The Backstory

Almost eight years ago, my little sister got pregnant without a husband or father for her baby. My husband and I offered to adopt her baby and raise her as ours. She thought that would make her a bad mom, so she tried to take care of her baby, but my mom and I spent a lot of evenings helping her settle baby Annie to bed, cleaning her house, and trying to instill some motherly instinct. Instead, six weeks after Annie was born, my sister got pregnant again.

We made the same offer with the new baby Matt, but once again she declined. By then, she had lost her state housing and was back home with our parents. Several times, she has moved out, only to be back again and the two children have been raised mostly by my mom. After a year and a half of temporary custody, my sister living with her new husband and moving from one evicted apartment to the next, my parents couldn't do it anymore.

In February, we took the two kids into our home, after lengthy discussions with our other children, and after a move to a bigger house. And so started the journey of a mother of seven kids.

Some of the biggest challenges in those first months were teaching the new kids how our family works, explaining what responsibility means, and providing security that was lacking in an unstable childhood. I think Little Matt suffered the worse, with separation anxiety to the extent that he would scream and run through the house if he was unable to find me.

Now, ten months into the family expansion, the new kids are settled and it's hard to remember what our family was like before these two came along. They have made us focus on family again, and we had gotten lazy. We had enjoyed the freedom that comes with kids that can take care of things on their own and we were finding other things to occupy our days. I had even taught the two boys to start doing their own laundry. Happy day!

As our family has expanded, so has my heart to make room for two more. And with these kids have come blessings into our lives beyond what we expected. It's been a hard journey and we are far from over, but the scenery has been beautiful and we're ready for the next curve of the road.