Taking on the responsibility of raising four young children is not something that many newlyweds would consider doing. But for Chris and Sara Ruiz, that responsibility is one that they have not only accepted -- they have embraced it wholeheartedly.

When Chris and Sara got engaged in March of 2006, they planned on getting married this past June and one day starting a family of their own. Their plans changed dramatically when they found out last December that Sara's four half siblings, who had been living with her mother in Tijuana, Mexico, were taken away by Mexican social services and sent to an orphanage to live. Rather than leaving her siblings' futures in the hands of fate, Sara told her fiancee that she had to do something.

The couple got in the car and drove all night to Tijuana, the start of a journey that would alter the course of their lives. Deciding that the dream wedding they were planning was not as important as the well-being of four little children, Chris and Sara decided they would do whatever it took to give those children a family.

When Chris left Kingsburg High School in 1993, he had a bright future ahead of him. A talented trumpet player, he played in the Fresno City College jazz band only one semester before dropping out. He got mixed up with the wrong crowd, and spent several years in and out of jail on petty theft and drug-related charges. At the age of 23, facing a three-year prison sentence, he checked into a men's home in Selma the weekend before his court hearing to show the judge that he was making an effort to turn his life around.

The home was connected with a Selma church, and on his first day there, another man participating in the program witnessed to Chris, sharing the message of God's love. Although Chris' intentions had been to just go through the motions, he was touched by the man's words, and promised to give his life to God if God would keep him out of prison.

In court the next week, Chris was sentenced to one year in the men's program. If he left at any point during the year, he would go to prison for 3 years.

"I stuck it out (in the program), and I've been with God ever since," Chris said.

Sara grew up in Orange County until she moved to the Valley when she was 14. She graduated from Sanger High School in 2000.

The two met when Sara was working as a teller at the Bank of America in Fowler. Chris was also working in Fowler at Borga, a fabrication company, and came to the bank to deposit his paychecks. Sara, who had been praying for specific qualities in a husband, said she knew that Chris was the man for her before she even knew his name. The attraction was mutual, and in March of 2005, the pair went on their first lunch date.

Sara refused to let things move too quickly, so they spent six months as friends before she agreed to be Chris' girlfriend. After six more months of dating, they become engaged in March of 2006, a year after their first date took place.

Chris had gone with Sara on a couple trips to Tijuana to visit her four younger half siblings: Two girls and two boys, ranging in age from 9-months to 8-years-old. They all shared the same mother, but Sara had a different father. During a visit last December, Chris and Sara were appalled by the children's living conditions. They describe the home as nothing more than a shack. Eight-year-old Emily was caring for the younger children, cooking for them over an open fire because there was no stove and no hot water. The two older children were not enrolled in school.

"It was like third world, literally," Chris said.

Sara describes her relationship with her mother as strained, and said that while she wanted to take the children home with her then, her mother wouldn't let her, even though she was clearly incapable of caring for them.

On Jan. 6, just a week since they had visited the children, their biological father, who lives in Selma, came to see Sara at work. He had received a call from the childrens' neighbor in Tijuana letting him know that social services had removed the children from their mother's care.

When Sara told Chris that she was going to Mexico to try to get the children, he told her there was no way she was going without him.

"I told him, 'This is not your responsibility, this is mine,'" Sara said. "I told him, 'You don't have to marry me.' He said, 'No, I accept you with everything that you come with.'"

Because the children were born in the U.S., they are American citizens. Sara got their social security cards and birth certificates from their father, and she and Chris went to the Mexican consulate in Fresno, where they were told what they would need to do.

They left at midnight for an 8 a.m. appointment with Mexican social services in Otay, located just south of the U.S. border near Tijuana. It was imperative that they be on time, and they started to panic when they couldn't find the office. When they finally arrived, it was 7:40 a.m. They waited in line, and when they were called in to meet with the social worker, she told them it would be at least a week before they could take the children home with them.

Following their appointment with social services, Chris and Sara drove to the Tijuana orphanage where they had to be observed interacting with the children. The children had been separated from each other, and were all staying in different parts of the facility.

"There was a lot of crying," Chris said of the moment they were all reunited. "Right there, God really broke my heart for the kids and told me, 'These are going to be your kids.'"

They only got to spend 15 minutes with the children before they were taken down the hall, back to their respective living quarters. Chris said that watching them walk away was like something out of a movie -- heartbreak at watching them go, but relief that they'd be together again soon.

"As soon as they walked out the door, I just hugged Sara and we cried out of sadness and joy," Chris said.

Chris and Sara returned to the Valley, and two weeks later, went back to the border where they picked up the children.

"It was God's blessing that we got them so quickly, because usually the process takes two to three months," Sara said.

Because they were not yet married, it was important to Chris and Sara that they not live together. Sara and the children moved into the trailer where Chris had been living next to his parents' house in Goshen, and Chris moved in with his parents. Chris said that while the trailer wasn't much, it was like a palace to the children.

On Jan. 31, just a week after returning home with the children, Sara was in a terrible car accident on her way to pick them up from their paternal grandmother's house. Trapped in the car and fearing she was about to die, she cried out for help.

"I screamed out loud, 'Lord, I can't die -- I have four kids!,'" Sara recalled.

She was transported by ambulance to the hospital where she was diagnosed with a fractured pelvis, severe whiplash and a bruised tailbone. Unable to walk on her own, she was sent home in a wheelchair.

Unable to care for herself, Chris was now faced with the daunting task of caring for Sara and the children without living in the same house with them.

Their lawyer had been telling the couple that they needed to be married in order to get legal guardianship of the couple, and now with this new set of circumstances, they decided that getting married seemed the most logical choice.

On Valentine's Day, the two were married in an impromptu church ceremony. Because her legs were so bruised, Sara wore slacks. She was wheeled into the church in a wheelchair, and was able to stand only long enough to recite her vows.

The wedding dress, horse and carriage, mariachi band, and the garden they'd reserved for their June ceremony were all given up in exchange for the love of the children.

"We broke our budget getting four children," Sara said. "Whatever we were going to use for our wedding went toward the kids."

And yet, the couple cannot stop talking about how much this unforeseen set of circumstances has blessed their lives.

"God was with us all this time from the beginning," Chris said.

And in just two weeks, yet another blessing is set to arrive. Chris and Sara are expecting a baby girl on Dec. 6.

Just three months after welcoming four children into their lives, they learned in April that Sara was pregnant. In May, they received the paperwork granting them legal guardianship of the children: Emily, 9; Abel, 7; Isaiah, 3; and Selena, 21 months.

Emily is attending third grade, and Abel is in first. Both were significantly behind their classmates when they started, but are making progress. Abel didn't even know his ABCs when he started school, and now he is reading words. The family attends Community Church, where the children are learning about God.

The family moved into a house in Kingsburg in July, and Sara's 20-year-old brother is living with them to help out with the children. They receive cash aid and Medi-Cal for the children, but that only goes so far. They said they have been touched by the financial help and gifts they have received from others.

Still a bit nostalgic about the wedding dress that was never worn and the reception she didn't get to have, Sara is hoping that after the baby is born and life settles into a more normal routine, they will have a vow renewal ceremony that all five of their children can be involved in.

The couple agrees that the joy the children bring into their lives has been the most rewarding aspect of their newfound family.

"They're grateful," Sara said of the children. "They constantly tell us that they love us."

While they have legal guardianship of the children for now, the doors are open for either of the biological parents to try to gain custody. Sara said that her mother has returned to the Valley and is trying to get her children back, but the Ruizs agree that whatever happens, it's part of a plan bigger than their own.

"This could be for a couple years or for the rest of our lives, but whatever it is, let's do it," Chris said. "God has chosen us to be missionaries to these kids."