Susan Tom

Susan Tom (born 1948) is a woman from Fairfield, California, who became famous when HBO aired a documentary, "My Flesh and Blood," about her in 2003. Tom is the biological mother of two children, and the adoptive mother of eleven children with special needs.

Susan was previously married and adopted her first two children while still with her husband. Following the birth of her two now fully grown boys, Susan decided that she wanted a girl and adopted her daughter Emily from South Korea. Following Emily's adoption the social worker from her case again got in contact with Susan and inquired as to if she'd be able to take in a newborn suffering from failure to thrive and numerous other health conditions, Margret. According to Susan it's at this point her and her husband Philip began to drift apart; eventually the strain was too much and the couple separated. Over the next decade Susan went on to adopt 9 other children with special needs. Children who likely wouldn't have found stable homes otherwise. In her own words Susan explained the drastic expansion as follows "Well from three to four isn't that much of a jump and at that point whats five? After five the noise isn't going to get any louder and you're already cooking big meals so, well- its not that hard to get to twelve."

Susan Tom was nominated, in 2003, for the "Most Inspirational Person of the Year Award", sponsored by beliefnet.com. Tom lost that award to Archbishop Joseph O'Malley, but she was later awarded with assemblywoman Louis Wolk's "Woman of the Year" award, which was given on March 24, 2003 in Sacramento.

Susan Tom and two of her friends established the "Susan Tom Family Foundation", which aims to educate the public about various diseases that affect children and which accepts donations for her families education.

In the summer of 2005, the show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition built Susan and her family a new house. The Toms went to Walt Disney World while the EM team built the house. The show mentioned Anthony's death (a few clips of him from My Flesh and Blood showed up during the episode).

Tom's children

Here is a partial list of Tom's children and their characteristics:

External links