Transitions are hard, for anybody. As adults career changes, family changes, monumental schedule changes it’s all a challenge. For our four year old son, I had an inkling of what might be in store. For our daughter, no idea?
After being placed in our home for only two weeks it was time for the school year to start and so while she was still in the shock phase she started at their preschool. Flash-forward 10 months and now it’s the first time she hasn’t had that structure for longer than two weeks. Her teacher, friends, schedule, everything looks different for a girl who just 11 months ago had her whole life turned upside down.
We didn’t expect it to be easy, but we might not expected it to bring us to our knees quite like this.
There have actually been ways in which unexpected mercies have sprung out of nowhere. New camps, nights away from me, she’s handled all of them with relative ease, but the day to day is where it’s seemed to get tough the ideas and boundaries we’ve reiterated to them over and over and over and over again… that’s the place we are getting the most headwind.
Now pair that with our adventurous, always on the move, and I know what I need son and you’ve got a doozy of a combo.
Hindsight is always 20/20 and maybe I didn’t plan out this summer like I should have. Maybe there was too much change up from week to week, maybe not enough just being at home even with their cries begging me to let them do something ‘fun’, I don’t know and I’m not sure I ever will. However, it doesn’t change the fact that right now I’m starting to fade, and I’m letting those worries that I’m doing it ALL WRONG start to creep in. Can anyone else relate?
It’s brought a new type or reckoning in our home, a new type of surrender, a new type of reliance on God for that when I fall short He is making paths straight regardless.
Now, we are halfway through summer. Zoey turns 4 next week and shortly after we hit the 1 year mark of her placement with us. There is a lot to celebrate and in her heart probably still a lot to grieve. Our prayer for her is she can see more joy and peace than she does grief and anger. That she feels more security than she does abandonment. That she surrenders and lets God work on her heart from a young age.
Parenting is not easy, adoption is not easy, 4 years old is not easy, summer transitions are not easy, and I remain steadfast in the idea that God is holding us even when we feel like we can’t hold ourselves up anymore. He is good and He is being glorified.
This week, if summer is feeling hard I am praying for joy to take center stage and for peace to abound. That in the midst of challenge, our eyes stay Up and we rely on Him to bridge any gaps. That sweet moments become the anthem and are not overtaken by the brokenness of this world. Amen.
Fueling Her Forward 
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