Bonnie,
You can obtain life insurance on your children from Western & Southern Life.
It is guarantee issued insurance, which costs more, but it should cover them regardless.
I work for W&S in Ohio, but I know we have offices in CA as well.
If you send me a private message, I will provide you with my work e-mail, and have an agent in your area contact you.
I noticed you looked at the Standard & Poor's rating for the other companies. Western & Southern Financial Group, which consists of 17 companies, with Western & Southern Life being one of them, has an AA+ rating. Only 11 companies out of over 1,400 in the world hold an AA+ or AAA rating.
Just thought I'd throw that in there, so you would know about our finanicial security.