It's hard to find a moment of silence in the Foster home when there are six children, energetic and talkative, running through the halls.
There's 11 year-old Clay, 11 year-old Fen, 10 year-old Charis, 8 year-old Mikaela, 6 year-old Matthias and 4 year-old Abram.
The troupe of siblings may all look a little different, but they all share the Foster family name. Parents Megan and Michael Foster call their three biological children their "homegrown children" (Clay, Charis and Mikaela). Fen was adopted from China and Matthias and Abram were adopted from Ethiopia.
Fen was the family's most recent addition, adopted from China over the summer. AFacebook video of her meeting Megan and Michael for the first time has swelled to more than half a million views.
"It's encouraging, especially when you're in China to have so much feedback and to feel like you're that those to people," says Michael Foster, about the response the family has received about their "gotcha day" video.
A dinner table with eight mouths to feed around it is no easy feat to conquer, but Megan Foster makes it look as easy as cake...literally. She chops vegetables, cooks chicken, fluffs rice and bakes a chocolate pumpkin pudding cake with ease. Help comes in the form of two of her children, setting the table with plates, bowls, forks and spoons.
"I think for us at some point we just stopped asking why would be and asked why wouldn't we? We knew there were kids that needed a home and we had the space and love in our hearts, so why not?" says Megan on why the Foster family just kept growing.
Managing different school schedules, meals, personalities, soccer practices and church functions keeps Michael and Megan busy almost all hours of the day. They attribute their faith in God, their relationship with each other and their support 'team' to keep them grounded and sane.
"You've got to be all in, all in together as a married couple. You've got to be all in with a team, support, an extended network and really just be ready to endure," says Michael.
With all the successes (making it through each day), the family does have a handful of hurdles each day. The Foster family is learning to curb their language barrier with Fen, who spent 11 years in China with an interrupted education. The youngest member of the family, Abram, has down syndrome and Matthias has a gluten intolerance.
The biggest tip the Fosters can offer to 'win' at parenting? "We just embrace the chaos."
