Of course as soon as I saw the darkness of the less than open minded woman at the grocery store yesterday, God showed me the light of the blessing we have in family.
I was talking to my sister-in-law, Sara, this morning and she mentioned that she'd been catching up on my blog and had seen the entry from yesterday about my chance encounter. We have recently learned that our nephew on Steve's side of the family needs glasses (he's a toddler). His sister, who is five, also has glasses. She went on to tell me that our other sister-in-law, Jodi, had emailed her to say that their eye doctor suggested that her daughter be tested at age 2 as this might be a hereditary thing that would affect her as well. Sara's first thought was to ask Jodi if she'd told me so that we could have Kailin tested right away....and when I mentioned that to Jodi, she said that her gut instinct was to do the same thing. Ha!
That reminded me of a story from awhile ago. On my side of the family, we are congenitally missing two adult teeth on the bottom. It sounds harmless enough, but it's actually a real pain - it alters your bite and if you don't fill the holes, then it can really affect your teeth. My sister was talking about it with her dentist and said, "Gee... I hope my niece doesn't have this problem - it's such a pain!" and then she laughed and of course he asked why and she said, "well because my niece is adopted!" I later related this story to our family Dr. (who used to be my sister's doctor and who is also Kailin's doctor) and during the middle part she was giving me an odd look as if she didn't understand why Katie would have been laughing about it and I said..."because Kailin isn't genetically related...." and she laughed and said, "I just don't even think of her that way!"
It warms my heart to know that my children are loved and accepted as full members of our family and that the fact that they are adopted is never foremost in anyone's mind. THAT is far more important than any chance encounter could ever be. Not all adoptive families are as fortunate in that respect and I am thankful to God for giving us such an amazing support system. There will always be yahoos out there challenging the way our family is formed and challenging my kids to defend who they are - but knowing without question that those challenges won't come from those closest to us is worth more than words could ever say.
Also, I finally made the oatmeal raisin cookies I've been craving for weeks, and those will make any day look brighter!
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
A chance encounter...
This blog is all about honesty, so I'm laying it out. Keep in mind that this incident involves my children and I am one seriously protective mama bear! I normally try to be very tolerant of people and give people the benefit of the doubt and be a proactive educator - not a cranktastic pointer out of mistakes...this is not my most Christian-like behavior
The kids and I were in the grocery store. A woman approached me and exclaimed, "How old are your kids?" So I told her. She said, "They're beautiful!" I thanked her. That's where things went south. "You know, my brother did that." I played dumb.... but my hackles were up. "Did what?" In a very hushed voice...."adopted." I said (in a normal voice), "Oh, my kids know they're adopted." (and I secretly thought - how the heck do you know that my husband isn't Asian?????) She says, "Oh, and it's much easier in your country than where my brother adopted." (and certainly she must know...) I took the bait and asked which country he'd adopted from. "South America." (I resisted the urge to tell her that South America is a CONTINENT and that there are many adoption programs among the countries that make up South America.) "Which country in South America?" "Bogatash." (Here I resisted the urge to ask her if she meant Bogota, which would be a CITY in the country of Columbia. I let it go.) "And it's a lot easier in your country (would that be America or....again, resisted urges to just ask her what country she assumed my kids were from) than in South America." I sort of smiled and started to walk away. Of course she followed me... "In your country you just take some gifts (now I'm presuming that she has assumed that 'my country' would be China. In South America, you have to take tons of cash or they'll just sell the baby to someone else." I did give her the benefit of the doubt here and assume that she was talking specifically about corruption in some countries in South America (I do not claim to know ANYTHING about adoption in S.A.- that may be alleged corruption and not actual) and was NOT implying that I "bought" my children for the price of a few gifts - or for any price. In any case, I didn't want to get into any of it in front of my children. She had a few more choice comments I won't detail here, she ended this lovely interchange with "Well he's really cute - oh, and she is, too." Lovely.
The kids and I were in the grocery store. A woman approached me and exclaimed, "How old are your kids?" So I told her. She said, "They're beautiful!" I thanked her. That's where things went south. "You know, my brother did that." I played dumb.... but my hackles were up. "Did what?" In a very hushed voice...."adopted." I said (in a normal voice), "Oh, my kids know they're adopted." (and I secretly thought - how the heck do you know that my husband isn't Asian?????) She says, "Oh, and it's much easier in your country than where my brother adopted." (and certainly she must know...) I took the bait and asked which country he'd adopted from. "South America." (I resisted the urge to tell her that South America is a CONTINENT and that there are many adoption programs among the countries that make up South America.) "Which country in South America?" "Bogatash." (Here I resisted the urge to ask her if she meant Bogota, which would be a CITY in the country of Columbia. I let it go.) "And it's a lot easier in your country (would that be America or....again, resisted urges to just ask her what country she assumed my kids were from) than in South America." I sort of smiled and started to walk away. Of course she followed me... "In your country you just take some gifts (now I'm presuming that she has assumed that 'my country' would be China. In South America, you have to take tons of cash or they'll just sell the baby to someone else." I did give her the benefit of the doubt here and assume that she was talking specifically about corruption in some countries in South America (I do not claim to know ANYTHING about adoption in S.A.- that may be alleged corruption and not actual) and was NOT implying that I "bought" my children for the price of a few gifts - or for any price. In any case, I didn't want to get into any of it in front of my children. She had a few more choice comments I won't detail here, she ended this lovely interchange with "Well he's really cute - oh, and she is, too." Lovely.
A day to remember...or not so much.
Yesterday was a day. A real, true blue, test of my mommy courage, patience, and fortitude. I failed on all counts. Thankfully, I've picked myself up, brushed myself off and forged forward into today. I've decided today will be a better day and either as a result of that or pure dumb luck, so far so good.
The day (yesterday) dawned early for me as I was up with Colby for an hour and a half through the night. The poor kid couldn't breathe. Perhaps that gory discussion about the quality of his snot is in order now? Ha. Just kidding. He cried and cried so I rocked and rocked and then I gave up and brought him downstairs to lay with me in the overstuffed chair. He tried and tried to get comfortable and fall asleep, but he failed and failed. He'd almost get there and then he'd try to shift and he'd be awake again. After an hour or more, I gave up and determined that if he was going to be crying regardless, perhaps at least one of us ought to try for some sleep, so I took him back up to his crib where he promptly fell asleep. Go figure. Guess he just needed some loves.
Anyway, Kailin was in our room at her usual time and thereupon began the ugly part of the day. She came in wailing that she couldn't find her green softie. I was too tired to go look for it, so I tried to dissuade her. It sort of worked. I showered and we went downstairs. We were supposed to be having a big fun day with the Lemms yesterday where I would have the luxury of not having to rush home since Steve had dog training anyway. I was excited. With the boys back next week, and no minivan, my freedom will be restricted to walking distance so I'm trying to take advantage this week as much as I can.
The kids had other plans. Both were fussy and out of sorts (read - they fought about EVERYTHING and BOTH wanted to be held CONSTANTLY - not optimal while I'm trying to rush around and get us ready to leave for the entire day). Kailin told me (while standing in our bathroom upstairs) that she needed to go potty. Then proceeded to pull her pants down and stand and pee on our bathroom rug. It was not one of my finer mommy moments. Instead, it was the straw that broke the camel's back and I totally lost it. I lost it enough that I apologized later for handling it poorly. I have failed to do the laundry in a timely fashion and she'd just peed in one of her two remaining clean pair of pants. That's no excuse, but there it is. I managed to pull it together and get out of the house mostly on time. Both kids slept on the way and I was glad for it. They both needed it.
All was well and then there was lunch. We decided to go to Pizza Hut for their buffet since kids 3 and under are free. It was a bit chaotic with 2 adults and 5 kids 5 and under, but we managed just fine. We also talked about how we had, 15 years ago, enjoyed a much more peaceable lunch at that very Pizza Hut while being "code 9'd" from school during 5th period. Little could we have guessed then that we'd find ourselves back 15 years later with 5 of our 6 kids. There was a table not far from us that appeared to have 2 or 3 high school students sitting at it. They were glancing over at us periodically. I think they thought the kids were cute, but I also think they thought we were a bit nuts. A part of me wanted to go over to them and say, "Give it 15 years, ladies...." Ha ha. Kailin at 3 pieces of pizza, some breadsticks, and some cinnasticks. Colby ate 3/4 of a piece of pizza and refused the rest. Do you see the problem here? He got really fussy toward the end of lunch, so I ordered a milk for him. I dumped it into his bottle and gave it to him. He took a couple of swigs and refused it. He likes his milk warm, so I determined that he was rejecting it because it was cold and shoved it back in. He drank 1/3-1/2 and then rejected it again. I gave up. Not long after that, we piled into Katie's car and headed for her house. Colby threw up twice on the way there. Abort remainder of afternoon plans.
We didn't even go into the house. I just moved our car seats back to our car and headed for my mom's to nap the kids. She wasn't home and I was explaining to Kailin that Nai Nai was at work, and we wouldn't see her til later. She started wailing, "then I want to go to WORK!!!" It made me wonder if she thinks that "work" is one big place where she could find Nai Nai, Daddy, Grandpa, and all the other people whom I have to explain are not at home all day like we are. We got to my mom's and I went to put the kids down. I didn't have any juice (my normal option for sick kids), so I figured I'd just go ahead and try the rest of his milk. I figured I'd better warm it this time, and when I dumped it into a cup to warm it, I figured out why he threw up. It was bad. Nice Mommy move. And I made him drink it!!! Bad mommy!!! After he napped, he was still running like a faucet, but chipper as could be. My mom got a good visit out of it anyway!
My mom was talking to Kailin about her birthday (why, I don't know - it isn't until July). They were talking about how she'd have a party and my mom was asking her if this person or that person would be invited. Of interest, Auntie Katie is invited, but Uncle Nick and Henry are not. Her brother gave her pause but she did decide to invite him after all. The funniest was when my mom asked her if her daddy would be invited. She said, "YES!....He's a good boy!" and the emphasis was equal on good and boy - she wasn't saying he was well behaved - it was as if she was making a comment about his overall character. We laughed so hard! It's true, but still funny coming from her!
What a day!!!! I'm glad that today turned out to be much more mundane!
The day (yesterday) dawned early for me as I was up with Colby for an hour and a half through the night. The poor kid couldn't breathe. Perhaps that gory discussion about the quality of his snot is in order now? Ha. Just kidding. He cried and cried so I rocked and rocked and then I gave up and brought him downstairs to lay with me in the overstuffed chair. He tried and tried to get comfortable and fall asleep, but he failed and failed. He'd almost get there and then he'd try to shift and he'd be awake again. After an hour or more, I gave up and determined that if he was going to be crying regardless, perhaps at least one of us ought to try for some sleep, so I took him back up to his crib where he promptly fell asleep. Go figure. Guess he just needed some loves.
Anyway, Kailin was in our room at her usual time and thereupon began the ugly part of the day. She came in wailing that she couldn't find her green softie. I was too tired to go look for it, so I tried to dissuade her. It sort of worked. I showered and we went downstairs. We were supposed to be having a big fun day with the Lemms yesterday where I would have the luxury of not having to rush home since Steve had dog training anyway. I was excited. With the boys back next week, and no minivan, my freedom will be restricted to walking distance so I'm trying to take advantage this week as much as I can.
The kids had other plans. Both were fussy and out of sorts (read - they fought about EVERYTHING and BOTH wanted to be held CONSTANTLY - not optimal while I'm trying to rush around and get us ready to leave for the entire day). Kailin told me (while standing in our bathroom upstairs) that she needed to go potty. Then proceeded to pull her pants down and stand and pee on our bathroom rug. It was not one of my finer mommy moments. Instead, it was the straw that broke the camel's back and I totally lost it. I lost it enough that I apologized later for handling it poorly. I have failed to do the laundry in a timely fashion and she'd just peed in one of her two remaining clean pair of pants. That's no excuse, but there it is. I managed to pull it together and get out of the house mostly on time. Both kids slept on the way and I was glad for it. They both needed it.
All was well and then there was lunch. We decided to go to Pizza Hut for their buffet since kids 3 and under are free. It was a bit chaotic with 2 adults and 5 kids 5 and under, but we managed just fine. We also talked about how we had, 15 years ago, enjoyed a much more peaceable lunch at that very Pizza Hut while being "code 9'd" from school during 5th period. Little could we have guessed then that we'd find ourselves back 15 years later with 5 of our 6 kids. There was a table not far from us that appeared to have 2 or 3 high school students sitting at it. They were glancing over at us periodically. I think they thought the kids were cute, but I also think they thought we were a bit nuts. A part of me wanted to go over to them and say, "Give it 15 years, ladies...." Ha ha. Kailin at 3 pieces of pizza, some breadsticks, and some cinnasticks. Colby ate 3/4 of a piece of pizza and refused the rest. Do you see the problem here? He got really fussy toward the end of lunch, so I ordered a milk for him. I dumped it into his bottle and gave it to him. He took a couple of swigs and refused it. He likes his milk warm, so I determined that he was rejecting it because it was cold and shoved it back in. He drank 1/3-1/2 and then rejected it again. I gave up. Not long after that, we piled into Katie's car and headed for her house. Colby threw up twice on the way there. Abort remainder of afternoon plans.
We didn't even go into the house. I just moved our car seats back to our car and headed for my mom's to nap the kids. She wasn't home and I was explaining to Kailin that Nai Nai was at work, and we wouldn't see her til later. She started wailing, "then I want to go to WORK!!!" It made me wonder if she thinks that "work" is one big place where she could find Nai Nai, Daddy, Grandpa, and all the other people whom I have to explain are not at home all day like we are. We got to my mom's and I went to put the kids down. I didn't have any juice (my normal option for sick kids), so I figured I'd just go ahead and try the rest of his milk. I figured I'd better warm it this time, and when I dumped it into a cup to warm it, I figured out why he threw up. It was bad. Nice Mommy move. And I made him drink it!!! Bad mommy!!! After he napped, he was still running like a faucet, but chipper as could be. My mom got a good visit out of it anyway!
My mom was talking to Kailin about her birthday (why, I don't know - it isn't until July). They were talking about how she'd have a party and my mom was asking her if this person or that person would be invited. Of interest, Auntie Katie is invited, but Uncle Nick and Henry are not. Her brother gave her pause but she did decide to invite him after all. The funniest was when my mom asked her if her daddy would be invited. She said, "YES!....He's a good boy!" and the emphasis was equal on good and boy - she wasn't saying he was well behaved - it was as if she was making a comment about his overall character. We laughed so hard! It's true, but still funny coming from her!
What a day!!!! I'm glad that today turned out to be much more mundane!
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Sleeping with a goat...
Ever had the desire to sleep with a goat? Or maybe a kangaroo? Kailin comes into our bed every morning around 5 or so. She's up for the day and rather than have her screaming in her room like we used to do, we'd rather have her in ours, quiet, while her brother sleeps. Once in our bed, she is physically unable to hold still and rest or sleep. Both kids were up last night and we were both exhausted this morning. I was hoping that she'd rest awhile or even deign to sleep. Not so much. As her knee or foot jabbed into my back for the 90th time inside of 5 minutes, I determined that if I'd ever had any desire to sleep with a goat or a kangaroo in my bed, it's long gone now!
Colby awoke with a nose that runs like a faucet and I can't tell just yet if it's his teeth or a cold. I could launch into a discussion about the qualities of his snot, but I think I'll spare you all the gory details and just say I'm not sure. Owing to the wakefulness in the night and the fact that my wonderful husband let me sleep until 7, we once again missed church. The plan was to go and if I'd gotten up on time, we would have. I still feel like I could use another 8 full hours of sleep. Ugh. Wish I could allow myself to nap when the kids do - but I covet that time to get other things done. I should get over it already, right? ha ha.
Colby awoke with a nose that runs like a faucet and I can't tell just yet if it's his teeth or a cold. I could launch into a discussion about the qualities of his snot, but I think I'll spare you all the gory details and just say I'm not sure. Owing to the wakefulness in the night and the fact that my wonderful husband let me sleep until 7, we once again missed church. The plan was to go and if I'd gotten up on time, we would have. I still feel like I could use another 8 full hours of sleep. Ugh. Wish I could allow myself to nap when the kids do - but I covet that time to get other things done. I should get over it already, right? ha ha.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
I saw God today...
I saw God today in the face of my brand new nephew. Henry Steven James Vallee was born last night at 8:56pm. He weighed in at 8lbs, 13oz and is 21" long (he may have lost a few ounces overnight, but I doubt he lost any height - even though Kailin one time shrunk between Dr. appts...). Although he had to be, in the words of my sister (his mom), "evicted" after failing to vacate after his assigned move out date of April 19 (and after, according to her, paying rent only through that date) he is a precious little boy whom I know will delight us all and amaze us with all the places he will go in life. I'll post some pictures of him here as soon as I get the go ahead from my sister.
I also saw God yesterday - a LOT. Remember that word problem I gave you all? Well the answer is that all will go well and the mother will actually not be driven crazy at any rate because apparently unbeknownst to me or anyone else the underslept 2.5 year old and the surprisingly awake 14 month old cancel each other out and the three of them will have a very pleasurable outing to Target. To TARGET. My intention was to go to Target and then run to Kohl's to do a couple of returns and then head home. As we were leaving Target, it began to sprinkle.
My first thought was "Scrap Kohls. Why press your luck with the kids and now it's raining." My second thought was "What are you teaching your kids if you run home and hole up every time it rains a little?" I should've gone with the first thought.
My ability to hear anything on the radio during a car ride is significantly impeded by my daughter's need to ask a running stream of questions anytime we enter a vehicle and/or her need to listen to songs from Curious George incessantly. Such was apparently the case when they were announcing that a MONSOON was due to arrive...oooh....about the time we were comfortably tooling about in Kohls. It was raining harder than I ever thought possible and we watched water pooling in the parking lot of Kohls as we stood forlornly near the exit. I've never felt so powerless to do anything but nothing. Alone, there was no way for me to get the car without leaving the kids, and no way I was going out in the pelting, driving, SHEETING rain with Colby on my hip and trying to drag poor Kailin along behind me at a pace I'm sure her little legs couldn't match. Thankfully, it finally let up a bit and we made a break for it. Kailin found it entirely silly that we were wet and Colby found it silly that Kailin was silly, so it all ended with us giggling and laughing in the car. (That's a nice ending, isn't it? I won't include the part after that where I called my husband to see if our basement needed bailing (it didn't, thankfully) and begged him to have peanut butter and jelly ready to go for the kids when I got home because the silliness turned into some not so slight testiness (really, I can't blame them - we'd skipped morning snack and it was almost noon by the time we got home.)) Getting back to my subject line, though, I was truly marveling at the fury of that storm and what a huge contrast it was from the weather when we arrived at Target just an hour or so earlier. God's power is amazing!!
Anyone who knows me knows that I adore God's creatures. Almost all of them. I'm not too keen on frogs. They can exist - but I prefer when they exist away from me. I love to hear them chirping away in the spring, but at a distance. I'm also not so keen on worms. I don't mind angle worms. Once they're big and fat and have that weird collar thing, I'm out. I'm generally someone who saves the worms stranded on the sidewalk before they dry out in the sun, but the plethora of (in my opinion) disgustingly large night crawlers I found under our garage door yesterday morning was almost too much to handle. One was crawling on the driveway and I bravely asked Kailin if she wanted to touch it. She yelled "NO!!!!" and I was secretly delighted. Well that had nothing on my experience last night.
I went out with a friend of mine yesterday afternoon and was headed home on a rural highway around 10 (sounds like the lead in for a horror film, doesn't it?). Another barrage of monsoons had struck during the evening and I was noticing the vast number of small sticks littering the road and wondering if the winds had done that much damage to the trees. Then I noticed that there were far more sticks littering the road adjacent to the crop fields. Yeah, you guessed it, they weren't sticks at all. They were WORMS. Enormous, gigantic, disgusting WORMS. I truly cannot impress upon you the size of these things. UUUUUGGGGGHHHHH!!!! I didn't even want to drive over them!! (One, on principle - I hate killing anything and two, because it was just DISGUSTING!!!)
I'm glad to report that today was frigid with hurricane force winds, but I have no further worm or monsoon incidents to report. And I got to see my nephew!!
I also saw God yesterday - a LOT. Remember that word problem I gave you all? Well the answer is that all will go well and the mother will actually not be driven crazy at any rate because apparently unbeknownst to me or anyone else the underslept 2.5 year old and the surprisingly awake 14 month old cancel each other out and the three of them will have a very pleasurable outing to Target. To TARGET. My intention was to go to Target and then run to Kohl's to do a couple of returns and then head home. As we were leaving Target, it began to sprinkle.
My first thought was "Scrap Kohls. Why press your luck with the kids and now it's raining." My second thought was "What are you teaching your kids if you run home and hole up every time it rains a little?" I should've gone with the first thought.
My ability to hear anything on the radio during a car ride is significantly impeded by my daughter's need to ask a running stream of questions anytime we enter a vehicle and/or her need to listen to songs from Curious George incessantly. Such was apparently the case when they were announcing that a MONSOON was due to arrive...oooh....about the time we were comfortably tooling about in Kohls. It was raining harder than I ever thought possible and we watched water pooling in the parking lot of Kohls as we stood forlornly near the exit. I've never felt so powerless to do anything but nothing. Alone, there was no way for me to get the car without leaving the kids, and no way I was going out in the pelting, driving, SHEETING rain with Colby on my hip and trying to drag poor Kailin along behind me at a pace I'm sure her little legs couldn't match. Thankfully, it finally let up a bit and we made a break for it. Kailin found it entirely silly that we were wet and Colby found it silly that Kailin was silly, so it all ended with us giggling and laughing in the car. (That's a nice ending, isn't it? I won't include the part after that where I called my husband to see if our basement needed bailing (it didn't, thankfully) and begged him to have peanut butter and jelly ready to go for the kids when I got home because the silliness turned into some not so slight testiness (really, I can't blame them - we'd skipped morning snack and it was almost noon by the time we got home.)) Getting back to my subject line, though, I was truly marveling at the fury of that storm and what a huge contrast it was from the weather when we arrived at Target just an hour or so earlier. God's power is amazing!!
Anyone who knows me knows that I adore God's creatures. Almost all of them. I'm not too keen on frogs. They can exist - but I prefer when they exist away from me. I love to hear them chirping away in the spring, but at a distance. I'm also not so keen on worms. I don't mind angle worms. Once they're big and fat and have that weird collar thing, I'm out. I'm generally someone who saves the worms stranded on the sidewalk before they dry out in the sun, but the plethora of (in my opinion) disgustingly large night crawlers I found under our garage door yesterday morning was almost too much to handle. One was crawling on the driveway and I bravely asked Kailin if she wanted to touch it. She yelled "NO!!!!" and I was secretly delighted. Well that had nothing on my experience last night.
I went out with a friend of mine yesterday afternoon and was headed home on a rural highway around 10 (sounds like the lead in for a horror film, doesn't it?). Another barrage of monsoons had struck during the evening and I was noticing the vast number of small sticks littering the road and wondering if the winds had done that much damage to the trees. Then I noticed that there were far more sticks littering the road adjacent to the crop fields. Yeah, you guessed it, they weren't sticks at all. They were WORMS. Enormous, gigantic, disgusting WORMS. I truly cannot impress upon you the size of these things. UUUUUGGGGGHHHHH!!!! I didn't even want to drive over them!! (One, on principle - I hate killing anything and two, because it was just DISGUSTING!!!)
I'm glad to report that today was frigid with hurricane force winds, but I have no further worm or monsoon incidents to report. And I got to see my nephew!!
Friday, April 25, 2008
Another dreary spring day....
Good thing the April showers bring May flowers (and don't get me started on what late April SNOW FLURRIES bring, but I'd sure like to know what good will come of the truly yucktastic weather we're slated for on Sunday!).... because it's as thick as pea soup with fog out there today and rainy again.Here's a word problem for you. I'll let you know the answer later on this weekend. If you take an underslept 2.5 year old and a normally good sleeping but awake strangely early 14 month old and put them in a car with a chronically underslept mom and they are all traveling toward Target at 65mph, at what rate will the mom go insane?
Given the dreary weather today, I thought I'd give you all some pictures of the kids from this past weekend when we went to the park together. Wednesday, April 23, 2008
The power of two...
I know I've commented before on the passage of time, but today the power of two struck me. Two weeks ago today we arrived home and the lives of my entire family changed irrevocably. Two weeks before that, we hadn't even left yet, had no idea what it meant to parent two children, had never seen Taiwan, and didn't truly know how blessed we'd be by adding Colby to our family. Two months ago we hadn't heard about our final decree yet and were still wondering and hoping about when we might travel to Taiwan, and two years ago, we didn't even have Kailin home yet and were eagerly anticipating our trip to China to bring her home. What a change two years has brought us!! What blessings we've received in those two years. It leaves me wondering how different our lives will be in two more years. Kailin will be in 4k and Colby will be the age that Kailin is now. Life will surely be different!
I'm sure the capacity of my heart has at least doubled since Colby came home. I love him just as much as I love Kailin and I love her, if it's possible, more than I did before we left. I've seen in her the ability to be sweet and tender and considerate of her brother in a capacity I thought was beyond a 2.5 year old (I've also seen her be creatively mean in a way that I thought was beyond a 2.5 year old - ie; slowly applying pressure to toy forks planted firmly on her brother's foot - it took him a lot longer to squeal than if she'd jabbed him). Her ability to trust us that this new member of our family is here to stay and not to question whether he should be here or when he's going back shows me that we are truly her parents in her mind as well as in ours. (Not that kids don't ever question their parents - it's hard to articulate what I'm trying to say here.)
The power of two does indeed amaze me.
I'm sure the capacity of my heart has at least doubled since Colby came home. I love him just as much as I love Kailin and I love her, if it's possible, more than I did before we left. I've seen in her the ability to be sweet and tender and considerate of her brother in a capacity I thought was beyond a 2.5 year old (I've also seen her be creatively mean in a way that I thought was beyond a 2.5 year old - ie; slowly applying pressure to toy forks planted firmly on her brother's foot - it took him a lot longer to squeal than if she'd jabbed him). Her ability to trust us that this new member of our family is here to stay and not to question whether he should be here or when he's going back shows me that we are truly her parents in her mind as well as in ours. (Not that kids don't ever question their parents - it's hard to articulate what I'm trying to say here.)
The power of two does indeed amaze me.
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