Nathan

I knew it was only a matter of time. I was getting too comfortable. We have another new kid, bringing the Heine family back up to 8.

His name is Nathan. He’s two years old, just one month older than Isaac. His father is foreign (either Finnish or German – we’ve had conflicting stories). He left the mother before Nathan was born. The mother is Thai and has given Nathan up because she can’t take care of him. He’d been living at another children’s home – one that adopts out babies – but Nathan can’t be adopted out (for legal reasons I don’t understand well enough). Because of that, they thought he’d be better off at a home where everyone is more-or-less permanent. That’s us.

As I write this, he’s been with us for a total of 8 hours. He’s sleeping right now with Isaac and Cindy. He seems to be okay. He doesn’t seem either happy or sad to leave the children’s home and come here. It seems like this is just another place to him, but maybe I’m reading too much into it. In any case, I’m fairly certain he’ll consider this his family eventually. It just takes time.

Pray for our family to grow stronger. Changes like this are always hard. Often the other kids want to withdraw, demand more attention, or take advantage of the distraction – depending on their mood and disposition. And Cindy and my stress levels are running pretty high at the moment (two 2-year-olds is quite a bit, plus homeschooling). We haven’t cracked yet, but we both feel as if we could at any time.

The transitions have always been like this – stressful and awkward. Pray that we find our new pattern quickly so we can more readily focus on the work of actively loving these kids (as opposed to merely surviving). I’ll have more information and pictures up soon. Meanwhile, do have any questions I’ve forgotten to cover?

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