Adoption is a difficult, tedious, and harrowing process for everyone–but what about when you adopt seven children who are siblings? That seems like one of the most frustrating situations to overcome, for everyone involved.
These seven siblings waited 1,359 days to be officially adopted by their parents, Jessaka and Joshua Clark, according to Scary Mommy. The seven siblings join the Clarks’ biological son, Noah.
The Clarks’ posted about the celebratory moment on their Facebook page (because who wouldn’t in this situation?). In the video, Josh Clark said, “We are all super excited. They have been up since 6, screaming and running around the house.”
Jessaka, however, noted how the process wasn’t easy–, especially as they didn’t intend to adopt seven kids at once, stating:
“The hardest part was going from having a 3-year-old to having a 14-year-old, and not knowing how to deal with teenagers, that was challenging and then figuring out school because we didn’t have school-age kids.
I saw the look on my husband’s face and he said, ‘What do you think about seven?’”
And technically, the family is due to adopt an eighth child, who is the baby sister of the seven. They haven’t been able to yet, as they need to find more space–which is why the Clarks set up a GoFundMe to help buy a new home.
The Scary Mommy article cites statistics from AdoptUsKids.org, which states that there are 11,000 kids in foster care in Georgia alone–and according to Children’sRight.org, there are “nearly 428,000 children in foster care in the United States. In 2015, over 670,000 children spent time in U.S. foster care.”
That’s too many kids without a home. While ultimately, the goal of foster care is to reunite kids with their biological family, in cases where that’s not possible adoption can be a beautiful option.
