Today has been a battle. She has pushed every button imaginable. She has gone to having very limited freedom and choice to a world full of choice and more freedom. She is learning and pushing her boundaries. And if you tack on that we can’t understand each other fully….it makes it even harder.
She pretty much has had four major crying fits today, when she has not gotten her way.
In my mind it is such a war… trying to pick my battles wisely and also balancing how she needs to learn who is in charge, and that she can not have everything she wants. She is becoming “Americanized” already…ha!
I also feel like sometimes all we say is “no” to her, because it is one of the words we both understand fully. It is hard for me to accept that, because I don’t always want to be negative.
It is things as simple as her thinking it is funny to put her feet on the table, to not wanting to nap, to not wanting to wear her shoes (And that is rare, which is another reason I know she is being defiant, because she loves shoes), to wanting to touch everything in a store… She sounds like most kids I know, but it is a tough transition today for her.
Daddy and I take turns sitting with her or near her as she goes through these fits. Again, it is another spiritual analogy for me. It reminds me of my spiritual walk. There is so much freedom in knowing and loving Christ, yet for our benefit there are also boundaries and standards set for our spiritual benefit, even sometimes our physical benefit. And as a Christian, sometimes I push those boundaries and have a crying fit when I get my way. God shows me that He sits with me, and He waits patiently even when I throw fit after fit.
Please pray for us, as we try to parent the best way we know how.
We are getting ready to head to the orphanage and Lyla is going to stay here with Micah.
Right now, Lyla is laying beside me in the bed with a soft cry going on through yawns, as she is fighting her nap.