Meet the Higgins family: Tammie, Josh, Rudy, Macee, Kaden, Ruby, Grace, Lincoln, Mylee and Ruben. This Colorado family has been a family of 10 for just two years. It was two years ago that Josh, the dad, saw photos of Rudy, Ruby, Grace and Ruben online as adoptable children in the foster care system. He told his wife, Tammie, that he just felt like those kids should belong to them. And Tammie agreed. In fact, their biological children also agreed.
With everyone on board, it seemed a perfect match. You see, each of their biological children’s ages matched up with the soon-to-be-adopted children’s ages! But that doesn’t mean there haven’t been difficulties. Tammie said, “We didn’t’ realize how huge of a leap it would be, especially learning how to parent kids who have come from trauma and troubled pasts.” But she’s quick to point out that everything is working.
“It feels like we are a complete family,” says Tammie. “Everyone felt so meshed in and found their place in our family just amazingly well.” Especially because the biological children are vested in helping everyone learn how a functional family works. Sure, there are squabbles and such, but in this homeschooled family, everyone is learning how to be a team member. With a “twin” for each of the adopted children, they have learned age-appropriate behaviors and what being loved by family really means.
Another thing that helps a lot in making the family cohesive are the one-on-one dates that Josh and Tammie are intentional about keeping with each child. This happens once a month so there is no chance of any of the children being left out.
Tammie summed it all up nicely: “The love we have for each other just grows every day.” The full story may be read here.
