Diane; "Children grade school or younger. We did not want teenagers whatsoever. So, we were in this box."

And pretty much the children they've fostered fit nicely into Diane and Larry Burke's little box. When they decided to adopt, they drew from that same box. Shane came into their lives at birth 16 years ago and so did three-year-old Scotty.

Sarah; "Pretty much, no one wants to adopt older kids, so that wasn't too much of an option for me. Just bouncing from home to home until I'm 18."

With a little coaxing from a caseworker, the Burkes cracked the lid on their box and theirs was one more home then 15-year-old Sarah was going to jump to for a "brief" stay.

Sarah; "I was only supposed to stay here for a couple of nights until they found a more permanent home."

Diane & Larry Burke; "I said, you know what, Sarah is just fitting into the family so well, don't you think we should just keep her?"

Sarah; "After a week, they decided to adopt me."

Diane & Larry Burke; "You know, there's really no reason why we couldn't, no reason why we shouldn't. What it means to that child is a lot."

Alysha; "I never had a family, you know, mother, father, sister, brother. Never had anything like that. I was raised with grandma and grandpa. Grandpa died, grandma died."

Alysha went into foster care when she was 12 years old. At 15, when she needed yet another place to stay over for a while.

Diane & Larry; "Alysha came to us as a weekend child. Would you just take her for a weekend. We said, Yes. I said, No."

Larry probably knew what was coming next. They heard from Alysha right after that weekend visit.

Diane & Larry; "She wrote us a letter and she wrote, 'Dear Mom and Dad.' I said, 'Oh Larry, look at this letter. She wants to come back.'"

Alysha; "Whenever I found out that someone actually wanted me, I was like, Oh, my goodness. I was so happy, I just started crying."

Larry; "That kid that always got picked last for the team. But, now they've got something that they can really hang their hat on; it says, I'm a part of this family."

Alysha; "And you know, my little brother, he calls me, Sissy, and I love it."

Sarah; "I absolutely love them. I'm 20 now and I moved out and they took me back in so I can go to school."

Diane & Larry; " It's fun to have the mother-daughter talks and you know, do things with then so I have a better appreciation for drama."

And they both have a new view of rules and boxes.

Diane; "Get out of the box, think out of the box. Because thinking out of the box is going to change the way you look at life."Angels In Our Midst (Diane)