Garret and Riley — Brian Amdur

Identical twin brothers Garrett and Riley Bell have never known their biological parents. Their father didn’t want to see them, and their mother could not support them. But to these seven-year-old boys from Mountain Grove, Missouri, grandma and grandpa have become mom and dad.

For the last seven years, grandparents Eric and Alice Bell have been gotten accustomed to walks to school and the pain of occasionally stepping barefoot onto a Lego. The grandparents gave up life in a calm house to permanently adopt the boys – bringing dose of energy and happiness back into Eric and Alice’s lives.

“Everybody talks about the old days, we talk about today.”

*In the spirit of the Missouri Photo Workshop, the photographer was allocated 400 images and could not do any post-production toning to make this story.

Garrett and Riley’s backpacks hang at the dining-room table every morning before school.

Schooldays begin early, and every morning Alice helps Riley (left) and Garrett (right) get ready for the day ahead. Alice had four of her own kids. But after her two sons died from suicide and a drug overdose in 2001 and 2004, the twins have brought a fill of warmth to her heart. “I’m trying to do better the second time and be more involved with everything. I want to do it right for as long as I can,” she said.

Alice and the boys leave home for Mountain Grove Elementary School. The Bell twins are among the few kids that walk to and from school each day, she said.

Riley engages with classmates in Lana Driskill’s first-grade class at Mountain Grove Elementary School.

Garrett (left) hugs Eric as he arrives home from work. Eric owns and operates his own mechanic shop in Mountain Grove.

“Every person has a void their whole life and then all of a sudden it gets filled. The boys have filled my void,” says Eric. “They are the closest thing to biological kids I’ll ever have. I knew them before birth and have spent every day with them since.”

Riley (left) and Garrett (right) play with Alice during their evening bath.

Garrett and Riley watch a television show after taking their evening bath.

Alice helps the twin get ready for bed. “There are a lot of things that make a person rich besides money,” Alice’s husband Eric says, “like waking them up every morning and putting them to bed every night.”