Claire is 7

This beautiful, sweet, loving, strong little girl is 7 years old!

You always hear people say that children grow up too fast. You don’t fully understand it until you have your own. Our second baby. The baby that came out ready to take on the world. The baby that was the loudest in the hospital nursery. The baby that we were able to bring home at only two days old. The baby that is no longer a baby anymore (but will always be to me). We love you Claire!

This Time, Together

One year ago Sean and I were preparing to leave for Boston for the birth of our littlest princess, Julia. We packed what we could into two big suitcases and showered Kaitlyn and Claire with hugs and kisses before leaving them behind. This was one of the hardest things we’ve ever had to do. We were very lucky in that Kaitlyn and Claire were able to visit three different times while we were in Boston, but not having our family together was tough on all of us.

We are preparing to head back to Boston in April for another surgery for Julia. While this time will only be one month verses the two and a half months we were gone last year, we cannot bear to have our little family separated again.

At the beginning of the year Sean and I decided to pull Kaitlyn and Claire from their school and begin homeschooling them so that they could join us in Boston this time. Knowing we will all be together – and Julia will have her two big sisters with her (she absolutely adores them) – makes leaving home and our support system so much easier.

With quite a few things different this time around we have decided to set up a GoFundMe page. Over the last year we have had many family and friends ask how they could help us. If you are able, we are asking for help financially for our next visit. I cannot thank you all enough for following our little story, and for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers! xoxo, Tori

Sean and Tori Start a Homeschool

With all of the Julia-centric posts, I think it is easy to forget that this blog is titled “Sean and Tori make a family“. So I thought I would fill everyone in with some big news concerning Kaitlyn and Claire.

Two years ago, we had decided to pull Kaitlyn from the private school that she was in and send her to public school. That turned out to be a mistake that lasted all of five days. In our struggle to figure out what to do next, we decided to homeschool her for 2nd grade.

While it was generally a success, we did struggle with the socialization aspect, mainly because at the time, we lived in a neighborhood without any children Kaitlyn’s age. So while she learned a lot, she was lonely.

Towards the end of that year, we discovered a small private school in the Summerville area called Trinity Classical Acadamy. After meeting with the director and some of the teachers, we immediately enrolled her for 3rd grade, and it was a great decision.

Then we found out we were pregnant. And that the baby had issues. Issues that were best solved 1,000 miles away from home. And that would take at least two months to accomplish. Two months in the middle of the school year.

I still have absolutely no doubts that moving to Boston for Julia’s delivery and surgery was the right thing to do. But leaving Kaitlyn and Claire was one of the most painful things I have ever experienced in my life.

So as we approach another round of surgery on our little Julia, we made the decision that this time, the girls would come with us. Which means as of January 1, Kaitlyn and Claire are being homeschooled.

This wasn’t a decision we stepped into lightly. And we love Trinity and its teachers. But ultimately we need to do what is best for us as a family. And in our case, that means staying together.