What a weekend!

Oh, friends! What a weekend it has been. There is so much that I want to share with you, but let me start by thanking you for all of your prayers and concern. It has really touched me to see how many of you care about our sweet family. We are sooooooooo blessed to have the most amazing friends and family!!!

I don't even know where to begin so I guess I will just dive in and give you a run-down of our weekend. For now I'm mostly just going to give you the details, if I find it in me later this week I may post on some of our feelings, etc. Right now we are still digesting and processing a lot of it and I don't want to say too much or too little! Anyway, we picked up our special guest at about 4:30 on Friday (he had a full day of school Friday and so we couldn't get him any sooner). He was a bit shy at first and buried himself in his PSP game on the way back to the house.  He warmed up a bit by the time we got home and he and Hunter played while I made a pizza for dinner. We had dinner together and he jumped up immediately after finishing eating... I suspect that he isn't used to everyone sitting down to eat together. We watched a movie after dinner and then Hunter got ready for bed. While we read Hunter his bedtime stories he bounced in and out of the room and then he and Ben played wii for a while before he had to go to bed.

Both boys were up by about 6:45 on Saturday morning and we were a little unsure of what to do all day. I had planned to just go bowling and then mostly let the boys play at home, but it quickly became apparent that our guest was going to need a bit more stimulation than that or we were going to be in for a long day. We did go bowling (the first time he had ever bowled!) and then went to play laser tag afterward. That helped use up some of the day and kept the boys busy and happy. As the day went on he really started to open up more and more and relied less on his video games to get him through the day. He and Hunter played legos and nerf guns together while we were at home in the morning and evening, and he was very patient with Hunter and the cats. After dinner we snuck in a walk on the trails between rain showers which was a huge hit. He counted over 20 slugs on the trail that we were walking on. We played a game of monoply jr that morning and evening which he seemed to enjoy. That evening he sat in the room with us while we read Hunter books and when we were done Ben asked if he would like us to read him books before he went to bed. He said "no," but when it came time for him to go to sleep he asked if we would read to him. Three books later he gave us each hugs before going to sleep. Progress!

Sunday morning we went to church together. He was a bit leery of going to the children's program alone, but we also didn't want to invite him to stay with us because if he were to come to live with us we would expect that he attend the children's class. Plus I'm not sure that he would have been able to sit quietly through the adult service... Luckily the weather was nice (finally!) when we got home from church so we quickly warmed up leftovers for lunch. Ben went to hand him some mac 'n cheese and asked him if he wanted to start eating or wait until everything was ready. He replied that he wanted to wait and "eat together as a family." More progress!!! After lunch we let him ride my bike (which was a bit too big) to the park. He thought that was fantastic and really seemed to enjoy being outside. We took along a football and quickly gained a lot more kids as we became the "cool parents" at the park who were playing with everyone. As we left the park to get his stuff and take him back to his foster mom he told me "I'm really going to miss you guys." Even more progress!!!

Overall it was a really great visit although Ben and I were both EXHAUSTED by Sunday evening. He is an incredibly sweet kid, and despite a really difficult past he really doesn't have any major issues that we have seen or read about. He has a much shorter attention span than Hunter and needs a lot of extra attention, but that is something that we can work on if he joins our family. He is very dependent on "screen time" and is constantly wanting to play video games, watch TV or play computer games. However, when we offered something else to do such as playing outside, going on a walk, playing a game together, etc. he also seemed to respond very well to that. I suspect that he is used to having to entertain himself and so "screen time" is the best way for him to do that. On the downside, it also has taught him that he constantly needs to be doing or watching something in order to be happy, which will be a hard habit for him to break.

We really enjoyed our time together and Hunter was thrilled to have a playmate here for the weekend. We would love nothing more than for him to join our family, but now we just have to wait and see what happens. I heard from one of his case workers today and she told me that he will be visiting with the other prospective family this coming weekend. After that they intend to talk to him about his visits and (hopefully!) make a decision sometime mid-week next week. I have no idea how things progress from that point, but it's all in God's hands now!

It looks like Ben will be leaving in just a couple weeks so we are also preparing for that change. I know that it will be a difficult time for Hunter and I'm not really looking forward to that. It will certainly be compounded if we also take on another child after Ben is gone, but God's timing is perfect and He will take care of our family!

Please keep praying for this child as his case workers try to make a very difficult decision about which family will be the best fit for him. We would love for it to be us, but we also realize that this isn't about what we want, it is really about what is best for this child.

Thank you for being a part of this with us! It means so much to know that you care!!!

Love,

B, E & H