Adoption-After the first year!

I think I speak for most adoptive mamas when I say we all know that the first year will be tough. We had all mentally prepared for attachment issues, PTSD encounters, tantrums, night terrors, surgeries, sibling issues, food hoarding and over eating, etc....you get the picture! Some of us breezed right through the first year and some of us felt like we were treading water in the middle of the ocean. Athough Chloe didn't experience most of the issues I referenced above I was one of those treading water in the middle of an ocean, in a storm, alone, without hope of a lifeboat. But we all survive and somehow, even though the days seem long the months pass quickly, and we hit the one year home mark.

But what does adoption in the second year look like?

I was thinking about this very thing last night as I rocked my daughter to sleep. (If you are an adoptive mama reading this you know how monumental the rocking part is in and of itself). Though, I would say our lives are just as crazy as the first day we spent at home in the horrible jet lagged fog, we are starting to round the bend to more "typical" crazy.

Here's what I mean...yesterday morning, as I tried to get Gavin off to school Chloe proceeded to open the fridge find the $10.00 bowl of fresh cut fruit (you know the kind you resist at Publix bc who pays $10.00 for a small bowl of fruit, but you buy anyway because who has time to cut fresh fruit). Within a second she had poured the whole bowl of fruit including all the watermelon juice all over the kitchen floor. As I began to pick it up and mop, Chloe proceeded to the family room. I hear a large crack not even a minute later. The crack was a cabinet losing its place in the entertainment center...the wood cracked at the seam. Sweet Jesus!!!!!!!!! This is a typical day in the life scenario for us "after the first year". Here's the beauty in this...these behaviors (although enough to make this OCD mama need to be committed) are typical behaviors of a curious, thriving two year old.

Is adoption simple? No it is not. Does it get easier after the first year? Yes, but it's what I like to call "typical" chaos. Raising a child is chaotic, complicated, and long-term no matter how their life got started.  We have agreed to walk along side our Creator to do some difficult, heart-wrenching work. God is enough for the first days home and he is enough for after the first year. He is enough on the days when your house is destroyed and your floor is sticky. He is enough.