Tuesday Topic: Help for Parents of Newly Adopted Baby
Just How Patient is Our Love?
Sunday Gratitude
THINK
Parenting and Shame
Tuesday Topic: Coping With Rejection by Peers
So, How Was It?
Mother’s Day for the Brokenhearted
Home: Moving Forward
This week’s question is from a couple who recently adopted a young baby. This is what they wrote,
We recently adopted a 9 month old baby girl from Ethiopia. Ever since we’ve had her, it was been a struggle to do diaper changes. She screams every time. It’s so bad that she starts fussing as soon as she see’s us grab a diaper.
Many of us are familiar with the popular verses written about love in 1 Corinthians 13. We read that,
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends…
These verses are loaded with meaning, so much so that I’m stuck on the first three words, “Love is patient.” In the past, I thought about being patient for a period of time – a day, a week, or maybe a month? But the Lord showed me something last winter that I have been thinking about ever since.
2009
I love the quiet of my house this Sunday morning. Soon we’ll be rushing about getting everyone out the door to church, but for the next few minutes, it’s me, coffee, my Bible, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer – or his biography, at least. I’m determined to finish reading last month’s book group pick before I move on to the next one. With over 500 pages, every fifteen minutes counts.
We had a hard week, yet there were so many dramatic moments of grace, that as I look back I can see how the Lord carried us every single day.
giving thanks #1111 – 1120
I was reminded of this great acronym earlier this week when I saw it hanging on a friend’s refrigerator.
THINK
T: Is it truthful?H: Is it helpful?I: Is it inspiring?N: Is it necessary?K: Is it kind?
Have you used this with your children? I need to work on this with my kids this summer.
Any other brilliant acronyms you can share with us?
Happy Friday,
Lisa
How does shame affect the way we parent? We place such high expectations on ourselves, yet sometimes we find that even with the best education and support, our children’s brokenness is more than we can heal. We mothers should be able to heal our children, right? Well, I couldn’t, and I know that many of you can’t either. And while I can extend grace to others with relative ease, I struggle to extend it to myself.
I didn’t manage to post a Tuesday Topic last week and I missed hearing all of you share your great thoughts and encouraging words. This week’s question is from Gwen who wrote,
I would love to hear some discussion about how to deal with other children’s perceptions (and, often, rejection) of our special needs kids.
My school-aged children have lingering orphanage behaviours, and we often see these behaviours alienate our children from their peers. When they gorge their school lunches in front of classmates, or when they are confronted with a triggering situation and emotionally regress into preschool behaviours, their friends are confused and uncomfortable.
How was your Mother’s Day? Our morning started with Sunshine making coffee for me and then all of us rushing out the door to the 8:30 service at church. We were late, which was disappointing because I love being in time for all of worship. Despite that, we got seats near the front, which helps the kids stay more focused.
I’ve given birth eight times. Call me crazy, but I birthed my babies naturally, and half of them at home. Each labor brought me to a moment of not knowing if I could make it through. It was unbelievably hard and sometimes I was scared. But every single time I went into labor, I set my mind on the purpose of the contractions – my baby. I focused on the joy that would come when that little one was in my arms.
These years are like that. I’m laboring for my children who came to me from hard places. There are days when I don’t think I’ll make it through, when the pain is too great and I’m scared. I cry out for an emotional epidural.
Progress on our remodel is slow-going, but we’re moving steadily forward with building a bedroom for Dimples. The plan is to empty our garage in order to remodel it into two small bedrooms and a tiny bit of indoor storage. Dimples has to have her own room with a small bathroom when she comes home, just like she has at her school. The second bedroom will likely be for Bee, who desperately wants her own room.
2007 First Week Home
Dimples has been at her school for four months now. For the first three months she “honeymooned” and had nearly perfect behavior. We were beginning to wonder if being back in the familiar environment of lots of kids with no parents made her so comfortable that she was never going to exhibit what we experienced at home. She has always done great at school, camp, and other places where no attachment was expected.
Knowing she was only going to be there for a year or so, I felt the clock ticking and wondered how long it would take to get to the heart of her challenges. Three months, she made it nearly three months without much of a hint of trouble. Then the adults there started to matter to her, she was beginning to form some tentative bonds, and the shoe dropped; her closest staff member took a three week vacation.
