Life changes

As some of you may know, our life recently took a big change. My good friend here had a successful VBA2C (Vaginal birth after 2 C-sections) on 2/29. I was so happy and excited for her. However, this past Monday, the day after his baptism, her newborn ended up in the hospital with RSV. I quickly volunteered to take her older two kids, ages 4 and 6. None of us realize how severe it was. They transferred him to another hospital this week and at this point, it looks like he'll still be in the hospital for another 2 weeks. I am going to continue to keep her children. Thankfully they flew her husband back from deployment, but they need to focus on the newborn, and they feel the older two are in good hands. (I hope so! ;-))

This has been a BIG change for us. I now have to make sure we're up every morning at 7, get everyone breakfast and dressed, walk 5 kids to school at 8, come back home, walk back at 10:30 to pick one up, and then again at 2:30. It's not bad, just much different than we're use to. At least I'm getting my exercise in ;-) I also managed to take four to the grocery store the other day. Completely survived, after dealing with Hannah screaming for about 5 minutes that she wanted a car grocery cart.

Her kids are very well behaved, and falling in to our schedule, routine, and rules pretty well. The first few days I was "easy" on them, but since learning it will likely be another two weeks, I've insisted they start following some of our rules, etc.

It's opened a lot of dialogue for my husband and me. It does give us an idea of what having 5 would be like... Yes, the ages would be different and they'd all be ours, but the logistics of getting places with 5 would be similar (ie is it easier to just walk to mass or load 5 in car seats today... and HOW are we going to get through mass with 5 kids?). There is still the same amount of dishes and laundry, and oh boy! Am I failing on that!! Plus baths for 5 kids, and cooking for 7 would be the same, which I'm managing, but it's still challenging. I'm VERY grateful that some people have offered to bring us a few meals here and there, along with the mom and dad. Plus, dealing with whining and tattle-tailing, and the if we were to have 5 kids while living here, and how that would be and feel. (cramped! I already couldn't stand where we live, but to add more kids, oh wow.)

It's also opened our eyes to what adoption and foster care could be like in ways. Obviously I realize they would have a lot more issues involved most likely, but this must be similar, my kids and the other kids learning to get along, learning who's the alpha dog, learning what's acceptable in the house and not, etc. etc. And since we've definitely considered both as well, it's been somewhat eye opening.

Like I said, it's given us a new insight on a lot of things, and left me thinking, imagining, and most importantly, praying. It shows me that my desires for more children are still there, as I'm loving having a full house (now that I'm getting use to it). We've never really been in a position where we've had the chance to pray and seek God about adding to our family, so this is a brand new adventure in and of itself, and it's hard to know what God's saying. We know that we are suppose to wait for a bit longer at least. I think for now, we'll just get through the next 2 weeks, then worry about the rest. ;-)

With that said, homeschooling has been put on a back burner for right now. Oh one of the joys of homeschooling, and one of the joys of just doing preschool. My kids and one of the others are very interested in Shadows lately, so I may try to do some research on shadows and try to make a learning experience out of that, if I can find the time. I'm dying to do some crafting, but that's been on hold as well. At 7-7:30 all kids are in bed, so I TRY to finish dishes, and all but pass out by 8. Coffee has become my best friend again. Speaking of which, I think my fresh pot is just done, so I'm off to pour a cup. Hope everyone has a blessed Sunday.

And most importantly, please, keep baby K in your prayers, along with his parents J & J.