The last time we saw the girl who will always be the Joy of our world, she came to our hometown, and we had a summer PARTY all up in here.

The literal kind, where we threw a bonfire and hosted a dinner and got together with the families who know and love the family who adopted our second host child, Joy. 

And the figurative kind, where, in the period of four days, we and our “Kreh cousins” went swimming and fishing and backyard Nerf warring and nighttime light rocket launching. Where we set alarms for 1 a.m. to view front yard meteor showers, and where we stayed up way too late doing life to the tunes of crickets in rocking chairs on front porches. Where together, we put out lanterns-turned-kitchen fires and cleaned up Mom beast bus vomit. And where we talked and we played and we danced and we laughed and then we nearly cried when we had to end it all and say our goodbyes.

Any family willing to cross an ocean for a girl they’d never met to provide a life she’d never dreamed is OUR kind of crazy. And WE are crazy not only about the incredible girl who will always be our forever niece/cousin, but about her FAMILY who has become OURS.

This time, we drove to them, and together, our families celebrated Down Syndrome Awareness Month with our family’s first ever Buddy Walk.