It's Gods mercy that leads us to repentance

Well, I am already seeing some progress in Joelle since we "made her world smaller." She is more calm. She came to Mike and I and said she wanted to talk about her fears. This is big for her to come to us proactively! You see, she is very, very worried about our upcoming move from Montana back to Georgia.

We have also had some interesting issues come up as well. She went through a phase this week where she was waking up in the middle of the night. For some reason Joelle handles her fear and anxiety very differently than some children. She wants to hit, say unkind things, take things or cause havoc. It has been interesting for me to learn how to deal with these things. This week she was waking up in the middle of the night, sometimes more than once. It began innocently enough with her going into Zoe's room and telling her she was afraid. The next night she was standing at her door yelling for Zoe to wake up and when Zoe asked what she needed she would say, "Never Mind." Then she would repeat the scenario again and again. The next night she was banging on the wall until Zoe woke up. For some reason, she would not come to Mike and I even though we had asked her to many times. Maybe it is an example of her wanting to meet her own needs. I'm not sure. Poor Zoe has really had to learn a lot about patience and forgiveness in the last two years. After working with her for several days she finally stopped the behavior and we praised her a tremendous amount that morning! I don't know that I always handle these things correctly but I feel like I am learning how to.

Mike and I have noticed that we hear less and less these days about her anger at arriving second. She had a terrible issue of jealousy due to Zoe being here first. Her little mind could not comprehend that Zoe was older and thus born first. Nor could she understand that God is in control and orchestrates our lives as He sees fit. We are hearing less and less about her anger at being "controlled" as well. She really hated being told what to do. As she put it, " I don't like being "trolled!" It was a little hard not to laugh at this statement! No one likes to be controlled but for a child that has had no control over her life and has been at the mercy of others ( possibly people with less than good motives) this feels very scary indeed!

It is so nice to see Joelle healing and beginning to make progress. Truthfully, she has made progress from the beginning but it was slow to the point of not seeing it at times. I think I have made a lot of mistakes as well and had to change how I parent so that she might blossom. I have been thinking a lot about the verse in Romans 2:4 where it states that it is God's kindness that leads us to repentance. He has been faithful in leading me and teaching me how to parent Joelle in the way HE wants her parented!