It was certainly the reality for six children in the US who had spent five long years in foster care.

As per reports, the siblings, ranging in age from seven to fourteen, were at high risk of being separated from one another. As readers might imagine, finding homes that would take in all six of them together was difficult, and time, quite simply, was running out.

Yet for the six brothers and sisters, Carlos, 14, Guadalupe, 13, Maria, 12, Selena, 10, Nasa, 9, and Max, 7, hope remained.

That’s in no small part down to Rob and Steve Anderson-McLean, a married couple from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who truly have hearts of gold.

The couple, who had grown up children of their own, still felt like they had something to give. When they heard of the plight suffered by the six children in question, they simply felt compelled to intervene.

According to Good Morning America, the siblings had been exposed to neglect and abuse during a five-year period.

“We instantly fell in love,” Steve Anderson-McLean said. “They’re very easy to make smile.”

“It was a bad background, a sad story — there was neglect and abuse. It was in the fall of 2017 that parental rights were terminated.”

Steve and Rob were first matched with the kids in June 2018. They officially adopted the siblings less than a year later.

At the time, a judge warned Steve and Rob that they would be obliged to care for the six children as though they were their own. For the compassionate couple, however, it was a no-brainer.

“We’ve known them for less than a year, but at the same time, it feels as if our emotional bonds were years in the making,” Rob Anderson-McLean said. “There are no rules as to what can constitute a family, and the love that we share.”