She walks the walk.

[Charlie P]

Thought I'd share this with you folks.Good friends with this womans oldest son she is one in a million.

VESTAL -- This Mother's Day, Barbara Caveny's thoughts remain fixed on the dozens of women whose children she has cradled during their first weeks of life.
As an infant-care provider caring for babies in the adoption process, some might say she expands the meaning of "mother." But despite caring for 60 babies over the past two decades, Caveny insists otherwise. In fact, she never thinks of herself as their mother -- and the babies are never referred to as her children.
"They're infants that I've loved," said Caveny, who lives on Carnegie Drive south of Binghamton University with her husband John, 65. "I don't feel ownership. They come so they can go."
The 64-year-old mother of five and grandmother of nine says she'll continue to care for babies as long as she's physically able. The 60th baby was placed in an adoptive home in late April.
Caveny was 42 when she received her first infant, a baby boy, in December 1983. Though her youngest child, daughter Mary Beth, was in 10th grade at the time, Caveny said she easily jumped right back into the world of nighttime feedings, constant crying and regular diaper changes. And the babies, she said, instantly became a part of the Caveny family schedule.
"The babies went to all the lacrosse games, the soccer games, the basketball games," she said. "We've always enjoyed having little ones in the family."
The decision to become an infant-care provider -- she's not technically a foster parent -- came easy, Caveny said. In the years following the Roe vs. Wade decision, Caveny found herself wanting to make a decision regarding the issue of life. After seeing an announcement at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Vestal seeking infant-care providers, she answered the call.
"I truly do feel every life is precious," she said. "I felt we could show by example that we value these babies."
Caveny was a stay-at-home mom while raising her biological family and caring for babies awaiting adoption.
"I think everybody who has the ability to have a home with a full-time mother is a real treasure in life," said John Caveny, who's retired from the former Marsellus Casket Company in Syracuse. Before going out of business in 2003, the company provided resting places for several presidents, including Ronald Reagan, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon.
John gives all the credit to his wife for caring for the babies.
"It's been fantastic; we've always been kind of home-people," he said. "The most common question we get from people is, 'How do you do this, knowing you have to give them up?' You give them up, knowing they are going to good homes and wait for the next one."
John and Barbara will go to Mass today at Our Lady of Sorrows in Vestal, stop at Dunkin' Donuts for sweet treats, and then enjoy a simple day at the couple's Vestal home.
Barbara Caveny currently does volunteer work with the Pregnancy, Parenting and Adoption program of Catholic Social Services in Binghamton. The program offers counseling, parenting classes and also adoptions. Infant-care providers play an integral role in the "triangle" of parties involved in the adoption process, said Daniel Yeager, director of Catholic Social Services.
"Oftentimes, the birth mother is unsure if she wants to make that courageous decision to surrender her baby for adoption," he said. "This allows her the time to think that through. That's essentially the main role of the infant-care provider. They provide the hands-on loving care for the child until the mother can make the decision with the birth father."
Despite the almost instant emotional bonds formed between Caveny and the babies, she's able to see them go without being traumatized. Babies stay in her home an average of two months. One baby remained at the home for five months, another for three days.
Mary Beth Caveny Keating, now 36, remembers the first infant that her mother cared for. "To have a newborn baby in the house in 10th grade was just an incredible thing," said Keating, who is married with four children and lives in Wakefield, R.I. "It was exciting. We set up a nursery and I was a part of that."
And when the first baby was adopted and had to leave the Caveny household, Mary Beth recalled the day when her mother brought the infant to Vestal High School, where she was a student at the time, to say goodbye.
"That was a mistake," Keating said Saturday. "I broke down and cried."
Of the 26 baby girls and 34 baby boys she's cared for, 46 have been adopted; 14 went back to their birth mothers. Privacy rules prohibit her from identifying them.
No matter how brief a baby's stay is in her home, Caveny keeps a journal of the momentous firsts that bring joy to parents' hearts -- a baby's first smile, first bath or first giggles.
The nursery is a room on the second floor of her Vestal home, a two-story Colonial-style with four bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths, which gives Caveny plenty of room to care for the babies, as well as space for family reunions. Pictures of every baby she's ever cared for -- her five biological children included -- grace the buttercup-colored walls. A wooden crib that has cradled 60 little ones over the past 22 1/2 years stands in a corner. Tiny clothes neatly arranged on tiny hangers fill a closet, its shelves stacked with packages of diapers and baby wipes.
A self-described "old-fashioned" woman, Caveny prefers to dress the babies in cloth diapers -- she just placed an order for four dozen -- and prefers carriages to strollers.
Some of her friends assumed that with the arrival of grandchildren Caveny would stop providing care. They were mistaken.
"My grandchildren don't need me," she said. "My grandchildren have a mother and a father. I'm filling a void."
She's not out to save the world or necessarily make it a better place she says. She's just a woman who's opened her home -- and her heart -- to babies caught in circumstance.
"I take great joy in being able to do this," Caveny said. "When you've been given something extra, you have to give back something extra."

[Rebel Hog]

She's not out to save the world or necessarily make it a better place she says. She's just a woman who's opened her home -- and her heart -- to babies caught in circumstance.
"I take great joy in being able to do this," Caveny said. "When you've been given something extra, you have to give back something extra."

Charlie, she's a remarkable woman and the world needs more like her. Thanks for sharing this!