Happy New Year

Happy New Year!  I'm glad to say good-bye to 2012 and happy to say hello to new beginnings and 2013.  Our 2012 went fine, but I felt like I was in limbo for the entire year while waiting to hear news about any progress that may have been made in the adoption.  As 2013 starts I can honestly sit back and say that my family is complete.  It's a wonderful feeling. 

Of course, we have a lot of work to do before we can call ourselves a cohesive family.  Things have gone remarkably well, but as of now our days and nights are pretty much an endless string of figuring out breakfast, getting the kids dressed, finding a morning activity of some sort, dealing with lunch, nap time, afternoon snack, some sort of afternoon activity, then it's time for dinner, clean up, pjs, and then off to bed.  Bed isn't really the end of the day because it usually requires getting up 1-4 times a night to deal with bathroom runs and then back to bed.  In the middle of all of this are the endless arguments centered around jealousy and anger, countless discussions about the need to listen and respond, numerous  debates about appropriate behavior, and the constant need to clean up after one of the meals or activities.  I know, lots of people would say this is normal and occurs in most families, but I'm hoping what we're seeing is much more extreem than what we will see in the future. 

I don't mean the above description to suggest that we don't also have our joyful moments.  There are plenty of those.  Jun hugs his sister regularly, Lena laughs throughout much of the day, and Todd and I find a great deal of what the kids do to be extremely entertaining.  All-in-all things are going amazingly well.  But on a day when bathrooms runs and nightmares meant I was awake for more hours last night than I was asleep and Jun demonstrated his new-found inability to listen or behave by somehow hopping over the 4 ft. snowbank and straight into the oncoming traffic I'm sort of longing for a calm, content filled day. 

So, for 2013 my goal is to achieve contentment, contentment for our entire family.   I hope Jun can learn to enjoy his sister, I hope his sister can learn to enjoy her new parents as well as her big brother, and I hope Todd and I can calm down enough to enjoy the fabulous family life we have.  By New Year's Eve next year I hope the 4 of us are able to sit on the couch, play games, watch movies, and ring in the New Year with the feeling of satisfaction.