School Daze

Our First Day of School!!

 It has been just over two weeks since we became a family of five. In the past sixteen days, we have experienced a lifetime of lessons about one another. It has not been an easy two weeks. In fact, I am exhausted and overwhelmed. I also think that is normal for welcoming two children who I have not raised from birth into our home. 

While I started this blog to offer a window into our changing lives, there have been some things I am not willing to share about my children. There are issues beyond those we expected, and there has also been immense progress. The fact remains, however, that these two little boys are my children to protect and love. That means that I don't want everyone in the world to know their private struggles. I embarrass them enough by hugging them frequently in the hallways at school. They do not need everyone to know their secrets, too.

I will say this--bringing an older child into your home is exactly like bringing a baby home from the hospital. The only difference is that my children can talk back (even when I may not like what they have to say...) and that they have a lifetime of needs that have already been unfulfilled. They still need to learn how to trust and how to respond appropriately and just who their new Mommy and Daddy are. 

My mantra over these past two weeks has been, "Every day better than the one before." That couldn't be more true---for all of us. Time-outs have become less and less of a necessity. There is a comfort in our home and in their hugs that I did not expect so soon. Two weeks without school, without diversions, and with a lot of snow and cold that my poor sons find abhorrent was trying. BUT...WE MADE IT.

Monday, they started school. I am just down the hallway in the high school, and that seemed to make all of us feel a bit better. Shockingly, Ethan was the more excited student. He is usually reserved and quiet, but babbled all the way to school while his brother sat (also a shock) silently. Andru has been to six schools in his short career as a student. His new school makes seven, and I do not blame him for a second for being terrified. I think I held my breath for an entire day. Blissfully, they both met me with smiles at the end of day one. Even better, they wanted to return for day two. 

What I realized today, at the end of day three, is that my children are genuinely beginning to feel like this is HOME. Their backpacks and snowy jackets are slung over the bench in the hall. Their clothes are put away in the drawers as neatly as two little boys frantic to play can make them. They know our bedtime prayer and ask to take turns saying it. They only asked for one serving at dinner because they knew there was more if they wanted it. Ethan was the line leader in class---and that's a big deal, in case you were wondering. Andru got a hundred on his multiplication test and realized that maybe some good does come out of studying. 

All in all, we are slowly becoming a part of each other. Someday they will know all the rules, even if they still might not follow them. In the meantime, we will take one day at a time and remember that we all have a family who loves us, even on our worst day. pretty cool.