Real Life

I admire those bloggers who chose to take a stand against the picture-perfect images they wish to (and perhaps usually do) convey to the world and expose themselves for the real people they are.  Insert "imperfect", "organizationally challenged", "doesn't have it all together", or even "doesn't sew Pinterest-worthy homemade toilette seat covers while their kids sing hymns together while cleaning up the house" for the word "real" in the previous sentence :)

So here is my attempt at letting you in on our After the Airport moments in our home.  (Btw, please read the linked post if you ever have had anyone in your life who has gone through an adoption of sorts- their journey seems harder in many ways than ours, but the author of that posts speaks the truth about what happens after the honeymoon period.)

This is a normal weeks worth of laundry.  Yes, I do laundry weekly (if that!).

1. The above photo was taken on Valentines Day.  On the most romantic day of the year, we put the kids to bed 1/2 hour early (they were tired anyways) and covered up the clothes with a blanket and had a "date" on the other side of the room.  Just don't look to your right at the GIANT pile of unfinished folding- then you can still pretend we are at one of those romantic places people go to eat sometimes...what were they called?  Restau-somethings?
2. Speaking of- having a date is a thing of the past.  We do get creative, but we have not spent a night out together in 9 months!  (before you feel too sorry for me, David's schedule is flexible so we do get to spend sporadic time alone together)
3. Going from zero to three has been... interesting.  I find it ironic that people with three or four kids seem to feel sorry for me.  At first I didn't understand because they would look at me with such empathy, like "Oh, man.  I'm REALLY praying for you!"  But you have the same number (or more) of kids!  What the what?  Now, though, I kind of get it.  They are feeling the same way I feel every day.  Totally worn out sometimes to the point that they try to remember what having no kids felt like and they can't remember the sweet bliss of being DINKs or SINKs so they just feel sorry for those who go straight into their situation without easing into it like they did.  I think they are happy to have someone else join the club, but that club also includes all of us who have such a radically different life than those with no kids.  I guess that is what I'm getting at.  I feel like I hardly ever (or don't) see my single or just couple friends any more.  This is a sad reality of my new family, my new ministry.
4. God has blessed us with an amazing home to raise these blessed babies in, but there are some crazy things that come with it.  Like, the pic below. David trying to go and kill a burrow of yellow jackets and not get attacked!  We had a near attack on our middle one, Mimi, when she was playing right on the hole!  David saw some crawling out and quickly rescued her before he doused them with gasoline.

   

   David suited up to fight the yellow jackets



taming the jungle

5. Or this:  Here is the big pile of brush that gets cut away from the jungle in the back yard every couple of weeks only to stay there for several weeks until we (meaning David) can finally cut them down to pull them to the street for pick-up.  Meanwhile the kids play amidst the branches and every now and then bring in "house plants" into their play house :)

6. Horton Hatches the Egg makes me cry.  Yes, I said it.  It totally gets me in the end.  "And it should be, it should be, it should be like that!  Because he (they) sat, and he sat, and he sat, and he sat...."  I totally identify with Horton.  I feel like the kids are becoming more and more like us every day, coming out with our honky white elephent trunks and ears even though they are half Vietnamese (figuratively, that is :).  But I also feel like this job is a job where we get very little thanks.  I know all moms will say that.  But I confess I struggle that my kids have another mother who loves them and they love her.  I'm so glad they love her, don't get me wrong.  But did the little elephant bird that came out of the egg love both Horton and Mayzie...and sometimes want to live with them both?  

I realize this may somewhat sound like a venting blog.
Not my intention.
But, I just wanted to do my part to encourage anyone else out there who may feel like the interwebs are over loaded with people who have it all together :)