Domingo Garcia and his wife Irene decided it was time to adopt. They had one requirement: they did not want a special-needs child.

“We both talked about not adopting a child with brain damage ’cause that would be very difficult for us,” Irene recalled.

However, when the couple received a call about a newborn who had brain damage and was expected to live just one year, that rule changed.

“And then we met her and that’s all it took,” Domingo said. “We took her home. And that’s the beginning of an adventure that we still live out 33 years later.”

That’s right, their daughter is still alive and well at 33 years old. She wasn’t the only child they brought into their home. While adoption was not common in their families or even talked about, let’s just say that Domingo and Irene developed a knack for it.

“I think we ended up at one time Irene had counted like, about 34 children that we fostered. And we’ve adopted about half of those. We’ve adopted 17. This is like the third generation now,” Domingo said.

The father who was at first reluctant to adopt is now completely smitten with every single one of his kids. The couple is happy to take in any child, no matter their situation.

“The ones we have now are mostly from drug raids and they’ve been abused and neglected and pretty badly battered; most of them with special needs,” he said. “No matter what their needs are, what situation they come from, if God brings them to my door, and they call and say they need a home, we take them in.”

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