A couple who struggled to conceive a child together chose adoption as a way to expand their family. Little did they know at the time, but they would end up becoming parents to 10 children—quite the expansion!
Melissa Phelps-Groves and Scott Groves, from Omaha, Nebraska, adopted two brothers in 2004 and assumed that their adoption journey would end there. But over the next 10 years, the family decided to open their home to seven additional children, the siblings of the first adopted pair, ranging in age from baby to teen.
Including Melissa’s biological daughter, Autumn, the tight-knit clan eventually became a family of 12 so that the adopted children, all boys, could grow up together.
The couple enrolled in a 10-week foster-parent-training course. It was only a matter of weeks after they were awarded their license that their first case was offered to them: two young boys who needed emergency care.
“Perhaps it was fate, perhaps it was divine intervention, I don’t know,” she continued, “but what I do know was that the boys’ ’short' stay with us turned into adoption.”
Within weeks of the boys’ legal adoption, the couple received a call. Noah and Chase had a new baby brother, Garrett, who needed emergency foster care placement. The couple didn’t hesitate.
Eleven months later, baby Hayden joined the family clan. “There was no question,” Melissa said. “[H]ow could I deny my sons and this new child the possibility of being together?”
Hayden had been exposed to drugs in utero, had a cleft lip, and was born premature. But the couple rose above the intimidating prospect of future challenges and welcomed the baby boy into their family on National Adoption Day.
The couple’s seventh adopted son, Zayn, was born premature, had also been exposed to drugs in utero, and was diagnosed with Down syndrome. But that didn’t deter the Groveses.
By 2015, the Groves family was 12-strong; nine boys, all from the same birth mother, had been officially adopted by Melissa and Scott. Their family, albeit much, much bigger than they initially expected, was complete—at least for now.
Unfortunately, empathy for the birth mother, who was struggling to overcome drug dependency, was not the only pain that the Groves family would experience. In 2015, Melissa fell victim to a blood-clotting disorder that necessitated the amputation of her right leg.
The “sweet chaos” of the bustling family home also provided necessary comfort to Melissa and Scott throughout the healing process.
“It has opened our eyes,” the mom of 10 continued, “widened the horizons of our family, enriched all of our lives, and brought us so much love and happiness.”
