The Everyday and Celebrations

I've realized it's started to get harder to know what to say when people ask how we are doing, or what we are doing, or for an update in general. Our lives here have become everyday.  We've learned some kind of rhythm. Though, the nature of the job is that it still is never consistent. We are continually facing new things dealing with residents' behaviors, dealing with our own kids' behaviors.  We have had hard days and easy days.

Aurelia is rapidly growing up. She's 19 months old. She is so ridiculously busy. Gideon loves to get in to trouble with her. So between the two of them, it can get very exhausting. I've said before, they are the hardest part of the job.  Not because they are particularly awful (maybe they are haha) but, because, that is the life of a parent.  Nathan and I would be dealing with the hard parts of parenting anywhere we were.  The residents are hard, yes, but somehow it is different.

Gideon and Aurelia are also the most wonderful things in the world. I find, I often am so ready just to be real, that I forget to be real about the good things too. 

They are so fun.  Gideon's imagination is insane. He loves to tell stories with tons of expressions- a lot of smashing, crashing, tumbling goes on in his stories.  Aurelia can be the sweetest, gentlest little thing. Hugging dolls, squealing at stuffed animals, sharing, and loving everyone and everything. Then there is her wild side. She runs, and sneaks, and disappears quietly to eat candy out from under desks, she makes royal messes, and is so ridiculously loud. 

Our day-to-day has been pretty quiet still since lock-down. We've all eased up a bit, which has helped with the stir crazy. The residents still don't have passes or visitors, which has been hard. 

What's very weird is that because of the shelter-in-place and campus lock-down, We still feel like newbies to the area. Almost 6 months on and we really haven't gone anywhere. 

I sewed some face masks. As things open up and places require masks, staff and residents have been needing them.  I've still been doing the Sam's shopping. Nathan has done some mowing and sprayed grass for weeds on campus and in Grabill.  I've been buying plants and am working on creating a container garden.  We've been attending meetings via Zoom. 

This past time on, Matt, our Lead dad, had a last minute knee surgery scheduled. We ended up staying on two more days than planned. It went pretty well. 

Mother's Day

We were on duty Mother's Day.  I honestly never have had great expectations for Mother's Day (call me a realist or a pessimist, but life never really gets the memo).  I cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Dealt with the regular chaos seven teenagers and two children can bring. But, generally I had a good day.  Nathan got me flowers earlier in the week. Some of the residents gave me sweet cards. 

The hardest part was listening to the sermon that morning with the residents. The sermon was wonderful and taught about Godly motherhood. (Sermons can't cover everything, or every hurting person. They can't, and I don't think minister should feel obligated to either.) But, sitting with my residents I realized each one of them had a broken mother-relationship in their life.  All of them were listening with me, not their mom, not their grandma, or their own children.  The beauty God has placed in a godly mother-child relationship is so wonderful. But, I was surrounded by broken.  While I was encouraged for my own mothering and thankful for my mom, I mainly grieved for and with the broken. Sin has destroyed everything that God meant to be beautiful.  It makes me angry. 

Birthday

We went off duty the day before my birthday.  I really must be an odd human being. While I love big fanfare (minus the spotlight), I'm perfectly fine with just a quiet family day. So that's what we did. We got amazing Ice cream, and spent the day playing and relaxing.

Visitors

Finally. My parents were able to come visit. It was so wonderful to see them again. Gideon and Aurelia loved having Grandpa and Grandma here. And, so did I. 

Sadly, due to lock down we couldn't let them in to Pine, but were were able to drive them through campus. 

The weekend was wonderful but too short. I do think one of the things I will struggle with most here is homesickness. I want to be with my family. I want my kids to know their grandparent's well. I miss being able to just run over to the farm for the afternoon. It's hard. 

Graduations/Farewell

It is graduation season, so we were able to celebrate with some residents today.  This also means that some of them have completed the program. So, we will be saying goodbye to a few residents.  It's definitely a bittersweet thing. 

So, that's how we've been and what we are doing. We are doing life, just in a different setting than most. 

In Christ

~Michelle