Adjustments

Well, here we are, three months later. I think that we have found the new normal. Hubby has started traveling once a month for week which is making our new normal a bit harder. Life is good....but exhausting. Homework with a 1st and 2nd grader is tedious, especially with a HIGH maintenance toddler in the house!
I probably said before that the hardest sibling adjustment was for my sweet Samuel, the baby at the time. He was, in a day, sandwiched between two new girls. He has such a joyful spirit...he always has. But after the girls came home, he was very negative and had a bad attitude. Everything between he and Grace became a competition in what was fair and who was first. I was doing my best to give Samuel extra alone time and snuggle time. But one morning, as he decided that his taste of scrambled eggs was smaller than Grace's taste of scrambled eggs, I'd had it. I told him that yes, life had changed, but that it was not unfair...just changed. I told him that joy and happiness is a choice. That it was up to him to choose joy and happiness. Later that day, he came to me with a piece of paper that had a prayer written on it. I thought that it was a prayer that he had copied out of a devotional or his Bible. He told me however that he wrote it, and that he wanted to pray it during all of our family prayer times. Oh, it was precious and was about being happy all the time, etc. And did he ever pray that prayer....when we prayed at breakfast, before heading out to the bus stop, at dinner time, and at bedtime. At prayer time, he would run through the house searching for his prayer....the Lord's words just for him. Do you know that his attitude changed IMMEDIATELY?!?! My sweet, happy, and joyful Samuel was back. This experience, though hard, was a blessing. It showed me clearly that Jesus does live in Samuel's heart. It's sometimes hard to know "for sure" when your child becomes a Christian at such a young age if he REALLY gets it or not...if it really "stuck." My other son accepted Christ as his savior several times until he really got it (at an Upward end of year celebration) and that is the time that he now recalls as becoming a Christian. I love how "in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose!" (Romans 8:28)
The three older kiddos have adjusted much easier as they are much older and have so much going on in their lives. They adore the girls though. Can you believe that all four of them talk about the next time that we adopt?!?!?! This is certainly not even a discussion topic in our home right now. Even the other night when we were in the truck going somewhere, Samuel asked if he could go with us the next time that we adopt!!!!
So here we are...happy and healthy. I am thankful and exceedingly blessed for my amazing family...and happily exhausted! :-)