Summer Recap

Are we really almost through August already?! It has been such a great summer, but it went by so quickly! Wanted to give a recap to those of you who haven't been able to catch up with us in person lately :)

Tony and I have been given the best gift this summer...baby A was placed in our care on June 22nd and boy, have we fallen in love! She is such a joy in our lives, we love watching her grow and change right before our eyes each and every day. I never knew how fun it would be to watch babies learn, and they learn and change so quickly!

We can't share all the details surrounding Baby A's case or why she came into care, but we can say that our job with her for the past 2 months has been to help heal her broken body (she had many broken and healing bones when we first got her), put some meat on her, and build her trust. The day she came to us she was just a few days shy of 5 months old, and weighed a mere 10 pounds. Earlier this week she weighed in at 13lbs 9oz, which is huge growth for her over the past 2 months. She is also working on crawling, which is amazing given that she had a broken leg 2 months ago! She has also learned to trust us completely, smiling and reaching for us daily which is something she didn't do for quite a while at first. She is such a resilient little gem.

For Tony and I, we are adjusting back into our regular work schedules. As we both work at schools, we have had a lot of down time together this summer, which has been wonderful! I loved spending my days this summer with Baby A while Tony worked a day camp at his school. Now it's back to the grind of 5:30am alarm clocks and lots of coffee to get through the days! We are so thankful for both of our moms and a friend who have rallied together to provide care for A during the week...we love knowing she is with people we love and trust. A has also just started to sleep through the night on a regular basis, which couldn't have come at a better time!

God has been working in our hearts through our interaction with Baby A. Our hearts for adoption have grown immensely. Of course we hope that we will be able to adopt Baby A, but God may have other plans in store for her. We do believe that His plan for us is to adopt one of His children though, and we trust that he will make that path clear for us in his timing. Foster care is a crazy system, and we never quite know what outcome to expect from any case we're involved with, so we just pray, knowing that God has His hand on it all.

We can't share pictures of Baby A publically on social media (for confidentiality reasons),  but I would be happy to email a picture to anyone who requests one privately...feel free to send me a message with your email if you want one! We would love for Baby A's little face to be on the refrigerators of our friends and family as a reminder to pray for her and all the other little lives being affected by foster care :)

Hope everyone has a great start to their Fall...before we know it the leaves will be changing! I, for one, am so thankful to live in such a beautiful part of our country where God's creativity and love for us can so clearly be seen in the changing of the seasons...

With Love,
Tony, Emily & Baby A