Reinforcements Have Arrived

IMG_20160903_152623_418This week has gone much better than last, though there have still been some rough moments.

Still, we’ve been able to spend good time together riding bikes, shopping (yes, we’ve made it out of the house–on an almost daily basis), swimming, gardening and cooking. We’ve been eating family dinners together. Sometimes J is willing for a parent to hold his hand or touch his shoulder. He’s been semi-cooperative about bedtime at least half of the nights. He has been playing Connect Four with B and K and Quirkle with the grown ups, one of whom is my mom, who came in from Ohio to help us out for a bit.

We hadn’t thought we’d need her since our new child isn’t a baby. Obviously we were wrong. It is always good to have her here, but this time it has been especially helpful–we have needed the extra prayer, the moral support, the extra hands helping with housework, and the extra adult to care when more than one child is in distress. B and K are finding this transition rough, just as the rest of us are.

This week, we had one night with lots of struggle around going to bed, but the big struggle has been school. Pray that we’ll be able to find what works best for J, and that he would quickly come to enjoy school rather than see it as a punishment.