Our Little Visitor

We still have our little visitor staying with us. This makes life a tad more stressful for me than normal. She is a great kid; vivacious, energetic, funny and smart. Yet she is a post institutionalized child with behavioral problems and so she also needs some aid in navigating the waters of life. This is something I am familiar with but not something I have done with children not my own. It takes on a whole new perspective when you are asked to draw patience from deep down into your toes and I am thinking that this is harder when there is no hope of future return.

But I am wrong once again as I see the fruit of God's love upon this child and the progress she is making in our household. When she first came she was bossy and arrogant, always first, always best, always biggest, always more and always RIGHT! Without lecture and reprimand for these negative behaviors she has noticed that the other kids aren't in competition with her, in fact they don't even play the same games (save Sweetpea who gets swept up into it easily and reacts accordingly). I think she believes she has stepped into an alternate reality that she doesn't understand because we have begun to see changes in her. Of her own accord, I cannot stress this enough, she is giving preference to others, SHARING, giving compliments and support and just once admitted that perhaps she did not know best! Wow, big stuff in a short time.

She is an aching heart longing for love and yet rejecting the very love that her family is trying to give her. It is a familiar orphan scenario, yet so heartbreaking. It will take her family lots of good support and counselling as well as consistency to demonstrate true love to her and get around her walls of defenses. I pray for this situation daily and would covet your prayers as well, that God would heal this child's heart and restore to her life.