Four Kids (or Why I Haven't Knit a Stitch in Days)

Little Alma, who was recently staying with us mostly on weekends only, has been with us for nearly a week now and we are hopeful she will continue staying with us for some time.  It is possible that her stay in our family would be days.  It is also possible it could be weeks.  Maybe even months.  I hardly dare to think much further than the next couple days in my imagining.  We don't know the exact details of what God is arranging, but we know that we love her and are thankful to have her here. Today, Lyddie got to go on a date with daddy to Starbucks and then along on an errand he needed to run.  She came back refreshed.  In the meantime, Millie got to have a long bath all by herself (a rarity that she treasures!) while Rosie napped and Alma and I did a lot of dancing, rocking and swinging in my arms to provide vestibular input which calms her and helps her organize her body and even her emotions and responses.  She giggled away as we danced back and forth across the living room singing along with Rain for Roots' Big Stories for Little Ones and I thought my arms might drop from the shoulders if I swung her back and forth even one more minute.  A new way to incorporate a workout into my day, is how I see it.  (Hopefully, a swing set will be forthcoming.  Also, I do highly recommend that album for anyone with young children, by the way. My kids all love it and run to get their dancing skirts and wands when it comes on so they can flit around the room singing about Jesus.)

So I have four children in my house and in my heart.  I don't know how this story goes in full, but I do know how His story goes, which is to know that He is risen and He is coming back.  And we will be together and with Him in His kingdom.  The days now are full of outside play as the weather is warming back up, bikes and sand and bubbles and chalk.  The laundry piles up, gets caught up, and piles up again in the blink of an eye.  Some nights (like tonight) the toys are all put away, and some nights I can't quite get there.  I need to re-work a knitting project that has left me dissatisfied (a Plain Tunic for a 12 month old that looks entirely too big and needs to be ripped out before deciding what to do instead. And I haven't the heart to tackle it by the evenings right now.) and I really need a very basic pattern that I can pick up and knit mindlessly for half hour before falling into bed.  Any recommendations would be seriously considered!

 Another layer of our hearts are being peeled back, tenderized, re-situated to trust our dear Father in ways we can't predict.  We are not naive, nor do we see the world through rose-colored glasses.  We know the road ahead contains suffering in ways we could never imagine, but we also choose to believe that there is more joy and light than we could imagine and so we follow on hard after His call.  His steadfast love endures forever and goodness and mercy will pursue us all our days.