Our Family

Kinsey is staying busy crawling all over the place, pulling herself up on things and enjoying cheerios. She still has her 4 teeth on the bottom and smiles with a toothy grin :-)

Being an Adoptive Mother

What Is an Adoptive Mother?

By Carrie Craft
Being an adoptive mother is not for every woman. She must possess not only the natural mother instinct but an understanding and appreciation of the situation that brought a child into her arms making her a mother. The adoptive family came to be by choices made, choices made by the first parents and by the adoptive parents. This bond the adoptive mother has with her child grows over time, like the child did within his first mother’s womb. Day by day, touch by touch, with each tear, kiss, and memory made they became a family.

Adoptive mothers have that special knack to let love grow.
Adoptive mothers know that she’s a mender of wounds, not just of the physical skinned knees with a band-aid and a kiss, but of the heart. She gives love, acceptance, and permission to ask and talk about the day he was born and of his first parents.
Adoptive mothers are embracers,

not only of the child with many hugs and kisses, but of the child’s heritage and history.

She embraces the facts of her child’s past with strength for herself and the child.
She’s not only a memory maker planning family vacations, activities, and birthday parties, but also a memory keeper. Details of a birth, photos of the hospital, and of the parents who brought her into the world are kept along side the newspaper clipping that announced it all. All these things are kept in a special book that tells the whole story.
She’s a tier of shoelaces and of hearts. She weaves lives together into a tapestry of a new family, with many different brightly, colored threads showcasing their individualities and family origins. Together they create one unit attached to each other.
Adoptive mothers are experts at finding lost objects, but understand and validate the profound, deep loss left by adoption. She allows the tears to fall and grief to be felt, allowing the mourning of the mom not there. She is secure in knowing that she’s not a replacement, but a finisher of a race for someone who, for whatever reason, could not run any longer.
This role is not for the weak of spirit, or the easily wounded. Loving a child not born to her but calling him her own, but this is what she does, it is her calling.

She is a mother.

Her first snow fall :-)

Kinsey is 7 1/2 months old now.... here is her 7th month picture and her in her snow suit :-)

Our California Trip

Kinsey and I (along with my dad) left at the end of October for California to say goodbye to my grandma who was dying of lung cancer. It was great to spend so much time with my dad (2 days there in car and then two days back home) and the rest of my family in California. My grandma passed away 6 days after we got there and we left three days later. It was hard saying goodbye to her and to my family but what an amazing opportunity to spend so much time with my family who is hurting so much. It just intensified my love for them . There is just so much hurt and pain there and it stirred up something special within me for them.... bringing them before my Jesus. That side of my family don't believe in the power of God or his grace but I feel like this trip has opened up doors.

Some wonderful things happened while I was there though... death seems to cause children to have questions and concerns so I was able to be there to answer those questions and share the hope that I have. I was able to share the steps of salvation, Jesus' love and grace with three of my cousins' kids :-) They already knew some things which was neat :-) But when I shared that not only did Jesus die on the cross but that he rose from the dead one, one of them said "He did??" with such enthusiasm! Maybe I sometimes take it for granted and I don't think about how awesome it really is... HE DID, and HE DID FOR US! Anyway, they wanted to Jesus to be part of their life and prayed with me right there. They believed. I love thinking about how Jesus viewed the faith of children... and how important it is for us to be like them.

I hope that by sharing this with you that you'll mention them when you go to Jesus. I am going to get them each a Bible but they need prayer that God will place people in their life to encouarge this step in their life. They will fight an uphill battle which breaks my heart - but Jesus can break the cycle they are in. They could use some prayer warriors praying for them! Here they are :

She is our PRINCESS :-)

Our princess is just getting so big! She is the most amazing little girl ever. We never realized how blessed we would be! She is such a beautiful and happy baby... she makes us sooooo happy!!! At her last appointment (beginning of November) she was 18.3 lbs and 28 inches long :-) Her hair is getting longer and thicker and she is just getting more gorgeous each day!