If you ask your average kid what he or she wants for Christmas, you’ll probably get some of the usual gifts sitting the lists of many kids these days: toys, video games and clothes.

But if you ask these seven siblings, their answer is heartbreaking. They just wanted a family.

“It feels so great knowing we have a family now and won’t have to go anywhere else,” Dawson Hawthorn, the oldest of the seven, said to THV 11.

“The only times we got to eat is when our neighbors would sneak us a bag of chips,” Kyndal said. “We didn’t have a can opener, and they’d give us the cans that we didn’t know how to open. So sometimes we just didn’t eat.”

“It feels good to actually have a family to wake up to every morning,” she continued. “Having food on my plate and not anything with bugs all in it.”

The parents who have opened their home to these seven grateful children have two other adopted kids as well. When Michael and Terri Hawthorne first considered fostering, they thought they had it all planned out.

“Our first words were okay we’ll do it for a couple of years but we will not adopt,” Terri admitted. But their current family shows that they’ve eaten their words in the best possible way.

They have a message to other couples out there who have room in their homes and hearts. “These kids did not ask to come to foster care, four or five different homes, or schools,” Terri urged.

“We hope this will give other opportunities and people will consider opening their homes to foster care and adoption. There is such a big need for families in Arkansas, and we will be the first to tell you, it’s not always easy, but it’s worth it. Lots of prayer and love is what made this possible.”

“This is a blessing, they are a blessing,” she continued. “Every day these kids wake up and they are giggling and they are happy, and you see the smiles on their faces, that’s what makes this worth it.”