Halle Faith ~ 12 months

Okay, so there is another super sweet girl and we have her too! Halle has really begun to show her personality and it is so much fun! She is a goofy girl who absolutely loves to explore. She gets into any and everything but particularly likes to take things off/out and put them back in/on the spot she found them. She took all the dvds off the stand the other day and surprised me when she got them all back up there, stacked and shoved until they was not one on the floor. Smart girl! Maybe she'll be my organizing buddy! Halle could totally walk if she wanted to but she's not ready. She'll stand but then realize it a second later and laugh and squat, stand and squat and LAUGH and then repeat. :o)

Halle at 12 months

~Took her first steps! Still prefers to cruise.

~Eats just about anything and everything!

~21lbs 12 oz (55%) & 29 inches (50%)

~Wearing size 3 shoes, and not wide surprisingly

~Wears 12-18 and some 18-24 ~6 teeth

~Sleeps 12 hrs straight each night and takes 2, 2 hour naps as well.

~Busy, busy, busy bee loves to take everything out of it's rightful spot~then returns it!

~Absolutely adores being outside. It doesn't matter how long, she is happy.

I was putting her bracelet on her when it came in the mail on her actual birthday and I took a deep breath just longing for the day when she is truly OURS. She feels like ours; I know she was our gift from God since the day I brought her home from the hospital. Yet all the appts and social workers and red tape, saying one name, yet thinking another. I mean it is time for the the twins to be completely entirely ours.

Fostering is a long, hard, wonderful, rewarding road, but I am so very very ready to not have them be foster children anymore, but our daughters. For real. For good. Forever. Ours. My heart actually started skipping a bit, not the good skip, the kind where you know you are being anxious.

It was then that I realized, or was reminded by the Holy Spirit, that none of my children are mine, ALL mine, forever. Like Aidan, Ethan and Ryland, Hope and Halle are our gifts from Him, our's for a season, a time for us to pour into them the love and instructions of the Lord and do our very best to point their lives in the direction of their God. Are any of our children, adopted or biological, completely entirely ours?

No. They are HIS, they are His now, and once the adoption is finalized, they will still be His, and once they've left our home, they will remain His. Forever. I am only responsible to honor my commitment to train them and love them and be thankful for each day as it comes. Just for today. And then peace returned to my heart and soul.