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![\"DSC_4214\"](\"http:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/DSC_4214.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nNw for the dose of reality. \u00a0Little Theodore’s photos haven’t been shared a lot by us. \u00a0I know it’s a little strange for those who have walked with us through our other adoptions. \u00a0Truth be told his first photos just made us heartbreakingly sad. \u00a09 months old and 9 pounds. \u00a0Red eyes from crying. \u00a0Unable to sit. \u00a0A long list of expensive lab tests had been run. \u00a0His stated diagnosis was clear cut in one respect and very dire in another. \u00a0He was not meeting milestones, nor was he ever expected to<\/i>, according to one respected professional who looked at his medical file for us.<\/p>\n
And yet we sent in our letter seeking to adopt him and make him our son.<\/p>\n
Why?<\/p>\n
Because he’s worth it. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Totally worth it.<\/p>\n Our agency director went looking for an update. \u00a0She called his orphanage and found that he had been transferred to a special medical foster home run by a NGO (non-governmental organization) in the same province. We were thrilled! \u00a0His pictures show a very serious little face, but he is now nearly 26 months old and he has gained 10 pounds and 10 inches.<\/p>\n We aren’t sure what his medical future will hold, but we do know that God woke us up to love him unconditionally, to fight for him, to give him a place to belong. \u00a0We have several medical teams available to us here in North America and once we are home with him we will pursue all of our options to get him the best treatment we can.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And we have been given a little glimpse into his personality.<\/p>\n Theodore belly laughs when he is tickled!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em>How great is that?!<\/p>\n As we leave tomorrow please pray for us about the following:<\/p>\n *easy travel<\/em> (all parents will understand the full depth of our request!)<\/p>\n *that Theodore’s heart<\/em> will be prepared in whatever way it can be for the enormous life altering changes about to occur. \u00a0Adoption, while redemptive, is still trauma.<\/em><\/p>\n *the hearts of our Chinese born children<\/em> who are returning to their birth country. \u00a0So much processing has already occurred as we went through this preparation for this trip. \u00a0They are new ages for this homeland visit and with each new developmental stage come new ideas, memories and levels of processing. \u00a0Pray that this will be a rich time for them to see China, to know China and to love China.<\/p>\n *the hearts of my children not Chinese born<\/em>. \u00a0They have welcomed their siblings like kings. \u00a0They have embraced their adopted country wholeheartedly. \u00a0They look at China with pride and realism and helped our other children feel brave and strong in spite of the complexity of what they are processing. \u00a0They take leadership roles with their younger siblings on all of our travels and it can be exhausting. \u00a0Pray that they would have strength beyond their years and experience. \u00a0Also, pray for their patience while trying to breach the great firewall of China in order to connect with their loved ones and peers back home. Not.even.kidding.<\/em><\/p>\n *Health<\/em>. \u00a0Stephen and I have been trying to get healthier over the past six months knowing this was coming. \u00a0We are on a continuing journey with this, but I pray that God would honour our attempts and keep our backs strong, our stomachs ironclad and our sleep deep (even if only for a few short hours – haha!).<\/p>\n *for my parents<\/em>. \u00a0They come with us on these trips and\u00a0there is very little glory in it. \u00a0It is not how most couples would choose to spend their empty nest or retirement vacations, but they do it without any complaint about missing the actual tourist areas, grumpy grandchildren (and,\u00a0ahem<\/em>, children), and enormous piles of luggage and children attracting stares\u00a0and stopping traffic\u00a0everywhere we go. \u00a0Please pray for their health and that they would be able to enjoy their time away in spite of the busy schedule.<\/p>\n *for Stephen & I<\/em>. \u00a0It’s physically exhausting, but it’s also emotionally taxing. \u00a0I’ve cried more in the past few days than I have in, oh, about two years. \u00a0Adoption does that in the final days before we leave. \u00a0Pray that I would hear God prompting me to\u00a0be quiet as Steve leads us and that I would listen more to Him rather than trying to control each and every detail. \u00a0Truthfully, that is my downfall. \u00a0And pray that Stephen wouldn’t run down to far as he tries to juggle all of us and be emotionally available to all of our many and varied needs.<\/p>\n And thank you, each and every one, who has offered to pray for us. \u00a0We’ll be thanking God for you all too!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 8 duffle bags and 8 backpacks wait in our schoolroom. We have maxed out our big 12 passenger and will be having a friend not only drive us to the airport, but also towing our utility trailer behind us with our luggage as well as my parents’ luggage and 3 strollers. \u00a0Moments like this make […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[76,16,12,17,54,48,15,20,34,29,13,14,74,23,1],"tags":[63,56,62,8,57,5,72,55,64,68,66,59,61,75,4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3043"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3043"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3047,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3043\/revisions\/3047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}