Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Growing our Family

The last two years have been exactly as life always is: a mixture of excitement and grief, joy and sorrow, mixed daily with the mundane details of everyday life. We've pursued another Congo adoption, loved another little boy, and lost him to the bureaucracy of government officials, who seem more intent on pride than compassion. And I won't lie, that has been devastatingly hard at times. Overall, the past two years have been good ones. We've seen our three beautiful kids grow and change and love and fight and play and become people that I really, truly enjoy. I just honestly can't fathom that they're all getting so big. But as a family, as a whole, we just haven't felt complete.

So many losses have taken their toll, and we've been... hesitant. We've been reeling from the heart-wrenching ache that comes with the loss of a child, that loss of expectation. In three years time, we lost three boys. Three boys that we fully expected to come home to us, to be a part of our family, and for two of them, now they have no family at all. Their names will be forever etched on my pieces of my heart. So although we've always known we plan to adopt again, there's been a sort of limbo for two years now, waiting for Congo to open up their borders for legally adopted children. Or waiting to be ready to move on.

And then came Nathan. I saw him on a waiting child list, and I thought that just maybe, we might fit. And the more questions I asked, the more this seemed our family might just be exactly what Nathan was looking for.  And when everyone came to the table, that was exactly what we all agreed: Nathan is joining our family! As a domestic adoption, this process has been ridiculously faster than international. We officially agreed at the end of May, and we're travelling to pick him up in the next few weeks.

There's a low level hum of anxiety and excitement over everything we do now. School is starting soon, and we desperately want him to have time to adjust to a brand new life and state and family before he has to adjust to a brand. new. middle school. Nathan is 11, which means we've completely skipped over two years of parenting phases, given that Robby is 9, followed by Lexi (8) and Ella (7). We are all so very excited to bring him home and welcome him into our family. And while we know that there will be challenges for everyone in the transition, we're just overjoyed that Nathan will be a part of us. I can't wait to share photos with everyone, but until he's home with us, it's best to keep his information private, as is his story.

We appreciate the love and support as we grow our family, and I hope to update again before another two years has passed. Pray and celebrate with us as we grow our family tree.