It's funny how everything seems so hard when you're a first time parent. Granted, a lot of the hardness comes from having no experience with being a parent and having full responsibility for a new tiny human, but none the less, everything suddenly seems so hard. Then, you have two kids and that seems so much harder. Then, you have THREE kids and suddenly one or even two are looking like a piece of cake! We wouldn't change our situation for the world, but I will say adding a third little to our family has been a bit tough on me. Even small things like going to the grocery store have to be well-planned for because it's an ordeal to make sure we're packed with all. the. things. necessary for an infant and two toddlers, not to mention the fact we've got to work around two nap times, eating schedules, making sure I've had a shower in the past two days so I don't scare people, and then feeling up to tackling the three rear-facing car seats. It's kind of comical, actually. One of the toddlers is in the back row with the other two being in the middle captains' seats. You have to leave the baby outside the car while you climb over the base of her seat with one of the toddlers and get her strapped in, then climb out and put the baby in. Even as much work as it is, I have found getting out of the house essential to my sanity.
 |
| We call them our dynamic-duo. They love each other, they really do! |
There's so much I could and probably should write about our experience as foster parents. How God is working in me and teaching me so much about what His love for me is like. What it feels like to really try to lay yourself down for the will of Christ in your life. How much I have to rely upon God's grace to get me through the days. But alas, my time to write in quite limited (due to nap times, of course!), and I've been feeling the nudge to sit down and record some thoughts and updates of our daily lives since everything is changing so quickly.
Let's do this bullet-style!
- Will's finishing up his last intense semester of grad school. It's been such a rocky journey getting to this point. Last semester was a bit insane since he had to take several tough classes he normally wouldn't have taken at the same time, but had to due to class schedules. This should be his last hard semester before the summer where he'll take one project-based class, and in the fall he'll be done except his dissertation, and graduate in December! Praise God for being so close to the end!
- In addition to growing our family from three to five in the course of 2.5 months, we've also decided to go ahead and put our house on the market and find a new place to live. We were actually in the process of refinancing our current house when we sat down to really think about our short and long-term future. We decided it would be better to list now, even with how crazy everything is, rather than in a few years because we don't really have a time limit currently. There is no true need to get out of our current house; it's more that we want to move to a bigger place with more land. Actually any amount of land would be great because our current backyard is laughable. We've been taking our time with doing all the necessary repairs and touchups around the house while we've been looking at what's available. It's a bit disheartening since what we're looking for is a bit specific: something at least 2,5000 sq. ft., room enough for chickens, an older home we can put our stamp on, and character. We've lived in a nice subdivision with this house and while we like it and it certainly has it's benefits, we're ready to try something different. There is one house we like (well, I kind of LOVE), but even though it's a flip house and more or less move-in ready, it still needs some big ticket fixes like foundation, a roof, an new AC. We've been dragging our feet a bit, but we're trusting God's plan and we know if it's meant to be the house it will still be there when we're ready. There was one house we both really liked but it was located too far south in a school district we wouldn't care to put our kids in if/when homeschooling isn't what we're doing any more.
- Jonah: this kid. He's my whole heart in one little fluffy, sweet, sweaty, adorable little boy. Since he was a baby he has been so sweet. He's affectionate. He loves to snuggle and give hugs. I never want to forget the way he wraps his little fingers around my neck and strums his fingers rhythmically on me. He's got a bit of his parents' OCD in him; when he knows something's supposed to be a certain way or go in a certain spot, he likes to put it that way. The other day he was at Chik-Fil-A with Will's parents and wouldn't leave until he put all the other kids' shoes in the cubbies. Jonah has such a kind heart, but he is definitely growing up and discovery his autonomy. He likes to run away when you ask him to come to you. He can be sneaky when he knows he's not supposed to have something (although he almost always gives himself away because he'll come running up to you with a cat-who-ate-the-canary grin to let you know he did something he wasn't supposed to). We're trying to do a lot of Montessori and RIE-inspired things with him, and so far I have been very pleased. It can be hard to go against what seems so mainstream and how you yourself were raised, but I know it will ultimately benefit him and us so much more in the long run.
I took him to a play place earlier this week and he LOVED it!
He both loves slides and fears them. He's gotten brave enough to go down them by himself most of the time.
Always taking off his socks (or other clothes!)
Super in to shoes right now. He'll find mine or Will's and try to walk around in them.
Too cute for his britches! He picked out his own shoes. Also, Mama needs to weed!
Part of his sweetness- sometimes when he wakes up and comes to find us he'll bring his stuffed animals with him.
This child could eat " 'nacks" all day long! This particular incident occurred when Will left the pantry door open while I was in the restroom. I heard a crash and came out to see that he had pulled his snack bin off the shelf to help himself to some apple chips.
And he loves to be a big kid and push.
His other most-favorite thing right now is climbing. I try to give him ample opportunity to safely climb, but we mostly have to keep all the chairs in the house against the wall so he doesn't climb on top of our tables. He climbed all the way to the top of our friend's play set many times earlier this week and was so proud of himself!
The other big news around here is that our newest placement, the baby, will hopefully be in our family forever. I'm not sure exactly how much information I can share here on the Internet while she's still in CPS custody, but I can say we are smitten and praying she will be our next forever child.
She's working on rolling over.
Tired. Blurry. Oh well.
Super Dad with all three kiddos
That's about all that's going on around here. We're tired. We feel like we're running on empty most days. But we're also so incredibly happy and blessed. Our hands are full and our hearts are even more full. Our village has surrounded us with support by bringing us meals a few times a week and paying for a house cleaner to come do a deep clean before we list our house. Hopefully I'll be back here sooner rather than later to keep the updates coming.
