Jeff and Alisa Maysey have three children, all of them adopted through a foster program.

They took in the first child, Chris, when he was 5. He came from an abusive family. The Mayseys originally planned on adopting a younger child, but Alisa says when they met Chris, it was “instantaneous love . It was as if God gave him to me and he was mine.”

Chris is now 9 years old.

Nat, their second child, is 4. Nathaniel is his real name, but his family calls him Nat.

The Mayseys adopted their third child, Abby, in August. An infant, she was in a car seat for seven-and-a-half months, fed barely enough to survive.

Abby, now 17 months, and her brothers get along like any other family.

Jeff Maysey, a special education teacher and a pastor, credits their inability to conceive children and the decision to take in foster children as God’s plan. “God shut the door in one area and opened it in another,” he said.

Alisa Maysey, an English teacher, hopes that others can learn from their example and take in foster children.

Jeff agrees, saying the rewards of being a foster parent far outweigh potential problems.

And he wants the children that go through their home to be able to look back and say, “You know, the Mayseys weren’t my real parents, but they cared, and we felt safe there.”