A mother who had 14 children in 21 years has opened up about her decision to continue to grow her family after losing her three-month-old daughter to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
Haini and Sarah Wolfgramm, from Mentone, California, met through their shared love of music and got married after going on tour together. She was 20 years old when they welcomed their first child in 1996.
‘When we met and fell in love and got married, we both had our sights that, if God willing and we were able to, we would have a beautiful, big family, like the ones we came from,’ Sarah, 47, told Good Morning America.
Haini, who is the bass guitarist for his family’s pop band The Jets, is one of 17 children, while Sarah has eight siblings of her own.
Sarah Wolfgramm, 47, from Mentone, California, opened up to Good Morning America about having 14 children in 21 years
Sarah and her husband, Haini Wolfgramm (pictured with their children), both came from large families. Sarah’s cousin Amelia Lyon has been photographing them for years
The couple suffered a heartbreaking loss after the death of their 12th child, Sariah(pictured)
‘I just think at that time, we didn’t really think that we would have more than, I don’t know, three or four kids,’ Haini, 55, shared. ‘But it just kept on going and going and going, and you know, it’s been wonderful. I mean, we both love it.’
In 2014, tragedy struck the Wolfgramms when their 12th child, Sariah, died of SIDS after being put to sleep. SIDS is the sudden and unexplained death of a seemingly healthy baby less than a year old.
Sarah shared how her husband went to check on the three-month-old in the middle of the night and discovered she wasn’t breathing.
‘I just heard this scream from him, and he said, “She’s not breathing! She’s not breathing!”‘ she recalled.
The couple’s children found solace in each other following the devastating loss of their baby sister.
Haini is the bass guitarist for his family’s pop band The Jets (pictured)
Haini and Sarah met through their shared love of music and got married after going on tour together
Haini told GMA that they initially thought they would have just three or four kids. ‘It just kept on going and going and going, and you know, it’s been wonderful. I mean, we both love it,’ he said
The couple’s daughter Tihané shared how she and her siblings leaned on each after the devastating loss of their baby sister
Sarah shared how she and her husband have ’13 crowns and a halo’ following Sariah’s death. Their oldest children have followed in their footsteps with their band, 13 Crowns
‘I think what got us through having our sister pass away is having each other because we are able to rely on each other and comfort one another,’ their daughter Tihané told GMA. ‘So I think having a big family made all the difference going through that hard time.’
Haini and Sarah were grieving their daughter when they realized they wanted to have another child.
‘We had this thought, like, “Is this what we want our family to end on? Is this how we want the final chapter of our lives to be?”‘ Sarah explained.
‘I made the conscious decision to get on my knees and ask God, “If you give me the strength, I will take the leap of faith and have another one.”‘
The coupled welcomed another daughter in 2015, a year after they lost Sariah. Their youngest child, who was born a few years later in 2017, was a joyous surprise.
The Wolfgramm family went viral late last year after sharing a 42-second video of Sarah hugging each of her children. She was 20 years old when she had her first baby in 1996
Sarah and Haini welcomed their 13th child in 2015. The rainbow baby was born a year after Sariah’s death
Baby number 14 was a ‘complete surprise,’ and the couple named their youngest child Joy
‘[God] blessed us with a beautiful rainbow baby, number 13, and then two and a half years later, completely surprised, because I wasn’t expecting to get pregnant again, we got a bonus baby,’ Sarah said of their 14th child, whom they named Joy.
‘So we know we have 13 crowns and a halo and Sariah is our angel that always guides our family and we feel her spirit present in our home.’
Haini and Sarah’s seven oldest children — Eve, Heinrich, Isabella, Tihané, Abraham, Maikeli, and Nora — have followed in their parents’ musical footsteps and formed their own band, 13 Crowns.
The Wolfgramm family has been documenting lives on the 13 Crowns TikTok page, and they went viral late last year after sharing a 42-second video of Sarah hugging each of her children.
The on-screen text revealed the years she had each child, as well as her age at the time. The clip ended with five-year-old Joy running into her mother’s arms.
’14 kids in 21 years,’ the final caption read.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk