Underwear and pictures of poop.

Seriously. This is what my life involves right now.

My kiddos have all been having stomach issues since we came home. Nothing too serious but the doctor wants to make sure there are no unwelcome visitors living in their guts. You know….giardia, parasites and the like. We went in for a check-up this week and I received my assignment.

Collect samples.

Yep.

This in itself would be a lot of fun, but then the doctor added a bonus to my homework.

Take pictures.

If anything looks strange, funky, or downright unwelcome in my toilet, grab my camera and snap a quick picture. I guess this provides me an opportunity to be thankful for my iPhone. Just another wonderful benefit of picture text messaging!

And fighting over underwear.

I had to mediate between crying sisters over the issue of whether their underwear matched or not.

I realize this might not be a hot button topic in your home, but here in the Putnam household, this is a VERY BIG DEAL!

We have been dealing with the dynamics of the sister triad since day one. In all seriousness, this is a hard adjustment for our family to make. Leah and Naomi have a very special, loving relationship. Naomi prayed for her sister to be re-united with her every single night that she was in the orphanage. And God answered her prayer. They share a common history, language and culture. And Hannah does not.

How to navigate this rocky road? I still haven’t figured it out!

Hannah has not helped the situation with her response to feeling left out. She lashes out in anger. She screams. She cries. She disobeys. She is a cauldron of emotions that she does not understand or know what to do with.

At bedtime Hannah purposely dallies until the other girls are in their pajamas. And then she will find and put on the same pajamas. We end up with a matching threesome of beautiful sisters.

Unless Leah decides to change.

And Hannah decides to cry.

And then we just end up with a mess.

We have talked to all of the girls about the importance of being kind, of including each other, of how special sisters are. And we have started hanging out in their bedroom during pajama time to mediate.

And then last night, Hannah tumbles down the stairs in tears because Leah and Naomi had matching underwear and she did not.

It turns out that after pajamas were on and I thought, mistakenly, that everyone was playing nicely, Leah and Naomi hid in the corner and CHANGED THEIR UNDERWEAR! Oh the horror!

Then they showed Hannah.

Who, of course, reacted badly.

Even in the middle of calming tears, discussing family behavior, and changing underwear, I thought to myself, “This is kind of funny! I wonder how many of my friends are dealing with underwear issues right now. I wonder if any of my friends are WEARING matching underwear right now. If so, I sure feel left out!”

Please, pray for me.

Underwear and poop.

I just need a lot of prayer.

Blessings!

Natalie