“Yesterday we had our first summer outing to the lake! There’s a village down the highway from us that has a great man-made lake that’s perfect for our group. We celebrated Masha’s birthday and it was just perfection. Well, as close to perfection as we’re gonna get around here. We were so busy having fun that I’m not sure anyone took pictures, but if they did, it would look like heaven on earth. And actually, it was pretty wonderful. I can’t wait to do it again!

But even in the wonderful there were some moments that weren’t so pretty. Like when one of the boys got impatient about waiting for sunscreen and proceeded to hit another of the boys. Or when a necklace was lost and siblings were blamed and tears were shed. There’s always sadness mingled with joy. No family is perfect. No organization runs flawlessly. Sure, we share our favorite moments with you here, but that’s definitely not the whole picture. You can read back through our blog (wideawakefamily.com) and find plenty of moments when we have experienced heaviness and pain. That’s our life here. Pain and healing, tears of joy and tears of sadness, frustration and hope, extreme happiness, and moments of absolute despair. It all happens here and sometimes it can all happen inside one day.

What we are experiencing here is “the now and the not yet”. Every day we see glimpses of God’s Kingdom come to earth, and at the same time we see how much healing and brokenness still exists, and in those moments we cry out for more. We ask for God to make himself big in the lives of our boys. We ask the Holy Spirit to come in power and heal, restore, and make all things new.”

Room to Bloom’s mission is to promote the beauty of adoption and to ascribe dignity to people with Down syndrome and other special needs. We do this by partnering with organizations that are dedicated to orphan care and adoption advocacy, strengthening families who have children with special needs, and giving a voice to the vulnerable.