Finding the balance

I struggle to find a balance in blogging about my life, our adoptions, and my children.  On one hand there is the desire to share, to find community, to show off my cute kids.  On the other hand is the desire to protect their privacy, and for that reason there is much about my children that is kept inside our family.

When it comes to the journey of adoption I want to be able to encourage people and I want to not be a whiner, but on the other hand there is the importance of understanding that international/special needs/older children adoptions can be hard.  We've all seen the rise in recent years of failed adoptions/placements and it's really a sad trend that is caused to some degree by families choosing to adopt for the wrong reasons or without any knowledge on what they're getting into.  On the other hand it is my opinion that the (much) bigger problem in our church today is people who choose to ignore God's leading to adopt.

So I struggle to find a balance and hope that I didn't cause any great pity on my behalf after my last post, remember it had only been a few days, and everyday (so far) it's getting better and getting easier.  I have found a way to get Chloe to sleep without having to have her cry and I am so happy about that.  She really seems to enjoy me and is beginning to trust me.  The girl hates grass :) just like Jack did when he came home, but we'll work on that soon.  Someday she'll love to play outside as much as her siblings.

I have gotten me some sleep and am feeling much better.  I have definitely been convicted that I need to use my time more wisely now that I've got three kids and one that is young enough to need my constant attention.  Sleep is often an idol for me, and God is always beckoning me to come to Him first and not pass Him up for some sleep.  This next week we have somewhere to be everyday at 9, so it'll be a good week for all of us to get back into a regular schedule, and for me to begin to train myself to rise before my kids and commit my day to the Lord.

I took all three kids on our first real outing (not just school drop off) to the library and we all did good and had fun, which is good because we will spend a lot of time at the library this summer.  Let's pray by the summer she remembers that she loves the water, the foster mother said she does, but for now she is terrified during her baths.

Jack has decided that he would like to potty train now, which really just makes me smile, why not throw another ball in to juggle, and hey you can't ever be sad about a motivated potty trainer.  We had some, umm, interesting moments in the front yard yesterday, as he peed (in the FRONT yard) facing the street and our neighbors.  It made me laugh so hard, I couldn't care, it was even funnier because he can't seem to get down the part of letting everything out at once, so he peed three times in 10 minutes.

Life is really been quite good around here, when it's all said and done we've got our baby girl home, we have this love that seems too big sometimes, God has taken care of all our needs and our wants-he cares about those too, don't forget that.  I'm seeing the love He's lavishing around here right now and all I can do is sit back in awe.