A couple who originally adopted two brothers have taken on six more of their siblings because they couldn't bear for them to be separated.
Melissa and Scott Groves, from Omaha, Nebraska, are now parents to eight brothers ranging from a teenager to a baby.
Melissa, who became pregnant when she was 17, already had a four-year-old daughter, Autumn, when she met Scott.
After getting married they wanted to have kids of their own but discovered they had fertility problems and so decided to become foster parents.
Just after qualifying, they took on Noah, three, and his brother Chase, 22 months.
Melissa said: "Almost instantaneously these two seem to capture our hearts, and it wasn't very long before I knew that if the chance arose I wanted to have them in our lives forever."
And so the boys' 'short' stay with the couple turned into adoption.
Then within weeks of the legal adoption going through for Chase and Noah, they received a phone call from their previous case worker informing them the pair had a new brother with an immediate need for a foster placement.
Melissa said: "There was no question, how could I deny my sons and this new child the possibility of being together? So after less than a year, our family grew yet again with the addition of baby Garrett.
"Then, just eleven months later we were surprised with another call concerning the arrival of another newborn brother, Hayden.
"Born with a cleft lip, drug exposed, and premature, this little guy had a rough road ahead, but he was as much ours as our other boys; of course we'd accept. And on National Adoption Day they officially became a part of our family!"
The couple then adopted two more of the brothers - Ashton joined when he was four months old and they then took on newborn Curran in May 2009.
But the extraordinary saga doesn't end there. For Melissa received a Facebook message from the boys' birth mum asking if they would consider adopting her unborn baby.
Melissa said: "We had every reason to say no-not enough money, not enough time, etc. but somehow things seemed to fall into place and the following June we found ourselves in a hospital waiting room awaiting the arrival of our son, Bryer.
"In October 2013 our soon-to-be seventh son, Zayn, was born premature, drug exposed, and diagnosed with Down's syndrome."
Melissa said Zayn is just over a year now and he teaches 'patience and unconditional love daily', adding that she 'can't imagine life without him.'
The family have now officially adopted him and Melissa said: "For us, adoption was initially just a means to complete our family when having a biological child seemed impossible.
"But, it has become so much more to us. It has opened our eyes, widened the horizons of our family, enriched all of our lives, and brought us so much love and happiness."
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