Treasure in the Brokenness

The new school year is in full swing, we've had a wonderful summer and I am enjoying teaching all FOUR of my boys this year!  Yes, after having Toby in public school for a year, we prayerfully decided to bring him home to learn with his brothers. I thought that perhaps by sharing a bit of this part of our story, others may be encouraged to make hard decisions, listen to the Lord's prompting and take a leap of faith. While Toby did enjoy his fourth grade year in our local, small-town public school, my spirit was restless for most of the year.  He started off his year strong, loved his teacher, the other adults he came in contact with, art class on Fridays, school lunches, etc.  It was an adjustment for us all to send off one child to school while the other three stayed behind with me.  Toby often expressed concern that he was missing something we were doing without him; Jack (my social child) worried that he was missing something Toby had at school...there wasn'...

If you've been reading our blog for any length of time, you know the background story of how we discovered that our newest son didn't have Celiac Disease as listed on his profile, but instead had a host of other issues...foremost among them, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.  (I wrote about it a little in the post  "Home for Six Months" .) Before I begin to describe what life has been like learning how to parent a child with FASD, I want to be sure you know that we are in no way experts on this disorder.  There are so many amazing resources available with much more specific information:  books, websites, support groups, etc.  (Maybe the BEST resource is an adoptive parent of a child with FASD!)  But our hope is to shed more light on the day-to-day issues we face, dealing with Toby's disability and learning what it means to love him and give him the best support in the midst of it. My prayer is that someone who is considering the adoption of a child wit...

Due to some feedback I received after my last post, stating that I would not be writing on this blog any longer, it seems that God has been using this simple blog and my transparent words and thoughts to reach out to other adoptive families...many of whom I never even knew were following our journey! So...I will continue to write.  It is true that within the adoptive community, when things are tough - most go silent.  The silence can be devastating for families who need encouragement and need to know they are not alone.  It is a fine balance to know how much to share. We are still very much in the trenches with our own adoption story.  As a family, we seem to take a few steps forward and then something will make us tumble several steps back down the path.  It is a hard process. So, I will prayerfully consider which topics to share in the hopes that they might be of encouragement to other families who are walking a similar journey...and to those who are con...

Toby turned 12 yesterday!! This is his second birthday surrounded by a family who loves him! We are so grateful for our boy and the chance to pour love into his life for all the birthdays and regular days to come.   It has been hard to keep up on blogging, though much is happening in Toby's life and in our hearts as parents.  While there are still very unique challenges in raising an adopted child, we've decided that Toby is incorporated enough into our family that we no longer need a separate blog to document his progress or our growth as a family.  Instead, we will continue to keep up with our main family blog: Meyer Family Updates Please feel free to follow along - and I will do my best to post more often!   Thank you for following along with us on the journey to adopt Toby and make him our son!  Please keep praying for us and keep in touch!