Page 4 - Hawaii Island MidWeek - July 21, 2021

4 HAWAI‘I ISLAND MIDWEEK JULY 21, 2021
Love remains the driving force for Duane and Lyn Pagay, who are the proud parents of four children and 15 foster keiki.
Duane Pagay was at a crossroads. He was carrying a lot of pain from his past and knew that he was not only hurting himself with his actions, but his family as well.
having to go back to the abuse, taught me to sabotage myself when my life was going good or it made me think that I had tomessupformylifetobe normal.”
ing for their own four keiki. Their first opportunity on this new path came when they were asked to take care of a relative’s baby. Thankfully, the Pagays didn’t hesitate in
“Honestly, it was very hard, as baby came to us at 2 months old,” she reveals. “But then again, it was a great feeling knowing that he got to be with his parents again.”
cense. “After he shared that, I expressed to him and Lyn how relating to children in foster care could be positive.”
has been with us ever since,” Duane states.
The Maui resident spent his childhood on Lāna‘i moving in and out of the foster care system. He was eventually reunited with his parents, but says that arrangement only made his life worse. Raised in an environment surrounded by the drug trade, he soon started committing street crimes, sell- ing drugs himself, and eventu- ally ended up in prison.
Despite the bleak circum- stances he found himself in, he was determined to change. Part of that involved owning up to his own poor decisions.
making that decision. “Family means everything
Seeing how well that ex- perience went for the Pagays inspired Mary Leyva, a com- munity liaison with Partners in Development Foundation, whose Hui Ho‘omalu program recruits and guides prospective resource caregivers through the foster care licensing pro- cess.
Now a new road presented itself, one in which the couple could provide for keiki the love and guidance that Duane lacked in his childhood.
For the Pagays, fostering so many children is worth the sacrifice because of the love they have for these keiki and their personal circumstances.
“Being taken from bad times to go into foster care taught me to run from my problems,” he states. “And, being taken from foster care, where everything was going good and getting better, and
When the baby boy was reunited with his parents, Lyn admits to having mixed feel- ings.
“She was just 9 days old and
Duane insists that he’s al- ways felt the safest and the most love when he was in foster care. That same loving and secure environment is
“Going through the process of self-healing and to better myself was very hard and hurt- ful at the same time, because I had to learn to hold myself accountable for all of my mis- takes as an adult,” he says.
to me,” explains Lyn. “So, if I can help a family, I will try my best, especially in situa- tions like this — to care, sup- port and love on the child. Not only the child, but their parents as well.”
“Duane and I came to an agreement that we wanted to continue to be there for these children and let them know that they are loved and want- ed,” Lyn adds.
(According to Partners in Development Foundation, a nonprofit that uses Native Ha- waiian values and traditions to equip families and commu- nities for service, there are ap- proximately 1,500 children in foster care on any given day in Hawai‘i. These youths often experience a greater rate of homelessness, sex ex- ploitation, drug and alcohol abuse, and incarceration.)
It was during this time of personal transformation that Duane met his wife, Jonah- lyn, or Lyn as she is known. Soon, the couple would choose a direction that would lead them to fostering 15 children, in addition to car-
“The Pagays appeared so welcoming and caring for all children; and at the HANAI training, Duane disclosed that he himself had been in fos- ter care in a general home,” recalls Leyva, adding that she encouraged the couple to switch their child-specific license to a general foster li-
ince that fateful deci- sion to become foster parents, the Pagays
Duane agrees, saying,“It was an awesome feeling knowing that we were there for a child in a time of need, and to be able to help a family get the help they needed in a dark time.”
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have welcomed 15 foster kei- ki into their home to join three of their own children: 19-year- old Micah, 11-year-old Jaiden and 9-year-old Jaida. The couple also recently adopted 2-year-old Jaidee.
The ever-growing Pagay family is made up of parents Duane and Lyn, and their keiki (clockwise, from top) Micah, Jaidee, Jaida and Jaiden. Not pictured are the couple’s 15 foster children.
SEE PAGE 5