New Challenges

Wow, it has been two weeks since I last posted. Needless to say, life with these two kiddos is definitely keeping us busy here! And it is a good kind of busy. We're slowly learning how to juggle things and trying to keep our patience all at the same time. That has certainly been one of my challenges this past week - having patience. Erik was out of town for work this week and I faced for the first time nights without my helper man! For all of you single parents or parents whose spouses are gone a lot, I am so amazed at what you do on a day to day basis. Kudos, and may God give you strength.

Out of the blue, our sweet Kristi girl started to stutter this week. And it is getting more frustrating for her every day. Now she knows that something is wrong and it is hitting her hard. Tonight, we were driving in the car and she was trying to tell me something as I was sitting near her in the backseat. She kept saying, "I I I I I I..." and then said, "Mommy, can you talk to me?" I think she was trying to say, "Mommy, can you speak for me?" It absolutely broke my heart and I started crying. Her big, beautiful, steely-blue eyes were pleading with me to understand what was going on in her world. I did a bit of reading this week, and also have heard from a few other people, but have learned that stuttering is very common for small children. There is so much information in their minds and they cannot process all of it quick enough for their tongues to speak. Our Kristi has such a strong linguistic ability, that I think she is just having a hard time keeping up with that. And it makes sense that it is hitting right now because she is dealing with the transition of being a big sister, and also was having a difficult time with Daddy being gone this week and Mommy not having enough time to devote to her like I used to be able to do.

We're praying that God will help Kristi through this time. Maybe this is her thorn in the flesh...and hopefully, it will go away and just be a phase.