His sisters

When I first came upon Noah's picture my heart stopped and I thought "wow he looks like he could be mine, he even looks like some of my other children's baby pictures. " 

I quickly pulled out Kyras baby book and found this picture of her that looked so much like Noah. And my heart felt another connection 

Years ago, after we had adopted Mia, Kyra would often ask us, or beg us ha ha, to adopt a baby brother with Down syndrome . We of course laughed and said "no way"! And told her that would be something she could do later in her life when she was having kids of her own because we were not going to be doing that ...... I guess we learned never to say never !

 Cause Kyra is getting that baby brother she prayed for years ago. And he even looks a lot like her in this one picture we have of him. 

Knowing that having siblings with Down syndrome will affect our other girls differently later in life we brought Kyra and Adrie into our decision making early on. They are older then they were with Mia and we wanted their input and feelings on this matter of adding another child with special needs to our family. They were part of our prayers and decision early on with baby B back in the spring and were devastated when that didn't work out. Kyra even left me a note when I was so upset about why that little boy wasn't able to be ours, it read "sometimes the lord will trust us to press forward with faith in him and press forward ." 

At the time , None of us knew that pressing forward in faith would lead us here. 

so when I saw Noah's picture I showed Kyra and asked her if she thought we were crazy to even consider such a thing? She didn't hesitate for one minute and just said "no it's not crazy, it's awesome! "

She quietly supported our decision making process while praying and finding her own answers to this decision. Any time I would tell her I just didn't know if we could move forward with it, she would remind me of how strongly I had felt about it and that I could not in good conscience walk away from those feelings , no matter how hard it was to move forward. She went to the temple with her friends one day and came home and told me she felt the spirit of the Lord very strongly there that day and that she knew this was the right thing for us to do. 

After we made the final desicion to committ to Noah we sat Kyra and Adrie down to tell them and she just started crying and said " from the first time I saw his picture I knew he was supposed to be my brother , "

And she patiently waited and prayed that we would feel it too and make the decision that she knew was right. 

Adrie had her own personal answers to Noah as well . She prayed on her own and One day while listening to a song she felt the spirit of the lord like she never had before when asking if this was something our family should do. 

Here are two girls who carry different responsibilities then most kids their ages  having the dynamics of two sisters with special needs , and instead of being resentful about that , they are proud and  they are enthusiastically on board with adding another . 

And although my littlest girls don't fully understand what all of this journey is about , nor do they even realize that Bree and Mia are different then any other sister, but they too jumped for joy when we told them we were going to bring this little boy into our family because he didn't have a mom and a dad, they even sleep with his picture awaiting the day they can shower him with love too. 

So much for my initial worries when Bree was born of how her diagnosis would affect her sisters ?

So if you ever worry about how a child with special needs might affect your children and your family....don't!

Bree and mia have taught, and continue to teach my other girls things I could never have taught them. 

Little did I know how incredibly influential for good this little girl would be on her siblings 

And that positive influence would lead to the immediate love and acceptance of this little girl who needed them

And now they are willing and excited to open their hearts to another sibling who needs them,

A little prince who has no idea how great it's going to feel to be loved by a bunch of princesses . 

A boy who thinks he is alone but really he has 6 older sisters praying he is safe until he can be in their arms forever.