Information email: largefamilies2001@yahoo.com
Faith, Hope and Family
By Kate Hunger
khunger@express-news.net
San Antonio Express-News
12/25/2002
Wayne Ross plays with 4-year-old adopted daughter Alyssa as 1-year-old adopted son Matthew looks on. Shon and Wayne Ross are celebrating Christmas for the first time with their newly enlarged family. J. Michael Short/Special to the Express-News Thirteen Christmas stockings are hung with care along the staircase in the Ross household. The seven adopted children join the couple's four biological offspring in their home. More Holiday Coverage· Familiar story being retold · Christmas comes early on aircraft carriers· Pakistan's Christians tense on this holiday of peace · He (or she) who hesitates is a shopper · Editorial: Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus · Clack: Newborn's arrival is a Christmas present for his dead sister This is the first Christmas the Rosses will spend with their newly expanded family. The couple this month finalized the adoption of five brothers and two sisters, ages 1 to 11, who joined the couple's four biological children, ages 10 to 17.
"Last year they were in three different foster homes for Christmas," Shon Ross, 38, said of her new charges.
This year, they're with their new parents, brothers and sisters — not to mention four miniature horses, one dog and 11 cats — in a San Antonio-area home on two acres.
"We all adopted each other that day," Shon Ross said of Dec. 3, when the adoption became official.
To hear the Rosses tell it, the bonding began much earlier.
The state removed the six oldest siblings from their home and placed them in foster care because of abuse and neglect.
The baby, Matthew, was placed with the Rosses at birth, and was joined by his brothers and sisters in June.
"We loved the children before they even knew us," Shon Ross said.
The couple long had planned to adopt a set of siblings in an effort to keep them together.
"I had come from a large family and couldn't imagine having my brothers and sisters taken away from me, and so that's what we came in with," she said.
The Ross family includes (seated, from left) Alyssa, 4, Bobby, 8, and Jacob, 7. Standing (from left) are Nathan, 13, Clarissa, 16, Katrina, 10, Christina, 11, Jonathan, 17, Rudy, 9, Matthew, 1, Wayne, Shon, and Jesse, 6. J. Michael Short/Special to the Express-News "We built the house in anticipation of a sibling group," Wayne Ross, 40, said of the seven-bedroom, four-bath, two-story house.
Even though it's spacious, the Ross home feels snug when everyone gathers around the kitchen table or in the living room. The rooms are framed by a long chain of multi-colored construction paper links, made by family members as a symbol of both their individuality and unity.
Jonathan, at 17 the oldest, said the arrangement was all right by him as he watched two of his younger brothers ride bikes in the back yard.
When Bobby, 8, finished, he tucked his bike back in line with more than a dozen others parked in a row.
"Mommy, Mommy, can I play Nintendo, or no?" he asked.
Katrina, 10, now shares a room with Christina, 11, and Alyssa, 4.
"Sometimes, it's good," she said of her new sister, also in the fifth grade.
"Sometimes," Christina added, grinning and hugging her mom, "it's really annoying."
Her new children don't talk about their birth family, but Shon Ross said they're glad to be with their new one.
Alyssa pulled funny faces and eagerly showed a visitor her bedroom on a recent afternoon, when talk centered on the gifts under the tree.
"She says, 'You're a good mom and this is a good house and I like living here,'" Shon Ross said.
Laundry has become a formidable chore, as have dishes.
Shon stays home, and Wayne Ross is a senior IT systems analyst for an insurance company.
They receive Medicaid for the children and other subsidies offered by the federal government to adoptive families on a case-by-case basis.
The Rosses know there may be tough times ahead for the children as they go through adolescence. Some of them have been diagnosed with learning disabilities and conditions such as attention deficit disorder, manic depression and oppositional defiance disorder.
But the couple are dedicated to their new kids. The family is traveling to Arizona this week for a special ceremony in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to "seal the children to us for all time and eternity," Shon Ross said.
"I wish there was no limit to my bedrooms and my bathrooms and my time," she said of the need for adoptive homes.
"I think there are a lot of people who have fear, who hear horror stories (about adoption). It doesn't have to be seven. One can make a difference."
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