Researching Susan Tom

Tom was previously married and adopted her first two children while still with her husband. Following the birth of her two now fully grown boys, Jeremy and Ben, Tom decided that she wanted a girl and adopted her daughter Emily from South Korea. Following Emily's adoption, the social worker from her case again contacted Susan and enquired whether she would be able to take in a newborn, Margaret, suffering from failure to thrive and numerous other health conditions. According to Tom, it is at this point that she and her husband, Philip, began to drift apart. Eventually, the strain was too much and the couple separated. Over the next decade, Tom adopted 9 other children with special needs, who likely would not have found stable homes otherwise. In her own words, Tom explained the drastic expansion as follows, "Well from three to four isn't that much of a jump and at that point what's five? After five, the noise isn't going to get any louder and you're already cooking big meals so, well- it's not that hard to get to twelve."

In 2003 Tom was nominated for the "Most Inspirational Person of the Year Award", sponsored by beliefnet.com. Tom lost that award to Archbishop Joseph O'Malley, but she was later awarded with assemblywoman Louis Wolk's "Woman of the Year" award, which was presented on March 24, 2003 in SacramentoSusan Tom and two of her friends established the "Susan Tom Family Foundation", which aims to educate the public about various diseasets that affect children and which accepts donations for her families education.

In the summer of 2005, the show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition built Tom and her family a new house. The Toms went to Walt Disney World while the EM team built the house. The show mentioned Anthony's death (a few clips of him from My Flesh and Blood were shown during the episode).