Monday, September 15, 2008

New Challenges

Noah is continuing to attach nicely to both me and Mark. What a blessing! But with that blessing has come another set of challenges. He now misses me and becomes very upset when I am gone (which is rare, believe me!) Even if I step out of his eyesight for a moment he is unhappy. Sometimes he seeks me out and other times he screams and cries as if he's wounded. And perhaps he is. 

Another example of his improving attachment is evident in the church nursery. I always stay with Noah in his class and help out. This past Sunday Noah became quite irate as I comforted a little girl who had been crying. He was in my lap and she wanted to sit in my lap also. So I made room for her and had an arm wrapped around each of them. That lasted about a second as Noah began pinching the sweet little girl! He did not want to share his mommy. There were some other instances where similar things happened. It really is a positive but it doesn't make helping in his class very pleasant!

Mark and I continue to struggle periodically with why Noah came to us so malnourished and developmentally delayed. This struggle surfaced last night as we looked at the first pictures we took of Noah when he got home. There were some pictures of him without a shirt that haunted us all night. He was truly a skeleton. I had forgotten how we could see every bone, how frail his arms were, how I was afraid I would hurt him just by holding him. It was so, so sad. We know that he was rapidly going downhill when we received him. Thank God that we got him when we did!

Amidst the challenges and the sad times God is faithful to remind us of His greatness. I took the big kids out to an open field tonight to watch the harvest moon rise. It was spectacular! We watched a dusky pink giant of a moon peek over the horizon. The breeze was cool and it smelled of freshly-mown hay. To the west were cotton candy clouds left over from the setting sun. We sat on the hood of the car and the kids cheered and clapped as the moon ascended into it's golden fullness. I was reminded of these verses: "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display his knowledge" (Psalm 19:1-2.) God is great and that greatness is all around us!

1 comment:

Dena said...

That is one of my favorite verses.


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