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MILLCREEK — As Wallace Fetzer and Laurel Osborn sat at the Jon M. Huntsman Center on Thursday to watch their four youngest children graduate from Olympus High School, they reminisced about their own graduations from the very same school.
The couple then gave each other a hand shake for a job well done — because the four who graduated this year are the last of 16 children to graduate from Olympus High.
The couple spoke kindly of Olympus and the Granite School District, and thanked the many educators for contributing to a quality education and experience for all 18 of them.
"I had a blast going to Olympus!" Fetzer, class of 1972, told KSL.com. He spoke highly about school tradition, particularly how it seems to graduate students with high academic standards, as well as athletic and artistic accolades.
"I want to express my appreciation for the community, Olympus High and the Granite School District," said Osborn, who respectfully declined to include her graduation year. "I enjoyed my time there, and my children received a good education and have become productive citizens."
"What more can a parent want?" she asked. "We're proud of them all, and are currently focusing our pride on these younger four completing the family tradition."
The younger four she was referring to are Mercy Xue Bai, Joseph Yan, Rosali Hua and Amelia Xin, who were born within a couple months of each other and were lovingly welcomed into the family through international adoption.
How the family grew
Ten of the couple's 16 children were adopted from Asia. Adoption was a result of their longing to have a family, Fetzer said, explaining that something that began with a lot of heartache has grown into something beautiful.
"My wife and I married a little older, and had some troubles having our own children," the father of 16 recalled. "We lost our first little girl when Laurel was six months along, and it was devastating. We thought a lot about adoption, and we eventually found out that Laurel had some medical problems that we could fix. She was actually the first person in Utah to complete a successful frozen embryo."
The couple was able to have biological children, but it wasn't easy, so they looked to adoption as another way to grow their family.
"We would have a child and adopt a child. Have a child and adopt a child," Fetzer said.
The last four children were not adopted all at once. The youngest of the four was actually adopted first at age 1, but the next one was 3 years old, the next was 5, and the last one they adopted at the age of 8.
Osborn said she has been extremely pleased at how well each of her children — particularly those welcomed through adoption — have been treated at school.
"In this day with Asian hate and prejudice and all the nastiness out there, I've asked my children if they've ever noticed any discrimination, bias or prejudice and they've all said they haven't," she said. "Our neighborhood and the school have been so good to us."
"We have a wall in our house that has all the graduates' pictures on it. It was the senior wall until they all graduated, and now we can legitimately call it the graduate wall. You never know until the last minute."
Fetzer was quick to compliment his wife for a lot of the success of the family.
"(Laurel) is quite sure to downplay her role in the successful graduation of her giant family," he said. "She can work anyone into the ground and is the fastest dishwasher in the world. I asked her one day, when we had eight or 10 kids, when she was going to stop adopting children. 'When there are no more children to adopt,' was her reply. Since then, we all just try to keep up with her generosity and love."
What's next?
While the couple said they aren't quite ready to label themselves as empty nesters, they said they are excited for the next chapter in their children's lives.
"'Empty nest' is probably not a reality for many, many years," Osborn said. "With this many children, you have them coming and going regularly. Three of the four current graduates are going to college, and one is going to serve a mission for his church."
And while high school may be a thing of the past for all 18 members of the Fetzer family, Fetzer will be attending his 50-year high school reunion this summer.
He said he would be surprised if anyone else could say they had children graduate 50 years after getting their own diploma; let alone having 16 kids graduate from the very same school. Go Titans!
Correction: An earlier version of this story had Laurel Osborn's name as Laurel Fetzer.
