Couple Adopts Triplets, Gets Shocking News

Sarah and Andy Justice are a couple from Tulsa, Oklahoma who longed desperately to become parents. They had tried for 3 years to conceive their own child, but soon decided that their next step was to consider adoption.

After three unsuccessful years of trying to conceive a child, Sarah and Andy decided it was time to seek some professional help to get the ball rolling. They made an appointment with a fertility expert and prayed for strength to move forward with whatever information they would learn.

In early 2014, the couple traveled from Tulsa, OK to St. Louis, MO to meet with a fertility expert. It was nearly a six-hour drive, and when they got there, they received some bad news…

The fertility specialist told the Justices that although they were great candidates for in vitro fertilization treatment, there would still be only a 10% chance of becoming pregnant. Sarah didn’t like the sound of those odds…

The process of in vitro fertilization was a bit more invasive than the couple had initially been prepared for. Which might have been okay had it not been for the price…

In vitro fertilization, as they soon learned, isn’t cheap. The whole process would cost the Justices between $30,000 and $60,000. Even if they decided to pay the high price of the treatment, there was no guarantee that it would work. With all of this in mind, Sarah and Andy decided in vitro fertilization wasn’t the right path for them.

The Justices next looked into adoption. To their surprise, however, the adoption process seemed a bit daunting, too. It can take years to finalize, and Sarah and Andy were primarily interested in adopting a newborn baby. Despite this, though, they desperately wanted a child, so they were willing to do whatever they could to get the process moving.

As per the adoption process, the couple had to be interviewed by prospective birth mothers so that they could determine whether they would make suitable parents for their unborn children. These interviews could be exhausting and nerve-wracking–imagine selling yourself as good parents to someone who might already be conflicted about giving away their baby!

Despite their anxiety over all of their interviews, Sarah and Andy had been selected as adoptive parents on two different occasions following their interviews. Unfortunately for the Justices, in both cases the birth mothers changed their minds about giving their children up for adoption at the last minute. It was certainly an emotional process, but they weren’t ready to give up all hope just yet.

Sarah and Andy jumped right into their expectant mother’s acceptance. They met with her several more times, and it looked as though they would finally be adopting their very own child in the near future. They went with the mother to an ultrasound appointment, where they learned some surprising news.

Although they were both surprised to learn that they would potentially be adopting THREE babies instead of one, the Justices didn’t renege on the agreement right away. They had already signed the papers, after all. They decided to move forward with the adoption process and accept the three babies. Sarah and Andy were going to be the proud parents of triplets.

They might not have been expecting three babies, but after a short bit of time, Sarah and Andy entirely warmed to the idea. They decided the situation suited them perfectly. They knew they wanted more children, and the idea of going through the adoption process all over again didn’t exactly sound tempting. More than one child at once was the perfect solution!

Sarah and Andy received the call that the birth mother was in labor in May 2013. It was eight weeks earlier than their due date! It’s common for multiple babies to be born earlier than usual, but eight weeks seemed pretty early! The Justices rushed to the hospital with their go-bags and paperwork.

Sarah and Andy got to the hospital and met their brand new babies for the first time. Hannah, Joel, and Elizabeth were born weighing only about 3 pounds each. Because they were premature, they would need to be kept in the neonatal intensive care unit of the hospital for a while before they could go home with their new parents.

A week after the triplets’ birth, they were still in the hospital being cared for by the nursing staff. Sarah and Andy were able to hold their babies and get to know them, while having a little time to get everything set up for when they would be allowed to bring them home. Sarah was beginning to feel stressed and a little off from the anxiety of the whole situation, so she made a doctor’s appointment to make sure she was ready when the babies could come home.

Sarah had scheduled a checkup appointment with her doctor to make sure she was in full health when it was time for the triplets to come home. When she talked to the doctor, he had some unbelievable news for her. She wasn’t sick at all–she was pregnant! And even more, she was pregnant with TWINS!

Sarah couldn’t believe what she was hearing from the doctor. She was excited and nervous at the same time. To some people in their situation it might have seemed like horrible timing. But to Sarah and Andy, it was a blessing, while a bit ironic. They would be raising five children all under a year old.

Of course, like any parents in their situation would be, they were shocked by the news. But they considered this news to be anything but bad. They were excited! They had, after all, longed for a family of their own for 3 years, and now they were being blessed with FIVE children! It wasn’t long before the Justices welcomed twins Abigail and Andrew into their home. But they were ready.

Sarah and Andy now had five hungry babies to care for. It might have been an impossible task had it not been for the support of their community and family. Everyone contributed to help out the new family of seven, from friends and neighbors to members of their church.

Some of the members of Tulsa’s Eastland Baptist Church helped out the new family by bringing over food. They sent them home-cooked meals, frozen dinners, and even baby formula. Some even offered to help babysit the infants while their mom and dad were away at work.

The Justices learned pretty fast that when you’re taking care of five babies, supplies run out very quickly. They were accepting donations of diapers, bottles, blankets, and clothing from anyone who offered, which turned out to be a lot in the Tulsa area! The babies went through 84 bottles and a whopping 300 bottles every single week! Sarah and Andy even had to upgrade to a bigger van!

Of course, as you can imagine, it wasn’t always easy to tell the babies apart. The parents had to come up with a system so that they wouldn’t confuse who was whom. The boys were easy enough to tell apart, since there were only two and there was enough of an age difference between them that it wasn’t a problem. For their older daughters, they used different colored toenail polish to tell them apart.

The Justices and their story became an instant internet success. They had thousands of Facebook followers, all looking to catch some more glimpses of their multi-baby family and follow their story. It wasn’t long before their story went viral everywhere, not just on Facebook. They now still have an impressive number of Facebook followers. And they have even more good news…

In January of 2016, Sarah and Andy welcomed a sixth child into their big family. Baby boy Caleb (the only single in the group!) is their most recent child, another biological child from Sarah and Andy.

Although Sarah and Andy have never claimed it was easy, they’ve also never said it was anything but a blessing to have such a full house of children. Their lives are now all about their beautiful children, and they couldn’t be more content with the way things turned out. “We just really love having these children,” says Sarah. With six children to call their own, their capacity for love just keeps growing and growing.