Friday, July 28, 2006

Crazy with love

Thank you for praying for yesterday’s meeting. Everything went well and Mike and I both just sat amazed as we listened to the mother tell about what Brandon and his brothers have experienced in their short little lives. The boys are so sweet, affectionate and loving that no one would guess at the abuse and neglect they’ve suffered. I pray God will show us how to help the boys heal emotionally and how to show them His love for them.

We pick up Brandon’s brothers today for a weekend of fun, fun, fun! It’s also the “test” weekend to see if we can manage 3 boys at once. We’re praying about taking in Brandon’s brothers permanently – which the other foster family and our social worker are all in favor of. So this weekend will give us a small taste of what it’s like to go from a family of 2 to a family of 5. Are we crazy?!?

I have a big prayer request for some friends of ours in Maryland. Brian and Christina have a 4 month old daughter who died yesterday after a long battle with pneumonia. So please pray for Brian and Christina, their 2-year-old son Kyle, and all their family and friends. This is a tragic, tragic death and I know they desperately need your prayers right now.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Praise and prayer

These past 5 weeks have brought more joys and challenges than I could ever have thought possible! But even through the 2 a.m. crying sessions I'm thanking God for this blessing and opportunity - regardless of what the future holds. Below are some praise and prayer requests for those who have been following the saga. And if anyone has recommendations about how to get a toddler to eat food at dinner rather than throw it on the floor, I'm open to suggestions!!

Praises:

Brandon’s brothers are staying with us this weekend. This is both a praise and a prayer request. We are very glad that they’ll get to spend a few days together, but we’ve never cared for 3 boys at once. I’ll let you know next week if we survive the weekend :)

We were in need of a dresser for the boys’ room, and just now a good friend in the furniture business called to say he had a dresser and nightstands for free. Praise God! We hadn’t even told anyone of our need.

Brandon continues to sleep fairly well – this is the greatest praise of all!

Prayer:

We have our first meeting with the Social Worker, CASA worker and birth mother tomorrow morning to hammer out details regarding visitations and any questions we have. Pray for God’s peace to be evident in the room, and for us to have wisdom in what we say. I’ve talked to the birth mother by phone but this will be our first face-to-face visit.

Brandon loves daycare, but he seems to become fussy and clingy the moment we get him home. I’ve been told this is separation anxiety, but all I know is we miss the smiley little boy who loves to play with bubbles! Pray that Brandon continues to adjust to our home and daycare, and that as he adjusts he grows more secure and confident.

Monday, July 17, 2006

Sunday, July 09, 2006

New Addition


Ok, so the roller coaster of life threw us another loop a few weeks ago. Shortly after I posted about the chance for us to adopt the baby in Nebraska (a still undecided matter), we received a phone call from our county Social Services department: would we take in a 17-month-old boy? We had 10 minutes to decide - and our lives have not been the same since! Brandon is so precious and wonderful and full of laughter. He has transitioned into our home surprisingly well, although we still battle the occasional sleepless nights. We've figured out, though, that he sleeps fairly well as long as we keep him on a consistent schedule. See, I'm starting to sound like a parent already!

What else we have learned:
1. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches need much less pb and j when being fed to a toddler
2. one word grunts may very well be words spoken through untrained lips
3. exhaustion, fatigue and frustration pale in comparison to hugs and kisses and belly laughs

We can't give much information about his family, but we will say Brandon has 2 other brothers (a 4 and 5 year old) and we will most likely have him in our family for quite a while.