Dave and Jenny Marrs Share 'Miracle' Adoption Story: 'We Didn't Think She Would Ever Come Home' [Exclusive]
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The stars of HGTV's Fixer to Fabulous open up to PEOPLE about the harrowing three-year process of bringing their daughter Sylvie home
Dave and Jenny Marrs' adoption story was "100 percent a miracle," according to the Fixer to Fabulous stars.
What should have been a six month process to bring their daughter Sylvie, now 11, home from the Democratic Republic of Congo turned into a harrowing three-year ordeal for the new co-hosts of Home Town Takeover (premiering April 23).
The couple always knew they wanted to adopt, so when they were struggling to start a family of their own, it was an easy decision to start the paperwork. That journey hit its first bump when Jenny unexpectedly got pregnant with twins. It was a high-risk pregnancy, she tells PEOPLE in this week's issue, and when she went into labor prematurely, she had to be airlifted to a hospital in Little Rock from their home in Bentonville, Ark.
"We were given every worst-case scenario for when the boys were born," she says. Thankfully, Nathan and Ben, now 12, arrived "perfectly healthy and awesome."
"That first year with twins was really hard," Jenny recalls. She and the boys spent the first month of their life in the hospital. But eighteen months later, still hoping to grow their family, they decided, "Let's go ahead and open the [adoption] file back up."
They met and instantly fell in love with baby Sylvie, who was living in an orphanage, and took all the necessary steps for her to make the journey to the U.S.
"Her adoption had been finalized. She had her U.S. passport. And then the country shut down adopted kids leaving, so she couldn't get her exit permit," Jenny explains.
With no end to the order in sight, "we were contacting anyone we thought could help us. We had people writing letters. We met with every one of our congressmen and senators," she says. Dave made five trips to the Congo, each time returning alone.
"It was heart-wrenching. There was nothing we could do," he says.
During that time, Jenny got pregnant again, but the surprise was bittersweet. "I wasn't able to really rejoice in the amazing news because we were so overwhelmed with sorrow that we couldn't get our daughter home," she recalls.
She gave birth to a baby girl, Charlotte, now 8. And eight weeks later, Sylvie was finally able to travel to the U.S.
An exception had been made because she was considered medically fragile due to a breathing irregularity from which she has since recovered. "It was a lot of emotion, because we honestly didn't think that she would ever come home," says Dave. "It is 100% a miracle."
Now, with a family of seven (they later welcomed their youngest, Luke, 3), Dave and Jenny are focused on showing their kids and the world that while they might "look a little bit different than most, what people would consider a normal family, we're the exact same," says Dave.
Adds Jenny, "Adoption is a part of our family. It's a part of our story, but they're all just our kids."
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