This sparkly boy turned FIVE last month! Happy belated birthday to the still-miraculous answer to my prayer for a baby boy. I still pinch myself that Milo exists!

This boy is nine parts imagination for every one part reality. Sometimes he is a baby dragon. He solemnly told Romilly on the phone recently, “The dragons have really been really bad since you left. Mom doesn’t know how to handle them. What should she do?” (She recommended a stern tone, which is apparently not my forte. The dragons are still bad.) Sometimes he is a Star Wars or Wingfeather Saga character, complete with a drumstick light saber or dagger.

Sometimes he’s a character from his own story “Never To Be Seened Again”, usually Wolfgang, fighting bad guys with his sidekick Foxparty. I made the mistake of asking if Wolfgang wanted something to eat once, and he told me very seriously, “Mom, Wolfgang is NOT an imaginary friend! He’s a character in my book!” And one time, in what was rather a low point for me as a parent, he introduced himself to our new pastor by saying, “Hi, my name is Throw-up.”

He is the quintessential boy, with rocks in his pockets and insatiable giggles for anything related to bodily functions. Sometimes I just look at him and say, “WHY would you do that?” And he tells me, “Because boys are gross!” And I’m learning that I have a soft spot for the grossness of little boys that I never would have anticipated.

For all that, this boy has a sweet, tender heart. He is a sponge for Bible knowledge and peppers me with a million questions about God, especially at bedtime. He has been profoundly affected by Romilly moving away (she and Davis got married in June and now live 700 miles away – sniff!). Much more than I ever could have guessed he would be. On the day of her wedding, I was holding it together until the bride and groom drove away. Then, as I was holding Milo so he could wave goodbye, he started crying and called out after the car “Roro, don’t leave!” Needless to say, I was no longer holding it together after that. We’re needing to have lots of chats as Bea is living part-time away at college and Pippa’s wedding is fast-approaching. This boy loves his big sisters.

Milo is fast approaching the age that Niko was when we adopted him (a couple months before his 6th birthday), so I will soon have parented every age of little boy – ha! It is crazy to me that he is so big already, that he is learning to read. It’s crazy that we are already five years out from the insanity that was having a baby during COVID, and from Trevor turning white as a sheet and almost passing out when he heard the words, “It’s a boy!” for the first time. This baby boy of ours continues to delight us and bring us joy every single day.

Happy belated birthday, Milo Walter!

(From April…) This marvelous boy is TWO today! Happy birthday to the sweetest, most determined, most captivating baby boy I’ve ever known.

Watching Gussy make his own path through the developmental milestones has been a privilege I could never have imagined. I knew that he would do things in his own time, but I had no idea how many baby steps we would find to celebrate along the way.

*** Hi there! This is August Jodi finally circling back to a blog post that I started nearly four months ago. We’ve had five more birthdays since Gus’s, so I may never catch up, but one has to start somewhere! I’m going to *try* to stick with the pictures I had chosen in April when I started this post, but I’ll throw in a current one at the end. ***

I don’t know why I had his second birthday in mind as a sort of deadline for Gus to walk. It just seemed like he was so close for so long, and I was sure he would make it. When our children’s ministry leader asked me months before his birthday whether I wanted to move him up to the toddler room on his birthday or let him hang out in the baby nursery a little longer, I had confidently told her, “Oh, he’ll be walking by two!”

But the Lord (and Gus) were kind to me: on the day before he turned two, Gus took his first undeniable independent steps. From there, a step or two were a rare event for a number of weeks. Then he was taking seven… eight… ten… twelve steps in a row. But it was still just a party trick, and when he finished he would plop down and give himself a clap. Then about three weeks ago, just after Trevor and a few of the kids left for a trip to England, it all clicked! He now walks around the house like a little boss, pivoting, bending down to pick things up, stopping to pet the pets and then walking on some more. There’s no stopping him!

Developmentally, this tiny boy is doing all the things. He had a reevaluation for Early Intervention Services about six weeks after his birthday. The only area in which he would even qualify for services (apart from his diagnosis, which automatically qualifies him) was expressive language. While he does have a few spoken words, he has a large and ever-growing vocabulary of signs. I think we guessed around thirty at the time of the evaluation. If those words could have counted, he would have been in the “normal” range there as well. But his play skills and attention span are age-appropriate. His adaptive skills (I call this area “knowing what things are for”) are impressive! If you give him a brush, he brushes his hair. Give him a shoe: he tries to put it on. When he grabs my cell phone (and he’s quick!), he holds it up to his ear or takes a selfie with it. He knows what everything is for! He is the most engaged, perceptive little person I’ve ever known.

I don’t like to perpetuate stereotypes. Of course people with Down syndrome experience the full range of human emotions just like anyone else. But this boy is always happy. Really. Like, unless we directly offend him in some way and that little bottom lip goes out for a minute, he is just the happiest, most easy-going baby I’ve ever known (and I’ve known some happy babies!) He is pure joy, and the whole family just basks in his sunshine.

I sometimes look back on the different stages of learning who Gus was going to be: the moment when I was sitting on the edge of my sofa 28 weeks pregnant and the midwife told me that the test came back positive, the moment when I first laid eyes on him and knew immediately that the test was right… I thought that I had true peace in those moments, that it really was well with my soul. But now? Now that I know him? It’s so much more than that. He’s just better than I ever could have imagined.

I wondered then what others would think about him, about me. That I had “pushed my luck” to have a baby so late in life? That “that’s what happens”? I feel now, deep in my bones, that this perfect boy was a gift to me directly from the hand of God. The kind of gift that I am excited to open again and again every day when I wake up. The kind of gift that makes everything different and magical. My long-awaited Gus… how could he ever have been anyone else?

Happy very belated birthday, sweet boy!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled birthday blog posts to bring you this special post about our newest family member.

Meet Susan Pinky “Sukey” Young!

Sukey’s story with our family began last October, when Coraline found a tiny injured kitten in the woods behind our vacation cabin in Westernish-Central PA. She was lame in both of her back legs, though much worse on the right, and she almost certainly would have died had Coraline not noticed her tiny cries. We were miles from anywhere in a cabin with no cell reception, so we really had no choice but to make her a part of the family and feed her and look after her for the two days we were staying there.

It happened that the book we had brought to read aloud together that week was Pinky Pye, the story of a family that finds a homeless kitten while on vacation and ends up making her part of the family. I should have known then! We called her Pinky for the couple of days we spent with her then, though I had no intention of making her a permanent fixture in our family. We already had two cats, and we were in the market for a puppy, which the kids had begged for for YEARS. (I’ll tell you about the puppy in another post at some point. Yes, that happened, too.)

As we prepared to leave the cabin, we called several local-ish rescues and finally found one on our way home that was willing to take her. The day we dropped her off was hard and tearful. I was prepared to walk right back out with her if I didn’t get a good feeling about the place, but Mending Hearts Animal Rescue more than met my expectations. When I asked what would happen to her next, the woman began with, “Well, I’ll try to get her to the vet today ,and then she’ll come home with me tonight.” “You wouldn’t ever euthanize?” I asked, and the woman said “Oh, God, no!”, and I knew Pinky was in good hands.

The woman from the rescue texted me a few days later to let us know that they were not going to be able to save Pinky’s right leg, but we had every reason to believe she would still heal and thrive and find a wonderful home. In fact, my sister Chelsea, who used to be a vet tech, assured us that “tripods” always get snapped up quickly.

Three months later, in January, in a routine stalking of the Mending Hearts Facebook page, Bea saw her. She hadn’t been adopted. Apparently it had taken a while for her left leg to heal enough to allow the surgery on her right leg. And then she needed more healing time before she could be listed for adoption. And then suddenly there she was.

This was when the real begging began. I insisted we wait at least a few weeks to see if she did indeed get “snapped up” by someone local, but when we reached the three-week mark and she was still available, the pressure got intense. I knew I had lost the battle when Trevor said in our family group chat, “I’m not getting involved, but if you need a ride to pick her up, I’ll drive you.”

And the rest is history. On February 15th, Trevor, Bea, and Coraline trekked 5 hours (one way!) in the snow to bring home a still tiny but now three-legged kitten. We renamed her Susan to fit our Tolkien and Lewis pet name theme, but she will always be our Pinky, and indeed we still slip and call her that sometimes.

We love our sweet Sukey-girl!

A very happy three-days-late birthday to Annis! Annis Octavia (who was indeed the 8th child to join our family, hence the middle name) turned 11 on Wednesday, though she would rather have skipped right to 12, because she strongly prefers even numbers!

She is often to be found in her room with a kitten on her lap these days. Our new cat Sukey* (see bonus post for more about Sukey!) seems to have chosen her, out of all 17 members of our household, as her person. I don’t think she minds too much, though she admits it makes it tricky to get things done. In the photo above, Annis is copying the Bible, a project she’s been working on since January. So far she has finished Genesis (all 50 chapters) and is halfway through Exodus!

Annis is silly and creative and clever and witty. She is a deep thinker and an even deeper feeler. Her compassion for other people can bring her to tears, but she’s also quick to find the joke in a situation. When Romilly’s fiance Davis was visiting last week, Annis heard Trevor say, after Milo sustained a minor bump to the face, “Oh, no! Your nose is missing!” And she quickly remarked to Davis, “I hope you’re keeping a list of all these dad jokes so you can start practicing!”

Her Bible knowledge is exceptional, and she is constantly processing her world through this lens. She was watching Trevor prune her rose bush the other day, and she commented that the woman’s part of this sin curse (pain in childbearing) had always seemed much harsher to her than the man’s part (thorns and other difficulties in making the ground produce food). Then, as if on cue, Trevor managed to get a thorn embedded in his finger THROUGH HIS NAIL (which is a story in itself and may end up needing minor surgery!). She changed her tune then, and said, “I don’t know. Maybe you would want to trade with mom after all!”

In the spirit of Romilly’s “Romilly But Very Small” Annis began her own comic called “Lego Annis” (the cover of the book reads, “by Human Annis”) Her wit and subtlety always keep us laughing.

Annis is never bored. She has a world of interests and creative pursuits (many of which I don’t even know about until months later when she finally decides to share them with me.) She loves the Spanish language and has written stories in it as well as the beginnings of a personal Spanish-English dictionary. She is an accomplished crocheter and becoming quite a skilled little baker as well. She is always drawing, writing, and watercoloring. Just yesterday she won first place in our AWANA Grand Prix for car design for her taco car!

This girl gives me more hugs throughout my day than the rest of her siblings put together, and she is always encouraging my heart with her kind words. She seems to know when I’m having a hard day and shows up just in time to tell me I’m the best mom ever or to thank me for everything I do.

Annis has a strong interest in missions and sharing Jesus with others. She has recently been considering Bible translation missions, which would certainly combine two of her great passions! I took a peek back at her 7th birthday post in 2021 when she wanted to be “a missionary pirate and a ballerina”, among other things. I love that her heart has always been to share the love of Christ (and I’m glad she has found new ways to channel her creativity since then. Jesus and piracy probably don’t mix well!)

Annis continues to be defined by her love of all things anise and licorice flavored, receiving for her birthday both a jar of star anise to flavor tea with and an anise plant to add to the small empire she has in our garden.

It’s so hard to sum up a child in a brief blog post, and there is so much more I could say about this girl. It is always a joy to be your mom, my sweet and spicy girl. I love you!

Would you believe that this handsome young man turned 18 today?! This past December marked 9 years since Lewis joined our family as a tiny little 8-year-old guy. He jumped right into life here with both feet and felt as though he’d always been here. He has learned and grown so much since then, and we are so proud of him.

This has been a challenging year for Lewis in a lot of ways. He has outgrown some of the things that he enjoyed when he was younger but has struggled a bit to find new things to do with his time. I suppose this happens to a lot of us as we grow up! We are beginning to explore more adult activities and ways for him to engage with the community. He spent a day volunteering at my mom’s thrift store over the summer and was very helpful there, so we may be doing more of that once we finish our school year. Although Lewis is 18, we will continue to officially homeschool him for two more years, in keeping with his grade at public school when he came home during the pandemic, before we graduate him.

(Baby Lewey. In China about 3 years before we met him.)

He has made steady progress in reading and math, but spoken language continues to be a bit of a mystery to him. He has gotten great at using his communication device (fondly known as his talker!) to bridge that gap, and he continues to sparkle and meet new goals at his weekly speech therapy sessions. As always, he loves to connect with others, and he finds ways to make himself understood and make friends everywhere he goes. He especially loves to use his talker and his mad art skills to make cards and drawings for those he cares about.

And speaking of mad art skills… look at this beautiful work of art from a paint day with my sister Chelsea a few weeks ago!

Lewis had lost interest in crocheting for a little while but has recently picked it up again. He whipped up this light saber for Milo in less than an hour a couple weeks ago, so he’s definitely still got it!

Lewis loves being outdoors, and he is up for anything. When Trevor plans a long hike on a rainy day and only a handful of kids are crazy enough to join him, Lewis is always among them! He loves playing games and sports of all kinds and has dance moves that he definitely did not get from me.

Lewis Christian, you are a treasure! I am thankful for your smile and your helpful spirit and your joie de vivre. Happy birthday, and wǒ ài nǐ!

This charming young man is well and truly an adult now, complete with a job, a couple of college classes under his belt, and a hairstyle that mom didn’t choose 😉 Happy 19th Birthday to Nikolai Dickson (a couple of days late, sorry!)

(The earliest photo we have of Niko. Oh, how I wish we could have known him at this age!)

Niko is now in his senior year of homeschooling and also in his second semester of dual enrollment classes at our local Christian college. Next semester he will be attending as a full-time student, but he is already well-known there by friends and professors alike. Last week we heard through Pippa that Niko had delivered a gift of crab cakes to one of his professors following a conversation they had about favorite foods on a recent field trip. “It was the strangest and most thoughtful gift I’ve ever received from a student,” their mutual professor told Pippa. “I just found them in my inbox!”

(This is what happened when I asked Bea and Niko for a “normal, smiling” picture.)

It isn’t just his professors whom Niko blesses with his generosity and his grocery store connections: he regularly brings home treats and snacks to share with all of us, or to bless a particular family member. (My love languages are sugar-free chocolates and Chick-Fil-A salad dressing!) He has blossomed into such a thoughtful guy, and he delights in using his resources to bless others.

Speaking of the grocery store, Niko has been working at Redner’s for over a year and a half now! He first got the job through a combination of sheer grit and a glowing recommendation from the manager of the thrift store he used to volunteer at, and he’s doing such a great job there. He is helpful and friendly with the customers when he’s on register, and he’s now also working part-time in the meats department.

Niko has an eclectic set of interests ranging from chess to playing the accordion (very occasionally) to collecting anklyosauruses. He can strike up a conversation with anyone about anything, and you never know what he might say next! He certainly always keeps things interesting, and he seems to have a way of putting a smile on the face of everyone he interacts with.

As I look back on this boy’s life – the unusual way he entered our family (by way of an airplane rather than Mommy’s tummy) and how hard he’s had to work at everything – I marvel at how far he’s come. He’s smart and tenacious, and at times those traits have been challenging. But he is loving and resilient, and he is always working toward being a better version of himself.

Niko, I am so incredibly proud of you. I see how hard you work at everything you do and how much you want to do the right thing. It has been an honor to be your mom and watch you grow into the young man you are today.

This sweet girl with the bright blue eyes and the strawberry blond hair is sixteen today! Happy Sweet Sixteen to our dear Juniper Lucy.

The baby of my “original four” is now a capable and accomplished young woman who does everything she does with excellence. It is a hard truth of raising children that just as they become mature, helpful human beings (and this happened at an unusually young age for June!), they also become in demand by the rest of the world, and I hardly ever get to see them. June is a busy girl these days!

She has a couple of weekly church babysitting jobs, and she also works two full days a week at my mom’s thrift store. In the first weekend the store was open last summer, they received a less-than-stellar review online that has now become family legend. My mom was working the register by herself for the first time that day, having had Junie by her side the first day, and she had to call Junie to ask for computer help. The customer, misunderstanding the situation, commented that, “the poor clerk (that is, my mom, the manager) had no idea how to work the register and had to call her boss (Junie, age 15)” (As an aside, it is also worth noting that I played the part of the boss’s “rude secretary” when the customer heard me on speaker phone say, “well, she can’t come help you right now. She hasn’t had lunch yet!” Oops!) In truth, Junie really does keep things running smoothly there, and all the customers love her.

At home June is a huge help to me and a fan favorite with the little kids. She spoils me by making me on-plan treats and meals (she has been doing the Trim Healthy Mama eating plan with me for about a year now), and she is quick to help me with an organizing task. She is often found in her room doing schoolwork with one or more small Youngs hanging out with her.

Juniper favors her British side, being, in general, one of our quieter and more reserved girls, but like her Daddy, she has an unexpected sense of humor and an infectious laugh. I love hanging out with her!

(Junie in China when we were adopting Lewis in 2015.)

June has a great eye for detail and creative skills in pretty much every area she turns her hand to. She is currently thinking she might like to pursue a career in architecture or interior design, but there is still plenty of time to decide. Whatever she does, she will do it with all her heart, she will do it with excellence, and she will use it to bless others.

Juniper, I’m thankful for who you are and all you do for our family (and that you are still willing to pose for me with every single juniper we come across!) I love you!

This is such an exciting post to start with! There is no point trying to save the best news for last here, so I’ll just lead with…

This beautiful young woman, who is 19 today, is getting married! (If you’re picturing that scene from Father of the Bride where Steve Martin sees his daughter as her five-year-old self, announcing at the dinner table, “I met a man in Paris, and we’re getting married!”, you’re not alone!)

Romilly and Davis met in the Fall semester of 2022. She was taking an English comp class as a senior in high school at the local Christian college where four of our kids are now students. Davis was a college freshman. In my usual state of complete back-to-school disorganization, I had been late to order school supplies, and Romilly turned up for her first day of classes with no notebook. Davis offered to lend her paper. Towards the end of the semester, they sat together and were partners in editing their final papers. And so it was that a boy caught Romilly’s attention for the first time.

The next semester they didn’t have any classes together, and by summer she had committed to go to a different college a few hours away, but she hadn’t forgotten him. It was Pippa’s boyfriend Silas who suggested that she should get in touch with Davis over the summer. It was a radical idea for our introverted girl, but after much thought and discussion, she sent him an email. He had recommended a systematic theology book to her when they had worked together in class, and she genuinely did want to get the name of the book again. (Really, that’s why she emailed him. Honest!)

That was the beginning of a beautiful summer of near-daily emails and phone calls. She still went away to college in the Fall, but not for long. After one semester, she transferred back to our local college, and Davis has been a part of the family ever since.

(Pencil sketches of all the kids, by Romilly while she was away at college)

In December, Davis moved back home to South Carolina. When Romilly visited him in January, he asked her to marry him (with Trevor’s blessing!) They plan to get married in June, and she will move down there and finish her degree online.

While engagement news does tend to eclipse everything else, I just have to gush about this girl a little bit. I have truly never known anyone like her. She is never not busy working on some (usually self-assigned) project. She does pattern-testing for a well-known (in the crochet world, at least) fantasy pattern designer. She writes stunning, thoughtful essays on big topics at Petra Publications, a website she and Davis work on together. She has written at least three more fantasy novels since her first during COVID lockdown when she was 14. She’s worked on graphic novels and individual comics, her latest being “Romilly but Very Small”. She will hide in her room for hours and finally emerge with ink on her hands and face, looking for a cup of tea.

(“In Which Romilly Washes her Hands” and “In Which Romilly Works at the Writing Lab”)

For all the time she spends lost in her various pursuits, when we do finally catch a minute to chat, she continues to be one of the wisest people I know. She thinks and feels deeply, and she has become a person that I can share my heart with and know that I will find compassion and insight.

I’m not ready for this girl to move away from home. Not at all. But I know that she is ready, and I know I am placing her in good hands.

Happy birthday, Romilly Alice Young, your last with that name! I am so excited to see what the future holds for you and Davis. May God bless you abundantly as you seek after Him in all you do.

#youngnomoore2025

Well, it’s become increasingly clear to me in this very busy season of life that blogging isn’t going to happen unless something forces it to happen. So, since I haven’t written a thorough update in a very long time, I thought this would be a good year to do a reboot of my birthday posts. Firm deadlines seem to be the only way I get anything done anymore, and birthdays come whether we want them to or not!

The Winter birthday season starts in just three days, so I won’t leave you hanging for long! But in the meantime, I thought I’d give you some teasers in the form of a photo dump of our last few months. I have so much to report, and I’m thankful to say it’s all so good!

If you ask me questions in the comments you may tempt me to share more than just birthday updates, but for now, I should have enough to be getting on with! As always, if you are still reading, thank you for hanging in there with me. I am always pleasantly surprised to find there are still a few people who notice when I post something 🙂

Would you believe that our little star turned ONE on Monday?! That officially makes this the latest I have ever been to tell a name story. And I LOVE telling name stories, so you know I’ve been busy!

It was my name first, Gilbert, and my father’s before me and his father’s before that. My maiden name. I never cared for it growing up. I knew it only as a nerdy name from a movie I should never have seen so young (don’t judge me, things were different in the eighties!)

In college, I was introduced to Anne of Green Gables and began to see my name in a different light, or at least to realize that others did. It still took me until at least our 4th baby to take it seriously as a first name possibility.

Meanwhile, the name Gus was there all along. Living in Scotland, where Anguses and Ferguses abound, I fell in love with the name Gus when I was pregnant with Romilly 18 years ago. Trevor remained ambivalent on Gus through the years, no matter which full name I might suggest. His favorite boy name for all those years was Barnaby, which I loved, too, but didn’t feel quite brave enough to use, especially after we moved to the States. We were pretty solidly gridlocked, so it was a good thing we kept having girl after girl after girl!

I first suggested the combo Gilbert Barnabas, Gus for short, when I was expecting Verity in 2016 (I know this, I’m embarrassed to admit, because I keep records of such things!) I don’t remember how it was received then, but I know it wasn’t the name we ended up choosing for her if she’d been a boy. Sometimes Trevor needs to simmer for a long time!

The name Gilbert means “bright pledge.” Daniel 12: 3 says, “And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.” My prayer for little Gus is that his life would shine brightly in this world and cause many to glorify God.

Barnabas, like Barnaby, means “son of encouragement.” A perfect meaning for this little son of ours who seems to bring a smile to the face of everyone he meets. And while it isn’t quite the name that Trevor pined for all those years, it does end in -us and so nicely closes the loop on the whole Gilbert-nickname-Gus situation.

Milo’s pregnancy was the first time Trevor actually agreed to the combo Gilbert Barnabas, but as you can probably tell, that is not Milo’s name. You can read that story here.

Gus was both desperately wanted and prayed for, and also a wonderful surprise. His pregnancy was different and stressful from the get-go. I think Trevor must have known that I needed the name not to be one more source of stress, because he let me have my way from the very beginning. When we received Gus’s Down syndrome diagnosis at 25 weeks pregnant, I asked if we could, for the first time in ten pregnancies, intentionally find out the gender ahead of time. (We found out with Freya as well, but quite by accident, and that’s a story for another time.)

The day we found out that Gus was a boy was a wonderful, hope-filled day, and we began calling him Gus and praying for him by name that very day.

A year later, I still look at him every day and pinch myself that I finally got my Gus. And, of course, that the name I’ve dreamed of using for so many years is attached to this boy.