In the early '70s, the Cappuccinos paid $8000 for a pioneer log cabin on a 40-hectare farm east of Maxville. They intended to live off the land, but they were novices and failed. In 1976, they sold most of their possessions and, accompanied by their seven youngest children, went to Sri Lanka, and then India, where they opened a home for destitute children.

Back in Maxville after 18 months, Fred found work as a remotivation therapist in an extended-care hospital in Cornwall, while Bonnie, on the farm, cooked enormous meals and pestered the government for permission to bring Vietnamese Children, stranded in a camp in Thailand, to Canada. Permission for 100 was finally given, on her promise that if placements didn't work out, the farm would serve as an emergency shelter. With the help of their community, the Cappuccinos built a big one-room addition to the cabin, and about a dozen boat children, at one time or another, lived there. One enterprising girl, KimChi, who had smuggled herself aboard a ship leaving Vietnam, joined the household. In 1985, when Child Haven was born, the couple were parents of 21 kids.

Back home in Canada, Bonnie cooks dinner in her own primitive farm kitchen. The six kids still at home remember the good old days when they had two full teams for an exciting baseball game. Now, the older ones are scattered across the U.S. and Canada. Bonnie and Fred have eight grandchildren. But the family still keeps in touch. Last year, when Vietnamese son Tran, 22, married his high school sweetheart, 18 brothers and sisters danced at his wedding.

The Cappuccinos want their children to grow up healthy, happy and independent, and hope they will find their own way to serve mankind. They are pleased that Robin is now in Nicaragua to study and help the farm cooperative movement there, and two other sons, Mohan and Ashok, have worked as Child Haven volunteers in India.