Hello all from the Land of Confusion (for those Genesis fans out there, the band not the book of the Bible). Has it really been this long since I last posted? Take that as an indication of what life has been like for the past month.
God bless his little broken heart, Elijah is certainly keeping us on our toes here. He is a wonderful little boy who just can't bring himself to come home yet. I use a bit of Russian imagery to describe our little barrel of wonders. He is like a Russian nesting doll. Take one layer apart, and there is another layer below. And each new layer is a new little "surprise". Most nesting dolls range from 5 to 12 layers deep. We've blasted through those, and as we continue to peal we don't see the end in sight.
We have exhausted all the "parenting techniques" that we used with our three older boys, and we are blazing new trails as we speak. To those who question the wisdom of God in how he planned his creation to work, be it in marriage or in how the family is supposed to be structured, I would put up Elijah as an example of what happens when we stray from doing things the way God had inteded, what happens to an innocent little boy when he makes the best of a situation that was not as God had intended. And while he is making very small and very slow strides, the damage runs deep with him and will take time, patience, prayer, and perseverance to see any significant improvement in his healing.
While I don't believe that orphans were part of God's original plan for his creation, they are the result of living in a fallen world, and I praise God everyday for adoption as part of his redemption plan for this fallen world.
Please continue to pray for patience and wisdom for our family and specifically for Elijah that God would continue to use us to break down those walls he's created to protect himself and that His grace will mend the broken pieces of his little broken soul...
JP
(p.s. Still planning on making part two of that video for you. As my father always says, "These things take time...")
God bless his little broken heart, Elijah is certainly keeping us on our toes here. He is a wonderful little boy who just can't bring himself to come home yet. I use a bit of Russian imagery to describe our little barrel of wonders. He is like a Russian nesting doll. Take one layer apart, and there is another layer below. And each new layer is a new little "surprise". Most nesting dolls range from 5 to 12 layers deep. We've blasted through those, and as we continue to peal we don't see the end in sight.
We have exhausted all the "parenting techniques" that we used with our three older boys, and we are blazing new trails as we speak. To those who question the wisdom of God in how he planned his creation to work, be it in marriage or in how the family is supposed to be structured, I would put up Elijah as an example of what happens when we stray from doing things the way God had inteded, what happens to an innocent little boy when he makes the best of a situation that was not as God had intended. And while he is making very small and very slow strides, the damage runs deep with him and will take time, patience, prayer, and perseverance to see any significant improvement in his healing.
While I don't believe that orphans were part of God's original plan for his creation, they are the result of living in a fallen world, and I praise God everyday for adoption as part of his redemption plan for this fallen world.
Please continue to pray for patience and wisdom for our family and specifically for Elijah that God would continue to use us to break down those walls he's created to protect himself and that His grace will mend the broken pieces of his little broken soul...
JP
(p.s. Still planning on making part two of that video for you. As my father always says, "These things take time...")
