A mother's touch: an Oxford couple offers a gentle passage to joyful adoption.

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Amy Russell's children are donning their college caps and gowns, yet she's still shopping for smocked dresses and soft cotton onesies. Month after month for 13 years, she's cradled those first, fresh weeks of life, rocking newborn strangers in a broken-in glider and rising from her bed for middle-of-the-night feedings. It's a time of life most parents might not be so eager to revisit--not without the promise of seeing that newborn's bare expression grow into its first grin. Yet for Amy and her husband Randy, serving as volunteer foster parents to more than 90 children since 1995 has provided not only an expression of their deepest-held beliefs but also a rhythm of life that today seems as natural as each season's passing.

"We believe each child is created by God and deserves life and an opportunity to grow up," Amy says while rocking her 92nd foster child, a little girl she's calling Sarah.

In serving as "interim" parents for four separate Mississippi adoption agencies, their job begins when the baby is born. This stint of volunteer parenthood lasts until that mother decides she wants to parent, or an adoptive family steps forward to take the child.

The call could come at any time. The baby might be theirs for a couple of days or as long as a few months. It's a lifestyle that takes flexibility, strength, patience, enough love to embrace a stranger's child as one's own, and enough resolve, when it's time, to give that child away.

For the Russells, it's a calling that embodies their pro-life stance. "We don't want to preach at these women; we want to give them an option," Randy says. "It's not about telling them what to do, but just saying, 'Here's a way we think is better, and if you need help, we want to help you.'" The couple embarked upon this vocation when their own children were still young. After seeing a newspaper article about Catholic Charities and its urgent need for volunteers to keep newborns, they decided it was something that they could do.

The Russells have continued to serve these children even with a move from Jackson to Oxford, where Randy practices ophthalmology at the Rayner Eye Clinic. Though they have a house in town, they spend most of their time in a small cabin east of Oxford on about 60 acres. They plan to build a larger home on the property and a nursery is included in the house plans.

In addition to Catholic Charities, the Russells serve as volunteer foster parents through Bethany Christian Services, Mississippi Children's Home Services, and New Beginnings International Children's & Family Services. "What they do really is love in action, and we can call them any time to say, 'This baby needs a place to stay.' They embrace the child as their own and incorporate this calling into their lives. You don't find people like this very often," says Nancy Selph, birth-parent counselor at Bethany Christian Services.

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The Russells' own children, Jocelyn, 23, and Jordan, 22, were in third and fourth grades when the family took in their first foster baby. As their mother delivered one baby to its adoptive parents and picked up another, the comings and goings of these transient, treasured little creatures became a part of everyday life.

"When you're that young, it doesn't really click with you that it's not normal," recalls Jordan, now a senior in political science at the University of Mississippi. "When you've had them for so long, it would be weird if they weren't there."

For Amy, the schedule was more challenging when her own children were still at home, and particularly before they had driver's licenses. "You're busy with your own two and you don't get as much sleep, but you've got to hit the floor in the morning and take them wherever they're going," she said. "That's when I learned to teach the babies to sleep at night. You can teach them to get up once at night, and it usually only takes a few nights to set that pattern." She found that getting them on a schedule is key. Ideally, they should go to sleep at 10 p.m., wake for a 2 a.m. feeding, and rise at 6 a.m. for the day.

Though some babies have been harder to train than others, the Russells credit God's grace for a miraculous statistic of 92 babies and counting, yet never one with colic. They've also never had one fall sick.

Over the years, the children who've passed through their lives have been part of Ole Miss tailgating picnics, youth-group meetings, and high-school basketball seasons. At the mall or after church, people reach to stroke their tiny heads and hands. Everywhere that Amy goes, she loads up the car seat and straps on a carrying sling. If it weren't that way, she says, she'd never leave the house.

Unlike other parents, the Russells don't have the option of calling a baby-sitter. The adoption agencies prescribe strict rules about that, so Amy's parents, Barbara and Leonard Bennett of Meridian, went through the process of getting licensed to baby-sit. Amy's sister and brother-in-law, Karen and Larry Moore of Senatobia, are also licensed foster parents. This allows the families to help each other and swap duties during the annual seaside vacations they take together.

"This is a family affair for us," says Randy, whose children grew up rocking and feeding babies. "I hope they will both be well-prepared to have children of their own and also take away some good life lessons," he says. "I hope they have learned that when someone else needs help, you have to sometimes put your own priorities on hold."

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It's a message that came across loud and clear, says Jocelyn, who graduates from Ole Miss this spring with a hospitality-management degree. "It makes me realize that when you have a lot, you should give a lot back," she says. "My parents were good examples to me, because they don't spend their extra time and money on things that don't matter."

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The whole family has been involved, as well, in the tradition of choosing names for each newborn that arrives in their home. Each family member takes a turn selecting a name from the pages of their well-worn baby names book, with the stipulation that everyone else must like it, too. Over the years, many family friends and local kids have had their turn as a temporary namesake before adoptive families choose a legal name for the babies. "Of course, our son is a major Ole Miss fan, so we've had Cooper, Eli, Olivia, and Archie," Amy says. "We have not had Peyton yet, not because he didn't go to Ole Miss, but I think our son's about over that phase now."

While they're in her care, Amy dresses the babies in all-cotton clothing, which she picks up at seasonal sales and consignment shops. She sends each child home in a smocked dress or jumper from her favorite brand, Feltman Brothers. "I love baby clothes," she says. "The first baby I had, I sent all the clothes that I'd bought with him. I quickly learned that would be too expensive."

Even if the clothes, crib, and bottles can be shared from one baby to the next, the Russells do have to cover expenses for formula and diapers for two out of the four agencies they serve. The job also includes spending six hours annually in training sessions and staying up-to-date with infant CPR certification, in addition to hosting regular home visits from social workers.

As part of their initial licensure process for one of the agencies, they've also promised not to adopt. There are many more families eager to adopt newborns than to serve as interim parents for one baby after another. Letting a child go can be difficult, especially after they've been part of the family for a few months. Joyfully, many adoptive families keep in touch with the Russells through regular cards and emails. They also reunite with some of the children at annual Bethany picnics.

The Russells have a wonderful scrapbook of photographs of the babies that have brought love, memories, and tremendous blessings to the many families they have touched and especially their very own. It is very hard to give a blessing as selfless as the Russells give without receiving one in return.