Stacey Ritzen
Andi and Thomas Bonura always knew they wanted a big family. However, when fertility issues caused Andi to have trouble conceiving, in 2017 the Texas couple got licensed to become foster parents, and soon began fostering a newborn baby named Bryson straight out of the hospital.
Although the couple has three biological children of their own, Joey, 11, Sadie, 10, and Daphne, 8, all three were born prematurely. Joey also had a twin brother, Eli, who did survive, and Joey himself is visually impaired with cerebral palsy, and can only communicate through sign language.
“He’s very smart … whenever people start to pity him, I tell them, ‘Don’t.’ He’s the happiest kid in this house,” Andi said in an interview with Good Morning America.
Bryson, now 2, was one of five biological siblings: twins Thomas and Carter, 8, David, 6, Gabrielle, 4. Soon after bringing Bryson home, the family took in his brother and sister, David and Gabrielle, and the twins would often come to visit their siblings at the Bonura’s home.
Earlier this year, Andi and Thomas Bonura were given the legal opportunity to officially adopt all five siblings, and they jumped at the chance. The adoption was facilitated on May 6, 2020, over a Zoom call with the DePelchin Children’s Center in Houston.
“One day we got a call saying, ‘[The parents] are terminating rights. Do you want them?'” Bonura recalled. “We said yes.”
“These are their brothers and sisters and there’s no argument,” Andi told Good Morning America in an interview published Monday. “The kids have been through a lot but they’re the sweetest. They’re amazing — and resilient.”
After the adoption was finalized—in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic—friends, family, and neighbors organized a car parade to celebrate the Bonuras’ newly-minted family of ten.
“They’re fun to be around and they’re the greatest kids,” said Andi. “God’s hand was in it. Our family is complete.”
In other words, sometimes the universe just gets everything right, if this large, happy family is any indication.