Pieces of the Puzzle

I've been thinking about what to include in this next update about our life and transition to a family of 7. As we navigate these days and learn more about each other, our life has reminded me of a big, life-size puzzle. For so long, we've been longing and waiting for the missing pieces of our puzzle. It was hard to feel so divided and incomplete for so long and we have rejoiced that we would finally have all our puzzle pieces in one place.

What I have come to realize this week is that just because all of our puzzle pieces are in one place, doesn't mean that the whole picture fits together just yet.

Some pieces have fit together with surprising ease and others have been far more difficult than we imagined to try to fit together. We were under the impression that some of these first few pieces would be fairly easy and that we might be able to leave some of the harder pieces for later. That has not turned out to be our experience. We've been taken aback with how hard some of these first days have been. We knew the hard times would come but just didn't know we'd be dealing with these hard times so soon.

The thing about this puzzle is that there are lives and hearts and relationships at stake. And the sizes and shapes of the pieces keep changing. Some moments, as we put together a piece that has gone together fairly easily before, we encounter unexpected and vehement resistance. Other times, when we expect complications, pieces fit together in new ways we hadn't envisioned.

Ultimately, we have realized that the journey to completing the whole picture of our family is going to take more time and potentially more tears than we'd imagined, even with all the reading and training we did in advance. We are doing our best to just simply appreciate having all the pieces in one place even though we aren't able to see the whole picture that we've been longing for. We are trusting that God sees a bigger picture than any of us and that He continues to faithfully work in us and through us to put our family picture together. In the meantime, we savor and celebrate the small and wonderful moments and pray our way through the more overwhelming moments. We continue to need and greatly appreciate your love and prayers for all of us.

I'll leave you with a few snapshots of some of our fun firsts this week.