Reflections

The past ten days have been a bit of a whirlwind. Lots of family (helping of course), lots of nursing, lots of laughter and at times some tears. I just LOVE the hormone crash don't you?!! But really, things have shaped up quite nicely and the transition has not been as difficult as I anticipated. I was worried at first that I had another crazy baby on my hands (my second was really difficult for me and didn't sleep well at all) but once my milk came in, the little girl has hardly made a peep. The more days that pass the more I get to know her as well. I told my husband yesterday that I'm not really sure how I'm getting to know her when I hardly get to spend much time thinking about what she needs, but somehow, it's happening and by God's grace I'm learning some of her tricks. I'm hoping things continue to smooth out as the weeks fly by.

One of the things that has stuck with me since she was born is that life just keeps marching on. This has never been more apparent to me than in Elliana's incorporation into our family. Yes, we just welcomed our fourth child and yes, we're amazed still that we have FOUR! But, not counting the fact that we now have another little one living under our roof, things have pretty much continued business as usual. The boys still need to get outside and run off their energy. They still need attention, training, love and a special treat every once in awhile. They still need us just as much as they did before. The standards in our home haven't changed either and still need to be upheld. We've just added one more. I've been amazed at how quickly we've just fallen back into our life again. It's actually been quite comforting.

Of course we've had our share of mishaps, in case you think things have been near perfect or something...because they sure haven't even come close. Here's a recent example: yesterday I took the boys and Elliana for a little walk to get our mail from the school office. One thing that has been a bit difficult is getting all of their energy out on a daily basis because I can't physically walk miles right now so going on a bike ride or really anywhere that far from home is out of the question. By 11 am yesterday everyone was bouncing off the walls so off we went across the street for a little excursion. We got our mail and I told Isaac and Caleb to run three big laps around the school. They took off. Joshua was playing next to me and sitting on a picnic table bench. Before I knew it, he had fallen off the bench and hit his head on the gravel where he proceeded to get a little rock lodged in his head. And there was blood...lots of blood.

I couldn't pick him up due to the c-section and I was carrying the baby in the Moby as well on the front. So I literally dragged him home screaming. The older boys caught up soon enough. Once we were home, I realized that I couldn't pin him down to clean him up (he was pretty upset) due to my recent surgery and huge incision in my abdomen, so I quickly called my oldest child to my side and told him to go and get his Dad. I made sure to coach him before he left in what to say. I didn't want him bursting into Steve's class saying, "Dad!!!! Joshy's head is bleeding everywhere!!!" So I told him to go in quietly and say, "Dad if you could give your class a five minute break, that would be great because Mom needs you to come home and help her with Josh. He got a cut on his head." Later, Steve told me that he'd done just as I asked him to. Thank God. No need for a major alarm to be sounded in the middle of class. Just a quiet, SOS call that's all. Dad came home and saved the day. Isaac felt pretty big too. And Caleb helped me watch Josh and tried to comfort him with his blanket/elephant combo which he lovingly calls his "Doe". Don't ask me why.

So like I said, things haven't been boring or easy. Just mostly routine. And we've been having a lot of fun as well. We've been playing soccer in the back yard.

Making homemade ice cream on the Fourth of July. That was a lot of fun and surprisingly easy to make...even the custard part.

Toasting marshmallows and having s'mores after our Sabbath Dinner on Saturday. Don't worry...I didn't make dinner and it was all very simple. I'm so thankful that people are bringing us meals and I don't have to cook right now!! But it was still nice to all gather around the table and be together.

And Elliana...well, she's been sleeping, eating and pooping. And getting a few presents from her brothers now and then. What a lucky girl.