New Couple Is Enjoying the 'Honeymoon Phase.' Then His Kids Are Displaced by a Hurricane and Everything Changes (Exclusive)

• In 2017, Luis was weeks into his relationship with Kelley as he struggled to get news about whether or not his kids were safe after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico
• Kelley and Luis tell PEOPLE that though they were just getting to know each other and navigating a relationship with a 16-year age gap, they rose to the challenge of giving his kids a new home life
• Seven years and two more kids later, the couple tells PEOPLE how their family journey has been about taking chances and believing in each other
  

A relationship that evolved under unusual circumstances proved to be the foundation for a beautiful new family.

When Kelley and Luis first started dating in November 2017, love wasn't the only thing on his mind. The father of four was worried sick after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, where his three of his children resided with his ex.

"There was no communication. The town that they lived in was completely destroyed," he tells PEOPLE. "There was a period of over 30 days where I had no idea if my kids were okay or had made it through the storm. Being able to finally make contact was the biggest relief."

Some other family members were able to reach Luis' kids before the National Guard could rescue them.

"When we got the call, I remember exactly where we were driving. He immediately pulled over into a parking lot. I remember sitting there listening to his ex-wife on the phone describing the situation the island was in," Kelley tells PEOPLE.

"I remember she asked him, 'Is there any way you can take the kids?' It wasn't a good place for them and the priority was trying to get them out. He said yes and talked to the kids and hung up."

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After the phone call, Luis, who was 39, told Kelley, who was 22 at the time, that he couldn't ask her to navigate that with him so early into their relationship. In response, Kelley bought the kids' plane tickets, letting him know she was all in. By mid-month, they were picking the kids up from the airport and preparing for their life as a blended family.

"I knew going into the relationship with him that he had older kids and I knew that if I was going to be with him and date him, then that meant that at some point in the relationship we'd need to start exploring and things like that," she shares. "So I was I was like, 'What better way to show him that I'm serious and that I care about this relationship and I want to explore the opportunities that me and him have together than to show him that I care about his kids?' "

The situation was a big adjustment for everyone. The kids — then 17, 14, and 12 — were shocked from being uprooted from Puerto Rico, moving to the States with their dad and his new girlfriend.

"I had all these teenagers that came up and were giving me love and telling me, thank you for getting them out of the island and being willing to take them in and It was a really, really overwhelming experience," Kelley says.

The couple wasn't immediately ready for the kids, but they made the best of it in their little apartment as they worked on finding a bigger place. With some help from family, they were able to move into their first home together.

"We needed a safer place for us as a family, so everyone could feel more comfortable because we were all still getting to know each other," Kelley says. "He and I were still exploring our relationship because we were relatively new. I was still learning the kids and developing our boundaries with me as their stepmom but not really since we were just dating. It was a lot."

"It was a big learning curve, having teenagers and doing school runs and homework and working multiple jobs," she adds.

The family was thrown for another loop in 2018, when Kelley and Luis learned hey were expecting their first baby together, daughter Thea.

"She's our rainbow baby because in the mix of all the changes and whatnot, I had [gotten] pregnant at the beginning of 2018 and miscarried after six weeks. I was working a lot as a server so that we could make ends meet," Kelley says.

"I remember those days and thinking, 'Kelley is working two jobs pregnant and she's never complained once.' She was doing this every single day while helping me take care of the kids, put them in sports and school and get them a sense of normalcy. When they did have the opportunity to go back to Puerto Rico, they didn't want to go back. They ended up staying with us."

The family dynamic and the relationships the kids were forging with each of them thrilled Luis and Kelley. That said, the logistics weren't easy for the two, as parents or as a couple.

"We never got a honeymoon phase. What was supposed to be our honeymoon phase, the time we were getting to know each other, came straight with parenting teenagers," Luis says. "She had to figure all this out, especially when she was spending more time with the kids than I was because I was traveling all the time with work."

Kelley agrees, explaining how the new couple fell into the same kind of rut new parents often can after bringing home their first baby.

"You kind of lose focus because you're taking care of kids. Dates weren't really a thing for us. I was fortunate growing up," Kelley says. "My parents did so many things for me, so I had really, really good role models to look up to for what a childhood would be. But I remember trying to emulate it for his kids on a really, really small budget so they could be proud of what they were doing."

Welcoming their daughter Thea together brought the family "closer" as they celebrated their newest member.

"It brought ownership to everyone, kind of closing that loop in the family," Luis says, noting it also came at a chaotic time that saw the family moving from Florida to Washington.

Kelley explains the move stretched their resources, but that Luis "decided to trust me."

"I was four or five weeks postpartum and ended up getting a job on the way, as we were driving up there," she shares. "We took the chance."

Once the family settled in Washington and saw their work starting to pay off, another change came. Inspired by Aspyn Ovard, Kelley decided to try her hand at social media.

"I used to watch her in high school and I always had like an interest in social media and stuff but I remember talking to Luis one day about it," Kelley recalls. "I was like, 'You know how cool is it? That she's documented her entire life. And when she has her kids, one day, she's going to be able to pull up all these old videos. Her kids are going to get to see all these cool experiences that she got to have and what her life was like. What a cool thing to be able to have and to hold onto, the way that she documented it.' "

Luis jokes, "I was already in my 40s and social media was not my dream."

Kelley started making TikToks, mostly for the family to enjoy together. One day, she decided to try a mother-daugther trend with one of her stepdaughters and was surprised when it went viral as people commented on their family dynamic.

"Then we posted something about Luis and I's age gap and then that ended up blowing up too," she says. "After a few viral videos, we started the creation journey. We started paying more attention to it when COVID hit."

At the time, Kelley was a receptionist at a vet's office. When she found herself working on her first Mother's Day, Luis tried to make it right by offering her the chance to pursue social media full-time while he financially supported the family.

"There was no way that I couldn't support her on this," Luis says. "Even though it was something that I didn't understand, there was just no way that I could sit there and watch her being unhappy. So we started working really hard and posting a lot."

While the first year was full of family content, Kelley and Luis were eventually faced with a need to pivot.

"At the beginning of our social media journey, we really focused in on our family and sharing the stepmom and step-kid journey. It really bothered me how many people viewed step-parents in a negative light. It was a positive experience for me. They taught me so much about myself and about selfless love and even unconditional love. We really wanted to challenge that narrative," Kelley explains.

"Then we started pulling back a little bit because we noticed that the older two didn't really want to be in as many videos as [the youngest] Ana did," she says.

Similarly, the couple has decided to minimize how much Thea and younger daughter Isla, whom Kelley and Luis most recently welcomed together, appear in their videos.

"The babies, we don't show them as much because we don't feel like they're old enough to be able to make a decision," Kelley says. "When they see us filming, they want to be part of it, so we'll let them into videos here and there, but where they aren't the focus of them."

Today, they present ideas to the family and let the kids decide who, if anyone, wants to participate.

"Recently, we had his oldest come to visit with her husband and we're like, 'Hey, don't feel like you're going to have to be in any videos. If you want to great, let us know, but you're here to visit,' " Kelley says.

"I'm a big believer in the fact that once your kids become adults, the relationship has to change," Luis explains. "I have to treat them like adults, like peers in a sense, and communicating about things like this has made that transition easier."

Kelley and Luis are hopeful that, as they have, their kids will see the family's unusual beginnings and the ups and downs along the way as something to laugh at.

"We've all had traumas and childhoods that weren't the most normal," Kelley says. "We've learned comedy is a fun place to make light of really bad situations. I think we've all kind of leaned into that as we've grown as a family. At the end of the day, what else can you do? It's life and crappy things are going to happen. You can either let it destroy you or find the positive in it."

The family, believers in big leaps of faith, have recently taken another big leap. With Luis retiring from the military in June after nearly 24 years of service, the family moved to Los Angeles so that Ana can pursue her acting dreams.

"We had nothing tying us down and she really loves creating, so we came out here. It was kind of an overnight decision because we knew if we gave ourselves too much time to think, we'd talk ourselves out of it," Kelley says.

"My kids have always supported me in my career in the military. Ana was born in Italy and then we moved ... every two years," Luis says. "It's not like she's had permanent friends or a place to call home or be homesick for. Since she supported me for so long, now that she has a dream it's my turn to support her."

In nearly seven years, the family's lives have undergone a complete transformation. Kelley believes that it's all a result in taking chances on themselves.

"The biggest lesson I've learned is the best thing you can do for yourself is to bet on yourself," she says. "You have to believe you're capable of the dreams that you have. I've only learned that because of Luis' support, but having someone support me and say my dreams are valid has been so important. I've learned that relying and leaning on myself for what I want and going after it, it's worth it every time."

"There's still so much more to come," Luis says. "I just hope that we continue to bet on ourselves and make things happen."