Sophie update!

Hello sweet friends! We have been quiet here on the blog as we took our time healing and trying to put our family back together after the boys were removed. The only way I can explain it is to compare it to an explosion. Coming home with the boys and the five months they lived with us was the explosion part. After they were removed was the aftermath- the rubble that once was our lives. So yes, the danger was over, but there was nothing left of our lives afterwards. Things didn't just go back to normal- normal had been obliterated. It's hard to rebuild a life when everything about your old life is now dust. But rebuilding we are, slowly. And yes, it really is making us stronger. I can't say yet that it was all worth it- just being real here- but maybe in time I can look back and see that there was a good reason for it all. Maybe. God doesn't owe me that, though, so I try not to dwell on that too much. I've got enough to keep me busy every day (and night) taking care of miss Sophers and her new baby sister! Yes, in the midst of all of this, we had a baby girl! She has been our "healing baby" and every time I look at her I'm blown away by the magnitude of God's power and love. We didn't struggle with infertility, adoption was our plan A- but we didn't plan on having a baby during the toughest and most stressful year of our lives, that's for sure! Miraculously, my pregnancy went smoothly and with no complications from stress, and our baby girl has been such a happy and sweet baby. And she's obsessed with her big sister, let me tell you! Love's her! I'm sure once she can walk, she'll be fetching all of Sophie's toys she throws across the room all day long :)

And how is Sophers doing? Well...she loves school, she loves toys that play music and have buttons she can push/tap/hit/chew on. She loves her sister as long as she's not crying. She loves being outside in the sunshine. She loves riding in cars as long as the windows are down and she can feel the wind on her face. She is growing super fast and is getting really hard to lift. She has changed my entire lifestyle (I'm homebound if she's home, basically, since it's so hard to lift her into a carseat!) but I'm settling into my new routine and finding that I like being home more often now. I'm getting a lot more writing done (I had to leave my job to care for Soph and the baby, and I'm really loving being a stay at home mom), and I'm getting back into sewing, which is making me very happy. We have an awesome respite family who will take Soph for us for weekend sleepovers sometimes and I really miss her when she's gone, even though it's nice to get a break from the sleepless nights (child thinks sleep is for the weak!) and the diaper blowouts and the mountains of laundry and the constant stimming. Though it's gotten to the point now, after 18 months home, that when she's gone I think it's too quiet at home! I've gotten used to the multiple phone calls a day for medical stuff and a permanently aching back from lifting her (did I mention she is HEAVY?) It's still amazing to me that she attached to us so quickly. She is a miracle and lights up our lives, even though it is hard caring for her. One day I'll write a post about what it's like day to day caring for a kiddo with her level of needs, in case you are wondering about adopting a kiddo like her :) For now, I'm going to guzzle down another cup of coffee (thank goodness for coffee...) and I'll share some photographic evidence of our sweet girly's progress :)