Bigger Happy Family

If I had a 10 gallon heart, it wouldn't hold all the happiness and love I feel right now. What an amazing weekend and almost all of you were part of it! I keep breathing in so deep trying to unravel and neatly organize the precious moments.

It wasn't all fa-la-la-la-la. There were several times I felt overwhelmed. Partly because Jim was incapacitated after a minor surgery and partly because I have no idea how to divide 1000 lbs of love into 4 equal parts. Make that 5 equal parts if you count Jim.

But overall our weekend with our new babies was divine. God made them for us. He knit them together in a random womb amidst chaos so that they could start building character by overcoming adversity from day 1 PN. (pre-natal) Then set them on a course the world would call horrific, but He calls predestined. So that by the time the super scary, extra hairy roller coaster ride is over, they land smack dab in the middle of the icing on our cake. From here, they'll learn truth. They'll meet Jesus. Done.

That's our job. And that's it. We don't have to heal them or turn them into good students, college grads, doctors or lawyers. We just have to make sure they know Jesus.

We asked them how they felt about allowing us to name them. The suggestion was met with enthusiasm until I told them that I'd wrap them in baby blankets and snuggle them like newborn babies while issuing names like Pinkus and Petunia. Not really.

I carefully explained it was their choice and they could also choose to keep their first names as their middle names. They want totally new names.

What a cool parallel this is to being born again. A new name. A new start. It doesn't erase your past, it just makes it less consequential to your future. Who wouldn't choose this little token of such a life altering moment.

From the moment they walked in the door, it was love at first sight. Mommy, Daddy, Sister, Brother. They totally embraced everything about our family. Jaylon stated to us that we'd be adopting him. Yes please. Because they don't really remember their mom, there are no torn loyalty issues or separation anxiety. Their maternal grandmother has raised them from ages 2 and 3. She has MS and physically can't care for them which is how they ended up in CPS and then in 2 other family members homes and 1 foster home in the last 18 months. She is a great influence and is the reason they are so amazing and I'll give credit to the foster family too for teaching them discipline and boundaries. She'll continue to be in their lives and hopefully you'll all meet her......I guess we'll be adopting her too.

Tonight they had to go back to their foster home till Friday. This weekend was supposed to be a test drive. Can you believe that? A test drive. And the 6 month waiting period before legal adoption consummation can occur is another test drive. So if they misbehave or disappoint us we can give them back. Ouch. It hurts me FOR them to even think of it.

We don't want them to know anything about the 6 month waiting period or the potential for the evil aunt to appeal the court's decision. They are ours in our hearts and in our home. They don't need to concern themselves with the details of our jacked up legal system.

When they arrive on Friday, we'll have a commitment ceremony and give them their new names. We'll pray, eat some hot dogs, spray some silly string, suffer a few mosquito bites and call it one of the best days of our lives. It'll all go down around 5:30. The foster family is going to be there and hopefully their Grandma too....so if you decide to join us, don't be surprised. The kids still call them Mom and Dad (we are "mommy" and "daddy") and their daughter, Taylor, will always be their sister. They'll come to us with very few gold nuggets so we'll let them hang on to all the good they can cling to. I know you are all dying to know their names so I'm just going to tell you in case you want to show up and bring a card or anything personalized.

Ridgley Rhiann
and
Max Ryan

A few of you have already asked what you can bring and invited yourself and that is touching since we didn't expect much involvement. If you want to be here, you are welcome to attend and we'd like to suggest you bring a little something that is meaningful to your family so that as you present it to them you can explain why it was important to you as a kid or something along those lines. We just want to celebrate the idea of family. We do not want to shower them with toys. Instead, let's flood them with love and sentiment about what it means to be a forever family.