LET'S CELEBRATE TORI! HAPPY 8th Birthday!

It's hard for me to believe Victoria has been with us 5 years already! She was only with us 2 months before celebrating her 4th birthday & we had only known her about 3 weeks before she moved in! As I think back now, The things that stand out in my memory about her are #1 Her freshly cut bangs-compliments of herself! #2 her speech delay-she used to say "TOWI TELLOW" instead of Tori Keller! She was such a sweet, shy, lovable, adorable yet spunky little soul. I can't imagine what was going through her sweet little head. Here she was, in the 4th home of her little 4 year old life. Did she wonder if she was REALLY going to stay? I think she was probably very overwhelmed and confused. The fear of Nick and I "not coming back" has dwindled immensely-but is still there at times.

We thank God for the beauty she has blossomed into. We are still overwhelmed by the fact that God had her chosen for our family & she was already born before Nick and I even got married-AMAZING to think about & hard to fathom. Our God is so good. We also thank God today for Abby, Tori's birth mom. She is a blessing in our lives and we are thankful that she gave life to our little girl AND sacrificed 3 of her children to our family. She truly had the sacrificial love for them to know that at the time she could not financially care for them. Our relationship with Abby is a beautiful one. We also thank God today for Tom & Jenine in Georgia. They have adopted another sibling of Tori's-their precious Faith. We praise God that we have an open relationship with them and our kids will always know their sister. We have been blessed to meet them in person 2 times and hope one day the kids can all meet each other! We also thank God for Bert and Shell in Tennessee (Abby's step mom as a child). B & T lived with them for a short while in their younger days and Shell has been able to give us baby pictures and fill us in on a lot of what the kids went through in their younger years-Shell is a true sister in Christ and I love her. We thank God for their foster mom of 2 years Rhonda whom we still have contact with and prepared Tori for adoption. Rhonda really wanted to keep the kids but also sacrificed them so they could have a beautiful life with us! One more thank you. To our ENTIRE family for accepting Victoria and loving her as your own!Happy 8th Birthday Tori, we love you and are very thankful for you! You are fearfully and WONDERFULLY made! Thank you God for trusting us to be her earthly parents-we know she truly belongs to you!