With No Grandparents Nearby, This Family Found the Bond They’d Been Hoping For

With no grandparents nearby, this family found the bond they’d been looking for. Family isn't always about shared DNA—sometimes it's about the people who choose to show up and stand in the gap when you need them most. I have sisters in their 50s and 60s who aren’t related but chose to show up when I needed it most. Now they’re family.

This story reveals how Anteres Anderson Turner and Louis Turner discovered this beautiful truth while raising twin boys, Caden and Cameron, in Southern California. With grandparents thousands of miles apart, they knew that a delicate piece of their lives was missing.

They Were Missing the Village

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"We were talking about the village, the village that, you know, we had growing up, the grandparents would like come and like hang out or just impart their wisdom," Anteres shared. In a moment of honest longing, she wondered, "My God, I wish there was like a way to just like adopt somebody."

Less than 100 miles north, Janet Firestein Daw was asking herself a similar question from the other direction. With five grown children who made it "pretty clear" they weren't planning to give her grandchildren, Janet felt a deep ache. "I was getting older and I wanted to get down on the floor and play Legos and trains and read books," she explained.

They Found a Group With Surrogate Grandparents

Through Surrogate Grandparents USA, a Facebook group connecting families across generational gaps, these two families found each other. When Janet saw the Turner family's photo, something in her heart whispered, "These are your people."

Their first meeting at a public park sealed the connection. "The moment that [the kids] met her, they gave her a big hug and it was like, okay," Anteres remembered.

Two years later, "Nana J" is woven into their family story—celebrating holidays, taking trips, reading books, creating countless precious moments. "It's been like, a weight has been lifted off my shoulders," Anteres shared. And a new bond and a new kind of family was created. 

For Janet, the Boys Filled a Lifelong Void

For Janet, these boys filled "a lifelong void." Even when she later became a biological grandmother, her love for Cameron and Caden remained unchanged. "It doesn't change anything for me, those boys are mine," she declared with fierce love.

"It's like closing a loop," Anteres reflected. "And by adding her in it's like, we feel complete."

This beautiful completeness echoes a deeper truth—we too find our truest identity when we're adopted into God's family. Just as Janet chose the Turner boys and they embraced her as their own, Jesus calls us His beloved children, filling the deepest voids in our hearts with His perfect love. We become whole not through blood relations but through His invitation to belong.

Surrogate Grandparents Offer Hope

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In our scattered world, surrogate grandparents offer hope—reminding us that the most beautiful families are often the ones we intentionally create through love, choice, and commitment to stand in each other's gaps.

Ephesians 1:5 "He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will."

WATCH: With No Grandparents Nearby, This Family Found the Bond They’d Been Hoping For

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h/t: CBS NEWS

Featured Image Credit: YouTube/CBS Mornings

Heather Riggleman is a believer, wife, mom, author, social media consultant, and full-time writer. She lives in Minden, Nebraska with her kids, high school sweetheart, and three cats who are her entourage around the homestead. She is a former award-winning journalist with over 2,000 articles published. She is full of grace and grit, raw honesty, and truly believes tacos can solve just about any situation. You can find her on GodUpdates, iBelieve, Crosswalk, Hello Darling, Focus On The Family, and in Brio Magazine. Connect with her at www.HeatherRiggleman.com or on Facebook.