Adopting a child requires a big heart, one that is capable of loving someone who doesn’t share your DNA, and it means that you link your life with them forever.
When a family decides to adopt, not only do they fulfill the dream of having a child, but they also help a human being find the love that they may have been deprived of up until then.
Providing a safe and loving home to a child means putting your ego aside, and welcoming someone that will change it forever.
If adopting one child is such a great expression of love, then imagine what adopting four of them would be!
Karen and Tobias Thompson, 55, of Ohio, officially adopted two sets of twins a few weeks ago.
The couple had already been taking care of the children for several years.
Karen and her husband don’t necessarily fit the mold of couples that typically adopt young kids.
Most adopters are recently married and face difficulties when it comes to having a child of their own.
The Thompsons, however, already have a total of seven children, 27 grandchildren, and – wait for it- three great-grandchildren!
No, the Thompson house is never empty.
There’s always someone around, which is exactly what Karen and Tobias enjoy.
Loud voices and children’s laughter totally make their day.
But, a piece would be missing from this beautiful puzzle if they hadn’t adopted Karen’s nieces and nephew.
Back in 2014, just a year after their marriage, the couple took in Wilnya and William, twins who are now 14.
As they explained to journalists, the children had nowhere else to go, so they really didn’t feel like they had an option.
When, in 2017, they received their foster license, the Thompsons took in Wilnya and William’s siblings as well.
Sharnia and Sharleathea, another set of twins, are 9 years old.
“We didn’t know anything about them until the caseworker told us,” Tobias told Good Morning America, “But I was like, ‘We may as well go ahead and get them.'”
Until Karen and Tobias adopted the sisters, they had been going from one foster home to another.
What they really needed was a permanent home, people that they would be able to call “family.” And they found it at the Thompsons’.
Staying with Karen and Tobias meant that they would be reunited with their siblings, too.
“When Sharnia and Sharleathea came here, they didn’t want to go back to the foster home,” Karen said. “I think they all needed to be around their siblings.”
After spending years with the family, the kids’ lives have changed for the better, and – along with that – their behavior has improved as well.
“They were very timid when they got here,” Tobias said. “They’ve been through a lot.”
“Now you can’t get them to stop talking,” Karen said. “I think they all needed somebody to love them.”
Watch their incredible story in the video below!
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