Reality Check - Part I

I'm never going to get this written unless I start breaking it into smaller pieces.

Part I - NEWBORN PHASE

Here in the midst of the adjustment phase of our second older child adoption I guess I'd like to touch on a few misconceptions.

Older child adoption is NOT the "easy way" to grow your family!

I think I almost punched the first person who told me we had gotten Keziah the "easy way".  I didn't!  But the temptation was there as we were still in the very difficult first six months.

Yes, you read that right - FIRST SIX MONTHS!

Right now, we've passed the six weeks marker and survived. 

Christopher has managed to put together a short and sassy way to describe life as we know it, "Hadassah is doing great.  Life is good.  And every day has its challenges."

However, I wish the world could see our family as they would the parents of a newborn baby. - We are just beginning to know our daughter.  She is a mystery to us.  We are VERY concerned about health issues.  She can't communicate her wants, needs, desires, and hurts to us so that we understand all the time.  We watch what goes in and what comes out obsessively and worry about her getting enough fluids and nutrition.  And being new parents is just hard at times.

The fact that our "baby" is seven years old doesn't really change much of the newborn experience. - This little girl likes to eat!  Feeding her every two to four hours is NECESSARY!  Her days and nights were mixed up!  She has to be watched 24/7.  We even bought a new baby monitor for the night time needs. 

I guess this is when I get whiny? 

I've just been shocked again at just how fast the world expects us to be "normal" again.  Honestly, we aren't at normal yet.  If laundry and dishes and dinner were a struggle before with 5 kids, the difficulty level just bumped way up!  Some days, I count myself lucky just to get a shower and get dressed before I fall into bed again. 

One really hard thing for me right now is my other kids, our children's worship ministry.  Before leaving for China, other people stepped up to take over the ministry while we stepped down for a while so we could meet the needs of our immediate family.  I didn't know how long the "break" would need to be. 

When Keziah came home, church was sooooooo hard and she was sooooooo needy for soooooooo long that one of us had to be with her at all times.  Christopher and I eventually swapped places some so that each of us could do some small ministry, either he playing the drums or me doing a drama here or there.  But it was six months before I tried helping for a week with a fine arts camp and only because Caleb was paired up with Keziah all week.  We did start our current ministry with kids after she had been home for nine months, but that was NINE months later.

So here we are...back in the saddle again.  The leadership help I thought we'd have to work with the kids while we transitioned back is gone.  Last week we were leading again as our "team", but it really felt like we had a newborn baby with us.  Miranda juggled Hadassah Peiwu as much as she could.  I'd take over when I wasn't up in front of the kids leading.  Chirstopher would take her at times.  Back to Miranda.  Hold the baby and lead the kids.  Plus there is all the time I used to have to plan and prepare each week that is just gone!

I don't know what God has planned right now, but this season of our lives is just hard.