Three adopted children fill hearts and home of ex-boxer Sanchez, wife

Sure, there was a tree. Stockings hung over the fireplace. Traditional holiday music filled the air.

But there was no laughter. None of the squeals of delight that come with having received presents from Santa. No child to hug.

The Sanchezes decided it would be the last Christmas they would spend alone.

When they woke up this morning, there were three children celebrating with them – as a family. Last Friday, Augie and Dawn Sanchez adopted 5-year-old Cecelia, 4-year-old Lily and 3-year-old Hunter – three biological siblings from Northern Nevada who had been under the state’s care since March 2011, when the children’s parents decided they no longer were able to care and provide for them.

According to the Children’s Defense Fund, a nonprofit children’s advocacy agency, there were 4,806 children in Nevada in foster care in January 2012. About 3,000 of them were in Clark County.

Dawn works for the Clark County Department of Family Services. As a supervisor in recruiting families to adopt foster kids, she is always on the lookout for suitable parents who want to start their own family. Last spring, she found herself on the other side.

"We’ve been married 13 years," she said. "We decided it was time to start a family. It felt silly that here we were, in our 30s and we had to go to my parents to get gifts. We decided we weren’t going to spend another Christmas alone without kids."

Augie, a former boxer who fought professionally as a featherweight from 1996 to 2001 and beat Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the 1996 Olympic Trials before losing to him in the Olympic box-offs, loved the idea of becoming a parent.

"I was excited," said Sanchez, who helps train the Magdaleno brothers, Diego and Jesse, and works as a teaching assistant at Frias Elementary School. "It was a new chapter in our lives and I saw it as a blessing to finally have a family."

For legal reasons, the Review-Journal’s access to the children was restricted. They were not permitted to be interviewed or have their faces photographed.

The process of gaining custody of the children began in May when the Sanchezes enrolled in a 10-week adoptive parenting class. There, they learned how to deal with any emotional and psychological issues that might arise after the adoption. A few weeks after the Sanchezes completed the course in July, they got on a website from Washoe County for kids in need of a home. (As a Clark County Family Services employee, Dawn Sanchez was restricted from adopting a child from Southern Nevada.)

While looking at photos and profiles of foster kids, they saw Cecelia, Lily and Hunter.

"We saw the pictures and we said, ‘Those are our kids,’" Dawn Sanchez said. "It’s as if they had come out of the womb. We wanted to keep them together."

The requisite paperwork was processed and on Nov. 5, the Sanchezes flew to Reno for their first meeting with the kids. They came prepared with crayons and coloring books to help break the ice and in a matter of minutes they were bonding – parent and child.

"It was overwhelming," Dawn Sanchez said. "We didn’t know what was going to happen. But we went to a park and we played for a few hours. We were exhausted from chasing them around, but we had established a connection with them."

There were three subsequent visits, including one this month in Las Vegas, where the children got their first look at where the next phase of their lives would be lived.

"When we pulled into the driveway, they ran up to the door, then they ran up to their rooms and you could see how happy they were," Dawn Sanchez said.

On Friday, Cecelia, Lily and Hunter returned to Las Vegas, this time for good. By now, Dawn and Augie were Mommy and Daddy. The Christmas tree was up and decorated, surrounded by a small mountain of presents. There was a different feel to the house. Love filled the air and embraced everyone inside.

On Sunday, Dawn took Cecelia and Lily to see "The Nutcracker" at the Smith Center. It was the first time the girls had seen a ballet and they were mesmerized.

"They spin around the house like ballerinas," Dawn said as only a proud mother can.

The kids don’t know it yet, but another world awaits them. Boxing is a staple in the lives of their parents and grandparents. Dawn’s parents, Pat and Dawn, have run Barry’s Boxing Gym on Highland Drive for a couple of decades and she has grown up in the sport. Dawn helps her mother run amateur events in Nevada for USA Boxing and has worked as a referee and judge.

Augie, who was nicknamed "Kid Vegas," had a 28-3 record with 25 knockouts during his pro career. He beat some good fighters along the way, including Jorge Paez and Daniel Jimenez.

In 2000 he fought Prince Naseem Hamed for the WBO featherweight title but was knocked out in the fourth round and was carried out of the ring on a stretcher at Foxwoods Resort in Connecticut. He suffered a similar fate in his final pro fight, getting knocked out in the first round by John Michael Johnson in Indio, Calif., in December 2001 and leaving on a stretcher.

Augie and Dawn had been married a short time when his boxing career ended. At the time, they weren’t ready to start a family. She was still at UNLV getting her degree, he was making the transition to workaday life after leaving the fight game.

But over time, they began to embrace the idea of having kids. Now 35, Augie Sanchez was ready to take on the daily grind of parenting.

"It’s scary and nerve-wracking, but exciting at the same time," he said. "It was so emotional the first time the kids called me ‘Daddy.’ It was wonderful and it felt right."

Dawn, 32, said of becoming a parent: "It’s been an amazing process. It was as if it were meant to be."

Christmas Eve at the Sanchez home was unlike any other. There were three new stockings hanging over the fireplace. The kids were helping bake cookies to leave for Santa. There was a "Magic Elf on the Shelf" keeping an eye on things. Friends and their kids were dropping by to meet Cecelia, Lily and Hunter.

There were magic pens provided for the children to write their Christmas wish lists. And when they went to bed, they wore special Christmas pajamas.

"They’re exactly what we envisioned," Dawn Sanchez said of her little angels. "And there’s thousands more who need a home. I would tell anyone who is looking to adopt to do it. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

"Take the class, then decide. There’s a lot of support out there for parents who are looking to adopt. If you don’t take the first step, you’ll never know."

There is a six-month transition period the Sanchez family will go through before the adoption is final. But today, they are together and from Dawn Sanchez’s perspective, Christmas won’t end tonight.

"Everyday is Christmas for us," she said. "They’re our Christmas present."

Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow him on Twitter: @stevecarprj.