So, how are we doing two months into this newest journey? The first 6 weeks or so were HARD. And I mean really hard. I have never tried to do anything I am clearly more unfit for than trying to love and care for four small children. Seriously. They have WAY too many needs for me to possibly meet them and the level of crazy chaos in our home often hits a point where organized and helpful thought becomes nearly impossible. I found myself spending all my days in a constant state of frantic frustration trying to get them to just SIT STILL and STOP ARGUING so I could manage the monumental task of getting sandals on all four to get out the front door. Sometimes over a half an hour to just accomplish that. I have determined that my children have the same ability as cockroaches to scatter instantly in all directions. Have you ever tried to raise cockroaches? If you have, then you know what I'm up against.
In all seriousness though, it was a rough first few weeks. I felt like I was constantly failing in being the kind of mom I wanted to be to my kids. But in the last couple of weeks I feel like I am starting to turn a small corner in my heart and stress levels. Things that have helped have been remembering that it's not actually my job to meet all my kids needs. Also learning that the flow of our day needs to include both structured and directed activities, and also opportunities for as much unstructured play as possible. Usually the structure happens inside, and when we go out to play I try to take them somewhere they can mostly run around and do what they want. That works very well outside and very poorly inside. And finally, Jesus has been reminding me that while what I think I need is for things to go a certain way with my children, what I really need is Him. When I'm living out of that, suddenly the noisy chaos that was about to drive me CRAZY is transformed into a glorious chaos that I can enjoy rather than just try to manage.
All four kids are also starting to really enjoy each other and play together well. It's so fun to watch them play all the made-up games they invent and to have so many times of happy laughter together. Now that doesn't mean that they don't also spend portions of time every day trying to drive each other crazy. Approximately 37.8 times per day I find myself saying yelling such things as "You may NOT eat your book!", "Why did you dump your milk on your bothers head??!!", "I don't care if it's part of your game or not, you may not tell your brother to sit inside the toilet and pretend it is a boat!", "Elijah, if you chase anyone else with your wee wee you will be in time out for the rest of your mortal life!", and "The next person who takes their shoes off and throws them at my head while I am driving the car is going to be in BIG TROUBLE!!"
Better than words, I'll give you a short tour of our last couple of months with some pictures.
Isaac's first day home enjoying the slide and some love from big sister
During the summer we went swimming once a week with some local friends and all the kids LOVED it!
Wearing the welcome home outfits that Ayi bought them
What can I say? I have the three cutest boys in the world!
We enjoyed a visit from Grandma Lee Anne, which included a trip to an amusement park. I now hear about this amusement park at least 15 times daily.
These dolls were all causing serious trouble. Isaac and David put them all in time out.
We enjoyed fun at friends' birthday parties!
We went to the zoo!
And despite their great similarity to the monkeys, we even brought them all home with us!
Little brother turned 3!!
We went to an apple orchard and picked apples together.
Miriam and Abba went on a special overnight camping trip together!
We just generally had lots of wacky fun
What an amazing group of kids we have!
