This mama is tired, and it has been a week! (And it’s only Wednesday!)
This time of year is a balancing act for many families. Gatherings and events increase, yet it’s also a hard place for our family because our adopted kids were removed from their first home between Christmas and New Years. Emotions can run strong as a result, and some days I just want to hibernate.
However, being tired and overstimulated doesn’t mean I’m not also incredibly grateful for our family, and especially the progress we’ve made since the last holiday season!
Photos like this of my crew remind me how I used to be a professional photographer many years ago…
So this thanksgiving I’m grateful for many things… but especially our adoptions being done! We are all just family now. We can focus on processing what the last few years did to us all, and we can work on healing some of the hurts that come with losing your first family, needing to be adopted and how a blended family works.
It’s far from a perfect process, but I continue to have hope we will all see healing in our future and we can really start gelling as a family unit.
I’m also incredibly grateful we no longer have to deal with the foster care system. Not just the court dates and the home checks, but the excruciatingly long process of anyone being willing to stand up for the kids! (I’m part of a group working to change how foster care works in our state, but the list of things that need help is long!) I’ll never regret our family taking legal action to be a voice for our (at the time) foster kids, because they needed someone to step up! And I’m also so blessed with how our community and friends helped us do that! We trusted we could make this work, and amazingly all the pieces fit!
Our most recent family photo was a bit unique, but it certainly reflects how we’ve changed over the years!
If you were a part of the community who helped us finally reach our goal of adoption, even if only by being a part of supporting my small business through YL, please know our gratitude extends to you! For helping us make it this far! We appreciate you so much! ~Naomi
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