Chris and Kristin Ballard didn't know the toughest decisions they would have to make would lead to their greatest joy in life.

In the summer of 2010, general manager of the Indianapolis Colts Chris Ballard received a pivotal phone call from his wife, Kristin.

Part of the staff for the Chicago Bears at the time, Ballard was told by his wife how his cousin's four daughters had just been removed from their home and their mother's custody by Child Protective Services.

"The state has placed them with you," Kristin told her husband.

Ballard immediately returned home to Houston to be with his wife and three children, the Archdiocese of Indianapolis reports.

"I get home and we have four girls who have been homeless, living in a crack house, who are scared," says Ballard.

The family began trying to decide how to move forward. During this time, Ballard sought advice from Father Norbert Maduzia, a friend and spiritual advisor who had assisted Ballard in his own process of being received into the full communion of the Church.

"He always used to tell me, 'Chris, things are not always going to go your way. You’re going to have to make some really hard decisions in life, and God is always going to be your guiding light for that,'" Ballard remembers.

Struggling with the idea of evolving from a father of three kids to seven in only a day, Ballard confessed he did not know how to handle the large responsibility he had been given.

In the midst of this, foster care entered the situation. As the Ballard's were not certified as foster parents, the four girls were taken from Chris and Kristen and placed in foster care.

"Well, you look into the eyes of four young girls and tell them you can’t live with us, you got to go into foster care, that’s a pretty humbling thing," says Ballard. "At that point, I told my wife, 'Look, God, for whatever reason, put these girls into our lives. We’re going to do the right thing here.'"

The couple visited Norbert again. "Do what's on your heart, follow God, and do the right thing," Ballard says the priest advised.

"At that moment, I learned more about the faith," says Ballard.

Three months later, the couple was certified to provide foster care. But they were informed they could only take the two youngest girls into their home.

“We have to tell the oldest ones you have to stay in foster care,” Ballard explained. The couple, however, ensured the two older sisters were able to visit the family on a biweekly basis.

One year later, court proceedings were scheduled to begin to terminate the parental rights of the mother of the four girls. But on the day of the proceedings, before they even began, Kristin and the girl's mother went into a room to speak.

During that conversation, Ballard's cousin willingly gave up her rights to the girls.

Ballard calls that experience "the greatest feeling I've ever had."

Adoption was the obvious next step.

"We tried to figure out how we’re going to adopt four girls. Not easy. So we prayed on it," says Ballard.

"The next thing you know, a cousin that’s on the other side of the family—they can’t have children, they’re both attorneys, they’re good people—they say, 'Look, we want to adopt two of the girls, and we want you to adopt the other two.'"

It was the ultimate blessing from God.

Kristen, Chris, and their three children Cole, Cash, and Kierstyn welcomed Sunnie and Rainn into their family. Skylar and Angel, the two oldest girls, visit the Ballards for a month-long stay each year.

Ballard says the girls and their family are doing great. He credits the family's faith for seeing them through that difficult year.

"I'll never forget Father Norbert telling us,'Chris, [God's] going to bless you 10 times over for this.' And he has. I’m very humbled and blessed and thankful," Ballard shared.

He says the family now approaches life knowing God's guidance will always be there for them.

"Any time there is darkness, I'm telling you there is always light. There’s got to be a guiding force for you. And for us, for my family, it's always been God."