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Armando and Cindy's success story

The local couple featured in this story had always talked about adopting, but planned to have a few biological children first.

SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) - The local couple featured in this story had always talked about adopting, but planned to have a few biological children first.

Then, the wife developed a non-cancerous brain tumor, which kept her from getting pregnant and after doing more research about adoption, they decided to go through San Diego County. They say, everything happened exactly as it was meant to be, and their children couldn't be more grateful.

“From the beginning, it seems like, they were ours. They are ours and they always will be and it just seems like, from day one, we've had them from birth,” said Eddie.

Armando was seven, and his sister Cindy was two years old when they were matched with their parents, Eddie and Roxanne. The biological siblings had been living in an emergency children's shelter.

“She was really, really shy, very timid. Not a lot of interaction and he was on the shy part but he has a really good personality so it shined through and they attached really well,” said Roxanne.

I asked Armando, who is now 10, how his life is different than it was two and a half years ago. He said:

“I lived in a little house and I had to go outside a lot to go play with friends. I didn't have nothing to do. My birth mom she was working all the time in the night.”

Trying to hold back tears, Armando told me what he loves most about his mom:

“That she's a great cook and she always loves me.”

And his dad:

“That he's always there for me and he cares about me. Happy that I'm in a great family.”

He said his tears were tears of joy.

Having lived such a rough life before, he and his sister found their forever family,

Armando is so very appreciative of all he has now.

“He deserves it, like I said, he's been an excellent son, he tries his hardest in school. We do our best to catch him up in school, we try to show him all the love and affection we can,” Roxanne explained. “But on the other hand, still try to teach him what's right and what's wrong. We try to teach him we're fortunate to be able to give what we give him, but it doesn't come easy.”

He's thankful Cindy will never remember any other life.

Eddie and Roxanne encourage other families to adopt through San Diego County, and help children in need.

“It's amazing, a lot of these kids come from nothing,” added Eddie.

You want to change their lives but in reality, they're changing ours and they teach us something new every day and just to stay positive about a lot of things and just be grateful for what we have,” said Roxanne.

If you are interested in adopting or becoming a foster family, please call 1-877-I-ADOPT-U.

And we would like to thank the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center for hosting a fun day at the museum.

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