Transracial family is the new normal....

Life has been full these last couple of weeks and in honor of that, I am going to link you to a great blog post about living as a transracial family. And it is from a guy's perspective....
( disclaimer: I happen to be a part of this family and I may be a little biased about the author!)

Enjoy

a part of a transracial family

Blessings,
Candra

With A Grateful Heart

This blog title has been running around in my head for several days now and I thought I was just going to write about thanksgiving. But I have a few other things that I have experienced and am so grateful for over the last week that I thought I would share those as well. 

I am reminded often to be grateful for the things that have been entrusted into my care, for the experiences I get to have, for the relationships that I have with others, and for the opportunities to share God love and promises with others.  So with a grateful heart.....

*Celebrating 91 years of life!

We were blessed to be able to spend the afternoon with my grandpa on his birthday (and only 3 weeks to grandma's). The kids & I and my sister headed out of town and celebrated with cake, visiting and lots of laughter! I love that the kids can bring smiles to their great grandparents faces and bring delight to them. I am so grateful that we have 6 out of 8 grandparents living and that the kids are able to make memories with them as well!


*Riley passed the framing inspection for our house!!

Both upstairs and basement! So now that means we can move onto electricity. We have been so grateful for the support of friends through this building process, stopping onsite to encourage and assist my husband and to help. We have had some close friends take time off work (and they both own private businesses) to come help;  and once again, to get the power in we have a friend helping!! Beyond blessed and grateful for these moments in time!!!

*I had a great day at work today and I love what I do!! I am a pediatric physical therapist and I absolutely love working with families and their children. I recognize too that this is not only a job but a place that I get to be His hands and feet. My kids sometimes get pretty envious that I get to play with toys all day! I am so grateful for my job & my career....

*Thanksgiving was so good to be with family. We got to spend Sunday with my family and headed out to  the ranch on Monday (no pics...sorry).

thanksgiving supper...yum!

And it is always a good time to be reminded of what we are thankful for. My kids and my husband are A.W.E.S.O.M.E.!! I am so grateful for them. Noise and all. Believe me, I didn't talk for about 10-15 minutes after supper tonite - they were having so much fun wrestling on the floor with dad and screaming in delight!!

hopscotch!

ready for almost any sport!

hangin' at the new house!

AND

Our adoption of our 5th child is on the move again! The agency has now moved through the accreditation and will begin referrals again in the next several months!! My husband has wrote a great post on his blog so you can check there for further details. I am so grateful that this small step is such a big step for the little ones that get to go home to their families.

And is not without ALOT of hard work by people that rarely get the credit they deserve....the agencies, the social workers etc. ...it is a culmination of so many people's hard work, advocacy, wisdom, patience and resolve and we are grateful that they continue to do their jobs so well and work so hard on behalf of these children. 

For this, I am grateful. 

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; 

   his love endures forever.

Blessings,

Candra

Expanding our family

As we expand our family to 7 or 8, I thought I would share with you ou story thus far....we continue to be amazed at God' faithfulness and timing in our family and look forward to welcoming another little one(s) into our family...

We knew without a doubt about an hour after we welcomed little man into our family that we were not done expanding our family. To be honest, I thought four would be perfect. We still fit into a minivan and life would be good! It was good and continues to be good but it is not done. 

Anyways, we decided that we would not talk about it for several months and just enjoy having little man home and adjust as a family of 6. We didn't last several months but we did wait a little bit and then began to pray about what God desired for our family. 
Just a little background history...before we began our first adoption, we really felt called to adopt a sibling group or an older chid. Upon discussion with our social worker and with our province, they encouraged us not to interrupt birth order and to request within our referral a chid younger than our little princess. We completely respected their opinions and felt comfortable with it and so we did...& of course that story is complete with little man joining our family! It is very cool to reflect back and see God 's hand at work through our first adoption...

So as we prayed and talked about what our next adoption would look like, we again felt drawn to an older child and possibly a sibling group. God really impressed on my heart during this time His words to " care for the least of these" in His name. To welcome a child, who in reality has a very small chance of being adopted given their age, into a loving family and to share the gospel with them and also those watching us walk through this crazy and exciting adventure....


My husband read through the entire adoption act of our province (that in itself deserves some credit!) to ensure that legally we could go ahead with this request. We talked at length with all the powers that be (government, social work, agency) and this time, there was no suggestions to change our request. We were a little shocked to say the least, as we totally thought we would have to work hard and advocate for this. But everyone got on board and supported it 100 percent!!!

As an aside -In our experience, it seems that in the world of adoption, children older than the age of 2 have a very difficult time being adopted. Age 2. They have essentially aged out of a system, where the "ideal" ( for many valid reasons) is a baby...attachment and bonding can be much easier when the child is a baby, there may not have been as much trauma if it is a baby and of course, then many memories and "firsts" that happen in the first year are so special. 
We have been blessed beyond measure to experience these years with our 4 children and would not trades them for anything. But in the scheme of things, 2 or even older is a very small part of their entire life. And we felt that with our parenting an 8 , 6,3 &2 year olds, we had at least some of the skills(we hope!) to welcome an older chid into our family!!!!

So needless to say our prayers were answered and we were given the go ahead to continue. We updated our home study and profile and got everything to our agency just before Easter...and now we wait. So, to let you all in on who our next little one(s) will be!!!! 

Our referral request is an older child ( 6 or under) and we are open to certain medical needs...and if there is a sibling group of 2 that matches our request(ages etc.) we will be expanding to a family of 7 or 8!!! 

There is one other thing I want to share with you...but also as a reminder for me as I reread this at some point.
Some people have asked " what about your kids...what do they think of it?" Our kids have been excited with this idea from the beginning. Lately, my 6 year old son has been praying for this child(ren) every possible chance he has. how cool is that. There is no jealousy, frustration or questioning about why. They know why. We have tried to process them through this, have had many discussions with them, have prayed for them and with them often. They know what it means to be be His hands and feet. To advocate for the orphan. To love without receiving anything in return. They amaze me.
I am not oblivious to the fact though that when these one or two little ones become a part of our family forever, it will be hard hard work. It is hard (but well worth it)work now. And I get it wrong a lot of the time. But they forgive easily and extend so much grace to me as their mom. Kids need to know they are loved, they are safe, they are secure and they are valued. We all need that! With 5 or 6, that becomes even more of a challenge. But we are up for it. And our kids are up for it.

So I could keep going on and on, but I will stop there. I hope this has been an encouragement and a further explanation for some of you who haven't heard the whole story....

To our newest little one(s)...mommy & daddy and your sisters and brothers are praying for you daily! May you experience joy in your day today and we look forward to meeting you and playing with you soon...love from us!

Blessings,
Candra