Joss Stone and her husband had some "terrible" experiences when trying to adopt

She told People magazine: "[Cody] has firsthand experience of how it feels to not know your mom, to not know your dad, to not know where you're from, and we didn't want that for our baby.

"So we put ourselves in a position where we can be chosen by the mom that is placing her child for adoption. So that way, it's all love from every direction."

Of one particularly "terrible" experience, Joss said of the birth mom: "She thought, 'Oh, I'll just take this money and then I'll just keep the baby.' So it was all just this whole facade."

But despite multiple potential adoptions falling through, the couple - who also have Violet, three, and two-year-old Shackelton together - tried to stay positive.

Joss said: "We have to be strong. And the second we are weak, take a minute, wipe your tears, take a deep breath, stand up tall and walk forward. That's the most important thing.

"My mantra throughout the months of waiting was 'She's not my baby until she's my baby.'

"I literally would say it to myself almost daily.

"[Adoption is] something where you have to put yourself in the position where it's possible and then pray. You just have to pray, and I'm so glad that we did. He's just beautiful."

And the 'Super Duper Love' hitmaker and her spouse are keen to go through the process again in the future.

She said: "We want to adopt a bunch of kids. So hopefully he won't be the only one in this family that's adopted.

"We just love babies. I always say, more kids, more love. They're just little rays of sunshine and they deserve all the love that we can give them."