Settling In

OK...our days are stressful right now! Imagine if you will, all of a sudden having a 3 year old who speaks not a lick of English and has no concept of objects being 'off limits' or that you can't grab things out of people's hands on impulse. Not only that, but we already had a clingy, sometimes whiney, 2 year old and a 4 year old! Haha...life is crazy. It is a sacrifice right now. We remind ourselves: we didn't adopt a 3 year old because we wanted to make life easier on ourselves, or b/c we had thousands of dollars laying around waiting to be spent, or b/c we felt we couldn't live without more stress in our lives. We did it b/c God showed us His heart for the orphan and because we knew that while it wouldn't be easy, it was RIGHT and so we prayed, "God, give us the child who will fit perfectly into our family..." Well, wouldn't you know-He did it...BUT He didn't make it easy...isn't that just like God? Answers our prayers but grows us and refines us in the process-making us more like Him...Anteneh obviously will fit in perfectly-but needs to be molded slightly-isn't that what parents are for? Good thing he has us to do it! These little hills we are navigating should be our joy to explore-the hills of getting up at 3 am and making eggs b/c Anteneh's body clock is still off, the hill of training him to share when he can't understnad the reasoning in English...the hill of having another little rear end to wipe...(haha) or another young child following you crying for something...But, that spiritual reasoning is too easily forgotten and I find myself a little stressed-and in need of reminding myself of these things...I look at Anteneh's little face and wonder what would have happened to him had we not adopted him and it makes the hills much easier to climb :)