Time is flying by as tomorrow Littlest B will be 3 months
old! Our family is still transitioning (or
maybe just mommy) with growing accustomed to more responsibilities and things
to accomplish each day – which is my excuse for such slow updates here :) .
We had hoped to explain a little of how the first 6 weeks
unfolded after arriving home. We cocooned Littlest B to introduce him to our
family and to strengthen the parent-child bond.
Littlest B was removed from everything he knew to be familiar. Some may argue that birth is a transition to
everything unknown but research has shown that newborns and infants in utero
have developed many things familiar to their mother (smell, taste, and
sound). Cocooning is supposed to be a protective
environment where the child is introduced to new things and
a nurturing environment to grieve the things lost. After we left the hospital with B, we based
our cocooning on recommendations from “Handbook on Thriving as an Adoptive
Family” by David and Renee Sanford, published by Tyndale and Focus on the
Family. Little B spent almost all of his
waking hours in our arms. We completed everyday tasks with him in a carrier.
We attempted to limit others holding him to less than 5 min.
a day. I (J) was the only one who fed
him. He had daddy skin to skin
time. We tried our best to form a daily
routine. Having other children at home
and moving from State to State, we found the first 6 weeks more challenging
than we had anticipated. We already have
determined new ideas and ways for how we will navigate cocooning of future
adopted children.
Our new old news: We
received another adoption grant!!!! WOOHOO!!!
Prior to placement in June, we filled out
another Show Hope grant specific to this adoption (our other Show Hope grant
award can be found here). Last week we
had received award notification for $3,000!
I(J) will be completely honest by saying I was not anticipating this at all. I had assumed that considering they had
already awarded us one for Boaz’s adoption we would not make the cut. I was amazed and continue to revel in details
of how the Lord is using his church to provide for us. We have both award notification letters taped
to our fridge to be a constant reminder of His provisions.
