Minnesota Mother Brings 3 Adopted Guatemalan Girls Home Finally After 7 Years Of Legal Woes

Adopting is known to be a long process that can take over a year, but for a Minnesota flight attendant, the process entailed seven long years of legal troubles and problems.

Susan Hibbs first met the three girls she wanted to adopt in 2008 through a church adoption group at a Guatemalan orphanage when twins Savanna and Sophia were one-year-olds and their sister Sydney was a newborn. But unfortunately for her, that was right around the time when the Guatemalan orphanage decided to slow down foreign adoptions. In fact, from 2004 to 2012, there has been a 62 percent reduction in international adoptions.

While the adoption agency told her that the process would take six to nine months, Hibbs' process took far longer. After seven long years, she was finally able to bring the three sisters home last week.

"I still feel like this is so surreal. I mean, I just have to pinch myself. When they come in, in the morning and crawl in bed with me. I just have goose bumps thinking about it," said Hibbs to CBS News. "I just fell in love with them as soon as I saw them. I just thought morally, I just can't let them go."

Her journey for motherhood entailed 30 trips abroad and help from U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, while her daughters' were moved from several orphanages and foster homes. Invested in their future, Hibbs kept tabs on her daughters and was aware that being moved from orphanage to foster home to orphanage meant her daughters did not have any formal education.

"They needed a permanent home," said Klobuchar, reports the Daily Mail. "It took a little time, but they got to the right place and allowed these children to be adopted. A lot of times when you personally meet with the ambassador like I did and you tell the story of these three little girls and this mother who has been trying for seven years, they listen."

The girls, who speak very little English, have reportedly settled into their new home and are slated to start summer school soon to help get caught up to speed with their classmates.