Michigan Family Finalizes Adoption of Six Siblings

A Michigan family has finalized its adoption of six siblings after the parents said that their adoption took seven years to complete.

Gabrielle and Shannon Fessenden said their adoption story began back in 2012 when they had two biological children named Scott and Gianna.

“I always knew I wanted children. I didn’t know I wanted this many,” mom Gabrielle told WZZM.

Gabrielle instantly fell in love after seeing pictures of Maya, Jordan, and Jay on the Michigan Adoption Resource Exchange website.

“Found their picture on my lunch break one day at work, and I thought, these kids are going to be separated. They need a home and nobody will take them. I went home and talked to him [Shannon] and I thought he was going to tell me I was crazy, and he was like ‘those are our kids,’” Gabrielle said.

The family worked with Samaritas, the largest private adoption and foster care agency in Michigan, to add the kids into their family. After they adopted the three children, the family found out the kids had more family of their own. In total, the six siblings ranged in age from two to 15 years old.

“Their other biological siblings came along as the years went on. We didn’t necessarily plan on continuing to adopt, but we were open to that. That was our hearts’ desire to keep them together as siblings when they moved in,” Gabrielle continued.

It took seven years for all six siblings to be successfully adopted into the Fessenden family. The parents said that no two adoptions were alike, with adoptions varying from case to case.

“You’ll never regret loving a child at the end of the day; you just don’t. I don’t think there’s ever been a minute, where even on our worst day ever, we’ve have [sic] sat down and said ‘what did we do?’ Never. These kids are a love and a joy and they’ve blessed us far more than we’ve blessed them. It’s hard to remember life before them,” Gabrielle said.