Have no fear – Samuel and all of our little (and big!) people are doing well.\u00a0 Life is returning to normal.\u00a0 If anything, this has been the easiest addtion we have ever weathered.\u00a0 As I said to a friend in an e-mail today, the toughest bits of Samuel’s adjustment have involved his silent refusal to eat at the\u00a0 odd meal (not a big deal as he tends to make up for it at the next one) and the fact that he cries himself to sleep clutching one of my hands for about 10 minutes at each nap and bedtime.\u00a0 I count that as amazing considering the upheaval in his young life!\u00a0<\/p>\n
No –\u00a0Samuel giggles and sings and chatters through his days.\u00a0 Honestly, I don’t know how we survived without him in our lives.\u00a0 What a mischievious little treasure he is!\u00a0<\/p>\n
But that is where the title for this post comes in.\u00a0 Pain and Hope.\u00a0 Loss and Love.\u00a0 Devastation and Grace.\u00a0 That mingling of the two is what I am pondering as I go about my days since coming home.\u00a0 One seems to come with the other and it’s more than I can fathom.\u00a0 How can I say, “It is well with my soul.”, when it is not really the truth.\u00a0 Not yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Friends in pain.\u00a0 Illness, death, loss, questions like “Why?”\u00a0and “What will the future bring?”\u00a0 \u00a0My heart\u00a0aches from the pain of the loved ones around me.\u00a0 \u00a0And yet it is so full of joy in my ever growing family.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And again, I realize that those two things Pain and Hope go hand in hand.\u00a0 Without the Pain, would I look for the Hope?\u00a0 And as my Hope increases, aren’t I better able to withstand the Pain?\u00a0<\/p>\n
No absolute answers from me yet.\u00a0 But just a little glimpse into my thoughts.<\/p>\n