A couple in Cincinnati, Ohio, is making waves with the big step they took in adopting two sets of twins.
Karen and Tobias Thompson have an intimate love story that dates back decades. The couple dated as teenagers but ended up marrying other people and starting families. They found their way back to each other and got married in 2014. The time they spent as friends and lovers made for the perfect home life to raise children together.
Four years ago, the couple took in Karen’s niece and nephew Wilnya and William, a set of twins who were still in elementary school at the time. After learning that the children’s younger twin sisters were in foster care, Tobias decided the little girls should also live with them.
On Sept. 9, the Thompsons officially adopted the 9-year-old twin girls, Sharnia and Sharleathea, and turned their family of four into a family of six.
“No sense splittin’ ‘em up. Keep ‘em all together,” Tobias said. “Show ‘em a lot of love. That’s all they need. Love.”
“They really had nowhere else to go,” Karen told Good Morning America. The twin girls had been in foster care since they were about 4 or 5 and needed a stable at-home life.
“We didn’t know anything about them until the caseworker told us,” Tobias said. “But I was like, ‘We may as well go ahead and get them.’”
“They were going from foster home to foster home. They just needed somebody to hold onto them,” Karen added.
Before taking in Sharnia and Sharleathea permanently, the couple allowed them to stay over on the weekends and get comfortable with their family dynamic.
“When Sharnia and Sharleathea came here, they didn’t want to go back to the foster home,” Karen said. “I think they all needed to be around their siblings.”
The Thompson noticed the change in the twin girls and can tell that they’re more comfortable than when they first started living there full-time.
“They were very timid when they got here,” Tobias said. “They’ve been through a lot. Now you can’t get them to stop talking,” Karen said. “I think they all needed somebody to love them.”