and then there were 4

So today is a great day! It is this adorable guy’s 3rd birthday!

He’s a blend of sweet kisses and defiant scowls.. haha. He is incredibly bright, in fact he may be the most perceptive kid I have ever met. His laugh is just perfect and very contagious. He loves to dance. Oh, and he’s built like a tank (45 lbs of awesome)!

In his short life he has had to overcome so much already. I have no doubt God can use this child to do great things. I pray for that each day!

You may remember us announcing his arrival to our home last September. And the past 7+ months have been a journey for him and for us. I can’t get in to all of the details, but I can say this… God works in ways we do not see or can’t truly know at the moment.

My daughter Ellie was asking some pretty deep questions about God the other day. “Mom, how does God know everything that has happened and will happen? And why doesn’t He allow us to know everything?” It’s hard to explain an all-knowing God to anyone, never mind a nine year old.

But, I told her I think that God keeps certain pieces of information from us, not to prevent us from knowing things or because He wants to be sneaky, but to protect us from the burden of knowing things before we are ready.

A great example of this is foster care. Five years ago, he said “do this.” We asked why? What if? He said don’t worry about that right now, just obey.

I am so grateful we did, though it has been a journey.

The grief, the struggle, the weight of each child’s story we read, take in, and experience first hand… all that, is way harder than I realized it would be. You become aware of the brokenness all around. If we knew how hard this would be five years ago, we probably would have been too scared to do it. But He didn’t show us all at one time, God allowed us to grow throughout the process. And, He was with us each step of the way.

And all the goods, they were so unexpected! We have been able to grow closer together as a family and closer to God. My girls learned to live selflessly by sharing their home, parents, and things with other children.We have received the blessing of adding to our family through adoption. And, because our family is a little different, it has created many opportunities for us to talk to others and have conversations we wouldn’t have had otherwise. Also, I don’t think we realized just how passionate we were about defending the cause of the fatherless or the privilege it is to be a parent before we were on this road. No, if God had told us how good this whole thing was going to be, we probably wouldn’t have believed it back then.

But it is good. Foster parenting continues to change our family in ways I never could have imagined. So many things we couldn’t have prepared for. So many moments along the way, some ending in very beautiful ways while others still sting every day. It’s exciting to think about all of the things ahead that God still has in store!

I just wanted to share those thoughts. If you are in a place where you have a lot of “whys?” Or you just wish God would just tell you whats going on.. and now. Trust that maybe, out of love, He is waiting. Maybe there is something for you to learn along the way. Maybe you can’t handle knowing it all just yet. Just trust and obey. His promises are true. He is good.

We also wanted to share some big news for us…

This adorable birthday boy will be joining our family permanently! And soon! Yes, we are officially adopting him in June!

We are excited for the opportunity to be his mommy and daddy and his forever family. And we are thankful for you, our support system, because we know you will help us love on him and encourage him in the years to come!

Yay! We will be updating once the big day is set!