Couple Adopts 7 Siblings Separated Throughout 4 Foster Homes!

What up?

It's Dramos. You may know me from the recap on LATV. Now I've got my own podcast, Life as a Gringo, coming to you every Tuesday and Thursday.

We'll be talking real and unapologetic about all things life, Latin culture and everything in between from someone who's never quite fit in. Listen to Life as a Gringo on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by State Farm. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Everyone gets AT&T's best deal on the new iPhone 14 with the incredible camera. So people currently listening to comedy podcasts, people listening to self-help podcasts, and people listening to true crime podcasts, who actually can't stop listening to true crime podcasts and it's ruining their lives. The point is, everyone, new and existing customers, ask how to get the new iPhone 14 on us with eligible trade-in.

Visit att.com or our stores for details. Terms and restrictions may apply. Flooring contractors agree. When looking for the best to care for hardwood floors, use Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner. The residue-free, fast-drying solution is specially designed for hardwood floors, delivering the safe and effective clean you trust. Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner is available at most retailers where floor cleaning products are sold and on Amazon. Also available for your other hard surface floors like stone, tile, laminate, vinyl, and LVT.

For cleaning tips and exclusive offers, visit bona.com slash BonaClean. This is our American Stories, and this is the story of how a Florida couple kept seven siblings, four brothers and three sisters, ages 12 to 4, together that were separated throughout four different foster homes. Sophia and Deshaun Olds, both 33, got married in 2004, and they admit that as newlyweds, they were too busy with schooling and serving in the military, both veterans who served overseas in Iraq, to think about starting a family. This is the story of how one childless, married couple of 13 years became a family of nine, literally overnight. We thought like we would never ever get adopted, but I thought this was like a really good blessing for us.

Hello, I'm Deshaun Olds. And I'm Sophia Olds, and we would like to tell you about our process, our story of adoption. We have always wanted to adopt. We've been married for about 13 years now, and it had always been in our plans to adopt and to have biological children.

We actually took the classes in 2006 and were preparing to adopt a child. However, we couldn't agree upon an age. So we postponed it, got busy with life, enjoying life, continuing in our careers in college, military, us traveling. We just were enjoying life. We were having a wonderful time together with family, with friends. I know a lot of people probably wonder and question, why is it that they don't have biological children?

It just never happened for us. In 2013, I took a pregnancy test and the test came back positive. And it was the scariest thing to me. I cried and I cried and I cried because I wasn't ready to be a mother.

I know that being a mother is one of the most important jobs, number one in this world. And I guess I felt like I wasn't ready to do that, that I couldn't be that yet. And a couple of days later, I miscarried. It was confirmed by the doctors and I had miscarried. And again, I felt another form of sadness because, you know, a child that we would have, we no longer would have, even though we were early on in our pregnancy, it was, it was still devastating for me. No, I hadn't felt the baby kick.

I hadn't felt the baby move, but it was devastating. But again, we continue life. Also we are very active in our local church. So we were active in, my husband is the youth pastor, children's church, ages what?

Four to 12, always been a part of my life just to help out with children in the church. And I guess one thing we always did is that every time we gave our offering, we had on the back of it, adopted child on there. And then it was just no surprise that the story came out the day after Thanksgiving. And the day after Thanksgiving, what most people are talking about is shopping, how we are shopping. And we saw the story on Facebook, these seven children who needed a home. It was home for the holidays. And one scripture just came to my mind is that in my father's house, there's many rooms and I go prepare a place for you.

And in the Lord's prayer, we do things on earth as it is in heaven. So we had a space to truly be, to open our home for seven children. And we knew that we had everything that these children needed. They needed a mother, a father. They needed stability, structure, discipline. With us having military, they needed love.

They needed care. My husband being a teacher, me being in social work, having those skills, the spiritual background, everything. We were just putting our whole hope and our whole trust in all of our dreams and our ambitions and our life in his hands. We were surrendering to all when we decided to adopt our seven children.

And once we put our faith out there, it's amazing how God works it out. These students I've been serving at Rutherford High School, their parents came and said, what can we do? What can we do? They did everything for bringing furniture to build bunk beds, to donate sports equipment, to donate groceries. One parent is a farmer and truly just slaughtered a pig for us. So we have sausage, bacon, everything else. And also our families, a day hasn't gone by that they haven't asked us or given to us, whether it be snacks for the children to take to school, whether it be cooking up a big pot of llama beans, helping out, cooking food, getting the children off the bus when we both have to work.

Picking oranges. Whatever it is, any extra that they have had, anything that they could give, whether it be five dollars, we have had that outpouring from our families, from both sides. We have had that from complete strangers that live thousands and thousands of miles away.

It has been no stress, no struggle at all. And I do believe that that goes back to us doing the will of God to help build his kingdom, to provide a home for, as the Bible calls them, orphans. You know, that is something that the Bible states we should do.

Yes. And James 127, it says, true religion is to take care of the orphans. And we all know that it is more blessed to give than to receive. If we were allowed to adopt these seven children, we would do it. We will work every day of our lives to make sure that they are cared for. And I think what's most important, too, is for them to see and to have an example of what it's like to have a father who is the head of the household, who has a strong faith and belief in God, who can teach them, who can lead the family. And I know that they enjoy that. I know that they feel privileged and proud to know that their dad is up there teaching them. You can see the smiles on their face and they enjoy talking about it afterwards.

They ask lots of questions. So that whole aspect has been wonderful to have him up front teaching our children about God, about the things that they should do in life to be saints, to be good children, to grow up, to be successful. And I like to just thank for my spiritual fathers, because I did not have a biological father involved in my life, but my spiritual father from my pastors to different men in my church who helped show me the way right there. And I could just use that to impart not only to my children, but all the children I minister to on a weekly basis. So I think it's important to know that in this story of adoption, I am not called to be a minister, to be behind a pulpit, to preach at a church, to be a pastor. But I know that this is my calling that God has placed in my life and I am embracing it.

I am enjoying it. And that's why I can say that I am not stressed because it is something that we are doing that we are supposed to do. So it makes it so much easier. Does it require a lot from us? A lot of time, a lot of correction that we have to do, but it is also worth it.

Every part of it. This is what we're supposed to do in life. These seven children are our calling to be their mother and their father. And we take it just as serious as if it was a pastor over a church or a CEO or a business. This is us, a manager over a team. This is us. This is what we are called to do. And we give him all the praise, the glory, the honor for it, because without him, we would not be able to do this. And we are doing it. And that is our story. And what a story it was. And thanks, Greg, for doing that. And thank you, Sophia and Deshaun Olds for recording that and for doing what you did.

It's an inspiration. And it was their faith, of course, the fruits of their faith. And by the way, NBC's Today Show, ABC News, Inside Edition, Miami Herald, parents.com and People, they all did this story, but they somehow managed to leave the faith walk of this couple out of the story. And just a few things they said.

And it was Sophia who said this. Once you put your faith out there, it's amazing how God works it out. And in came the food and in came the help from the family members. In came all that love. True religion is to take care of the orphans. And if more Christians in this great country did what this young couple did, my goodness, we could solve a lot of problems in our country. This is our American story, Sophia and Deshaun Olds' story, and those seven kids they adopted their stories to.