08/01/2026
I thanked God that our family was complete. But He wasn’t done.
My mom's from Sullivan and my dad's from Neosho. They met each other at what used to be SMSU and settled in the middle. I grew up in Marshfield until I was about seven and moved to Lebanon when I started the second grade.
I'm a middle child, which in my own lived experience, is usually not the academically inclined one in the family. I'm a hands-on kind of guy, a kinesthetic learner. Both my parents were teachers, and they were adamant I go to college. My mom was a persuasive woman. So we compromised and I ended up going to Linn Tech, up near Jeff City. Partially because it was a hands-on setting, but also because it’s half as long as a university. Even the English classes were suited for a person like me.
I started dating Kathy the summer between my junior and senior year. She was two years behind me. After graduating from Linn, I moved to Sullivan, where my mom was from, and Kathy started school at Missouri Southern. Later, she transferred to East Central College in Union. Sullivan is much closer to Union than Joplin and our relationship continued to grow.
We were finally married after dating for five years. I used to joke that my biggest asset was that I wasn't from around here. At least her family could be pretty sure I wasn't already related to them. Kathy’s mom and dad are both from very large families.
While living in Sullivan, I worked for a general contractor in St. Louis doing mostly commercial work. Schools, parks, things like that. However, we always knew we would move back home.
We in fact did move back home in 2004 when I got a position at Laquey School District. My mom was a special ed teacher there. They needed a shop teacher in early August and I had an associate's degree, which was enough to get a sub certificate. So I became a full-time sub for the whole year.
That's when I decided teaching is what I wanted to do.
It's hands on. I really like working with kids. Talking about experiences, hoping something sinks in. Hoping they remember something you said, something valuable, even if it's just for a few of them.
I started taking classes over the summer, nighttime, whatever I could get at Missouri State, and got a degree in technology education. Which is a fancy name for shop teacher.
I picked up a job on a provisional certificate at the old junior high while I finished my degree. A few years later my wife pursuaded me to get a master's degree, which I completed in 2012.
I worked at the junior high for eight years.
Bob Simpson was my wrestling coach back in high school. In 2014, he called me about a program he was starting at the University of Missouri. He then hijacked me out of the school after three long phone calls, trying to get all my questions answered.
I worked for the university for seven years. I traveled between five counties. Texas County was the furthest north, and then it went all the way from Laclede down into Shannon, Howell, and Oregon Counties. Some really rural places. We worked with special needs students helping them transition from high school to work.
At one point while I was with the university, I interviewed for the Lebanon Technology and Career Center director position. It wasn't the right time for me, but it did put me on the radar. Five years ago in July, I got a call. I was offered a position with GOCAPS.
It's probably close to, if not, the perfect position for me. I'm definitely a people person. I like to talk with different people and listen to their stories. And I also understand the business relationships needed for the program to thrive.and I love assisting young people in finding their careers.
GOCAPS has four strands. Sarah Light teaches medicine and health care. Joey Bowling leads teaching professions. I teach engineering, manufacturing, and business entrepreneurship.
The first six weeks of the program is a career retreat. The first three weeks, we're all together. Students from Lebanon, Crocker, Richland, Laquey, and Conway, working on professional skills together. Day one, they start getting over their fear of public speaking. They write an elevator pitch and then present in front of 70 of their new friends.
Getting them out of the school building is a critical point of the program. Get students out among professional adults and the learning curve is exponential. We can still act like high schoolers in the classroom, but whenever they're around professionals, they act professional, they dress professional, and they communicate professionally.
The thing I talk about over and over is that networking is the hidden gem in GOCAPS. Teenagers may not see it at first. You go help a nonprofit because it's the right thing to do, because you're being an active, positive person in your community. Then scholarship time comes around and somebody remembers your name. A member of the Optimist Club called me once to make sure that a specific student had filled out his scholarship application. That tells you something.
Kathy and I have three biological children ages 18-12.
I remember when my wife Kathy was pregnant with our youngest, praying, thank you God for this child, our family is complete. I was just so full of joy.
And now I imagine God sitting up there saying, “oh, you think you're done? I've got something for you.”
Our first foster placement was a sister and brother. She had endured every kind of abuse you can imagine. One minute she'd tell you she loved you. Minutes later she meant you harm. Kicking, scratching, throwing things. Just a hurt eight-year-old girl.
Their mom was trying. She wanted to get clean, wanted her kids back. Somebody from her past was circling, so I went over to her place and changed the locks on her door. We befriended her trying in every way we knew to help her reach the goal of reunification.
She just couldn't get there. Not yet, anyway. The kids ended up moving on to another home because we were ill equipped to care for them.
It was a crushing moment when those two kids left. We felt defeated, like let them down and added to their trauma.
We said we were done.
Some time passed and a friend of ours had a placement with two little ones, but she was dealing with some serious health issues. We felt like God was telling us we weren't done after all. So we took placement of the kids, a sibling pair ages 2 and 3.
Their mom was trying to get them back. She just couldn't stay healthy. She kept losing her driving privileges and it all just kept piling up until it got away from her. After that she went down a really hard path. She stopped coming to the family support team meetings. Eventually, parental rights were terminated. The case plan moved to adoption.
After fostering them for two years, and their mother not having the ability to overcome her barriers, we adopted them. That was four years ago.
Then came our youngest who was seven days old when she came to live with us for “two weeks.” Two weeks turned into adoption after two years and is now five.
We already had five kids at home. I had told Kathy several times, we just can't take another one. Not right now. But this time, something was different.
I remember it was around lunchtime when she called me. There was something different in her voice. I don't know how else to explain it except that it was spiritual. I told her, it sounds like you need to get to St. Louis.
She and her twin sister drove to St. Louis, and by the time they got there, our foster daughter’s birth mother had left. Just gone. I think she was scared of what might happen to her.
I met her once, at the courthouse. We got to talk for a while. She told me she knew people who knew me, and that they'd told her we were good parents. She said if she wasn't able to raise her daughter, she was glad it would be us.
Nobody wakes up one morning and decides, I'm going to start using and lose my kids. Nobody does that.
I don't know what these women have endured. I can’t even imagine it. But I see what it leaves behind, in their kids, every day.
So far, foster to adoption has been a crazy journey. Overwhelming, frustrating, angering but also rewarding, fulfilling, and fostering gratitude. Imagine feeling every human emotion at once. But also imagine making a positive difference in the life of a child who asked for none of the circumstances which put them into care. Or maybe planting a seed with a parent who legitimately thinks no one cares about them.
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” James 1:27 ESV
Daniel Peregoy
Adoptive Parent
GOCAPS Lake Region facilitator
Paving the Way driving instructor
