Utah Couple Adopts 4 Children in 24 Hours
They were "finally a normal family."
— -- After living life in turmoil, one Utah family is finally feeling normal.
It was a long road to the adoption of their four daughters, Kaley Carling told ABC News, but the stars finally aligned. And as it happened, they adopted all four girls in 24 hours.
Today, the Utah family of six is settling in. Jeremy and Kaley Carling are now parents to Haven, 2, Indie, 1, and twin 9-month-old girls Sunny and Weslie. Haven and Indie are also biological sisters.
Adoption, Kaley said, was always part of her life plan. "Ever since I was a teenager, and I knew what fostering and adoption was, I wanted that to be a part of my life whether I was able to have children biologically or not."
Kaley was diagnosed at a young age with rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. Lupus medication, she said, will kill an unborn baby. They started down the road of adoption and faced tragedy.
They had been working with a birth mom, Kaley said. "Since February, I went to every doctor appointment with her. We were taking care of her and at times, her 2-year-old son. But then when the baby was born [in July] she changed her mind."
The woman, according to Kaley, was arrested for child sex trafficking in August. The Carlings immediately began petitioning for custody of "baby girl" as they call her, and her older brother. But the baby was given to a relative. Both the family member and the 2-month-old baby girl were murdered shortly thereafter, Kayley said.
The Carlings were devastated. "It was a roller coaster ride that wouldn't end," Kaley said.
There had been one bright spot, however. The same day the Carlings were notified about the arrest of the birth mother, they also got a call from social services that Haven and Indie were available to foster. And that very same day -- " a day I'll never forget," said Kaley -- the couple also got the call from the birth mother of the twins that was going to relinquish her rights to the Carlings.
Oct. 19 and 20, Kaley said, was the day the roller-coaster ride came to an end. All four girls were adopted: Haven and Indie on Oct. 19 and Sunny and Weslie on Oct. 20.
"I can’t explain the feeling," she said. "I feel like kids could even feel it, we all felt a massive sense of relief. The time had come for us to just be a normal family."