UPDATE ON CHARLOTTE TOBUREN (FROM STACIA)

We’re doing good! It’s been 2 months since Charlotte’s second surgery and we’ve fallen into yet another new norm. We still have many challenges, but every day we choose joy and trust God with where He’s leading us.

On November 11 Charlotte turned 2! She’s obsessed with Wheels on the Bus so we rented a bus and, after taking a ride, we had cake and ice cream. Although she turned 2, it was her first birthday celebration so it was very special. (I’ve attached pictures below, also one before and after surgeries. ? )

We meet with the surgical team January 2nd and will discuss her next surgery on her cleft palate. That surgery will take place in February. After that surgery, she’ll start having speech and occupational therapy weekly for a few years. Right now she knows about 40 signs but after palate surgery, she needs to learn how to talk!

Below is a post I wrote last week for National Adoption Month (November). It really paints a picture of what our life is like right now.

Thank you for the continued prayers and we too are praying for the other families. Such strength in their stories!

In light of National Adoption Month, I felt the need to say a few things. Maybe it’s because today, like every day, Charlotte sees the teeter-totter in the playroom and is so terrified she can’t enter the room. Or when you use the windshield wipers she sobs uncontrollably. Or, the newest fear at dinner tonight, she saw her shadow on the floor and grabbed my arm as strong as a man with such fear in her eyes. Add to that the vacuum, trains, and broom.

I say all this because adoption is so hard yet so wonderful! People think you either adapt or you don’t, or you foster or you don’t, but there is so much in between! Not everyone is called to adopt or foster, but there is so much more you can do! Donate towards a family who is fundraising towards bringing a child home. Mentor a foster child. Donate supplies. Make a meal. Donate a duffel bag so a foster child can carry all their belongings in something other than a trash bag. The list goes on and on.

It’s been 7 months since we brought Charlotte home. I read back through some earlier posts and it’s shocking how far she’s come. She now looks in our eyes and smiles. She still won’t snuggle but she always wants to hold hands. She still wants food all the time but she is ok waiting for it because she trusts now that we will feed her (she hears the oven timer and squeals in delight!). She loves to dance and “shake her sassy hips”. And her favorite place to be is home.

I can’t even imagine life without Charlotte. Every day is wonderful and hard and just when you think you’ve figured it all out you pull the broom out to sweep and you have to stop everything to comfort and love this child that has fears we’ll never understand.

We are called “to look after orphans and widows in their distress” (James 1:27). There are so many ways to do this. Please think of what you can do to help the 140 million orphans and 428,000 children in foster care.

-Stacia