Frazzled

Some days I feel frazzled. As I sit browsing through a book on homeschooling your teenager, wonder how I am going to get Ben and Jonathan learning anything this year, and watch Leo's feeding tube drip, drip, drip, I can easily feel overwhelmed and wonder what are we doing! If I think ahead more then one day, I can't handle it. My brain literally hurts trying to keep straight all of Leo's appointments, as of now 2 surgeries, and at least 3 therapists coming to our house. Yesterday, our pediatrician recommended we go see yet another specialist. I wanted to ask if this specialist had hours between midnight and two because that was about all the time I had left. Add packing 8 people to go away on a vacation and I am extremely tempted to hide when it is time to leave and send Jeremy on his way with all the kids.

When we began this blog, it was kind of a diary of our journey to bring Jonathan home. We kept blogging. We contemplated stopping, but then someone would be encouraged by something and we would keep going. Because of contacts we have made in the adoption community, we have had the privilege of personally talking on the phone with 2 moms who after our phone conversation and reading our blog have decided to pursue adoption both of little boys missing a limb. It is so cool, that Jonathan has played a part in helping to bring more boys to their forever families.

We also tread a fine line between making adoption look easy and disclosing the reality of everyday life with 6 kids, one with multiple special needs and one who needs to learn to use his prosthetic leg better so he can meet his goal of playing soccer in a month- (yikes, better give that a higher priority).

There is no way we can do this all by ourselves. I throw up my hands at least once a day and call out to God asking for His help. We are so thankful for all the family and friends God has placed in our lives for this season. Both have been invaluable in helping to watch kiddos while I take Leo on a doctor's appointments, watching all the kids so Jeremy and I could go out of a date :), and providing moral and prayer support.

Most days life is full, it is not an easy road we are currently walking. We don't pretend to have it all together, but I wouldn't trade this time and season for anything. It is hard, but we know this place of hard is where God wants us right now. This is the place where we are learning to depend on Him on a deeper level. If life was easy, we may lose the urgency to cry out to God. This road is causing us to focus on the here and now, to not look ahead, but rather like the Israelites, to be thankful for the manna we have been given for today. I realize today's manna will not feed me tomorrow. Tomorrow, I must trust God to send me more manna and I must seek Him to find it.

No, adding to your family is not easy, but when your 10 year old gives you a card that thanks you for adopting 2 boys- you know you must be on the right track. And so we keep chugging on taking one day at a time.

Official Placement Day- July 20, 2011

Getting ready for the Beach!

Happy Birthday Jonathan!

Yesterday Jonathan turned 5! We celebrated with breakfast in bed and a special pizza dinner. We had had a birthday celebration with family and friends on July 2nd when Nana was visiting us from New York.

I was talking with a good friend the other day. We will be vacationing with them at the beach soon and she reminded me that last year they had met Jonathan for the first time and this summer they will be meeting Leo. She wanted to know who she might meet next summer. I stopped and almost argued with her that last summer wasn't Jonathan's first summer, but then I realized it was! It is so hard to believe that he has only been a part of our family for a little over a year and a half. I am not exaggerating when I say it feels like he has always been here. He is an amazing little boy and we are so thankful that God placed him in our family.

This is one of my favorite pictures from gotcha day way back in Novemeber, 2009!

A Pirate's Life for ME!

Today was a day of information gathering. Our day began at 9:00 AM with a 2 hour early intervention evaluation. No surprises. Leo qualifies for speech, physical therapy and also a teacher. We will begin with the teacher and physical therapist and speech will be added when he is discharged from the feeding clinic. They will each come to our home once a week for a one hour session each.

We then headed out for the eye doctor, who is not sure where the information about Leo being legally blind came from. Bottom line, he can see! He does have "wandering" eyes, which we had noticed. Thus the pirate patch. He has to wear the patch for 2 hours each day. He will most likely have surgery in the fall to tighten his eye muscles and that should fix the problem.

All in all a good day.

And because we do have other kids...

Introducing the our newest bundle of joy!

We have yet to formally introduce our newest son, so without further ado- Here he is...








Some facts...
Leo was born on April 30th,2010 in the United States.
He is adjusting wonderfully to our family although
Jeremy and I are still adjusting to having an infant in the house.
We have about a month to decide on what his middle name will be.
The adoption will be final in about 6 months.
Leo has many special needs, but his biggest need was a family and we are so thankful that God choose us to be his family.


This may not be the greatest picture of Leo but I LOVE the look on Jordan's face. He loves his newest brother!

Happy July 4th

May we never take for granted the freedoms that we have.