It wasn't all bad

Tampa family adopts 9 siblings so they don't have to be split up

When Peggy Smith heard about nine siblings in foster care hoping to find a Tampa family to adopt them all, she had an idea.

Smith, 28, knew she couldn't handle nine kids on her own, and she enlisted her mother-in-law, Loryn Smith, to help. The four youngest children, including a four-month-old, will live with Peggy Smith and her husband, while the five oldest will live with Loryn Smith and her husband in their house, just five minutes away. "Why not us?" Peggy Smith told ABC Action News. "We're young. We have a beautiful home. Why not help these kids out and grow our family this way?"

Loryn Smith has already raised five biological and 15 adopted children, and knew how important it was to keep the kids from being split up. "They didn't make the choices that separated them and they deserve to be together," she said. The adoptions will be finalized in April, and so far, everyone's doing great. "It's a good thing to be able to come home and be with your siblings again," the oldest child, Desiree, told ABC Action News. Catherine Garcia