I was thirty-two when I met Robert and his ten children in a grocery store.
He was a widower raising an enormous family alone, and something about them immediately drew me in—especially little Sophie, his toddler daughter, who reached for me the first time we met.
Robert and I fell in love quickly, but I fell in love with his children too…. Continue Reading ⬇️
Amanda, Derrick, Sue, twins Jacob and David, Sophie, and the others gradually became part of my everyday life. Six months later, during a family dinner, Robert proposed.
My mother, Helen, was horrified.
She warned me that marrying a man with ten children would destroy my future.
I didn’t care.
I loved Robert, and I already thought of those children as family.
Then, one week before our wedding, I woke up to silence.
Robert was gone.
On the kitchen table was a short note saying he couldn’t marry me.
There was no real explanation.
Even worse, there was nothing about his ten children.
My family immediately told me to walk away. They insisted the children needed to enter foster care and that I couldn’t sacrifice my entire life for a man who had abandoned me.
For a moment, I tried to listen.
Then I looked at those children.
I couldn’t do it.
I went to the county office and applied for emergency guardianship, beginning a long legal process that eventually made all ten children officially mine.
Those first years were brutal.
I worked long shifts at a fabric warehouse and spent evenings sewing school uniforms for extra money. The older children helped with cooking, cleaning, and looking after the younger ones.
There were nights when exhaustion brought me to tears.
But I never regretted keeping them together.
A few men entered my life over the years. Most disappeared when they discovered I was raising ten children.
Eventually, I stopped looking.
My life became schoolwork, meals, bedtime prayers, birthdays, illnesses, graduations, and making sure ten children knew somebody had chosen them.
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Autos & Vehicles
dress
Footwear
My parents remained furious about my decision and eventually stopped speaking to me.
Still, the years passed.
Amanda became a nurse.
Derrick opened an auto shop.
Sue became a teacher.
Jacob and David became engineers.
And little Sophie grew up to become a social worker helping vulnerable children herself.
Every Saturday, everyone returned to my house.
