At 6:00 AM on May 9, Josh Clark put a party horn in his mouth, armed himself with some confetti poppers, and opened a bedroom door. “Morning time! Time to get adopted!” he announced.
Shouts of “Yay!” echoed around the boys’ bedroom, and he moved on to a second door, making the same declaration. “Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!” exclaimed his little girls.
And thus began a day that would change the lives of ten people forever. Adoption day for Maria, Elizabeth, Guillermo, Jason, Kristina, Katerin, and James, a sibling group who would join Jessaka and Josh Clark and their biological son, Noah, to become part of a forever family.
The Clarks told WSB-TV that they decided two years ago that they wanted to adopt. According to 11Alive, they were planning on a sibling group of “at least two or three.”
Then in April 2016, they got a phone call. Josh took the call. When he hung up, recalled Jessaka, “He said to me, ‘What do you think about seven?’ I said, ‘A 7-year-old?’ He said, ‘Well, there is a 7-year-old, but no . . . seven children.’ My eyes probably got as big as his and we both said the same thing: ‘We need to pray about this.’ We prayed that night and didn’t sleep well because God told us that these were the kids for us.”
The kids moved in that August. Nine months later, they were able to make it official in a court of law. After the ceremony was complete, the siblings all stood together with a sign: “We were in Foster Care for 1,359 days. But today, May 9, 2017, We’re adopted.” Their new little brother held his own sign. It read, “I was an only child for 1,426 days. But today, May 9, 2017, I became a little brother.”
With the introduction of so many children into the family, including busy school-aged children, the Clarks’ life has gotten much busier. “We had some moments where it seemed too hard and we felt ill-equipped,” Jessaka recalled, but she said that when friends, family, and church members all stepped in to help out, they were able to get through.
Jessaka says that although it hasn’t been easy, it has been worth it. She says, “You will feel the greatest joys! And you will feel the biggest heartbreaks! But just like there is pain in labor, at the end you get a beautiful child . . . or seven!”
The family of ten is currently living in a three-bedroom home. The couple believes that “God has more in store” and they need more room to accommodate additional children. You can donate to help them here.