“Sometimes you have to go with what comes your way. It is more beautiful than what you could have planned.”

These are the words of Larissa Folio about her life changing experience of being a mother to more children than she could have ever imagined. If you add them all together, she has been a mom to 26 children. The total sum includes two from her husband’s previous marriage, one of their own and 10 years of fostering 23 babies from which they have adopted four.

‘A walk in faith’

Her husband, Mark brought his two sons, Austin, age 3 and Joshua, age 5 into their marriage. Together, they had a son, Landon. His difficult birth in which both Landon’s and Larissa’s lives were in serious jeopardy, would change the dynamic of their family plans forever.

“Mark and I felt blessed by God that Landon and I were OK after he was born,” Larissa said. “We wanted to open our hearts and our home to more children, but I was no longer able to give birth so we decided to look into international adoption. We found that it was very expensive. It didn’t deter us. We turned our direction toward helping children here.”

The Effort couple contacted the Monroe County Children and Youth foster program and in April of 2010, the Folios prepared to receive a 5-week-old baby named Tristany. During the next 10 years, 22 more foster babies would be welcomed into their home.

“We took a walk in faith,” is how Larissa explained where God was guiding her life.

She and her husband had made the decision to become foster parents to only babies. By law, they could have no more than six children at any one time in their home including the three of her own. Following Tristan came Linkin at 8 days old, Lynley, at 8 weeks, and Jameson at age 18 days. They all came directly from the hospital. The four infants would later be legally adopted by the Folios.

“We just took it all in stride,” said Larissa, who has been a fourth grade teacher in the Pleasant Valley School District for the past 19 years. “And for those children who left us, we trusted in the reunification process that they would be returned to good homes and possibly to their natural mothers and fathers.”

‘Love in this broken world’

Adopting such young children would eventually bring them to a day of reckoning about their biological origins. “We never pretended to hide the truth from Tristany, Linkin, Lynley, and Jameson. We’re their first parents. They know that,” said Larissa, “They are biracial and when they look in the mirror, they can tell they weren’t hatched from us.”

Larissa defined why she and her husband parented so many babies throughout the 10 years. “We wanted to share our lives with children who were so much in need of help and love in this broken world,” she said. “I never felt the kids were lucky to have us. Each one brought us lots of joy. I would do it all again in a heartbeat.”

The decade long journey didn’t always travel down a smooth road. Although their own three children adapted well to their four adopted ones, there were times when Larissa had to put on her “big girl clothes” as she put it, to handle her emotions that were stretched to their limits from caring for so many kids needing her attention. Then, after she leaves her brood at home, she must dial up extra energy to match the nonstop energy of her fourth-grade school children. “It can be exhausting, but I really love teaching. Every day, I get to see the world through my kids’ eyes.”

Never grow up

She and her husband of 17 years, who works as an emergency medical technician, have certainly gone through plenty of diapers and formulas for longer than most parents. “We had babies for 10 years in a row,” Larissa said with a laugh. When asked if she realizes how she’s been a special mother for so many children, she says that doesn’t feel worthy of the praise.

“I’ve not done anything special,” she said. “I look at it this way. If not me, then who?”

The Folios’ sons have grown up. Austin is 24. Joshua is 22, and Landon is 16. Tristany is 12 years old. Linkin is now 11. Lynley is 7 and Jameson is 5. Their home continues to be a hangout for their children and their friends and that’s just fine with her. At the time of this interview, their house was busy with the activities of more than eight children at Larissa’s estimated count.

She would want her life to be no different from what it has been and for what it is now. “I wouldn’t change anything,” she said. “I look at it this way. I’ll never have to grow up. How bad can that be?”