{"id":32243,"date":"2020-02-11T17:36:17","date_gmt":"2020-02-12T00:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adoptedjoy.com\/?p=32243"},"modified":"2020-02-11T17:50:42","modified_gmt":"2020-02-12T00:50:42","slug":"siblings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/?p=32243","title":{"rendered":"Siblings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-style-default\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2383\" height=\"1707\" src=\"http:\/\/adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/20200209_00180201N1web.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-32244\" srcset=\"https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/20200209_00180201N1web.jpg 2383w, https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/20200209_00180201N1web-558x400.jpg 558w, https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/20200209_00180201N1web-350x251.jpg 350w, https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/20200209_00180201N1web-768x550.jpg 768w, https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/20200209_00180201N1web-1536x1100.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/20200209_00180201N1web-2048x1467.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/20200209_00180201N1web-640x458.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2383px) 100vw, 2383px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">What a gift it was to spend some time on Sunday afternoon with our beautiful Malinda, who brought over Efrain&#8217;s youngest little brother! He&#8217;s the most adorable little chubster ever, and so good natured and sweet! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-style-circle-mask\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" src=\"http:\/\/adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/20200209_001859N1web.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-32245\" srcset=\"https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/20200209_001859N1web.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/20200209_001859N1web-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/20200209_001859N1web-350x233.jpg 350w, https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/20200209_001859N1web-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/20200209_001859N1web-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/20200209_001859N1web-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/20200209_001859N1web-640x427.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s been too many months between visits, so it was a special treat for Efrain to have some big brother time, and reconnect with his mom. And of course the chance for me to grandmother that squishable little guy was such a joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-default\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" src=\"http:\/\/adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/20200209_001812N1web.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-32246\" srcset=\"https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/20200209_001812N1web.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/20200209_001812N1web-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/20200209_001812N1web-350x233.jpg 350w, https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/20200209_001812N1web-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/20200209_001812N1web-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/20200209_001812N1web-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/20200209_001812N1web-640x427.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the beautiful things we have experienced in the process of our adoption journey has been the enlargement of our family &#8211; not just with the adoption of children, but opening our hearts to their families &#8211;  parents, older and younger siblings, aunts and uncles, cousins, grandparents&#8230; our understanding of family has broadened and deepened.  It&#8217;s not 100% easy &#8211; in fact it can be complicated and messy. There are a lot of emotions to navigate, in every direction. It&#8217;s a sometimes uncomfortable, but necessary part of balancing our kids&#8217; sense of identity &#8211; especially the older ones. And so worth it. So worth it. I realize that what we do is not a viable option for many situations, and I would never tell any other family how to walk this path. But I&#8217;m glad we have been able to maintain and build these connections. We&#8217;ve been greatly blessed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What a gift it was to spend some time on Sunday afternoon with our beautiful Malinda, who brought over Efrain&#8217;s youngest little brother! He&#8217;s the most adorable little chubster ever, and so good natured and sweet! It&#8217;s been too many months between visits, so it was a special treat for Efrain to have some big [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[628,350,3,273,810,276],"tags":[411,811,152,805,784],"class_list":["post-32243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adopted-joy","category-adoption","category-family","category-gatherings","category-grandchildren","category-new-baby","tag-adoption","tag-big-brother","tag-family-3","tag-grandchildren","tag-new-baby","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32243"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32251,"href":"https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32243\/revisions\/32251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}