Category: Parenting
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In the grand scheme of things
I was reading a book about adoption, which took a closer look at Moses in its first chapter. It mentioned there that God’s perspective is in “decades of life”. [so what is a year of pandemic in a lifetime? Course altering, life changing, chiseling…] We may fret over daily events, and get bogged down by…
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A conversation about race
I listened to pbcc conversation about race last week. Bernard bell, the resident scholar of everything historical, a researcher through and through, traveled, humble and so intelligent, he tackles this sensitive topic. Especially in today’s America. At the end, the three people that shared their story, as part of the solution: which is listening, were…
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Controlled environment
If there is a benefit to this “shelter in place”, is that we have an opportunity to understand what influences our kids’ behavior and how. We have a new sister in our household, and the girls play a lot of silly games together, imaginative: they go to work, they wear fancy shoes, they act as…
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Breaking up with a boy
They became friends two years ago. On many occasions they were inseparable. They played nicely, they learned from each other, they completed each other. It was an easier relationship to manage than some of the ones with girlfriends. Up to a point. School brought up more differences and pretty soon they stopped playing together. Especially…
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La jumătatea perioadei de încredințare
Scriu la biroul fetei mai mari, în camera fetelor. Evelyn doarme în patul de jos. Azi a adormit ușor, în timp ce eu clipocesc pe tastatură. Traduc o carte, și cât doarme ea, fiica cea mare citește câte o carte, sau îi citește Daddy “Harry Poster” în engleză. Avem două ore de liniște în timpul…
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Greu
Dragi părinți, e greu. Relația cu copiii noștri uneori pare unidirecțională. Ei au nevoie de noi, au emoții mari, complexe, și noi dăm și tot dăm. Primim uneori bucuria unei îmbrățișări dulci și sincere, drăgălășenia lor mai ales când dorm și nu mai au nimic de zis sau de cerut… dar pentru multă vreme relația…
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Proactive not reactive
We’re exhausted trying to catch up with our eldest daughter. She entered a new season of independence from us, of self awareness and curiosity about her strength and boundaries. And we’ve been playing catch-up, reacting to her mind boggling experiments. They make no sense. I don’t think there is a reasoning behind them. Ideas come…
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Love languages
While Evelyn is asleep, Jaclyn and I have the deepest conversations. She loves the philosophical chats. We’ve always connected talking. Hence our first book. Yesterday she asked about the book I’m reading now: “the five love languages”. We talked about each love language. And to my surprise, she recounted them all at the end. She…
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Prayer and people
How can a simple get together shift my perspective so much. We were 6 adults and 6 kids on a very generous back yard lawn. A few cats, a dog and toys. There was pizza and there were caveats of silence. All of us weigh our thoughts and words, our questions and curiosities. We find…
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Our first trip to the mountains
So many times we felt her absence. Even before we decided in earnest to adopt again, I wondered who are we having fun without. A strange yet vivid feeling. After two intense weeks of appointments and exhausting change, worry and noise, hard work and tears, Friday we decided to go to the mountains on a…
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Precious Jewels
“Lift up your eyes and look around; all your children gather and come to you. As surely as I live,” declares the Lord, “you will wear them all as ornaments; you will put them on, like a bride.”— Isaiah 49:18 God lives.I lift my eyes upAnd see the sun riseThe mountains bowtheir tallest peaks A…
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Worry grounded and lessened with facts
This morning I went on a trail of calls, to figure out where to make a pediatric orthopedic appointment. The COVID pandemic has caused chaos in the system. Surprisingly though, we managed to easily book an appointment today (a new necessary step in visiting any hospital given the pandemic) we arrived on time and saw…