Our New Addition

To most people, a new addition means a home remodeling project, and believe me, we've had plenty of those, but at this point in our lives, it could only mean one thing....an addition to the family.

We were given the opportunity to adopt another child. Olivia is 9 years old and was originally adopted about 6 years ago from India. Her first parents had some particular challenges, so they decided the best thing for their circumstances was to place Olivia for adoption. They signed the legal papers last Monday and Olivia has slipped into our family between Casey and Niya very naturally. The final adoption won't take place for months. Having her in our home has been a great blessing to her and us - the changes in just the first week have been very positive. She was starved for love and Deanne has been incredibly inspired with specific actions we need to be taking to overcome the lack of proper parenting and healthy family relaitonships in her life. Olivia has a very resilient spirit. unfortunately, she has needed strong survival skills in her young life, but now seems to be responding very well to being nurtured and is allowing herself to be loved and is becoming more comfortable with affection. She keeps track of how many kisses Deanne owes her throughout the day. One night, Deanne planted 150 kisses on Olivia's face and she accepted every one of them. Those who have adopted children at an older age know becuase of bonding issues, that is not the easiest thing to do. Our other children have accepted her whole-heartedly and are excited to have her in our family. We were made aware of this possibility almost 3 years ago, but it did not feel right at that time. If feels right now - the Lord must know what he is doing.