For those who didn't know, I am continuing to fast and pray on Thursdays, specifically focused on the fostering/adopting process- something I started even before we were licensed to help remember God's work in the process in addition to all of the paperwork, and now the everyday parenting. It is a practice that has absolutely helped me remember our calling, increased my love, patience (noise tolerance :), and helped me to become aware of more people and problems in the world than I would have otherwise encountered in everyday life. So I invite you to pray along with me on Thursdays and send me anything I should read, pray about, or consider regarding fostering or adopting that I will make time for on Thursdays.
Today, God brought to mind (probably also because of back to school photos on Facebook) that I hadn't sent any pictures to you all in a while. It was very awkward at first, trying to take pictures of the kid's backs, or crop Josh and D out of photos and then felt bad when they wanted to see the photos, etc. I enjoy sharing what's going on in our lives and our kid's lives, so the rules about not posting kid's pics on social media were hard for me. If you received random photos texted from me, that's why :) It will be a great joy for me to finally post pictures of all of my children on social media- more symbolically than anything. In addition to some summer activities, you will also see pictures of Josh and D's siblings at recent visits- please continue to pray for them as part of our extended family too! I'm praying that wherever these siblings end up, that I will be able to communicate well with their parents- even if it is FaceTime, Facebook, etc. because meeting up with them has been difficult this summer.
Lastly, please pray for the start to our school year. Like everyone else, we will have new routines- especially difficult for us is figuring out how to get Josh to and from school with the right amount of sacrifice from the other kids, getting Josh to do homework in the evening when the other kids do not have any. I also need to add a little bit more work in for Annie this year, and start pre-school work with D (Ellie has asked to be his teacher :) but I want to make time to work with him also. I'm praying that he will also be able to play while I work with the others without me worrying that he is downstairs painting the treadmill (that happened), or running out the front door (hasn't happened in a while...).
I'm taking time to thank God for you today too, especially those that have met up with us for some fun this summer- the presence of others is the biggest encouragement to us!
With gratitude,
Courtney and family
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