We're Learning

School is out for two more weeks at the Grady Lane Day school yet I think I am learning more right now than I have in years.  Anytime you get to know a new friend, there is always a great deal to know about them.  The only other time in my
life that I experience immersion learning in regard to a person was when I moved in with Ryan the week after we got married.  I do recall that we learned a lot about each other in those first weeks.  I think that adopting an older child is more like that than bringing home a baby.  When you are 7, or even 4, you have a certain way of doing things already.  You have already developed habits, tendencies, and a personality.  In the case of Naomi and Joanna, none of those developed parts of their personalities mirror my own because I did not influence the growing of those things.  So, now that we all live together, there is a certain learning curve for all of us to understand how things are done.  For example, Naomi wakes up slow and eases in to her day.  When Joanna rinses her mouth out after brushing her teeth she does not swish water.  She fills her mouth with water and then shakes her whole head back and forth to move the water around before spitting.  Joanna eats one type of food at a time before moving to another.  If you give her a bag of snack mix it is cheeze-its first, then all the pretzels, then all the white puff things.  Naomi loves to help with chores.  Today she did more chores herself than the other 5 children put together.  And apparently the mark of clean hands is in the smelling of them.  If soap if smelled, hands are clean and mommy should always smell the hands.  (That means I smell hands roughly 15 times a day)

Those are the easy things.  There have been harder things to learn.  Some of the harder ones have hurt a little more. When a disagreement arose with the brothers this week, I insisted on a repentant heart and an apology.  Though it took almost on hour of sitting silently on the steps, Naomi was finally ready to offer an apology.  I know it was scary and hard for her to face the brothers whom she had wronged, but I was proud that she was willing to extend an apology.  I think she was even more thrilled when her brothers each offered hugs and "I love yous" in exchange.  The look on her face was priceless when she realized that they were willing to extend grace and not condemnation.  Silas was so thrilled for reconciliation that he bear hugged her before she ever said "sorry" and almost wouldn't let go.  Though this felt like a little step back, it was really two giant leaps forward as trust was built.

God continues to bless us as each day passes.  There are no longer fights when getting into the carseat, there are no longer cries in the middle of the night,  "Mommy look!!" is the constant chatter in my ear,  more and more time is being enjoyed reading books together, and there is a general contentment when we are just  hanging out at home.  New things are still scary, and new people are too, but those are things we can conquer another time. Week three is going  pretty well!