Thursday, May 26, 2011: Navigating through Transition

Hoping there is always such enthusiasm for school! Getting dressed, fed and out the door (way earlier than necessary) with no prodding from Mom........that's when we say "right here, right now, enjoy this moment"!

There is always temptation, or maybe it's hope, to wish a honeymoon period would last forever. Reality usually says, that's just not possible. The best thing to do, then, is enjoy the honeymoon as long as possible. The tranisition for all of us - and those around us - is in full swing. Everyone is getting used to the real and the new.

As parents, we have been educated and trained to be watchful (as in observant), prayerful (as in our own D.E.A.P.* strategy)  and thoughtful (as in 'stop and think'). New groups and teams go through four stages of development: the forming stage, the storming stage, the norming stage, the performing stage. These phases are crucial for successful teams and we believe successful families. In our newly joined (or formed) family, we guess that we won't see the new normal (or norming stage) for about six months - maybe longer.

Of course, the one most effected by the tranisition is Jason. The most vocal is Lucas. The most attentive is Jeanne. The most sturdy is Dave.

The one that has the most the gain also had to lose the most. Jason left his homeland, is changing his language, adapting to new classmates, adjusting to new culture, adopting to new rules and expectations and discovering a family kind of love.

During this honeymoon period, we are both enjoying the new dimension in our family experience as well as listening, observing and praying. Based our research of numerous resources, we've been preparing since last year for this time in our family. We know that the skills and strategies can be and even need to be very different for parenting a child from birth than parenting an orphaned child. The goals are the same but the methods for getting there are different. We have to adjust our parenting to best meet the needs of the child. We prepare for the worst and pray for the best!

In some cases, others may be critical of our parenting approach or even reject our decisions. Ones that supported us before may now be unsupportive. We may even not look like we know what we're doing!

While we enjoy the remaining time of the honeymoon period, we also celebrate. The journey has been outstanding in so many ways. We bless the people that made it happen - especially those that prayed. We exalt the Lord that saw fit to give us His dream.

*D.E.A.P. Drop Everthing And Pray.