New Priorities…

It has been some time since I have expressed myself and talked about what life has been like for us. We have been on the constant go in our support raising journey. We actually just got back from our three week trip to Oklahoma and Texas and now must be packed and ready again for our upstate NY presentation and Canada trip in a few days. The elementary teacher inside of me LOVES lesson planning, curriculum writing, objective making and completing, and most of all material creating, but I have been learning that my little ones don’t need all that in these big changes of life right now. I want that, but it isn’t what they need. In this season of our life with so much constant change, the best that we can do for them is prepare them for the next big exposure or change that we will be facing as a family. They are both constantly in new environments, in airplanes or long car rides, new faces, new little children to play with, new personalities to adjust to, etc. etc. My role is to help my little 29 month old and 12 month old know how to navigate through all of these constant changes with enjoyment and with a great attitude. Teaching them our expectations and desired behaviors within those new contexts we find ourselves in. This has actually been more draining because most of the time I don’t know what kind of people we will be meeting or what they will be exposed to. The other day we took the girls to Cheeky Monkey in Texas, which is this absolutely amazing indoor play place. I was in the ball pit with both the girls and there was a seven year old boy cursing and calling the other children terrible curse words. Emma obviously didn’t know the severity of those words, but she picked up on his aggression and anger. What a teaching principle that was right there in front of me! My point in this blog is that there are everyday LIFE lessons that ought to be taught and sometimes we become so blinded by our own agendas even if it is our own agenda for the children, that we miss the point all together. It is to teach them how to navigate a Christ centered life in all areas of life, not just in the academic area of life. Teaching our littles how to properly handle changes, especially when things don’t go the way they might want or what might be comfortable to them. Parenting is tough, but God gives us the needed grace to do it well.