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'A POSITIVE EXPERIENCE'

The Garcias are parents to Kristen, 12; Kaylee, 5; and one-year-old baby Jordan.

Christina Garcia, 34, and husband, Christian, 35, welcome children with open arms.

That's the way it is in their home, where their biological children share mom and dad with a foster child and a sibling group.

The Garcias are parents to Kristen, 12; Kaylee, 5; and one-year-old baby Jordan. Sharing one's home and family with other children seems natural to the couple.

"It was actually something that I had always wanted to do," Christina explains. "As a child, I would read books on orphanages. It's something that just tugs my heart."

When she met Christian, she found he felt the same way.

"We knew we were going to adopt at some point in our life, we just weren't sure when. After that, we discovered we had infertility issues, so that played a factor later on."

The pair struggled to bear their first child. It took another five years to have their second. They wanted a third baby, but realized the process would take more time.

"So we went ahead and initiated all the paper work to do adoption. We thought the timing was great. Four months into the process we found we were pregnant with our third child."

The adoption process was put on hold until after Jordan's birth. Christina, an elementary schoolteacher, decided to stay home to rear the children. They resumed the adoption application process, but after six months were a bit impatient.

"We contemplated being foster parents, too. We weren't sure we could let go," she says. "You care for these children. You create bonds. Would we be willing to care for a child, knowing that this child would go back to their parents?"

In the end they put themselves in the other parents' position and decided to become foster parents. Shortly afterward they were matched for adoption with the siblings.

Christina adds the experience has been a positive one, and recalls her mother, Mary, had always wanted to become a foster mother.

"My father was always in the military, so we were always relocating. We weren't in one place for very long."

Still, Christina's mom would obtain a license to open a daycare in her home.

"She loves children," Christina says. "She's always said she's so proud of my husband and me, what we're doing. She's living her dreams through watching us."