When They Go

Well, this is it.

My last post. Maybe for good on this blog.

Two Month Update



 

 

Looking back over the past two months, I see what a labor of love this is. To emotionally birth a child into our family. There is pain and a time when you feel that this is "the end", you can't take any more.
But God's grace. He never gives us more than we can handle.
There's a song on the radio recently that says, "This is gonna make you stronger." If you want to hear it, you can go here -
YouTube Mandisa - Stronger
God gives us the strength we need at the time we need it.
And God gave an 8 year old boy courage to leave everything familiar and start a new life with a new family away from his birth siblings. He gave a couple in their 50's courage to take in a boy they barely knew. He gave two children raised in a Christian home enough trust to want to help a boy "from the world".
At times, that 8 year old boy wished that he could run back to the familiar. At times, the couple wondered what they had gotten themselves into. At times, the two children wanted to "send him back".
But, then God's grace comes in again. The boy becomes more comfortable. The couple finds new strength and encouragement. The children learn how to relate to each other better.

He's Here!

One week ago today, we had just gotten home with our boy. It really seemed so natural. We had a good ride home. He slept part of the time.
When we got home Hannah and Josiah were there to greet us and welcome their new brother. It was late, so we got him ready for bed, said prayers and tucked him in.
The week has been a whirlwind of getting him registered for school, paperwork, meetings with Bethany Christian Services, appointments with doctors, and just adjusting.
In the midst of all of the hard work or parenting a child from hard places, we have had time for fun - a sleeping bag party in the den, personalizing a wall in the room he shares with Josiah, and getting his first pet (a fire-belly toad).
There's also been some shopping done for clothes and shoes.
Pray for him and our family as we try to rebuild the trust that has been lost. To some extent he trusts us and is glad that he is here, but there is still a lot of anxiety in his life. He goes back and forth from feeling a part of the family to feeling an outcast. We pray that he will find stability here.

A New Plan

It's been a month since my last post.

On Wednesday of this week, we got a call from our adoption specialist at Bethany. She had news that we had been waiting for, but weren't expecting this soon, if ever.

The State has made the decision to split the sibling group. Three of them are being adopted by their foster parents. One is going to a group home. One is available for us to adopt.
We had told them that in the event that they did a split, we would consider the younger two. I figured it was unlikely that we would get the 3 year old since he and his sister are very much loved by their foster parents (who have graciously taken in one of the other boys as well). Maybe there was a slight chance for the 8 year old, but I had turned it totally over to God, because it had hurt so much when we took him back that chilly day in December to what I considered a dismal existance.