The house of the Michigan couple Shannon and Gabrielle Fessenden is filled with ‘love and chaos’ after they adopted six children who are actually siblings by blood.
Speaking to Good Morning America, Gabrielle said she and her husband Shannon already had two biological children but they always wanted to adopt.
Gabrielle discovered Jordan, Jay, and Myah, while looking for children to adopt on the website of Michigan Adoption Resource Exchange.
The three siblings were waiting for a family to adopt them.
Gabrielle and Shannon fast-tracked the steps involved in the adoption process and brought the children home in November 2012 before legally adopting them the next year.
Gabrielle told Good Morning America that the personalities of the children captivated her at the first meeting and she knew from the start that she was going to adopt them.
Talking about Myah, who’s now nine, Gabrielle said she was “full of spunk and spice and sugar,” and had “best belly laugh on the face of the planet.”
“Jordan was spunky, athletic — his dream was to play soccer. Giving him permanency allowed him to be able to be part of a sports team,” she described the 15-year-old.
“Jay was very quiet and reserved, but he is amazing now,” she said of the now 10-year old. “He has high-functioning autism, but he’s insanely smart and incredibly social.”
In May 2014, the children’s biological mom had another child, Jericho, and the Fessendens adopted him too in that December.
Good Morning America said the children belonged in an ‘unstable environment’ and their parents’ rights were terminated.
Briella, who’s now four, was born just after Jericho’s first birthday. She was adopted by the Fessendens in December 2015.
Mason was born two years after Briella and had many birth anomalies with alcohol syndrome being one of them. The family adopted him in the coming June.
“Our oldest Jordan said, ‘Mason is hilarious and fun and a missing piece. He filled the void I didn’t know I had,’” said Gabrielle, recalling the time of Mason’s adoption.
“That, of course, made us all sob. It was another link for us to keep these kids together.”
All of the six adopted children have become a part of the Fessenden family, living happily with Gabrielle and Shannon’s two biological children Scott, 11, and Giana, 8.
Gabrielle said on a lighter note that the family lives by the principle: “There’s never a dull moment.”
“It’s never quiet. There’s lots of love and chaos,” she told GMA. “There’s always scampering feet, laughing and giggling, running.”
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