will pay it forward.

“I think of that all the time,” Becky said. “I really hope we’re setting a good example.”

She doesn’t have to hope.

Jerry Carino is community columnist for the Asbury Park Press, focusing on the Jersey Shore’s interesting people, inspiring stories and pressing issues. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Revisiting the Toms River family who took in six homeless siblings