Photo: Bobbilee Tanner
Growing up as an only child, Amy Eker always wanted a big family. But she never imagined her blended family of nine would come together the way it did.
In 2016, the Ekers went through the process to become licensed foster parents and worked with the National Youth Advocate Program to bring a child in need into their home Coral Springs, Florida, home.
Alexander (left), Gabriel (top), Julianna (center) and Samantha.Bobbilee Tanner
How It All Began
Amy and Damian met while working at the same south Florida hospital. Amy was in nursing school and worked in the hospital’s transportation department while Damian was a nurse.
“I would bring the patients from their rooms to any tests they needed to have and I would always try to get assigned to his patients,” Amy recalls.
They wed 13 years ago and quickly welcomed the twins. But trying to have more children was difficult for the couple.
“I got pregnant so quickly the first time and five years later we said lets start trying again and I figured it would be so easy and we never got pregnant,” Amy tells PEOPLE. She and Damian began considering international adoption — then the couple had a light bulb moment.
“Working in the hospital you see all these foster kids, all these kids who need families,” Amy says of working with infants in the intensive care unit. (Damian is now a doctor who works with older patients.)
Damian and Amy Eker.Bobbilee Tanner
So the couple embarked on a journey that would lead to a full house!
“Things went back and forth for a while,” Amy tells PEOPLE of the adoption process. “The idea of foster care is to reunite families whenever possible and we know that. We didn’t know what the final outcome would be, but she’s officially part of our family now.”
Although they initially planned to take in only one child, the Ekers didn’t hesitate.
“We took him right away,” Amy says.
Julianna.Bobbilee Tanner
The More the Merrier
“They were thinking it would be temporary, but we’re now hoping it will be permanent,” Amy says.
Amy says their family is complete, but jokes that she’s out of room for car seats.
“The love we have for them is the same love we have for our biological children,” the devoted mom says. “There’s no difference.”
She knows her blended family can be hard for some to understand. The group gets a lot of stares when they’re out in public and Amy has been asked if she’s the nanny.
“My husband is Indian Jamaican and people think he’s Hispanic. My twins, my son looks like me and my daughter is dark like my husband,” Amy explains. “The babies — one is very light-skinned black, one is half-black and half-Puerto Rican and two are half-white, half-black.”
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She adds: “It’s definitely scary to think of when they start going to school, what kids can say to them and the stuff they’ll have to go through. I don’t want them to feel like people didn’t accept them in the beginning. We just want to protect them and have them live a happy normal life.”
Right now “normal” means relying on the older kids to help with the little ones. Amy is still working part time as a nurse while caring for the children.
“Thank goodness I have the 12-year-old twins — they help out a ton — I get all the kids dressed and they put them in the car. They help with bath time, they help entertain them.”
The only thing she’s hoping to change is where they live. The family is currently on the hunt for a bigger house.
“I knew I wanted to have a big family, I didn’t expect it to be this big but I love it,” she says. We love it.”
source: people.com
