Far From Normal

In an earlier post, I forgot to mention something important. I wrote an entry about how my friend Lisa took Akila for an overnight so Michael and I, and the other 3 kids could have some respite (I think I have mentioned that we are not qualified for any respite or PCA through the county). It happened to be on Good Friday which is when we got a ton of snow. It was a beautiful day. The 3 kids and I went sledding, and spent nearly 4 hours building snow forts. I have not built snow forts since I was a child. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, it was a nice temp, the snow was perfect for building, and the kids were in a great mood, as was I.

I was so thankful for the precious time we had that day. I thought of Akila often, and I thought of how I would not have been able to spend so much time with the kids had she been home. When she is home, I end up dealing a great deal with "conflict". I missed her throughout the day, I thought several times of how much she would have enjoyed building with us, but it was so nice to play with the kids without having to deal with so many issues.

We stayed home the entire day and night, and spent lots of time together. It felt kind of "normal" (thanks Lisa, Rick, Sawyer and Brekken-for giving us a taste of normal). I often think of how our days are so far from "normal". Sometimes I worry about the 3 kids and what they will think when they are grown, and they look back on their childhood and all of the drama that surrounds them. But I guess I have never been a very "normal" person, and that is maybe why the Lord gave us a precious little girl who is far from "normal", but she is right where she belongs; in a family far from "normal".