We all know that true love can happen anywhere – and often it comes at the most unexpected of times.

Sometimes, one of the best parts about falling in love with someone is getting to form a special bond with the people they love most in their lives.

For Tony Thomas, this meant falling in love with his future wife, Lexy, and her six sons.

Relationships don’t always last forever, even if we feel so in love in the early stages. Forbes statistics even estimate that 50% of first marriages end in divorce or separation, something Lexy experienced when she split from the father of her sons.

Welcoming Tony into their lives

This meant that she became a single mother to all six of them – Elijah, Isaiah, Ethan, Sheldon, Simeon, and Iridius.

After a while, she decided to sign up for an online dating site, believing that there was still someone out there for her. Tony was also on the same site, hoping for the same thing. Eventually they both found their way to each other.

The pair were chatting and FaceTiming for some time, getting to know each other and bonding over the same values, before they made the big decision to meet in person. So, Tony flew to Kentucky to meet Lexy, whom he didn’t know would be his future wife.

Once they met, however, Tony and Lexy soon realized that they couldn’t be without each other and, given that Lexy had six children, Tony chose to make the move to Kentucky.

Lexy was initially quite apprehensive about introducing her sons to Tony, given that she wouldn’t know how they’d react. “I introduced him to my children as Mr. Thomas and they called him that for the longest time up until we got married,” she said.

Slowly but surely, Tony won the boys’ confidence, and he married Lexy in a beautiful wedding ceremony. All six of Lexy’s sons warmed up to him and began to love having him in their lives. Most of all, they made him feel welcome.

A big blended family

Blended families can sometimes cause conflicts, especially when a new step parent doesn’t necessarily bond well with their step children. Though, this wasn’t the case with Lexy and Tony.

In fact, Lexy’s six sons, as well as Tony’s daughter Alexis from his previous relationship, all got along well. Tony even adopted all six of Lexy’s sons, and they took on his surname.

“The boys all have the surname Thomas, and Tony is on all the kids’ birth certificates as their father. One of the boys even changed his first, middle and last name when he was adopted,” Lexy said.

Since getting married and going through the adoption process, Tony and Lexy had two new members join – one-year-old Autumn and nine-month-old Lexton.

Lexy has since said that Tony was the answer to all her prayers, revealing: “I had prayed for all the great characteristics in a man that I see in Tony. I didn’t pray for, like, a super weird husband, but that’s what I got. But then I got all these other things.”

Tony also spoke about how grateful he was to adopt six sons, especially since he always wanted a boy. “She had more kids than I had ever considered that I wanted. But I prayed for a boy, and she had six of them, and now we have two children of our own,” he said.

This is truly the sweetest love story. It just goes to show that, even after experiencing heartbreak, there is always someone out there who will love you for YOU.