The New Normal

This little bit of truth dawned on me this week-


Life changes. We adjust. Life changes. We adjust. Life changes......We adjust.


Simplistic I know, but sometimes it's the simplest concepts that finally resonate that seem to pack the biggest "ah-ha" punches. 


Ella will be one in just over a week. I can hardly believe an entire year has gone by! Those who have children, especially very young ones, you know how much of a paradox the passing of time can be. The day to day seems SOOOOO slow and tedious sometimes-- it's what Scott and I like to refer to as "the grind"; the dishes, the laundry, the messy floors and diapers and hands, the baths, the toys, the bedtime routines and the sometimes sleepless nights. Then, one morning, you wake up and an entire year has gone by and you have to ask yourself where it went. 


But, in that year, we have learned to become parents to not one child, but two-- a change of pace that has felt monumental and overwhelming at times, but one that we seemed to have finally adjusted too. I had a moment earlier this week when I was cleaning up the kitchen and the girls were playing quietly together in the living room and we were just all in our own little grooves for a couple of minutes and I thought, "Hmm, this is our life and I'm cool with that, even happy."


We have reached a point where we have all figured out how to live together and with each other. We each have a role and we have routines. I know they won't stay the same, but there is a sense of normalcy in the day to day again. 


Every time you bring home a new child there is some major boat rocking that happens. New schedules, new personalities, new likes and dislikes, new demands on your time and energies...and with the second a new need to balance the needs of an infant and the wants of a toddler...and in the beginning, it all seems a little chaotic and then you eventually just start to get into a groove- you get to know each other, love each other, you get frustrated with each other and move on.  You develop a new normal. 


To quote a song, "it's this crazy little thing called love." And it's called family. And it's really cool and wonderful and I'm thankful for it all. 


"You don't choose your family.  They are God's gift to you, as you are to them."  ~Desmond Tutu