米格尔和凯莉塞万提斯谈论领养孩子

杰克逊塞万提斯多年来一直在向父母求另一个小兄弟姐妹。他的妈妈凯利告诉《人物》杂志，这个9岁的孩子长大后想当一名保姆，或者如果不行，就当一名职业棒球运动员。

杰克逊的妹妹阿德莱德出生于2015年，不久后被诊断患有癫痫。她从七个月大就开始与可怕的癫痫和婴儿痉挛作斗争，依靠24小时护理，直到2019年10月去世，距离她四岁生日还有几周。

不久之后，新冠肺炎疫情的电影上映了，这让一家人——他们刚从芝加哥搬到新泽西，父亲米盖尔正准备在《百老汇的汉密尔顿》中扮演主角——独自面对悲痛。

39岁的凯利回忆说，RELATED:我们的女儿没有及时得到治愈，但我们没有放弃》:汉密尔顿一家公开谈论他们3岁的孩子死于癫痫，为结束这种疾病而战，我认为这太残酷了，我们失去了女儿，现在我们不得不接受隔离但事后看来，我能看到，我们能有时间在一起，真的是一份不可思议的礼物。"

在一起的那段时间里，他们能够明确地决定他们想要另一个孩子。但是由于不知道阿德莱德病的基因起源，生一个亲生孩子就不在考虑范围之内了。因此，这对夫妇开始探索从另一个国家领养一个蹒跚学步的孩子或小学生的想法。

44岁的米格尔说，我们对这种新生命有一种引力。有时候我会想，'我们在做什么？我们要改变一切？但是，为什么不呢？这是我们接下来要做的事情。这感觉既疯狂又正常。

凯利说，这家人最近在提交申请和文件后，他们的家庭研究得到了批准，现在正处于"等待过程"。她说，虽然这些都是很大的进步，但很难知道这个过程需要多长时间，或者有多少孩子在寻找家庭。这将是一次旅行

t;

That emotional journey started months after Adelaide's passing, when Kelly attended a retreat for grieving mothers and began to open her mind to growing her family again.

• RELATED: 'Hamilton' Star & Family Grieve the Loss of 3-Year-Old Who Died From Infantile Spasms: 'She Went Peacefully in My Arms'

"Adelaide is missing, but there was this other aspect of our family that was just missing," she says. "We desperately wanted that other child for Jackson to have as a sibling — he began asking before Adelaide even died — but for us to have another child to love and dote on, too."

Both Miguel and Kelly admit they had a hard time with the idea of adopting another child following the loss of their daughter, "but a friend said it beautifully, when I was struggling with the idea that this child would be replacing Adelaide," Kelly recalls. "She said, 'You're not replacing anyone, you're adding someone. Adelaide is still there, and she'll be this child's big sister even though they won't meet her. They'll see her pictures, they'll hear her story.' That idea of continuing to add to our family brought me a lot of peace."

Though the couple was very open with Adelaide's health journey, documenting her life on social media, Kelly's blog Inchstones and raising awareness around her condition through outlets like PEOPLE, they've chosen to keep some aspects of their adoption, namely the country they'll be adopting from, to themselves.

"Initially the idea of bringing the world along on this process didn't seem necessary, but in terms of all the things we have gone through, what we found is through that struggle, that grief, that pain, people are helped, people are affected, people are moved," Miguel says. "And if us going on this journey can have some sort of positive effect in one way or another, then why not share it. For us, it made some of the pain a little more bearable."

"For me, I have to write about what is going on in my mind, what I'm working through, what we're processing, and this adoption is a big part of it," Kelly adds. "It's wrapped up in the grief, it's wrapped up in the joy."

• RELATED: How I've Made Peace With Losing a Child and Having Another

Joy is definitely what Jackson is feeling these days.

"He almost started crying when we told him we were moving forward with adoption," Miguel recalls. "He ran upstairs and said, 'Okay, are we going to get two iPads? Are we going to share this iPad? Will we share a room?' The planning has started already, which is great because you can't really predict that reaction with all that's happened in our life. But it helped us realize pretty quickly that this was the right move for us."

Along with that, however, Kelly and Miguel will have to prepare their son for the less exciting moments of the process.

"There will be challenges once this child is in our family because there will be trauma, there will be major cultural differences," Kelly says.

Miguel adds, "We will have to at some point sit down and say, 'Hey, this could be difficult. It's not always going to be super fun and easy.' But he has gone through a lot, and is really understanding of how to handle difficult situations."

The same goes for his parents.

"If there is one thing the last five years have taught us, it's that we have no idea what the next five years will look like," Kelly says. "So let's open our hearts and go along for the ride."

This story originally appeared on people.com