Meet the Parents Who Adopted 4 Kids in Just 24 Hours
Utah mom Kaley Carling is busy. And not just the kind of busy that comes from parenting; she's the kind of busy that happens when you become a new parent to four adopted kids—all within 24 hours. Here's how their journey happened.
"We had tried to conceive for a couple of years, however, due to my lupus and RA, that road was proving to be extremely hard on my body," Carling told Parents.com. "My husband and I decided to take a break from 'trying,' and to focus more on foster and/or adoption, something that had been a dream of mine since I was a teenager."
The couple experienced two failed adoptions, the most recent of which was in June of last year. "The birth mother changed her mind right before she was due," Carling told us. "It was devastating and we mourned having lost her."
But in August, just a few months later, their lives would change forever. The couple met two foster girls (Haven, now 2; and Indie, now 14 months), whose mother recently had been sent to prison. That same day, they were contacted by a woman carrying twins. Incredibly, the parents decided they would do their best to meet the needs of all four children.
Courtesy Kaley Carling
Their family started with Haven and Indie. "We had worked HARD for this family!" Carling said, and despite several obstacles, the path toward adopting Haven and Indie was soon cleared.
At the same time, Carling was busy bonding with the mom of twins, who lived out of state. The girls, Sunny and Weslie, now 9 months old, were born in January, and the Carlings were there to meet their soon-to-be daughters. A tense time followed during which Sunny was in the NICU in Phoenix. "It was extremely difficult to be in another state, missing Haven and Indie, with one newborn with us, and one in the NICU," Carling told Parents.com, adding, "We couldn't take Wes to the NICU to see Sunny, so my husband and I spent the majority of our three to four weeks in Arizona apart, one with Wes, the other with Sunny, then switch."
Finally, finally they could all be together back in Utah, but settling it wasn't easy. "We brought the twins home to a 5-month-old, Indie, and an 18-month-old, Haven. Crazy, to say the least! We went through a can of formula PER DAY until Indie turned 1!" Carling confesses it took a good six months to get into the swing of things.
Courtesy Kaley Carling
"We were able to finalize the adoptions for all four girls on October 19 and October 20. It was easily the best few days of our lives!" she told us, adding, "The judge commented that she's never seen so much love and support in her courtroom before."
"Some days are incredibly difficult," Carling also said. "We've gone from two incomes to one, added FOUR more mouths to feed, and have significant debt from the private adoption for the twins, but our prayers were truly answered and our hearts are full. We are so happy to finally be a family."
Photos provided by Kaley Carling
Melissa Willets is a writer/blogger and a mom. Find her on Facebook where she chronicles her life momming under the influence. Of coffee.
