For the first few weeks after Evie came home, we felt like we would never get our feet back under us again. We had expected that feeling, because we have it every time we return home with a new child. But we have never had so many other challenges hit us in the first couple of weeks. We felt like every time we staggered back up to our feet, something new knocked us back down again. We are finally beginning to get past that. I’m not sure we have made it all the way back up to our feet, but we are at least getting closer.

Matthias is out of his cast, and it is great to have his help around the house again. All the kids recovered from their colds, and they were all healthy. For one day. Then Hallie started running fever again. So far she is the only one who is sick, and it seems to be a much milder bug than we had last time. We certainly hope that turns out to be the case.

Evie continues to make progress in her bond with us. She loves being with the other kids and will often follow them around the house.

She noticed MIkaela and Victoria playing together and scooted off her rug to watch them.

She seems fascinated by Victoria and will often study her face when the two of them sit together.

This Saturday morning she climbed up on the couch to sit with the other girls while she waited for Greg and me to make breakfast. (You can tell that they aren’t all the way awake yet.)

While we continue to work on our bond with her, we are taking her with us everywhere we go. It will be quite a while before we can leave her with a sitter. She thinks it is awesome that she gets to be with Mommy and Daddy all the time. Last week my parents took us out to celebrate my birthday, and she joined us for that. On Saturday, my parents kept the other eight kids for us so we could do our date day. We took Evie with us for that too. McAlisters was one of Jonathan’s favorite restaurants right after he came home, so we decided to try taking her there. She loved it! I don’t think I have ever seen her so relaxed in public before.

After eating, she settled herself into the corner of the booth and didn’t want to leave. I think she would be pretty happy to go there every Saturday.

Thank you all for your prayers during this transition period. We still have a long way to go, but we finally feel like we are starting to get there.