The Excitement is the Ride

All photos by Brooke Photography

Well, here I am wondering who would be interested in reading the ramblings of this Mom of six.  I guess people like to hear of our "adventures".  Not that we go many exotic places, most of our excitement is found in the confines of our Arizona home, our twelve passenger van and our minivan (or the "date night" van as I like to call it).  Our family IS the adventure, although, to us it feels totally "normal".  

The Hubster and I are going on twenty years of marriage and we have kids ages seventeen to five to show for it.  Our first two came to us the old fashioned way.  For many years, we were happy with just our foursome.  We had one that looked like me and one that looked like him.  What more could we ask for?  

Our first born, a son of course, a blond haired, blue eyed boy who gave me a birth story to tell, (oh man) but this is not the time to share it.  He was able to keep us on our toes all on his own.  Little did we know, he was preparing us for something greater.

Before we knew it, his sister was on the way. Born 19 months after her brother, this girl would be my own "mini-me".  She was, and still is beautiful inside and out with an enviable strength about her.  I would have never known that my independent, let-me-sleep-in-my-own-bed, daughter would become such a rock for me throughout what would be some tumultuous years.

We now come to the “Family Explosion.”  Our original two were 9 and 8 years old when, after quite a bit of prayer, we became a foster family.  Loving what we already had, our goal was to love the kids and cry when they left.  All we wanted to do was provide a safe, temporary home for youngsters in unfortunate situations.  Little did we know, we would fall in love with the first two children that would cross our entryway, ages 5 and 2, a jovial, songster of a boy and his sweet, spitfire of a sister. Ten months later, they were officially part of the family. 

Now, we felt the need to rest and allow our boy, girl, boy, girl clan to fall into place.  That was our plan, once again happy with the family God had given us.  But He had a different design in mind.  Less than two months after adopting this brother and sister, their little five-day-old brother appeared in our arms.  That morning, we had no idea, nor were we even thinking about a baby, let alone actually getting one. That is exactly what happened. The fastest pregnancy ever had me literally walking in circles trying to think what I needed for our newest member.

That was February; we hadn’t had a newborn in ten years.  Our collective heads were spinning as our screaming little fireball took over.  Just as the Hubster and I started to get a handle on things, wouldn’t you know, eleven months later the news came, we found out I was pregnant.  Yes, can you believe it?  Just 24 months prior we had two children.  At 41 years old, I had five and most certainly was not on the baby train!  Yet again, our dear Creator put us right back on the tracks.

A couple of months into the pregnancy we found out we were having a girl!  Boy, girl, boy, girl, boy, girl would be the make-up of our family.  There was something else that we found out also.  This baby girl would be born extra special.  She would be blessed with three copies of her 21^st chromosome, Trisomy 21, or Down syndrome.

You see, we have adventures just waking up in the mornings.  Five years later, on a daily basis we move from almost adulthood to special needs kindergartener in a blink of an eye.  That is not even counting what is in between.  Our lives consist of ADHD, trauma, Reactive Attachment Disorder, Dyspraxia, Down syndrome, congenital heart defects, methamphetamine exposure and more.  But in no way do those things encompass our existence.  We are a family, filled with laughter, loudness and love.  Each one of us is here for a purpose from the Hubster to the Bean.  The excitement is all in experiencing the ride.