Meet Sophia and Deshaun Olds, a remarkable Florida couple whose lives took an extraordinary turn, transforming them from dedicated veterans into parents of seven. For 13 years, they’d been a couple of two, but then came an incredible opportunity: to keep four brothers and three sisters, ages four to twelve, together. These siblings had been separated across four different foster homes, their bond strained by circumstance. Hear how Sophia and Deshaun stepped up, bringing all seven children under one roof and becoming a bustling family of nine literally overnight through the power of adoption.
This is a truly heartwarming story of how love and faith can build an unbreakable family. Discover how this Florida couple, who once postponed adoption, embraced an unexpected journey to provide a forever home where these brothers and sisters could finally grow up together. Their inspiring action created an immediate, loving family, reminding us all of the profound impact one selfless decision can have. Join Our American Stories to explore this powerful narrative of unity, hope, and the incredible strength found in keeping siblings together.
📖 Read the Episode Transcript
Speaker 1: This is our American Stories. And this is the story of how a Florida couple kept seven siblings, four brothers and three sisters, ages twelve to four, together, that were separated throughout four different foster homes. Sophia and Deshaun Olds, both thirty-three, got married in two thousand and four, and they admit that as newlyweds, they were too busy with schooling and serving in the military, both veterans who served overseas in Iraq, to think about starting a family. This is the story of how one childless, married couple of thirteen years became a family of nine literally overnight.
00:00:57
Speaker 2: We thought like we would never ever adopted, but I thought this was like…
00:01:03
Speaker 3: A really good blessing for us.
00:01:07
Speaker 2: I never actually had a bone, a dad, a new stating youth, but it feels great. It’s like they both like a half of something like peanut butter and jelly.
00:01:18
Speaker 4: Hello.
00:01:18
Speaker 3: I’m Deshaun Olds, and I’m…
00:01:20
Speaker 5: Sophia Olds, and we would like to tell you about our process, our story of adoption.
00:01:31
Speaker 3: We have always wanted to adopt.
00:01:33
Speaker 5: We’ve been married for about thirteen years now, and it had always been in our plans to adopt and to have biological children. We actually took the classes in two thousand and six and were prepared to adopt a child. However, we couldn’t agree upon an age, so we postponed it. Got busy with life, enjoying life, continuing in our careers, in college, military, U.S. traveling. We just were enjoying life. We were having a wonderful time together with family, with friends. I know a lot of people probably wondering, “Why is it that they don’t have biological children?”
00:02:18
Speaker 3: It just never happened for us.
00:02:20
Speaker 5: In twenty thirteen, I took a pregnancy test, and the test came back positive, and it was the scariest thing to me.
00:02:33
Speaker 3: I cried and I cried, and I cried.
00:02:36
Speaker 5: Because I wasn’t ready to be a mother. I know that being a mother is one of the most important jobs, number one in this world, and I guess I felt like I wasn’t ready to do that, that I couldn’t be that yet. And a couple days later, I miscarried. It was confirmed by the doctors, and I had miscarried. And again, I felt another form of sadness, because, you know, a child that we would have, we no longer would have. Even though we were early on in our pregnancy, it was, it was still devastating for me. No, I hadn’t felt the baby kick; I hadn’t felt the baby move.
00:03:26
Speaker 3: But it was devastating. But again, we continued life.
00:03:31
Speaker 5: Also, we’re very active in our local church, so we were active in; my husband is the youth pastor. Children’s church ages…
00:03:41
Speaker 4: What, four to twelve, always been a part of my life, just to help our children in the church. And I guess one thing what we always did is that every time we gave our offering, we had on the back of it ‘adopted child’ on there. And then it was just no surprise that the story came out the day after Thanksgiving.
00:04:07
Speaker 3: And the day Thanksgiving, what most people doing is shopping.
00:04:10
Speaker 4: How we are shopping, and we saw the story on Facebook: these seven children who…
00:04:16
Speaker 5: Needed a home.
00:04:18
Speaker 4: It was ‘Home for the Holidays.’ And one scripture just came to my mind is that, ‘In my Father’s house, as many rooms I go, prepare a place for you.’ And in the Lord’s Prayer, we do things on earth as it is in heaven. So we had a space to truly be, to open a home for seven…
00:04:36
Speaker 5: Children. And we knew that we had everything that these children needed. They needed a mother, a father. They needed stability, structure, discipline. With us having military, they needed love, they needed care. My husband being a teacher, me and being in social work, having those skills, the spiritual background, everything, we were just putting our whole hope and our whole trust, and all of our our dreams and our ambitions and our life in His hands. We were surrendering all when we decided to adopt our seven children, and…
00:05:12
Speaker 4: Once we put out faith out there, it’s amazing how God works it out.
00:05:15
Speaker 3: These STIs.
00:05:15
Speaker 4: I’ve been serving at rout of our high school, that parents came together, that: “What can we do?”
00:05:19
Speaker 3: “What can we do?” They did everything for…
00:05:20
Speaker 4: Bringing furniture, to build bump bess, to donate sports equipment, to donate groceries. One parent is a farmer and truly just slaughter a pig for us. So we have sausage, bacon, and everything else.
00:05:38
Speaker 3: And also our families…
00:05:41
Speaker 5: A day hasn’t gone by that they haven’t asked us or given to us, whether it be snacks for the children to take to school, whether it be cooking up a big pot of Llama beans, helping out, cooking food, getting the children off the bus when we both have to work, picking oranges, whatever it is, any extra that they have had, anything that they could give, whether it be five dollars. We have had that outpouring from our families, from both sides. We have had that from complete strangers that live thousands and thousands of miles away. It has been no stress, no struggle at all. And I do believe that that goes back to us doing the will of God to help build His kingdom, to provide a home for, as the Bible calls them, orphans. You know, that is something that the Bible states we should do.
00:06:36
Speaker 4: Yes, and James one twenty seven, it’s a true religion is to take care of…
00:06:42
Speaker 5: The orphans, and we all know that it’s more blessed to give than to receive. If we were allowed to adopt these seven children, we would do it. We would work every day of our lives to make sure that they are cared for. And I think what most important, too, is for them to see and to have an example of what it’s like to have a father who is the head of the household, who has a strong faith and belief in God, and who can teach them, who can lead the family.
00:07:14
Speaker 3: And I know that they enjoy that.
00:07:16
Speaker 5: I know that they feel privileged and proud to know that their dad is up there teaching them. You can see the smiles on their face, and they enjoy talking about it.
00:07:27
Speaker 3: Afterwards.
00:07:28
Speaker 5: They ask lots of questions. So that whole aspect has been wonderful to have him up front teaching our children about God, about the things that they should do in life: to be saints.
00:07:44
Speaker 3: To be good children, to grow up to be successful. Yep.
00:07:49
Speaker 4: And I’d like to just think for my special fathers, because I do not have a biological father involved in my life, but my special fathers, from my pastors to different men of my church to help show me the way right there. And I could just use that to impart to my children, but all the children I minister to on a weekly basis.
00:08:12
Speaker 5: So I think it’s important to know that in this story of adoption, I am not called to be a minister, to be behind a pulpit, to preach out a church, to be a pastor. But I know that this is my calling that God has placed in my life.
00:08:29
Speaker 3: And I am embracing it.
00:08:31
Speaker 5: I am enjoying it, and that’s why I can say that I am not stressed, because it is something that we are doing, that we are supposed to do, so…
00:08:41
Speaker 3: It makes it so much easier.
00:08:43
Speaker 5: Does it require a lot from us, a lot of time, a lot of correction that we have to do, but it is also worth it, every part of it.
00:08:55
Speaker 3: This is what we’re supposed to do in life.
00:08:57
Speaker 5: These seven children are our calling to be their mother and their father, and we take it just as serious as if it was a pastor over a church, or a CEO or a business.
00:09:11
Speaker 3: This is us: a manager over a team. This is us. This is what we are called to do.
00:09:17
Speaker 5: And we give Him all the praise, the glory and the honor for it, because without Him…
00:09:23
Speaker 3: We would not be able to do this, and we are doing it. And that is our story.
00:09:33
Speaker 1: And what a story it was. And thanks, Greg, for doing that, and thank you, Sophia and Deshaun Olds, for recording that and for doing what you did. It’s an inspiration, and it was their faith. Of course, the fruits are their faith. And by the way, NBC’s Today Show, ABC News, Inside Edition, Miami Herald, Parents.com, and People, they all did this story, but they somehow managed to leave the faith walk of this couple out of the story, and just a few things they said. And it was Sophia who said this: “Once you put your faith out there, it’s amazing how God works it out.” And in came the food, and in came the help from the family members. In came all that love. True religion is to take care of the orphans. And if more Christians in this great country did what this young couple did, my goodness, we could solve a lot of problems in our country. This is Our American Story, Sophia and Deshaun Olds’ story, and those seven kids they adopted, their stories too.
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