Gloria and Tom are not your average parents. Not only do they have 16 children, but most of their kids have special needs. These are parents who have created a family of which most people would never dream.
It started as a date at the age of 16, and flourished into a beautiful marriage. Then came Tom's cancer scare, which changed the direction of their lives almost entirely. The couple already had four children, including one who they adopted from Korea. For months, Gloria and Tom worried over whether or not Tom had testicular cancer; doctors weren't sure, and tests were inconclusive. Finally, his doctor sent him to a specialist who confirmed that Tom did not have cancer. In turn, however, Gloria and Tom realized how precious life truly is.
"That began a whole other chapter for us of being really grateful and really trying to figure out we wanted to do with the rest of this gift of time," Gloria told CBS in 2011. "It was adopt one more. One more!"
And so, the couple adopted Nicolas, a little boy with Down syndrome and autism. But the adoptions didn't stop there. Gloria and Tom felt a calling, and began to realize that every child — even those with special needs or terminal illness — yearn for, and deserve, a family.
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