A kind-hearted couple have adopted seven children who feared they would be separated after their parents died in a car crash.
Pam and Garry Willis already have five children of their own and six grandchildren, but decided to adopt the seven siblings after reading about their tragic story on Facebook.
The children lost their parents in May 2018 when the family’s car flipped on a highway and had no family to take them in.
All seven of the children, Adelino, 15, Ruby, 13, Aleecia, eight, Anthony, seven, Aubriella, six, Leo, five and Xander, four, received major injuries from the crash but all made a full recovery.
The four brothers and three sisters had been living in a children’s home for a year when Pam read about their story on Facebook and told her husband Gary, a US navy veteran.
The mum of 12 told Metro : “When I saw the news about the kids it made me so sad. I looked at them and could see they needed a forever home.
“From the moment we first met them it was instant love. I looked at Gary and we both could see they are really great kids and knew we were doing the right thing."
Luckily Pam, 49, and Gary, 52, already had a big home as their own children had grown up and moved out.
They had also fostered children for several years, taking in two or three at a time.
Pam, who is an attorney, said she hated to see her six-bedroom house so empty.
She said her own children - Matthew, 32, Andrew, 29, Alexa, 26, Sophia, 22 and Sam, 19 - treat the ‘magnificent seven’ like their own children and have been on family trips together to Disneyland in California.
She said: "My older kids were very welcoming and treated the younger ones like their own. It is pretty full on looking after seven children so my older two daughters do help out whenever I need a hand.”
Pam said there were some issues with settling in such as gaining their trust and sleep disturbances.
But now they have started calling them mum and dad and have settled in nicely.
It's now been 15 months since they've been a family, and Pam shares snaps of the family on her Instagram page.
She added: “I have noticed how incredibly happy they are and that makes me so happy too, because that’s all we ask for.”
