“How much does mommy love you?”

Maggie, with her arms stretched to their full width span, plasters a smile across her face.

“This much.”

“And how much do you love mommy?”

Again Maggie has the same reaction, a wide grin and open arms.

“This much.”

Three-year-old Maggie Schaffrin and her twin sister Madison have a five-year-old biological sister named Ally. Before this past summer, those were her only siblings. Before this past summer, she wasn’t a Schaffrin. But on July 19, 2013, Donna and Carl Schaffrin adopted Ally and the twins into their family, adding three more to their already big family.

“This was supposed to happen,” Carl said. “We did it because God picked us to do this. They’re three beautiful perfect little girls, you don’t say no to that.”

The girls may be the first set of kids Donna and Carl have fostered and adopted, but they are not the only kids they have raised. The couple has five biological children. With their two youngest being a sophomore and a senior in high school, they were almost finished raising their children. Now, the three little girls are starting the process all over again for the Schaffrins.

“It’s us starting over,” Carl said. “It’s like playing a record and then when the records done, you start it all over again.”

With the girls joining the household, many things had to be adjusted. The family’s schedule had to be changed completely to fit the needs of the young girls. They agree that when they first started fostering the girls in 2011, things were very chaotic.

“Before, I didn’t know how hard the transition was going to be,” sophomore Mallory Schaffrin said. “It was less hectic because we all were older, me and my biological siblings, and then they got there and there were a bunch of young kids, so it was challenging, and they had a lot of energy. It took a long time but I got used to them being there.”

While the family expected the chaos to end after the first few months of the girls being there, they’ve found that it still lingers. Even now, the family struggles to find a balance in their busy schedules to make time for everything.

“My family revolves around them,” senior Kelsey said. “It sucks sometimes because a lot of my parents’ attention is on them so my mom misses out on some of mine and Mallory’s stuff. At the same time, it is completely worth it because they are my everything now.”

Even though the girls bring disorder, the Schaffrins view it as a way to bring them together and view the girls as a positive addition to their family.

“They’ve made our family closer because we’ve had to focus on them, and we all have had to be together a lot for them,” Mallory said. “They’ve made my life wilder.”

The Schaffrins are happy with their decision to adopt Ally, Madison, and Maggie into their family and see them as a blessing.

“They’re wonderful, sweet, loving little girls,” Donna said. “I just love ‘em. I couldn’t imagine life without them now.”