Introducing Little D!

We're excited to announce the addition of baby boy, Little D, to the Stauffer family! As far as we're concerned, he's officially part of our family but we are currently pursing the adoption process of this little one so that he can legally be part of our family. This is a long and complicated process but we are thrilled to have him here with us for the foreseeable future! Because of safety concerns and legalities involved in this we can't give you much more information or share photos of the little guy online (although those are in fact his chubby little feet!) but we look forward to introducing him in person to friends and family!

The adoption process is very complex and unpredictable, particular in this arrangement where Little D hasn't been declared a formal "ward of the state" but essentially it means we desire a permanent home for this little one. What this process looks like right now is for us to facilitate Plan A, which is always for the child to return to their birth family. Despite the dysfunction and chaos in some of those arrangements, it's always, always, always better for a child to be with their biological family provided that their environment is safe enough. For Little D's sake, we hope and pray that his bio family can provide a safe and nurturing home for him to return to. In the mean time, we can provide that for him at our home and also look forward to have him long-term if Plan A doesn't end up working out. This is just one of the many challenges we are discovering in the process because our hearts feel torn in two directions, desiring him to stay with us but also hoping he is able to return to a safe and healthy biological family.

So far it's been an intense transition since we had only a few hours between finding out he was coming to live with us and the moment they brought him through the door. Because the process of building our family has been quite long and challenging for us, we were both very mentally/emotionally ready for this change but the quickness of how this all happened was a bit surprising! Thankfully we've had years of building up our baby supplies so we were sufficiently physically equipped when we found out he'd be joining us. There have been lots of things we have learned already during his short time with us; most of these being about working with "the system" (Child and Family Services) and the unique needs of children in care. We know it's going to be a wild ride but we're thrilled to be on this journey together and are confident it's what we want to devote our lives to with this little guy but, hopefully, more children in the years to come!

I would just like to add that one my absolute favorite parts of this crazy week has been seeing Josh absolutely come alive as a dad. Seeing him interact with our son and the way he has instantly given his heart to the little guy is absolutely amazing. Josh has been an incredible dad over the years as he loved each one of our babies, took care of me while I was pregnant, and remembers each one of our kiddos we miss here on earth. We have considered ourselves parents since the day we found out we were expecting our first baby but I'm thankful that I can now watch him love our baby as he gets to hold him and play with him and feed him and do all those other parenting things we have been missing for years. I look forward to seeing this father-son relationship continue to develop as Little D already loves his Papa Josh (especially when he brings out the quadcopter!).