Hard to believe, but two years ago today Jonalyn became a member of our family. It certainly was a day of mixed emotions. We were so happy to have our daughter with us at last, but I’ll be honest with you, it was also a very hard day. Her disabilities proved to be different and much more severe than we anticipated. By the time we got back to our room, we knew something was very wrong with this child. What a shock to us! We needed time to mourn the loss of the child we thought we would be getting. We needed time to process all of this. On top of everything else, we were dealing with older child adoption. She needed to mourn the loss of everything familiar and all those she loved. She needed to adapt to her new family. We needed to adapt to her and her personality. Older child, special needs adoption is not for the faint of heart. I would be lying to you if I told you the past two years have been easy. They haven’t. They’ve been the toughest of my life. But now that we are on the other side, she is attached to us, we are attached to her, we have all mourned and moved on and celebrated this new life, I can truly say that this has been a rewarding experience. God has blessed us beyond measure and given us strength we didn’t know we had. It was worth every difficult moment, every tough hour, every hard day. His grace has been sufficient. We love Jonalyn more than we ever thought possible that first day two years ago. We are so thankful that the Lord chose us to be her parents. What an honor and a privilege. Enjoy the pictures.

Jonalyn? Shy? Yes, she was!

Breaking the ice.

She liked the bubbles!

We’re now a family of five.

Jonalyn two years later. What a difference time makes!