Good Day/Bad Day

Today I think I did too much. I ran 12 miles in the morning, got the car washed for Jenetta, and then took the girls out for about two hours with our friends Blake and Rachael. We went on a hike to Lake Wohlford. We even saw a man catch a fish! Blake held it and O was willing to try to touch it, but L kept her distance :)

The hike was really great, and it was nice to have the help with the girls. It is so obvious that Blake and Rachael are going to be outstanding parents someday. They definitely have the gift!

Here are some photos from the hike:







Then we got sandwiches at Subway and took them home to mommy for lunch. After that, I got the girls down for a nap and mommy had to leave to shoot a wedding. From then on, I was on my own. Yikes!!!

The diaper thing was gross, but not as tough as I thought.

What was tough was playing/policing them all day by myself. O is really fond of getting into things that could potentially cause her great bodily injury. That was tough to deal with and it really wore me down after a while. Dinner at Lourdes was probably not the smartest decision on my part - but force of habit - It's what I do when Jenetta is gone! But by the time bath time had come around, I was pretty short with her and she knew it. Man - a four year old is really good at pushing buttons when they want to!!!

I think not having mommy around for dinner and bath time was disconcerting for L and she asked to get under the covers in O's bed after story time. This worked for about ten minutes until O started whispering things to L that really upset her. This incident was really heartbreaking for me. It was clear by what she said that some terrible things have been said to her, or somehow, she has developed an extremely negative image of herself. It really bothered me.

It took both of them longer than usual to settle down, but because O had started bath time at 7:30, they were still asleep sooner than the last few nights. Then I folded the six loads of laundry I had been working on all day, and cleaned up the house until Jenetta got home.

One of the things we learned in our adoptive parenting classes is that if you have a tough day, or blow it in some way, don't worry, you'll get a chance to do better tomorrow when the same thing happens again :) This is encouraging and frightening at the same time.

When I sat down to write this, our friend Laura had posted a comment that concluded this way:
". Most importantly, I think you all are realizing in a big way that when God says His grace is sufficient, He means that it grows to accomodate your need! Love to you...Laura"

I so needed to hear that tonight!