The Family Continues to Grow…….The battle with GBS, God’s Grace, and never giving up.

When I contracted GBS, my youngest daughter was pregnant with her second child. I was adamant that I wanted out of the hospital to attend the birth of Henslee Reese. It did not happen. 

Henslee was born September 30, 2016.

My oldest daughter and her husband had been told for many years they would never be able to have children. In December 2016 they adopted our grandson Ryland.

On Labor Day 2018 my oldest daughter received a phone call from social services. They had a difficult placement of three sibling girls with no one able to take them. She was told if she could not take them on a short-term foster care placement they would have to send the three little girls to different foster care homes. The girls were eight, two and one years old at the time.

The short-term foster care placement turned out to be a bit longer than short term. In April 2020, all  parental rights were terminated for the girl's biological family. Our daughter and son-in-law were told they could adopt the three girls. Ironically, the exact same week that they were told they could adopt these three little girls my daughter and her husband found out they were pregnant.

The adoption was final  late in the fall of 2020 and the same week that the adoption was finalized our daughter delivered a bouncing baby boy to be named Caseyn. They went from an official family of three to an official family of seven in one week.

If everything goes as planned the last week in May this year our youngest daughter will be having another grandchild for us. 

All this to be said, just because there’s a bump in the road, doesn’t mean that life  stops moving. During the last five years as I’ve been recovering from GBS, my family continues to grow and thrive. 

God’s grace and will during this time has shown through in the eyes of my children and grandchildren, and I truly believe that if it was not for them, and my extended family/friends, I would not be here today stronger with each new step in this journey we call living.