“You’re the best daddy ever,” are words that Allen Derivaux Jr. would never mind hearing from his unique brood of five, three of whom are adopted from different countries.

The Derivaux five — Townsend, 11; Mattie Carlisle, 10; Molly Jo, 9; Stratton, 9; and Hampton, 6, — tell him that often.

The kids planned to wake up early on this Father’s Day with the special idea of preparing breakfast in bed for their father, who usually cooks a big Sunday breakfast.

The secret idea came from Townsend, the oldest, whom Derivaux calls his “perfectionist.” The others followed along because, like most siblings, wanted to do it all, too.

Derivaux, 56, became a single parent to five children in October when his wife, Candy, died in her sleep.

The tasks of chauffeuring children to and from school and other appointments, helping with homework, picking out clothes, cooking dinner, repairing broken toys and all the responsibilities of two parents suddenly became his alone.

Derivaux runs a private law practice and serves as a part-time City of Vicksburg municipal judge.

Four of the children attend Vicksburg Catholic School, where their father and grandfather graduated, and Stratton attends Dana Road Elementary School because of its special education program.

One duty Derivaux had to take up alone this past week was to tell his oldest child that he was adopted as a baby from Russia.

“I’ve been meaning to do it for the past seven months,” he said adding that the other children also did not know about the adoption.

Townsend said he was “shocked,” but added, “it’s pretty cool,” his father said.

Derivaux said his wife was told by doctors when the two were first married 11 years ago that she might have “trouble” getting pregnant.

“She was just all adamant that we looked into adoption, and we did all the research,” he said. “We got with an agency, coincidently in Russia. We looked at it in the United States, but the waiting lists were so long.”

The Derivauxs began their application process for a baby in 2000. The process took about 10 months and a month before they were to pick up Townsend, who was 6 months old, Candy Derivaux found out she was pregnant with Mattie.

“It was unbelievable,” Allen Derivaux said.

The couple quickly decided they wanted more than their two children.

Molly Jo, whom Derivaux described as “the shy artist,” and Stratton, who’s “quite a character,” were adopted in 2002 from Guatemala, Derivaux said.

“My wife wanted another child, but somehow it turned into two children,” Derivaux said adding the two were not related.

Nearly three years after those adoptions, Candy Derivaux became pregnant with Hampton, “a mess” who rounded out the family.

“Once you get past one or two kids, it all kind of runs together,” Derivaux joked.

After that truth was revealed to Townsend and the rest of the kids, all was back to normal, Derivaux said.

He credits families, — he’s from a family of seven children — neighbors and friends with helping him along after his wife’s death.

“You have to depend on help and it makes you worry just to make sure that everything happens that is supposed to happen,” he said. “Neighbors have been wonderful. My sisters have been wonderful. Other parents were wonderful.”

Family routines such as tracking everyone’s schedule on a dry-erase board are kept up in the Derivaux household and a new one is being carried on.

“Every Sunday we go to church and we go to the cemetery to visit Mom,” said Mattie, “the most outspoken of the bunch.”