One year ago everything changed.

It has been a little over a year since our sibling group of three officially moved in.  If you don't know our whole story here are the basics:

-My husband and I have been married for 12 years

-We had 2 biological children and one newly adopted child (from foster care) when we decided to adopt a sib group of 3 (also from foster care)

-Two months after the sib group of 3 moved in, their biological mom gave birth to a 4th baby that no one knew was coming

-We decided to take the baby as well and adopt her along with the 3 siblings


The sibling group of three came  to live with us permanently in October of 2012.  The baby came in December of 2012.

For the past year we have been sorting out our life that was flipped upside down by adopting so many little ones all at once.  Currently, the ages of my children are:

11, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1.

Yes, it is crazy around here.

Over the past 12 months we have dealt with a lot of normal issues that most adopting families will go through.  There has been lying, problems at school, attachment issues, sleeping issues, peeing issues, more lying, jealousy, grief...did I mention lying already?  The funny part is that we managed to adopt four of the most wonderful kids you will ever meet and we STILL had to deal with so many of the issues that people warn you about.

It has not been easy, but we are getting there.  Most of the issues I mentioned are gone now.  Thank goodness.  They still come up here or there, but over all most days are good days.  There really is not much that is easy about adoption.  For me, the only easy part was the "fall in love with a kid you don't really know" part.  Then, they move in and you have to get over the "idea" of who you thought the child was going to be and really work on falling in love with who the child really is.  That is where we are today.  I absolutely love my kids and I am so thankful that they are part of my family.

When they first moved in, all the bad behaviors came out and it is crazy how hard it can be to "like" a child when they are doing one horrible thing after another.  "Love" and "like" are two completely different things, and I am so glad that after many rough months I can say I "love" and actually "LIKE" my children.

I think all I really wanted to share with people was that adopting is hard, but it is worth it.  We have just been through the hardest year of our lives, and we look around and cannot believe how blessed we have been through it all.  We never gave up.  Even before the adoption was finalized and some pretty rough stuff happened, we never gave up on our kids.  They needed a family, they needed a home, and we needed them.

If you want to read more about our crazy lives you can feel free to poke around my blog or "like" my "Mama Foster" page on Facebook.  I love meeting foster moms, potential foster moms, and other foster families.  I love adoption.  I love talking about adoption.  I believe from the depths of my soul that God cares deeply for "the orphan" and that we are called to do the same.

Thanks for stopping by!