Ryker's Adoption

It's crazy to think a year ago a social worker called and asked if we had room in our house for one more. After praying about it, Jason and I said yes! That was the beginning of a beautiful adoption process for our little man, Ryker. His adoption was pretty stress and drama free-something we aren't used to considering the adoption of three of our kids is still going on two years later. Since it was a family adoption it made things a lot easier. It was beyond exciting to share the news with everyone even though some people weren't as happy as we were, regardless our entire family was excited to add him to our family. The hard thing about adopting an one year old is you don't really know what they need. With Skyler being a newborn when we got her we knew she needed bottles, newborn sized clothes, and some baby toys. With Ryker it was us attempting to remember what we used when our kids were one. We honestly just waited until after our adoption to buy most of the things. Which by the way, I don't really suggest that unless you are like us and have no problem with doing it all online at an ungodly hour. It was a pretty hectic time trying to get him everything he needed on top of making sure our other eight children were okay, but somehow we managed. I still can't believe it's been a year, I can't believe he'll be two soon and that he's made amazing strides. When we first adopted him he couldn't even do things that Skyler could do(Skyler was eight months old) and he was developmentally around six months old. He is now able to walk and say some words very clearly-car being his most clear word. He's smiling more and eating better, I can't believe this is the same kid. I am beyond grateful to God for helping us through this passed year because I know without him we wouldn't have made it nearly as well. I am hoping that he continues to make such amazing strides in the future and does amazing things with his life. We love you buddy and we're beyond happy to have you in our lives.