Call it a modern-day Brady bunch, with three extra characters to add to the fun. A family has brought joy to a group of siblings after they decided to adopt all nine of them to keep them from being separated.
Peggy and Jacob Smith were a young childless couple living in Florida. At 28, many couples are only just getting ready to have their first child. But it seems Peggy and Jacob were meant to create their family through some other means.
One day, the couple saw a Facebook post from a Florida foster agency featuring eight kids. The post said that the siblings had a tight bond and could not bear to be separated. Peggy mentioned it to her husband and they decided to do something to help them. "We thought it was crazy, but we thought, why not? Why not this family?" she said.
Her husband, Jacob, mentioned it to his mother who asked if they were serious. When she was convinced he was, she suggested the young Smiths take the three younger children while the older couple adopt the five older children.
"We actually didn't know there was a ninth baby," Peggy says, "But we got an email saying 'mum had number nine'. So that's when we found out."
The four adults credit their faith with helping them make the decision. "As the bride of Christ, we're called to a deeper purpose than simply going to church," says Jacob's father, Thad Smith. After praying about the issue for a while, they were sure that adopting all the siblings was the right choice to make.
"The most important thing is to let siblings grow up together," Jacob's mother says, "They didn't make the choices that separated them and they deserve to be together." With this family willing to take care of all of them, the nine children will live only five minutes apart from each other in two large homes.
The older Smiths are no strangers to adoption. They have parented 15 children full time and have fostered over 100 others. Both of them, along with Peggy and Jacob, are looking forward to this journey of raising the kids. "It will probably be the most challenging, most rewarding thing you'll ever do," Jacob's mother says with a smile.
