So lets get real about whats been going on at our house lately.

Everybody knows it, I'm just going to say it: it was a HUGE leap to go from a 3yr old to a 12 yr old. There's a learning curve and you can watch how good we fake it but there are times when KP and I look at each other and go "What?! How do we handle this?"

Well, there's grace/mercies that is new every morning and if you think about it, He says that because its the same grace, you just are experiencing in a new light in whatever circumstances you're in. So, he gives us the grace to move through it and we all grow each time.

About two weeks ago KP called me one day during naptime with one of those phone calls that no parent expects to get. The 12 yr old had gotten beat up on the way to the bus. After waking Jax up from his nap in order to go pick up KP ( his car was in the shop that week) so that he could drop us back off at home, he headed down to the school office.
After talking to the Principle and the 12 yr old the story was this; a kid in his science class threatened him, found him after school and punch his in the eye, giving him a black eye and knocking him to the ground which broke one of his front teeth. Our boy did the right thing; he didn't fight back. He just went to the office right away and told the principle.
Thanks to some really great generous people that go to our church, we got his tooth fixed that very afternoon. Sometime amidst really trying days, I see such sweet blessings from the Lord. His tooth is one of those.
Talk about in over your head! We felt in over our heads just registering him to 6th grade, much less how to deal with a bully. But here's the great stuff that has come from this:
* Our boy got to see his dad go to bat for him, deal with the office, make sure everything was taken care of.
*He watched his parents rally around him
*He saw church people go out of there way to take care of them
*He watched me stay out of it. Momma Bear didn't come out. I let KP and God handle it.
*He started hugging me
*He told me he loved me for the first and maybe only time
* We had great conversations with him about forgiving those who hurt us and how God is the only one who avenges.

We're all a little bit closer. Things of that week settled down just in time for Kyle to realize that the 12 yr has a girlfriend. WHAT?! We have puberty talks with his early on, but we were not ready for relationship talks and rules. Holy smokes. We still haven't navigated our way through this on, but again God gives us one convo at a time and grace for each one.

Can you believe we've had them for 9 months now, going on 10. They have both made so much progress, which will a post all its own. And like many other foster parents have said before, there are times I think Jax is better at this than we are.

I'll leave you with a fun fact we learned this week, each one of these kids is so unique and drastically different than each other. For example:
Lil Bit is 26 pounds and is only as tall as Jax's shoulder
Jax is 41 pounds and is as tall as the 12 yr olds chest
The 12 yr old weighs 70 pounds rises to about Kyle's ribs.