An Effingham County family of three recently added a few members to the family - seven, to be exact - as their adoption of the “Super Seven” was finalized May 9.
Josh and Jessaka Clark, along with their son Noah, added seven new members to the family - all of whom were brothers and sisters who had spent years in the foster system.
The Clarks were adamant about keeping the siblings together, making the adoption process much more lengthy and difficult than usual.
The four girls (Maria, Elizabet, Kristina and Katerin) and three boys (Guillermo, Jason and James) had spent over three years in the Georgia foster care system before finally finding their new home with the Clarks.
“We had the opportunity to give the kids a loving home to be a part of,” Josh Clark said. “When we met the seven, the Super Seven — it’s important to keep them together.”
Joining with three-year-old Noah, the Clark’s Great Eight make for quite the family.
While eight children in one house - all 14 years old or younger - would be too much for most parents to fathom, Jessaka feels right at home.
“My parents were foster parents for most of my life, and then house parents at a children’s house, so we always had 10 to 12 children in the house,” she said.
While she was used to have a lot of people under one roof, there is one thing Jessaka explained will be a challenge.
“The hardest part was going from a three-year-old to a 14-year-old and not knowing how to deal with teenagers,” she said. “That was challenging — and figuring out school, because we didn’t have school-aged kids.”
With the addition of the Super Seven, the Clarks are in need of financial assistance.
They currently live in a three-bedroom home where the four girls share one room and the four boys share the other.
They recently did a small convertion on their garage to give the children a playroom and more space, but they now face a new challenge.
Their Super Seven have a baby sister in foster care that the Clarks would like to adopt to keep all of them together - the problem is that they have to have more rooms in order to be able to take any more children into their home.
A Gofundme account has been set up to help them save up a substantial down payment on a new house. You can make a donation by visiting www.gofundme.com/clarkclanhome.
