Payson couple enjoys raising 6 adopted kids

PAYSON — It's just after 6 a.m. on a Wednesday. Raman Whatcott lies on the love seat waiting for his parents, brother and four sisters to gather for daily scripture study. Asked how he's doing, the 15-year-old offers a typical teenage answer: "Tired."

"It takes a while to get things rolling around here," says Wes Whatcott as he and his wife, Sandra, pull up chairs in the family room.

In the adjoining kitchen, the table is already set for breakfast — generic boxes of frosted flakes, frosted shredded wheat and cranberry almond crunch. A multivitamin sits next to each of the eight bowls. "We always set the table at night," says Sandra Whatcott.

By 6:15 a.m., Abel, Briana, Rachelle and Tari — sleepy-eyed but dressed and mostly ready for school — amble from their rooms and plop onto the couch, a copy of "Preach My Gospel" in hand. Only Liya isn't here this morning, having already left for drill team practice at nearby Payson High School.

There really isn't any moaning or groaning about the earliness of the hour or having to read a church book, at least not on this morning.

For the next 30 minutes, family members take turns reading aloud about commitment with Wes Whatcott — drawing on 70 years of life — interjecting insights, stories and advice for his teenagers.

In most settings his musings would be considered grandfatherly. But here his words are fatherly. Wes and his 68-year-old wife, Sandra, are rearing a second family.

"It's been the best thing to have these kids to keep us young," said Wes Whatcott, a retired prison social worker.

Just more than 11 years ago, the Whatcotts adopted six children — five from Ethiopia and one from India. All six are now in high school — three sophomores, one junior, two seniors.

"We had no idea when we got them what we were in for. And you know what? If I'd have known, we'd have done this 10 years earlier," said Sandra Whatcott, who worked as a special education teacher.

When the Deseret News profiled the family a decade ago, an early morning visit to their home, then in Provo, went similarly smooth. The six children, then ages 4 to 8, were up and dressed well before 8 a.m. on a summer day. Their beds were made, and their rooms were tidy before breakfast. All without being told.

Not much has changed in that regard. They still get up early, keep their rooms (relatively) clean and eat together at the same table with a bench on each side and chairs at both ends, though Wes Whatcott notes, "Teenagers complain more."