The word family has a unique meaning for everyone. For some, family means a direct relation, but for senior Addy Flory family has a different meaning for her.

“I have 5 siblings total. I have 2 sisters that are biological. I have a sister and 2 brothers that are adopted from India. Most people think that it be weird and to have adopted siblings, but honestly I don’t think it is. I knew them from such young ages that I feel like they are normal siblings. When my parents brought home my little brother from India, I was so excited. It is just like when a normal parents brings home a new baby from the hospital.” 

“Some challenges I would say is when we got them, we didn’t know much about them. In India they won’t tell you much about the kids. My brother spoke Hindi when we first got him so we had to learn to communicate with him. It was hard adjusting to their needs. One of my brothers is legally blind and the other one has White Sutton syndrome which is an intellectual disability. We didn’t know he they had any of these issues when we got them, so we learned as they grew up and adjusted to help them.”

“Some challenges with having so many siblings I would say is waiting on the bathroom. We all get along pretty well usually but there will be those times when we will sometimes fight like normal siblings would.”

“We still love them though and none of these issues changes the way we feel about them. My older sister Savita, who sometimes goes by Olivia was adopted at 18 months old. I was about 1 month old when she was adopted. When I was two we adopted my brother Naudan who goes by Benton now. He was adopted at age two. When I was 5 we adopted my last brother Dhruv who was 3 at the time.”

“What I’ve learned from my siblings is that a family is not if you have same blood; it’s who loves you enough to take care of you and is always there for you. That’s what makes up a family.”