Aroostook County Couple Adopts 7 Siblings to Keep Them Together

Peter and Bridget Morningstar up in Caribou, Maine just helped brothers and sisters stay close.

How did the Morningstars balloon into a 12 member family? According to the Bangor Daily News, Peter and Bridget never expected to add seven kids to their family and never all at once! Here's the breakdown of who everyone is: biological siblings Julianna, 18, Elijah, 16, Lexie, 15, Josiah, 12, Angel, 9, Luke, 8, and Gabby, 6. The Morningstars already had a biological son Jack, 22, and had adopted two previous kids Nick, 19, and Jane, 15. For a grand total of 10 kids!

It all started when Peter and Bridget decided to become foster parents to help kids in the area find good homes and reconcile with their birth families. So back in 2018, they started fostering Luke. That's when they realized just how strong the sibling bond was with the seven kids. Luke told his new foster parents how close he was with this brothers and sisters. He really liked where he was living, but he needed to leave and be with his siblings. That's when they brought more and more of the brothers and sisters over. Then it became clear that they were not going to reunite with their birth parents - so they started the adoption process. They became Morningstars in November of 2020. How do they do it? I think 3 kids is hard to juggle...but 10?

Peter Morningstar told the Bangor Daily News,

We’ve learned to be more comfortable with our imperfections, which is a good lesson to learn as parents, especially when things don’t go according to plan.

Bridget says that they feel so lucky that all those brothers and sisters wanted to be together. It's been almost a year since the adoption went through and this family has been getting some national recognition. Senator Susan Collins nominated the Morningstars as one of the 71 Angels of Adoption. That's a program run by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute.

Obviously, the Morningstars say it's lovely to be recognized, but they are happiest about the lessons of perseverance, family values, and how adopting really helps kids.