What a year!

We are so amazed at the fact that it is already APRIL! I am reminded by a friend that we have not updated our blog (so this is for you Roxy!) since Christmas time and it is really amazing how quickly three months have passed. It has been a full and challenging few months as we have had job changes and challenges, surgeries (just a small one!) the passing away of the last of our grandparents, and now a move that took place in just under three weeks!

Amazingly though, we are still keeping our heads above water and even grateful for the many ways we have seen God's hand in the journey. Here is our quick update:

Ben has gone from part time Young Life Capernaum staff to full time area director for Capernaum in Baltimore. He is so gifted at loving people and it is the perfect time for his gifts in the area. He just got the blessing of a few days away to Jackson Hole to snowboard and hang with his good friend Trace and his brother Dan.

Carissa has been working with Grace Fellowship Church as the Disabilities Ministries Director and loves it. She is really experiencing in a new way what it means to parent children with multiple disabilities and sees the need of the church to step up and in! She is maintaining a role with Capernaum as a trainer/planner for the region.

Shane is doing pretty well. We are struggling with dealing with him being a teen and dealing with a terminal disability. He will be changing schools next week and we really hope it is a gift to him as he will be able start over and meet new people. We pray for wisdom on how to love him and keep him moving ahead. He has started lacrosse this last week with an amazing group that runs a program for kids with disabilities.

Jesse is Jesse!! He is growing up and still wresting his past. We are hopeful that this move will also help him! One thing I love is that he loves Sophia. You should see his face when she asks for him... Jesse and Ben are bonding more and it is a gift.

Sophia had surgery to take her adenoids out and put tubes in to help decrease her ear infections and increase her ability to hear. She has not stopped talking since!!! We celebrated her first adoption day on St. Patricks day and the first day home on April 4th! We really don't remember life without her!

We fell into an amazing gift of a home in the country just a few weeks ago and I am writing this blog in the living room of our sweet new home. It has acres of land, is accessible, and is surrounded by horse farms, kind neighbors, and good schools. We still can't believe the gift it is.
We are mostly moved in and will keep working on it as Easter comes. Right now, the kids are spending the week in Connecticut with "gigi" (grandma) and Papa...Carissa cried when she left (first time leaving sophia AND worried her parents would never talk to her again when this is over!) but we are so thankful since this move would be so hard for them emotionally and for us as we would not be able to set the house up for them in the way we are able to now. Thank you so much Zevetchins!!

All in all, when we think back and realize that a year ago we met our daughter and brought her home as a shy, quite little girl, and now she is grabbing microphones at partys and serenading her uncle at his birthday party, we are AMAZED, GRATEFUL, AWARE that there is a God who loves us and has a distinct plan for our lives...for all of our lives. We hope that we will be people who love each other and others better for having been loved so well by the God who made us!
We hope this spring is one of refreshing and beauty!

Blessings!
The Mortensons!