One Missouri couple found themselves dealing with not one but five child custody issues when they made the decision to adopt siblings from Peru. The three brothers and two sisters are between 9 and 17 years old and lost their parents to tuberculosis. Prior to the adoption, the children convinced a friend of the Missouri family to send out a mass email with their pictures attached asking for new parents.

The adopting couple has two children, a 17-year-old daughter and a 1-year-old daughter. However, they felt after a visit to a Guatemalan orphanage that they should open their home to these five children who did not want to be separated. The father, an associate pastor at a local church, stated that he was willing to take the kids as his own.

However, making the decision to adopt was only the beginning of a long and sometimes grueling process involving an international adoption of five children at once. The couple’s church raised $85,000 to finance the fees for the adoptions and helped to fix the home in preparation for the children’s arrival. The children arrived just after Christmas and have been acclimating to new schools and learning to speak English.

Most adoptions are not quite this complicated, but the issue of adoption and child custody can often leave prospective parents with more questions than answers. A family law attorney can help a growing family handle the paperwork and legalities involved in bringing a new child into their home and life and can greatly ease the burden of adoption, especially if the adoption involves crossing state or international lines.

Source: Daily News, “Missouri couple adopts five Peruvian children, giving the orphaned siblings a chance to start their new American life together,” Carol Kuruvilla, Jan. 24, 2013